A Time Machine Journey

Across the Fence #311

If you could step into a time machine and be transported back or forward in time, where would you go? Is there a special day, year, or period of time you would choose?

I think most of us have wished we could revisit a certain happening or time in our life. We can all go there through our memories, but the idea of time travel has always intrigued me.

Over the weekend, my brother David and I, got into our time machine and traveled back in time. Lest you think I’ve lost all my marbles, we don’t have a real time machine. Our mode of travel was a car. We decided to travel around the areas where we had spent time during our youth.

We began our time travel with a stop at the Coon Prairie cemetery, where our mother and father are buried. It’s a large cemetery and final resting place for many of the first settlers in the Coon Prairie area. As we roamed around the cemetery looking at the names, we were surrounded by our history. Near our parents are two aunts and uncles. Everywhere we looked were names of people we had known; friends, neighbors, schoolmates, teachers, ministers, relatives, and ancestors. Each name held memories for us. Walking around the cemetery was like traveling back in time. These were the people who had been a big part of our lives, and helped shape who we are today. Our grandparents, great grandparents, and several great, great grandparents, are all resting in Coon Prairie. Some day I’ll be joining them, but I’m in no big hurry to take up residence there.

As we talked about the history surrounding us, we commented how much life has changed. Most people no longer stay in the area where they were born and grew up. In the past, extended families lived out their lives in one place. I still have a strong connection to this area, but the majority of our family and cousins live out of the area now. Each succeeding generation will have less and less ties to the area, and little knowledge of the lives represented by the names on the tombstones in Coon Prairie cemetery. They were more than just names to David and me. As we traveled back in time, we remembered the lives of many of those people and commented on things about them. I’d invite each of you to time travel back to a local cemetery where you have ties. Take a walk around, and remember the people who were a part of your life. It’s like examining the books in the history section of a library.

David and I left the library, climbed back in our time machine, and continued our journey. We traveled out past our woods, located on a high ridge between Bloomingdale and Avalanche. It had been many years since David had traveled that road. We remembered the people who had lived in the farms along the way. We remembered deer hunting in those woods with our father. They were good memories.

Our time machine dropped down the steep hill into the valley and we turned right and followed the crooked creek where we used to fish for trout. As we went through Avalanche we remembered stopping at the Avalanche store when we were young, and the many floods that devastated the valley.

We continued our journey, past Smith Road that would have taken us back to the ridge and to the spot where our old one-room school once stood. We remembered the old Seas Branch ski jump where our father used to jump. It’s now overgrown with trees. We turned on Seas Branch Road and drove past the place once occupied by the Seas Branch School that became our 4-H clubhouse. Only the stone outhouse remains. I don’t think anyone ever tipped that one over. The spring water is still gushing out of the hill near the school. We used to stop there and drink the cold water. David reminded me of the time I skidded on the icy road near the spring and took out a mailbox on our way to a 4-H meeting. I didn’t hurt the car, but totaled the mailbox. I paid for a new one. We drove by the quarry where we used to play and past the infamous “Sherpe Curve” where Christianson Road meets Seas Branch. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Our time travel took us by numerous farms, most of their past owners now residing in Coon Prairie cemetery. Their children, who went to school with us, are now scattered all over the country. We crossed the old railroad bed where we used to walk the rails with friends, and past more woods where we spent many hours hunting with our father.

Across Highway 14, past more farms where we once knew everyone. Our time machine paused near the Three Chimneys, as we remembered our grandmother telling how two of her Ostrem brothers had climbed up and pounded the stake into the top of one of the rocks. It’s still there. We drove by the Ostrem homestead of our great grandparents, and past the Bethel cemetery where so many relatives are buried.

We finally headed for home in our time machine and back to the present. It was quite a journey and good to remember our roots and where we came from.