My Unknown Adventure

Another memory from Little Brother, Blair!

Speaking of that summer in the Quonset...

Okay, I don’t remember this...

My dad told me about it after it happened.

In order to explain just what happened, I have to provide a bit of background...

When I was young, not having the ‘walk-around-in-the-dark superpower’, like my little sister did, I was afraid of said dark.

Needless to say, I liked my night light.

Also: When I went to bed at night, I would hide under the covers.

Mom told me that it was not healthy to cover my head so I had devised a special way of arranging my bed covers so that I could snuggle down and still have a tunnel that provided ample air to breathe.

Enough exposition…

In the summer of 1968, my family moved from our house on the ranch to a quonset on an acreage just outside the town of Milk River.

Dad planned to use the acreage as the headquarters for the ranch and his veterinarian practice.

A new house was being built on the property, but it was going to be at least 3 months before it was completed. Thus, the quonset.

For the “summer”.

It was a great adventure. Like camping, except, I got to sleep in my own comfortable bed.

The quonset was huge—and open—so dad strategically placed the large moving boxes so that we had our own bedrooms.

We also had living room and kitchen areas.

I can’t remember what we did for showers. I guess I was at the age where that wasn’t very important.

I had my very own bedroom space with my dresser and bed. I really liked it except there was no power.

And no night light.

I regularly buried myself under my covers when I went to bed at night.  It was a cold summer and mom made sure we all had lots of blankets to keep us warm.

This next slice of this story is the part I don’t remember.

I am reciting from what dad told me...

One evening, my parents went out on a date night. According to Dad, they had a lovely time. Forgetting for a short period that they even had any kids. (Okay, that’s my input…)

Then returned to our quonset home.

It was after our bedtime, so they did the rounds of all the kids to see that we were settled in our beds.

Everyone was sound asleep, except me.

I was nowhere to be found.

Quickly, they searched everywhere in the Quonset. No corner, empty box, or piece of furniture was left unchecked. They even did a quick search of the area immediately around the Quonset.

Nope. No me.

I’m quite sure both of them were remembering the animal with the spooky growl my mom had heard a few nights earlier and thinking it had snagged me, perhaps during a midnight potty run.

They were terribly worried and decided to call the police.

Just before they made the call, for some reason, Dad walked into my bedroom space and sat in the chair that faced my bed. He was terribly worried and trying to think if there was somewhere I might be.

As he sat in the chair and looked over at the pile of blankets on my bed, he suddenly got the thought that he should pull them back a little.

Which he did.

There I was, right there, asleep. Blissfully unaware that I had been missed by anyone.

Well, unaware until the following day when Dad told me.

Oops.

By the way, I’m not afraid of the dark anymore.

Though I did go through a period of fearing to walk through my house in the dark unless I shuffled.

Because…Lego.

Need I say more?