CHAPTER 4 - Wilderness Living

That summer was the greatest ever! DeAnna spent most her time wondering in the woods. She loved to explore! Sometimes it would be her and Judy but she days she would spend all day across the street at the end of their property by herself. It was thousands of acres of government land. She just loved it! There were old trails and she would imagine Christopher Columbus exploring that area years and years ago. They didn't have much money to feed everyone other than pot pies, macaroni and cheese, sandwiches etc. So DeAnna would sometimes take her BB gun and go to the back pond and shoot frogs. She'd bring them up to the house, cut their legs off, skin them and roll them in flour to fry them up. They tasted like chicken although they didn't have much meat on them.
They had a 45 pistol that they would practice shooting cola cans with. DeAnna would aim and never once hit the can. But one day she decided to go across the street in the woods with the gun and go hunting. She didn't know what for. Just anything that she could eat. She came up to a small clearing patch in the woods and all the sudden a big bird flew up in the air. Without thinking she just shot at it. And it came falling down to the ground. SHE GOT IT IN THE HEAD! She picked it up and walked back to the house and showed everyone. The boys were pisted with her. They would often go out looking for something and never came back with anything. Big Tony had teased them about a girl out doing them. The boys wouldn't talk to her for a week.
DeAnna and Tony would take off into the woods together a lot. She loved being alone with him. She would always think of the song 'I think we're alone now' Tommy James. She had never been intmente with anyone before.
Big Tony bought a salt block to put out in the second clearing for the deer to come and lick. And when her mom made apple pies from the trees in the yard they put the peelings out there too. One early morning her and Steve was sitting on the edge of the clearing and watched them eat. It was GREAT! They just sat there for hours watching them. There were all kinds of little chipmunks running round in the woods. DeAnna thought they were so cool! They'd run around through the woods gathering food then run into their holes in the ground. She wished she could catch one but they were too fast.
Since they didn't have running water they would ride into town and drive down behind the Wagon Wheel which went down into the woods to the river. They'd park the car and get out. And with their bathing suits on would take shampoo and jump into the river to bathe. The water was so cold the only way you could get in was to jump. At the beginning of June there'd still be patches of snow on the ground in the deep woods. And it would begin to snow again in September. But it sure felt good to finally bathe your whole body in water.
DeAnna and Judy built a fort out of twigs and leaves near the side clearing. Steve built a tee pee on the other side of the house near the cow pasture. DeAnna and Judy would camp out in their fort and Steve and Tony would camp out in his. DeAnna and Judy were sitting outside their fort near the fire when all the sudden Steve and Tony popped out of the woods and graped DeAnna. They drugged her near the first clearing and tied her up to a tree and took off running leaving her there alone. DeAnna was so scared! It was dark and she kept yelling for them to come back. Finally she heard a noise in the woods. It was Judy. She had followed them through the woods. She untied her and they both ran back to their fort.
At nights the kids would lay outside in the backyard on the weekends and watch the Northern Lights. They shone rather bright and lite up the sky. Changing different colors and shapes. They were beautiful. Her and Judy would lay there and sing different songs. Shoulder Boy was DeAnna's favorite. But she would sing it Shoney Boy for Tony.
That Halloween night they got a big fire going on the edge of the woods. They each had to take turns and walk alone down to the second clearing. There was a surprise for them there. It was dark and scary. All along the way there we glow in the dark things hanging. And at the second clearing was a big glow in the dark skeleton. And there was bags of candy laying in front of it. DeAnna had walked slowly down the trail and when she got her bag of candy. She RAN ALL THE WAY BACK! It was fun! They all loved all the ideas Big Tony had. He started calling his self "Great White Father!"