Amorita

My sister and I make this pilgrimage every year when we go down to Amorita for memorial Day and my Dad's reunion dinner. This is the farm house where I lived until I was ten. My dad rented the land and the house and farmed until my parents decided that life was better working a regular job in Wichita at an aircraft plant. Life was better, and I have never regretted moving away from Oklahoma. The house was tiny, it was built right after the Cherokee Strip was run and the barn was dismantled from a farm in Kansas and brought down and rebuilt right after the land was homesteaded. It makes me sad to see it collapsed and in ruins. The house will be following the barn in the next few years. People have been taking boards off the house, and part of the roof has collapsed as well. Sadly, this isn't the only old abandoned farm down there.

We always go down the Saturday before Memorial Day because the Amorita High School has a reunion. My Dad graduated in 1938, so it has been 82 years since he graduated from high school The school was closed in 1957 so all the attendees at the reunion are elderly except for the children, a lot of them are my age or older, so we aren't young either and grandchildren. I would say that there won't be any more reunions ten years from now, and the little town will finally die.

My Aunt Meta and Uncle Bill were there and were the only other family members to attend this year. My aunt isn't doing really well, and my sister and I are so grateful that my Dad and Jaunita are as healthy as they are.

I don't mind getting older, but I really don't like seeing my Dad and other relative doing the same thing. But we just keep on going. I like going down with my sister, we have the same interests and it is a lot of fun.