I begin this story by reporting that I was a little girl who played with dolls and also loved to run, climb trees, play games with balls and explore the woods on our 200 acre farm.
I
don't still have any of the dolls I had as a child and I don't think I
had more than one that I could call mine. But I do remember enjoying
playing "house" with my younger sisters and having a doll that I
pretended to mother. We lived on a dairy farm. That farm had an
orchard beside the space we used for a large garden. In the orchard
there was a building that was called a Brooder house. Because it wasn't
being used for that purpose, the building had become overgrown with
weeds - mostly nettles - and no one in our family took the time to
explore its possibilities. That is no one until four little girls
decided to change that. I'm sure this exploration must have begun
during summer vacation from school. Even though we probably had chores
each day like weeding in our big garden but we also had outdoor play
time. We must have donned long sleeve shirts and pants as we tackled
the weeds around that structure. We were able to clear the area to the
door and managed to open it and get inside. That area also was in major
need to cleaning but the four Groves girls were experienced cleaners
and tackled that neccessity with robust vigor. We saw potential in that
building and turned it into a nifty play house. Our dolls and their
mommy's had a fun place to play for as long as we continued to fight
back the weeds and schedules that took us away from childhood playtime.
In the photo above of our farm home as we moved there in 1948, the
brooder house can be seen in the orchard to our right of the house in
this photo.
