Hours later, we arrived in Corvallis, the sweet little town where my parents met and married 69 years ago. Dad was a very young ex-GI, studying Engineering on the GI bill, and Mom was a senior in high school about to graduate. They fell in love and I think of them as "lovebirds" to this day. They seem to have a simple secret - love and forgiveness - it's gotten them through many tribulations for almost 70 years. These days, that is quite a feat. We are headed to the Phoenix area to visit them before flying to Europe. They are living on their own (Dad 90, Mom 87), which is also quite a feat.
I have some very happy memories of visiting my maternal grandparents in Corvallis, home of the Oregon State University Beavers. My two younger brothers and I played Hide and Seek on the campus, dreamed under the canopy of the low-hanging fir boughs, and were spoiled rotten by Grandma and Grandpa when we visited. There is a lovely park here that I want to see again. We had some great picnics and play times there. The high point, though, for me as a child was the day my middle brother (about 6 years old) opened the car door as we slowly drove across the creek bridge to the park and actually fell out of the car while it was moving. My little 9 year old self thought that was the most amazing and funniest thing I had ever seen. Of course, he landed well and wasn't hurt except for a small scrape and a bruise or two. My 60+ self says, "what the heck did he think he was doing? He could have been killed." But, somewhere inside I'm still giggling.
So, here we are in our second AirBnb near Corvallis, watching the sun go down on the deck of a cute little house in a very beautiful place.
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