Why I Love “Home
on the Range”
Mary
White
When
I was a girl, my parents took the eight of us to a
dude ranch in Montana where we spent six glorious weeks
surrounded by snow-topped mountains, green hills and
meadows and the bluest lakes you ever saw. I shall
always cherish those memories. I fell in love with
horses and never had enough of riding over the meadows
or alongside a rushing river. Mostly it was the mountains.
When
our own children were growing up, we took, them out
wet too, several times, and they too grew to love this
most beautiful part of our country. Greg’s favorite
place to go in the fall was the Rockies, Colorado,
Wyoming, Montana, even Canada and a couple of times
all the way to Alaska, where he and a good buddy went
hunting. They rarely got anything except a god rest
and lots of fresh air, but they loved hiking over the
hills and cooking over a campfire.
We
have as well always been a musical family. My father
had a lovely tenor voice and other played the piano.
My six brothers always sang as they did the dishes
every night after dinner, and mu sister who had a beautiful
voice kept them going from the other room.
My
dear husband Greg, while he couldn’t carry a
tune to save his soul, loved to listen to the singing
that seemed to arise almost spontaneously whenever
a group of us got together. Our oldest son Joe learned
to play the bagpipes when he was 16, and can still
be persuaded to tune up at family gatherings for the
entertainment of his grandchildren and all the cousins.
And in parades, he looked grand in his kilts.
The
other kids took up various instruments, guitar, piano,
penny whistles, and such, and they all joined in the
singing. It was only natural that on our many long
drives to some vacation spot or other we did lots of
singing. Home on the Range was a perennial favorite,
and to this day, the children and the grandchildren
(and now the great grandchildren as well, look forward
to family gatherings where sing-alongs are an important
part of the festivities.
I
still love horses, though I fear my riding days are
over. Most of all, I love the beauty of the Rocky Mountains—the
Big Sky country. Who but God could have invented such
beauty! It makes us all realize how good He is to give
us the gifts of such wonderful surroundings.
And
so we sing, frequently at the top of our lungs, harmonizing
joyfully as we go. So join me today, and if you’ve
never been out West, maybe this will tempt you to
try it. If you live there already, be thankful for
your blessings!
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