Shirley Temple

Shirley Temple Black died last night. She was 85 and had lived a long, good life so I am not particularly sad, but I loved her! I watched so many Shirley Temple movies as a kid and my sister and I were really into her and acting like her. I especially liked anytime she danced with Bill "Bojangles" Robinson (they did four or five movies together). 

A bit of a side note here, because I love Bojangles so much:

{Bojangles is a super cool guy (if you ever take a history of dance in musical theatre class, you will learn about him). He was a great tapper, but in a time period of heavy racism, he was also one of the first black men to be in  "white" films and was the very first to dance with a white person on screen--Shirley Temple. }

This little dance is adorable:

Shirley Temple is easily the most popular child star there has ever been. When her movies were coming out in the 30s, she and her movies were more popular than any other movie or actor--adult and child alike. She was funny, adorable, spunky and a dang good tap dancer. Her popularity continues to this day and people still love her movies. Elanor has watched a few and loves them! 

"Good Ship Lollipop" is one of her most famous songs:

Perhaps the best thing about her, is that she survived her childhood popularity. She became an ambassador for the United States for goodness sake! She was a good mother and wife to her husband of over 50 years. She is no Miley Cyrus. 

She was a huge part of my childhood and I love her so much!  There will be articles all over the internet about her which will be more informed and better written and I hope they do something special for her at the Oscars--but I wanted to say just a little something on here about how much this person meant to me. Shirley Temple inspired me, she made it seem possible that a kid could do anything and she lived her life well.

Plus, that little girl could dance.

In case you were wondering, my favorite Shirley Temple movies are:

The Littlest Rebel

Bright Eyes

Little Colonel

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

I also liked: Heidi, The Little Princess, Baby Take a Bow, and pretty much every other one, but the four listed above are the best--at least I think so.

Home.

I was talking with some friends the other day and they were talking about how they wanted to see my parents house some day. I guess I talk about it a lot? It got me thinking about how much I love where I grew up. 

I was five when we moved to our house in Corbett, Oregon. We had lived in other parts of Oregon and Washington previously. It is a 1906 farmhouse that belonged to a great-great (there are possibly more greats in there) uncle. My great Grandpa Don (on my mom's side) grew up in a house just down the road. My grandfather grew up, went to college, married my great grandma, lived in Portland for awhile, but ultimately moved up to Washington. So, there have not been any close relatives living in Corbett for many years. It is important to know a bit of the history as this house feels so right. It has a happy feeling in it, as if it has witnessed many happy memories inside its walls. Houses have feelings, at least I think so--especially old houses. This house is not spacious or fancy, but it is cozy, clean, and friendly--plus my mom has good taste.

The house is wonderful, but the property and view are stunning. Our house sits on a cliff looking out over the Great Columbia River Gorge. We also have twenty-seven acres of forests and fields to explore, many of those acres are also steep hills covered in (un-explorable) blackberry bushes. Blackberries grow wild everywhere. Delicious, yes. Very difficult to control and kill, also a yes--which is why we had a goat (he kept the blackberries from encroaching upon the lawn).

The four Scott kids, Ian, me, Jessica and Erik with out dog, Nessie.

Since I saw this view everyday going up, I sort of took it for granted. I have not lived at home in six, almost seven years and when I go home, I am always so amazed by the beauty of this gorge. Oregon, is beautiful, my friends.

 I love how different it looks at different times of the day and year.

My siblings and I were explorers. We spent many hours in the woods behind our house, exploring, building forts and I named everything. There was a large hollow right near the house and I named this place Fairy-Elfkin Dale. Fern Hollow, Ivy Glen, and Mud-Puddle Square were also areas in Fairy-Elfkin Dale. We were fairies of course, the boys were elves and we spent many long summer days down there building a fairy village. We dug out stairs, made nice paths lined with sticks, we all had houses, there was a bank (walnut shells were the money), a town square and it was so much fun. Many good friends also built houses down in Fairy-Elfkin Dale and I have many happy memories of this lovely spot. I do not have any pictures of it unfortunately!

We also had a tire swing, which was on a large walnut tree. Near the tire swing was Cherry Tree Forest (they were actually plum trees, but when I was 5 or 6 I thought they looked like cherry trees), where we were often orphaned children running away from a horrible orphanage. This mini forest was made up of small, young trees that grew very close together and was right on the edge of a large and grassy field. This walnut tree, little forest and field were up the hill pictured above, but a little more to the front of our house.

We had a large and grassy backyard, which led into The Forest. A real, proper and large forest, unlike the Cherry Tree Forest. The main forest path (wide and fairly grassy) led to The Point. It was a clearing, which overlooked the river. We had a campfire out there and at one point it was a Merry Men camp and later changed into a Viking fort.

It is mostly just a fire pit and a good view nowadays.

Throughout The Forest, we created many paths. My brothers have expanded on what we did and now there is a very nice forest path which goes on for miles.

In the forest there were, The Cliffs of Wonder (I think that was it, it was mostly shortened to The Cliffs),  and a large rock area named The Ruins. 

The Ruins

Atop The Ruins was our very favorite spot. It was mossy and peaceful and we would often come out here to read.

My mom took this picture in early spring, so usually (as in when we would go out there to read) there would be leaves on all the trees.

Elanor on a forest path this past October.

Coming out of The Forest, this is the view of the house and backyard (taken in early spring).

This is not at my house, but near it and was taken on a hike. Isn't Oregon beautiful?

I am so happy Elanor loves this place too! She might even be ready for the tire swing this year!

I did not do any of this incredibly long post to brag about where I grew up, but rather I feel so completely grateful and blessed.  It was so much fun to grow up in place where it facilitated imagination, exploration and magic. Fairies live in these woods. There are Indians living up on the grassy hill by the tire swing. Orphans have found shelter and food in Cherry Tree Forest. Vikings have attacked and knights have battled valiantly. Happy memories were made in this cozy home, surrounded by the woods, by four kids and their wonderful parents. 

So thank you, Mom and Dad.

I hope Tyler and I can provide a similar environment for our children in the hopefully not too far off future.