The Ashbaugh family lived just down the road from us so we spent many hours together. Favorite memories include sledding down our favorite hill playing "rescue 8". The goal was to stop the victim's sled before it went off the bank and into the stream below. Most of the time we made a successful rescue........but not always. When the snow was really deep we would dig a snow cave back into that same bank. Several times it caved in and we had to dig quickly to extricate the trapped victims.
One summer the Woodruff and Ashbaugh kids and Jerri Lou Sutton built a dam on the stream that ran thru our pasture. We worked really hard on it for several days and backed up a lot of water. One night it washed out and there was a big fight over whether one of the bridge builders had slipped in and torn it down. I still don't know the answer to that question but our families didn't talk for several days!
Another memory is May Day when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Roger and I had taken May baskets to the Ashbaugh house about dusk. We knocked on the door and then ran for our lives! As we ran around the back of the house I hit the clothesline and ended up flat on my back!
When I came to everyone was standing around and laughing pretty hard at my misfortune.
Then there was the winter that we decided to go skiing. Since we didn't have any skis we took barrel staves and sanded them smooth and fastened pieces of rubber inner tube to the top for foot straps. Unfortunately the "skis" weren't flat enough or slick enough and they didn't work at all. Undaunted by that failure we decided to be hockey players. Fortunately we did have skates. After scooping snow off the pond we set up buckets at each end for goals. Hockey sticks and a puck were the next issue. A corn cob worked fine as a puck. Hockey sticks were tougher to come by. We used broom handles, 2x4's, branches off of trees and anything else we could find. We played for hours and hours and then would argue about who had won over a cup of hot cocoa and cookies in the Ashbaugh kitchen.
I still use Patty as an example when I am talking with clients that have overweight pets. I tell them that everyone's metabolism is different. Then I describe Patty, my 95 pound neighbor girl who could eat me under the table and not gain an ounce. They nod their heads in agreement and then we continue the discussion. I have told Patty that story although she wasn't particularly impressed.
My thoughts and prayers go out to Gary and Patty's kids and grandkids, to Jane and Jim and the rest of her family and many friends. She was a wonderful friend and she took great joy in life. I will treasure the memories.
Denny Woodruff
