I was driving somewhere the other day and happened to see a brown siding house with yellow climbing roses growing up the front of it. I went up to the corner and came slowly back around to look again. A memory came softly flooding back from out of the past when I was a young girl.
My parents lived in the Denver area of Colorado, and Grandpa and Grandma Brooks lived just north and east of Colorado Springs, Colorado. We use to drive down to see them in the 40’s and 50’s. Interstate 25 was only a two-lane highway back then. We had to drive about 75 miles to the south and then off to the east on dirt county roads.
Grandpa owned several sections of land in area called Black Forest. A farm and ranch country with Jack Pine forest. It was dry land farming but there was a large pond and a spring up in the pines. He used the lumber for his own use and sold to the local saw mill. One section of land was for hay. He had a few head of cattle, a couple of milk cows, and a couple of horses, one of them being Beauty. Also had a couple of pigs. Grandma tended the chickens and her vegetable garden.
I loved the farm visits except for one day, as I was spending the summer with them. Grandpa had an old sow that had piglets. He told me not to go into her pen, but like a lot of kids, curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to pet them, so I disobeyed and climbed in. She didn’t like it one bit as she was nursing them. She lunged up and started chasing me all around the pen with me screaming bloody murder, “Grandpa, Grandpa, help, help!” Her snapping tusks were about to take a chunk out of me. Then I felt myself being lifted up and over the fence and sat down. I turned to face Grandpa and the look on his face told me he was angry. All he said was, “Next time I tell you something, pay attention. She could have really hurt you.” I learned a valuable lesson about doing what you are told to do!
Their house was built like a cabin, the siding was wood slabs with the bark still on. Grandma had yellow climbing roses growing up the side walls. They had good-sized cluster blooms, for a wild rose, and the sweetest fragrance. The hybrids of today like tea roses, have huge petals but lack the scent. They were Grandma’s pride and joy. She brought cuttings from her parent’s home when Grandpa went to get her and marry her. They came back to Colorado by team and wagon. She took great care to see that those cuttings survived the trip. Unfortunately, photos of that time are all black and white and the old place and roses are long gone. I’ve never seen roses like them again.
The old folks finally got too old and sold the farm and moved into Colorado Springs to a small house. Grandma didn’t take cuttings this time. She was too old to tend them and I know it probably broke her heart. The roses were left behind.
Through the years, Black Forest was subdivided into five or more acre tracks, then in June of 2013, the whole area caught fire and was destroyed. The fire started on the eleventh when a home owner was burning building trash. It wasn’t contained until June 20. It was the most destructive fire in Colorado history.
14,280 acres burnt
511 homes destroyed
2 people killed, many injured
$90 million in property damage
$420 million in land value
$9 million in fighting the fire
Grandpa and Grandma’s old homestead land was part of that fire!
