Recreation was simple, cheap and locally based. “Jaybirding” in a stream was popular, and acceptable for young men. Hunting trips “on top of Smoky” were fun for both men and dogs, besides providing meat for the family. Notable bear hunters are still talked about.
—A Piece of the Smokies A Pictorial History Of Life In The Smoky Mountains
Ira has fallen in love with the creek. As I watched him splash and play yesterday I was reminded of the wonderful summers I spent playing in and around Stamey Creek.
A favorite activity was to try damming up the creek to make a swimming hole. We never succeeded in getting anything larger than a place to lay down with our head still sticking out.
There was always the pond to swim in, but Granny wouldn’t let us go unless an adult was available to watch us. She didn’t have any rules about the creek other than keeping our eyes out for snakes.
Hunting trips today are regulated by laws and regulations, but some folks still find them great entertainment. A friend recently said when he was first married he coon hunted at least four nights a week and there wasn’t nothing that would stop him.
My Papaw Wilson was a big coon hunter and he passed along the love of it to his grandsons and anyone else who wanted to tag along. I never did, but my brothers, especially Steve, enjoyed it.
Somehow summer always reminds me of the simple fun recreation us kids enjoyed when I was a girl. From swimming to catching lighting bugs to playing in the creek, it was all so fun.
Seeing Ira splash in the same creek I did as a girl makes me grin from ear to ear.
Last night’s video: Planting White Sweet Potatoes, Huge Pile of Mulch, & Shed Delays.
Tipper
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We never said “jaybirding” only “skinny dipping”, but I am familiar with the phrase “naked as a jaybird”, so it makes sense that swimming in your birthday suit could be called “jay birding”.
I’m so glad you had fun with Ira down at the creek. That will be a sweet memory for him. We never really played in a creek (just the lake) when I was a kid. However, my Dad grew up on a family farm and a creek ran behind it. He often talked about him and his brothers (and their friends) playing in or along the creek. What a blessing for a child to grow up that way. By next summer, both boys will be old enough to play in the creek (with yours or their moms’ help). What fun you have in store! Much love from SC, Jane
Yes there’s just something about a creek or, where we are in a river valley, playing along the shores of the little Miami (the Ohio is too dirty and too deep!) lots of folks around us have taken up kayaking because we’re so accessible to the rivers. Along with that we have a good time fishing, rock hounding, and my husband loves to go metal detecting. He’s not much of a hunter but we have several family members who are and my son is interested when he gets a little bigger.
We recently found out we have a surprise baby #4 coming so I’ll get one more chance to see those tiny baby feet in the creek!
L, Congratulations to you and your family!
Congratulations! That’s so wonderful! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
I’ve heard naked as a jaybird all my life, but never knew why they used that term because I’ve never seen a naked or featherless jaybird
(Bluejay). Tipper, do you know how they came up with that term? I sure wish I had grown up where you live & could have roamed, discovered places & things & played in the creek. I grew up in town, but got to enjoy a tad of that kind of childhood when I went to my Grandparents’ house in the country. But my parents & grandparents were so overly protective they wouldn’t let me or my siblings get out of their yard & were constant hollering at us about staying away from the woodpile (could be snakes in there), don’t walk close to the well & watch for snakes & spiders when we went to the outhouse. Just couldn’t have much fun playing only in their yard when they had acres & acres of woods, ponds & and an old cemetery on a hill with mostly unmarked graves-some said it was a slave cemetery. Ira & Woody will grow up like brothers & have a wonderful & free life there.
Cheryl, I don’t know where the term came from, but like you have heard it all my life 🙂
Have you ever heard someone who just can’t stop talking called a jaybird. “She’s been squawking like a jaybird ever since she heard about it.”
I am 71 years old and back in the days when I was a kid growing up and playing at our creek the bushes along the edge would be covered so to speak in an insect or fly I have only known as a “snake doctor.” I remember them being black and having a blue wing but don’t hold me to that. Now, I no longer see them, another thing I no longer see in this creek is red minnows with yellow fins. We called them red horse minnows.
Randy, could those snake doctor bugs have been a type of dragonfly? My Daddy used to call dragonflies “snake feeders”.
Randy I had forgotten all about the snake doctors—thanks for the blast back to my youth even if it was just a memory of a flying insect
“A Piece of the Smokies” was written from the prospective of someone who lived on the Tennessee side of the Smokies. I grew up in Swain County, North Carolina which comprises almost half of the Park. I had cousins who lived in Sevier County, Tennessee. Many of the words, phrases and customs are the same but a few are noticeably different. “Jaybirding” may be one of those.
