Earth Day at Panhe

Today we are going to walk down to Panhe to celebrate Earth Day. Panhe is the 9,000 year old historic village of the Acjachemen/Juaneno people. I love to walk these paths out behind our home and to think of all the thousands of years people have been living here and wonder what it was like. I carry Kate and walk in view of a ancient burial ground. I sometimes muse to myself if she senses what an old ancient site it is.

I sometimes muse to myself if she senses
what an old ancient site it is. 

Growing up in Minnesota I often mused about the same things. Our Elementary School was named Five Hawks Elementary for the 5 burial mounds found nearby. Playing in our backyard and in the fence row that surrounded the corn field in back of our 5 house cul de sac I would regularly find arrowheads. There was an old road with deep ruts from wagon wheels leading to an old cemetery. I spent hours out there just me and my Yellow Lab named Drake. At night I would pretend that I could still see the Native Americans roaming around our backyard. There was a Sioux reservation down the road.

We moved from Minnesota when I was 16. I returned to our home years later. The dirt road was unrecognizable, paved with multiple lanes. There was a bingo "palace" and dog racing. The old saying "you can never go home again" really rang true. I will never return as I prefer to remember it how it was, a magical place. I remember walking through the woods finding Lady Slippers, sorting through the rocks in the stream to find agates and shoveling off the cow pond so I could ice skate. But I digress ...

Enjoy the song.