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events in just plain daylight. We quietly walked out into the back yard. Our view was up close looking first at the foreground, the yard, middle ground, the dirt road, and then the hills as the background. We first started with the foreground. There was a small hump in the yard where the old outside toilet used to sit. The grass on top always grew because the cesspool was underneath. We were told to stay off the hump because it might cave in, but we would run up and over and then back again. To the right were the chicken coops. They lived in a makeshift container of old wood with small sections so each hen had a nest. My grandfather's truck was parked in a space built around his car. Grapevines covered the back porch letting the hot afternoon sun hit the vines. The grapes were used for making pies and jelly. The back part of the house was built with all different shapes and sizes of wood. Each piece of wood was nailed on top of the other in order to make the carport, the porch, and the chicken coop. Scraps of wood put together to make living spaces for car, chicken and people.

The backyard was all dirt and no grass. Water and time were at a premium. My grandparents didn't have time or money to water and plant trees and grass. The only grass was over the cesspool and that maintained itself. The backyard had it's own undeveloped landscape; trash. This is where my brother and I started our day. Old boards with nails coming through the wood, chunks of wire rolled up that could catch our legs, an old wheelbarrow, and a shovel with a broken handle. With trash, there were many possibilities to create and we were children playing in a junkyard, making our world.

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