APPALACHIAN-LIFE-L Archives

From:
Subject: [AppalLife] summer fun
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 16:52:08 EDT

Summers were the best times of all. I remember waking up in the morning and
seeing the sunlight as it came in my window. It looked green as it filtered
down through the mountains. I would feel as if anything could happen that
day. My papaw owned a sawmill and daddy had built us a playhouse. It was
painted red. The little boy that lived up on the hill above me was my best
friend. He would come down and we would play all day. Daddy would take us
up to the sawmill and let us play in the big piles of sawdust. I remember
Mama was always afraid we were going to get snake bit. We would go up on the
railroad tracks and catch the little red and brown toads that liked to be
around the tracks. We would keep them for a while and then turn them loose
in the garden. I went barefoot nearly the whole summer. About the only time
I wore shoes was if I had to go to town. We waded in the creek too, and of
course we caught lightening bugs. We would catch a June Bug and tie a string
around his leg and let him fly. I wasn't too crazy about this, my hair was
waist length and I was afraid he would get tangled up in my hair. I still
can't stand it to this day for a bug to get in my hair. There was a little
country store at the mouth of the holler. Mama would give me a quarter and I
could get a whole bag of candy. Remember the BBats suckers and the little
wax bottles with flavored water in them? On Sundays my parents and
grandparents would load us up and go to my great-grandparents house. I loved
to go their because my Mamaw Cline always had kittens. My Papaw would set on
the sunporch and smoke his pipe. He always smoked Cherry tobacco in it. The
women would all get in the kitchen and you couldn't get a word in edgeways.
The men would all be out there and you could have heard a pin drop. LOL,
that tells you who has all the mouth in my family. Oh the memories are so
precious now. This was in the sixties too. I was so lucky to have known my
great-grandparents as well as both sets of grandparents. The only one left
now is my paternal grandmother. She is eighty four. Tommorrow we are going
home to West Virginia for a visit.

Jennifer

This thread:

• [AppalLife] Summer Fun by "Martha Short" <>

  • [AppalLife] summer fun by