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Every summer when I was growing up, we went to visit my mom's sister in Delaware. We lived in a mid sized city of about 50,000 people until I was 9 and then we moved to just outside of the city. My aunt and uncle lived on a 300 acre farm. It was about a 13 hour drive and we passed the time by napping, playing games that we brought along and looking at the scenery. Of course there was also the alphabet game so time seemed to pass fairly quickly.

For a kid, it was cool to be on the farm. Most of the time they had dairy cows but there was a year or two when they also had some hogs. I remember one year when they had some small pigs. We went to look at the pigs and some of them got out. My brother, my cousin and I were all chasing after these pigs. I didn't realize how fast pigs were until then. I was around 11 years old by then, my brother was around 13 and my cousin around 14. We finally got all the pigs back in the pen.

It was about a half mile drive just from the road back to the farm house. I remember the good times I had with my brother and my cousins riding bikes up and down the "lane" as fast as we could and then slamming on the brakes and skidding the tires. I know it sounds silly, but we enjoyed it.

They also had horses. My 2 cousins each had a horse plus they had old Seabiscuit. I wasn't brave enough to ride the big horses but I did ride old Seabiscuit. I don't what kind of horse he was but he was smaller than the rest and fatter too. I wasn't too worried about him bucking me off or taking off in a run. He just kind of walked around. That's my kind of horse riding. My brother was more of a horse guy, he liked riding the horses.

My favorite part of the vacation was riding the tractor with my uncle. When I was just 4 or 5, he would hold me in his lap and let me steer...well hold the steering wheel. It was too tough for a little kid to steer; this was back when cars were just beginning to get power steering so you can imagine what tractors were like. When I got older and was able to reach the pedals, I would drive and steer with Uncle Henry riding along with me. He had 3 or 4 tractors but my favorite was an old Massey Ferguson. He would take me out on the tractor 2 or 3 times each time we would visit and we would just ride around the farm a little.

I quit going to Delaware when I was a teenager. Mom and Dad trusted me to be home so I decided that I would rather be home than take a trip with my parents. I have been to Delaware about 4 times in the last 35 years and there have been many changes. The farm has been sold. My dad, aunt and uncle have all passed away. My 2 cousins aren't getting along with each other. And in 2006 my brother passed away.

Despite all of the changes, I still have the great memories of our family going to visit my aunt and uncle when I was growing up.

Learn more about this author, Art West.
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