Sometimes
I wish I could just
rewind back to the old
days with my loved ones
and press pause..just
for a little while
~Kelly's Treehouse~
What a blessing it was to have grown up in a time without cell phones and computers. As we were growing up, we had the pleasure of playing outside and spending time with family and cousins.
This is not to say I don't appreciate the technology available now . It was simply different 'back then'.
One of my fondest memories was of our aunts and uncles and all the first cousins going on trips to Big Black River.
Oh, the fun we knew was in store for us! We walked along the edge of the river looking for mussel shells and playing on the sand bars till we would be exhausted.
During our play time, our fathers were diving down in the deeper part of the river and were doing what's called "hand grabbing" for the big catfish.
This consisted of taking turns diving under the water, placing their hands in the holes where they knew the big fish were, and up they would come with the biggest catfish you've ever seen.
Our mothers prepared the pots with grease for this fish fry. Potatoes were peeled and cooked in the pot with hush puppies too.
As nightfall approached, and we were packing up, the most terrifying sounds would come from the woods.
Maybe a better way to describe that was to say it scared the daylights out of us! Daddy said it might have been a panther hiding out but not to worry as they were ready to take charge of the situation.
I have often thought back to that remark wondering where Uncle Jimmie was? With his great sense of fun, could he have been the creepy noise?
Eventually it was time to pack it all up and return home. My sister and I had a game we played in the car to see who would be the first one to see the Winona lights at night..
I'm sure families today are making sweet memories with their children with trips to special places and recalling it long after, as we still do when the cousins get together!
