| The Eagle's Nest is land
that is part of the Valley of Jehosophat. Mr. Dulaney got half of
this in 1747 and half in 1767. We had history all around us there
on Providence Road.
But at the end of the Revolutionary War, it was taken away
from him and sold. Thomas Marsh bought it in 1788. It still belongs
to his descendants.
The Eagle's Nest had a big house with trees entirely hiding
it, like the way an eagle builds a nest high up and hides it with
boughs and branches and leaves.
There are lots of beautiful hills and dales in the valleys.
Further out York Road is the Pretty Boy Dam. The falls are tremendous.
My Daddy and I walked right up to them. Then we had to climb hundreds
of steps to get back up to Mommy. The roar of the falls stopped
up my ears. It's so much big, bigger than any falls I ever saw.
The Loch Raven Falls is not very high, but it's fast when it
runs over the concrete dam and it's cool in the heat, and all the
needly, shimmery pine trees smell cool and look cool and feel cool
in the groves.
Sometimes when Mommy drove, she put her arm around me and kissed
my face and kissed my hand. She was always telling me how much she
loved me and that God sent me. I liked to hear that, whenever she
said it. I knew we would always love each other.
I soon went back to school and studied. When the weather grew
warmer in the early spring, I played a lot with a new friend. Her
name is Sandra Perellis, and she lived in back of Grandmommy's house.
Of all my friends, I liked Ford and Sandra best of all. I didn't
play imaginary games with Sandra, and we didn't play much with dolls.
We studied about the stars, and we talked about science. She is
a year older than I am and she was my first real grown-up girl friend.
We liked to dance in the big driveway between our houses. There
is a brick wall and red roses climbing all over it in the late springtime.
Sandra's mother took movies of us one day in front of the roses.
I had on my red skirt and peasant blouse and white slippers. I picked
them all myself at Allan's store in Forest Park, where Grandmommy
lives.
I learned to ride Sandra's bicycle there, and we danced folk
dances like the hopscotch polka. We also played hopscotch. I love
Sandra very much. She was a true friend.
When we danced, I wore white ballerina slippers. I picked them
out at Hess's. They were exactly what I wanted. I wore them all
the time.
I started to grow very fast around this time. The chart Mommy
bought to keep a record of me as I grew up got shorter than me all
of a sudden. She put it away. It was pretty, with a measure you
pull out and pictures all over it.
Sandra and I went to the Forest Movie on Saturday afternoons.
Mommy used to go there when she was a little girl with her girl
friends, especially Rena.
Mommy made Grandmommy's maid, Mary, walk along with us to see
that we crossed all right. She watched us till we came to the movie,
then she came for us when I called Mommy to tell her I was out of
the movie.
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