We would often go swimming without clothes. We just called it swimming. If you knew you would at the swimming hole you might take along swimming trunks to wear, if you had any but that was the exception not the rule. Mostly we just got dirty and hot and went and jumped in the river.
I too can see little Ira splashing around in the creek. I’ll bet after he plays hard in the creek. he has a good nap!
Loving the outdoors is so important for us all. I feel it gives us all a place to free our mind from the trouble and strife in the world, even if only for a short time each day. Your family has been so blessed to be surrounded by such beautiful places right out your back door! Thank you so much for sharing the fun and joy the next generation is having!
When I was a boy, I always wanted to be outside. The nearby woods and creeks were a wonderland to me. At 72 years old, they still are.
My creek growing up was the water run off that led to the river nearby that mom called a sewer and told me to stay out of it. But it ran through ravines and woods and I did it anyway. I never saw any door doo in there so I figured it was safe. Hahaha. There was always a treasure to find. And I ditched the bike so I could go “cross country” through ravines (and yards). Think I was a country mouse living in the city.
So sweet !!! So many blessings!!! God is so good !!!
I think it’s wonderful that those boys will get do grow up enjoying all the beauty around them and being able to be outside playing in the creek and all those simple things that they will remember and pass on to their children and just think, it didn’t cost a penny! I have always said it’s the simple things that mean the most. I think today’s children need more outside time so they can learn just to be kids. They grow up so fast. We were out to eat the other night and the table beside us, all of the kids and parents were sitting there, and every single one was on their cellphones looking at stuff and no conversation. Sad.
A wonderful picture in my mind’s eye to ‘see’ Ira playing in the creek. Soon Woody will be enjoying it right along with him. What exciting new discoveries lie ahead for these boys. We didn’t have a creek but coastal tidal waters that were right from glaciers, so it was bone chilling cold – but that never hindered my cousins or friends and I from wanting to get in it on hot summer days. Isn’t it strange that as a child one does not feel the cold as much as one does as we age!! 🙂 It makes my heart sad to see so many children and young folk, including my great grandchildren and even my grandchildren who know nothing about such simple pleasures of life because they are all ‘glued’ to cell phones, tablets etc. for all their entertainment.
Never heard term Jaybirding.
My cousins and I spent many wonderful, wonderful days playing in the creeks that my Parents played in when they were young. Even growing up in Illinois my cousin and I would head into the woods transported in our minds to another world with flowers and a tiny creek that we explored and could spend hours having fun. My Daddy told me how he dammed up a little creek and that is where he learned to swim. Mother told me about her and her sisters fishing for horney heads. I had no idea what type of fish that was until Randy mentioned he had fished for horney head minnows. Our sons grew up with a creek nearby and have always loved it. Now in my 80’s sitting by a creek is still one of the joys of my life.
Always heard that someone was “naked as a jaybird.” Suppose the term skinny dipping came after jaybirding.
It’s been a while since I heard anyone talking about jaybirding. When I was growing up, that meant loafing around with your pals. We are all headed down to play in the creek as soon as the rain stops for a day or so. My cousins and I used to work like beavers damming up the creek behind my aunt’s house so we could go ‘swimming’ in that two-foot pond. When Daddy dropped us off to spend the night, he would threaten us if he heard we got close to that swimming hole because he was afraid we would drown. I couldn’t wait till his truck was out of sight.
I have commented way too much today, but couldn’t resist. My Daddy born in 1922, liked to laugh and tell about his mother, my grandmother telling him to not play around the creek or the Little River in Anderson County, SC until he learned to swim. He said he asked her how he was supposed to learn to swim if he couldn’t be around water. He may have got a whupping for asking her that. There is a painful difference between a whipping and a whupping!
I grew up in Anderson, SC. As a child in the late 50’s early 60’s the creek was one of my favorite places to play.
I love that Ira is having fun in the creek! That’s exactly what little kids need. Having 4 of my own I wish we were in the country! I still make them go in the back yard and play in the hose at times. I grew up in the country exploring the woods, playing in the hose and reading books when it was to hot out. That’s exactly how I’m raising my children but the Texas heat is terrible recently!! Blessings to yall
From you, Tipper, to Katie & Corie & now to Ira splashing around in the creek. What a joy that must bring to your heart! I’m so glad God has given us the ability to think back on wonderful, joyous memories from the past.
