When I was a girl the kids in the holler often played outside together in a gang that ranged from two kids to as many as ten.
My mind often goes back to the things we did. Scaring each other was at the top of the list. We played lots of hide and seek, tag, and other games outside. Damming up the creek was always on the agenda for summertime and there was usually some mudpie making or road building for cars and trucks to roll over.
There were bicycles to ride most of the time. We usually had a few bikes between all of us so we could take turns riding them.
When the boys got a little bigger sometimes there was a motorcycle. I was too scared to try riding them. Especially after I seen some of the wrecks that happened up and down the gravel road.
Summertime also meant swimming in the pond. Everyone else could swim without adult supervision but Granny never let Paul and me without an adult even though all of us could swim.
Sometimes I’m reminded of something from those days that I haven’t thought about in ages. Most recently it was when I spotted what looks like a dollop of spit on a weed by the trail. We always called it snake spit.
I knew it wasn’t actually snake spit, but didn’t know what caused it. A quick google told me it is made by the spittlebug. An apt name for sure.
Last night’s video: Pictures of Me I’ve Never Seen Before.
Tipper
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
I expect many of today’s young people have never heard of games such as tag or hide and seek. Kids were scattered out too far apart in my area to ever be more than 2 or 3 together at one time except when we were together at church. We would plays games such as these after the night church service while the adults stood around and talked. After I got older, I was allowed to ride my bicycle about 2 miles to my best friend’s home or he would ride his to come and see me. Playing and fishing for horney head minnows in the neighborhood creek-some of it on our property, was one of my favorite summer time things to do. I would do the work/chores I was told to do in the cooler mornings and play at the creek in the hot afternoons. This creek was not deep enough to swim in. Kids in my day and time knew better than to cause trouble or tear things up when we were together, it would have been “Lord have mercy” on our rear ends when our parents found out. Many of the neighborhood ladies were stay at home ladies and would look out for us and welcome us kids in their homes and tear our butts up if we were caught misbehaving. When our parents found out they would tear it up again.