Malone children take the high road to fun
Published 12:00 am Monday, May 24, 2004
PERRY TOWNSHIP - On top of the hill, out in the woods, at grandma's house they go - in their Chevy truck.
Linda and Don Malone's three grandchildren put their own spin on the traditional folk song. When they visit their grandchildren home sitting atop a hill on Deering-Bald Knob Road, they get their engines revving on a variety of motorized vehicles and take to streets.
Well, at least the driveway.
"It is a Chevy," said 5-year-old Dylan Malone as he sat in a motorized truck. "I like to drive it."
"And I like to sit in the passenger seat," chimed in his 5-year-old cousin Ryan. "We like to haul stuff in it too."
The duo took Ryan's 1-year-old sister Kodeigh for a spin around the yard before dropping her back off at the garage that is full of toys, trucks and other tossed aside playthings.
"(Grandpa) can't put his Suburban in here because we put the big gray truck in here," Ryan said.
Linda enjoys the visits.
"I baby sit quite a bit," she said. "They love it here."
Even the neighbors large dog comes to visit daily, often sprawling casually on the cool garage floor.
"She comes to see me everyday," Linda said. "We call her Old Yeller because she looks like the dog in the movie. I have no idea what her name is."
It is hard to believe that the sprawling property was once a junk yard until the late 1980s. The house was built in 1997 and the Malone's moved in two years later.
"You would never know it was a junk yard until you start plowing," Linda said.
The Dart is a weekly feature in The Ironton Tribune in which a reporter throws a dart at a map of Lawrence County and finds a story where it hits.