Katie is raising Ira to enjoy the good things of life. Nothing better than playing in the creek!!
Children love to swim, play in the water, and explore. They are naturally inquisitive, and I was no different growing up in Ohio. We had a creek just off the road in front of our house. I was in it from daylight to dusk some days hunting crawdads, fish, minnows and water spiders. I used to take the water spiders and put them on the back porch and watch them hop around. I took frog eggs from the creek, put them in a bucket, and watched them eventually hatch and put them back in the creek. A neighbor boy and I even found a huge snapping turtle. He took it home and his mother made turtle soup from it. Tipper, you and Matt are so blessed to have your grandsons close by. You have the opportunity to witness them “play out” their childhood. What wonderful memories for them and you.
I’m sure that was a delightful sight to see. Won’t be long till both boys will be splashing in the stream and exploring the woods. Having all sorts of adventures.
“Jaybirding”? Why have I never heard the term?
I too have never heard of “jaybirding,” we just called it “buttnaked.”
Playing and fishing for horney head minnows in the creek that runs through my property was my main recreational joy during the hot summers. It was not deep enough for swimming. The deepest hole I ever knew of was no more than waist deep and not large enough for swimming. The main area for me and the other neighbor kids to play in was not on my property but above a small waterfall. Before a bridge was built for cars to cross the creek, they would “ford” the creek above the waterfall. After the bridge was built I have seen people bring and park their car in the creek and wash it. My Grandmother would wash her clothes at home in a large cast iron pot and then carry the clothes to creek and stand in the creek below the waterfall to rinse them out. Hunting quail, rabbits, squirrels and coon was done by many men in my neighborhood, but only during the winter and late fall of the year. After I was big enough to hunt, I looked more forward to Thanksgiving than Christmas because the hunting season for bird (bobwhite quail) and rabbits open on Thanksgiving day. Many people coon hunted at this creek during the years with no worries about any of the neighbors getting mad if they were on their property. The last time I have heard of anyone(a friend of mine) coon hunting at the creek some of the northern outsiders that have now moved into the area called the law on him and complained about the sound of his dogs disturbing them. The deputy came out, told him why he was there and said you are doing nothing wrong for me to charge you with anything and by the way, your dogs sure were sounding good running the coon. These outsiders doing things such as this is the reason many of the ones that have lived here all of there lives dislike and feel like they do about them. After all it was YOU that moved in with us, don’t go trying to change our ways and traditions.
Summertime in the south returns Friday and for the foreseeable future, actual daytime temperatures in the mid to upper 90’s maybe 100 with high humidity and “feel like temps in the triple digits. I may have to go to the creek, I would look like a hippopotamus sitting in it, might even make the news!
All the best things in this life cannot be purchased. In my mind’s eye, I see little Ira splashing and laughing and really enjoying being a little boy as he discovers all the wonderful things around him. The only thing cuter would be he and his little cousin Woodrow in Stamey Creek together laughing and playing. I bet he likes berries too. I miss the wide eyed wonder of children eating something new or discovering something new-those sweet eyes get really big and sparkling when a child gets happy and excited….bless you all and the babies too!!!
The majority of kids (at least here in the U S) do not know how to have plain simple fun. If tv or some sort of electronics is not involved then they are bored or asleep because they have no clue how to entertain themselves especially out doors. I am so glad (from what you and Katie say on videos) that Ira prefers being outside and is enamored by everything he sees and hears. I have a mental picture of him in the creek and I can form that picture because my brothers and I spent countless hours in our creek when all the chores were done…we slid on huge flat moss covered rocks like they were slip n slides landing in the only deep pool we had in our creek, we also swung out on large grape vines (natures rope) and dropped into same said pool. If Woody becomes like Ira as far as loving it outside then it will take every adult in your holler to keep track of them as they quietly slip from sight taking off on their adventures to roam and explore every place you did as a child and Katie and Corie….I wish I was a kid again and could join the boys because those will be some of the best memories of their lives.
Gaylia, I couldn’t agree with you more. I like to read, in one story I have read by Havilah Babcock, he said it ought to be against the law to raise a boy ( I will add some girls) without them having a creek to play in. After my chores, you would find me at the creek, either in the creek cooling off or sitting on a creek side rock fishing for horney head minnows. I would be by myself most of the time, I did not have a brother.
I grew up rambling the woods. We found or made our activities and never ran out of things to do. Our little branch below the house wouldn’t make a swimming hole either but we tried.
That is so sweet! I would love to see him doing that. Your whole family is just so special to me.