Huckleberry Finn has nothing on Carolyn and I...

I recently spoke of my Winter years here in Mount Enterprise, but this is a far piece from my Spring years on the banks of Lake Whitney, Texas. Children have memories of grandma's house and Aunt Sue's, but for me most of my memories are surrounded by Cedar trees, white gravel roads, B bluff, the dam, Schoonover's place, Dub Smith's place or the old home place, which are all covered by the lake. The people named had home places that when the lake was made covered their property. The old home place was the home of my grandmother's parents home. We camped on the other places at one time or another.

Every summer we would spend every weekend we could get away and definitely two weeks vacation camping. We didn't have the conveniences as we do today such as running water, bathrooms and such. This was actually living in tents, cooking on a Coleman stove with wind breaks made around it, so the wind wouldn't whip out the fire. We washed dishes in lake water heated on the stove. I say we, my grandmother and Aunt Ruby did most of the cooking. We kids would sleep in the tent until the sun got hot enough to raise us up to get out and look for breakfast.

This leads me into food and believe me when I tell you we had some good food. Aunt Ruby made fried biscuits with apricot jelly, bacon and eggs. Aunt Etta was famous for her dill pickles. She let me have all I could eat one year and I ate the entire jar. I got sick from overeating and it was several years before I wanted another one of those pickles, but boy they were delicious. Aunt Ruby always brought plenty of soda waters, as we called them back then. They would bring plums, peaches and sometimes nectarines. These were things that were not in abundance at our home and therefore I was always there looking for them. They also cooked squirrel, soft shell turtle legs, fried catfish, bass, and perch. I enjoyed the squirrel until one morning I woke up early just a little after sunrise and went out to find 12 squirrel laying side by side in a row. That did it for me. I never ate the squirrel anymore. Now where I thought those I ate came from, I have no idea.

Uncle Pellum had a small tin boat with a motor and we would get to go fishing sometimes. Mostly it was he, grandaddy, granny, and Aunt Etta that would go. Mama went often also but it was usually my Aunt Ruby that stayed at camp with us kids. We always waited in antisipation of the return and time for the fish to be cleaned. Grandaddy and Uncle Pellum would always save the floaters out of the catfish and we would carefully let them dry and then put them between our hands and slap them together to hear it pop. It took little to amuse us back in those days. And I recall bull nettle seeds were also a delight that we took for granted when grandaddy would take a stick and knock them off the plant and peel them for us. We often tried to do it ourself and were rewarded with a large red spot where we were stung. Granny always spit snuff on it and made the sting go away for me. I don't remember if my cousins got the same or not.

In the photo are three little girls standing on the end of the old rail road bridge on Lake Whitney. Carolyn, me and Tama Lee. These were my Uncle Pellums' girls. He and my grandfather were brothers. Aunt Ruby was almost 20 years younger than he was, and this explains the difference in our parents ages. My mother was the same age as Aunt Ruby.

Lake Whitney was a place that would give Mark Twain another story to write about. It has bluffs and canyons, large rock on the banks, deep water and the lake has very wide places and some places that have trees still standing out of the water. I spoke of the old home place and this is really the most memorable for me. Carolyn and I were two years apart in age and Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn should have been our names. If trouble could be had then she and I would find it.

One summer we were bored and we couldn't go swimming because it was too hot (so we were told by those trying to protect us from being burned to a crisp by the sun), and we decided to find Pop Samples place. This was a little store where grandaddy and Uncle Pellum went to get ice and worms. The home place naturally was on the edge of the lake and behind it lay a series of hills with a rail road dump running parallel with the lake. At one time trains had run there but long before all the rails and such were removed and all that remained were some rail road ties and large white rocks. In order to cross the dump we had to climb down inside and go across and crawl up the other side. We walked until the cedar trees were so thick we had to get on the ground to look through and see what lay beyond. For someone who hates spiders, it took a lot of desire for adventure to go ahead and crawl through the tight spots to get up that hill. When we finally arrived at the top we found all these tee pees. We thought we had found an old Indian camp and could not believe our eyes. Then we ambled on down to Pop Samples place.

To this day I have no idea how far that was from camp but when we got back a long time later we were met by some very disappointed people who were not going to dare show their amusement at our story of the Indians. I think we may have missed getting to go swimming that evening. It is amazing to me that we did not get bitten by a rattle snake or the very least gotten the beating of our lives when we returned. Aunt Ruby was the best anyone could ever ask for. She was always for us kids and saved us from many deserved spankings.

I did say Mark Twain would be envious. There was an old abandoned barge that someone had left tied to a stump and Carolyn and I decided we needed to push it out in the lake and take a little ride. We didn't plan to do anything but just fool around close by. We sat at the end where a square hole was and began kicking which of course made the barge move. Soon we had made it to a small current and the barge moved right along with little effort from our feet. I may have omitted to tell that we could neither one swim nor had on our life jackets. I believe I was about 8 and she was 10. We had began to learn to dog paddle and such but to swim for our lives would have been disaster. We floated down to the end past where the rail road dump ended into the lake. We were headed for open water and too far to kick back to shore so we sat and watched as the shore got further and further away. Memory does not allow me to tell how long it was before we saw an old tin boat coming toward us, but I can assure you that they found two jubilant, thirsty, hot girls that would welcome a spanking just to go back home. Many times I recall Uncle Pellum saying had they not guessed which way we might have gone that we might have been lost for certain.

