Before we left Sutherlin Brandon took us around and showed us a few things.
Here is the Sutherlin High Bulldog, standing painted and proud.
Here is Cooper Creek Reservoir, where they used to go swimming.
This is a Madrone tree; Brandon is trying to figure out a way to get one of these in our yard.
Here is one of the homes that Brandon's family lived in.
One of the boys' favorite stories (and mine) of Brandon's youth occurred while he was living in this house.
It happened like this: Brandon came home from basketball practice one evening, crashed on his bed and went to sleep. When he awakened he looked at his clock and it said 6:20. He had slept all night in his clothes! He got up to get ready for school and thought it strange that his dad was already up--he didn't usually get up until later. It was also strange that all of his siblings were up and seemed to be hanging around, but he didn't worry about it too much and got in the shower to get ready for school. He got dressed and went into the kitchen to get breakfast. As he got his bowl of cereal one of his siblings said, "Hey, you can't have cereal!" (At their house, cereal is only to be eaten for breakfast.) Brandon said, "Shut up and leave me alone!" The sibling was about to say more when their dad motioned for them to be quiet and just watch. Brandon finished breakfast, got his backpack and headed out for the bus stop.
As he walked down to the bus stop he thought it was strange that no one else was out there. He wasn't usually the first one.
He stood there waiting for a while.
Then he noticed something. The sun was on the wrong side of the sky. He had woken up at 6:20 pm, not 6:20 am.
As he sheepishly walked back to the house, he could see the faces of his parents and siblings looking out of these windows, laughing really hard. They laughed for a good long while.
But hey, at least he got to have cereal for dinner.
