save me a seat at the bar....

First a few pics I found on Allies computer that I really liked. My bly looking angelic and then the boy looking like the rest of us when a camera is about and making a silly face with my cousins daughter Ella. The nest is probably the only pic of myself on this blog but I figured what the heck, I am what I am. The last is totally girls. love their silliness.
Ok here is the latest news around here.
Growing up we spent our summers at he mountain house with the grandparents and cousins and extended family and friends. I can tell you that the time spent out ther is time I will always chersih and that the memories are thick and can almost be tasted that is how good some of them are when I think hard enough.
Many of those memories revolve around a local bar called The Barn. It was owned by a family that had spent their generations on the mountain as well.
My earliest memories of the barn were as a young child going there to have coke in a glass bottle and chips and playing the jukebox. "Knock three times" by tony orlando and dawn. Tie a yellow ribbon. I dont really remember why we were there, or what my family was doing but I do remember having lots of fun. I think back to a time wehn the grownups played pool and we watched and if we were good we could get the balls out of the slot and load the rack.
I would look at he stuffed deer heads and animals all over the walls and think about where they came from and what they did when we left at night.
The next set of memories are of being a teenager and befriending the children of the owners. I personally was friends with the daughters although had every confidence I would marry the only son and run that bar someday with my seven children running around. These people to me were mountain people. They were hard and rugged but were friends that never left your side no matter how far away you were. Next memories came around 15, 16 when that son finally started to notice me. My brothers wsere somehow including me in some of their late night escapades into the woods, camping, hanging in the bar after hours, and "runnin the mountain" I played pool, the jukebox, and sat at the bar like the grownups, although it was 2 in the morning after everyone else had left.
I went there with my parents, my brothers, my first husband, my children, grandparents.
It was a constant.
My parents loved it there for a good few years. They wintered out the mountain one year and truly spent the winter in the barn. They made some of their best friends there and shared alot of their best times with those simple, hearty mountain people.
Alot of good people went through those doors.
It burned down saturday night. to the ground. Thank God no one ws home and that only things are gone.
I have been thinking about how to blog these feelings I have.
Fire. hmm
OK Here is my conclusion. The bar has had a for sale sign out front for many years. I cant imagine them ever selling it but it was there.
I know that alot of good people frequented that place. I also know that the barn was a favorite to many people that are here and on the other side.
I like to think that the place just lost its spirit and died. It went to ashes and is now just beyond the pearly gates for all of us to someday take a seat at the bar or at a table. Our best of friends will be there waiting with a cold beer or a glass bottle of coke.
Mrs. Old lady Ann, Delores, Johnny Smith, Mike Malone, My Dad, are right now saying hey this is cool to have the barn here. Lets have a few beers and wait for everyone to get here.
So as you sit there tonight Dad, with your old mountain cronies, I hope you make some new friends, catch up with some old, take a look at the old place and remember to save a place for the rest of us, I will sit next to you and someday we will all be together.
Now I just have a meeting place in mind.