We did have another adventure that ended with a lesson we never forgot. There was an old oak tree that had fallen and we wanted to climb and play around on it. Grandaddy told us we best stay off of it because snakes liked to crawl up on the branches. As usual we didn't listen and we began to climb up and play around. There is a snake that will chase you called a coach whip and I don't know if they are poisonous or not, but we met it and it chased and we ran. We jumped down out of the tree and headed for camp and I stepped in a bed of goat heads. For those not reared in the south those were round stickers with one long sticker and they hurt bad. I began to cry and Carolyn yelled jump on my back and I will carry you. I did and she ran as hard as she could carrying over 70 pounds on her back. When we got to camp she sat down and being much stronger willed than I, did not cry, but we spent a couple of hours with a needle extracting goat heads from her bare feet. We did not go back to that tree again.

As we grew up our adventures also grew larger. Everyone had gone fishing and left us at camp alone which was very unusual. My uncle always bought Oldsmobile cars. Why I mention that I don't know but we decided to take his and go for a tiny joy ride. Carolyn must have driven at some point before. but we definitely had little or no training in driving a car. She started down the graveled hill and began to go pretty fast. We were going too fast for that unimproved road and when we got the the bottom it sorta boomed before we started up the other hill. Thankfully it didn't hurt anything and she turned around and we went back and parked the car. As far as I know we got away with that one and never did that again either. Of course that was the cleanest camp they ever saw when they returned because we made sure there wasn't a leaf unturned before they got back.

Then came the big test. Smoking! I believe my step father was the only smoker in the bunch and we got into his cigarettes. He caught us smoking. Carolyn was dismissed to her parents and I had the displeasure of eating an entire cigarette which of course made me sick as a dog. I did try later in life to smoke but thankfully the Lord was merciful and they made me sick so I never took up the habit. It would have been sneak to get the habit because my parents would have had my head on a platter for even thinking about doing it. My step father started chewing Wrigley's spearmint gum and quit smoking. I have no idea if it was because of that incident or not but it certainly began shortly afterwards.

The youngest little girl in the photo is Tama Lee. And I do recall a few stories about her. One in particular happened one night when the parents had built a campfire and we were all sitting around it in lawn chairs. The grown ups were always interesting and we kids actually listened at times, especially after dark when we were worn out and about ready for bed. That particular night Tama Lee was sitting across the fire from my grandfather and without any sound or warning he jumped up came across and jerked her out of her chair. I believe we all thought he had gone mad. This was totally out of character from this gentle, quiet man I knew as my own hero. Under her chair a copper head snake had coiled and had he not gotten her it surely was about to strike her legs dangling off that chair.

My Aunt Ruby was much admired by all of us children. She was a mother every girl wanted to have for her very own. I remember well that each night she would bring a tub of water and wash her kids faces and whatever else might need it and their feet before bedtime. She tucked them in and she was so special. During the day she would play chinese checkers with the marble game. And sometimes regular checkers. She was always good to play with the kids. We always knew we could get soda waters and fresh fruit if we asked her. As a small child I took all of those things for granted. None of us had money and I believe we were the poorest in the crowd and they always brought lots of extra goodies and always shared. I wish I could tell Uncle Pellum and Aunt Etta how special they were to me. However, somehow I believe they knew.

My little sister, Theresa was the youngest until Janice was born (another cousin, which made 3 now). One day we were all sitting around the concrete table at camp and the men had beer. They were never heavy drinkers just once in a while had one. That particular day Theresa, who was three years old at the time decided to to a little tasting test. They were talking and paying no attention and she was emptying their cans for them. Finally they all noticed when she stood up and said, "if you look at the can it will fall over," then she fell flat on her little face. I truly do believe that was the end of any beer to ever come in my grandaddy's house and I do not remember my uncle drinking anymore either, but as I said they never were really heavy drinkers anyway.

Speaking of my sister reminds me of another story about the barge. I have no idea how that barge got over to a place known as Ward's bluff but it was tied to a tree at the bank. This particular place really had only one small area that we could swim because the bank dropped off 40' at the waters edge. The four of us girls were all running around that square hole playing and daddy had told us to get away from it. Either we disobeyed or just didn't quit soon enough because Theresa fell through the hole. God was merciful that day and he let her bob straight back up and my dad grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to safety. My daddy took me to the bank and tore my bottom up and I still remember saying in my heart just hit me again daddy. I was so scared that she might have drowned that I welcomed that spanking and it was the only time in my life I ever felt that way. Remember my sweet Aunt Ruby? She to this day still talks about how he should not have spanked me. I guess she and Tama Lee actually came the closest to really losing their lives during our growing up years on the lake.

Today when we pass the cedars and especially if there are white rock around I dream of my beautiful Lake Whitney. It was my home.

To be continued...