It was a beautiful week when I was up at the cabin a couple of weeks ago. I always wish for good weather to be present for at least part of the time that I spend at the cabin, and I was lucky enough to be blessed with great weather for the whole time.
Now that I am back home doing my best impression of social distancing, I am taking a little time to look back and remember some of the fun times growing up in the country. Although we lived on the north edge of town, I was always a country boy at heart. I grew up on Bridge Ave., the third house after the bridge on the west side of the road as you head north.
It was a close-knit group of kids in our bunch and we were a very creative sort. We usually played tag on those warm summer evenings; this was a game that took little planning and had very few rules. The only time there would ever be a dispute was when one of us got tagged and disputed it.
Whenever I have driven out Bridge Ave. these past few weeks, I look out at the place where the pond once existed that we kids would play on in the winter. It was skating, boot hockey and bonfires. I see that they have cut down the trees that pretty much blocked the view of the site where the pond once was. I can still see the area where it once was, but it looks like someone had tried to put some fill in it at one time. It’s kind of sad, but when I think about it, many years have come and gone since we kids were playing in that spot. I can remember in the spring and summer the painted (mud) turtles would bask in the sun on logs that were part of the pond’s identity. Red winged blackbirds, frogs and turtles were the main inhabitants of the pond in summer. In the summer I would actually spend much more of my time investigating the “crick” than the pond. There was a simple explanation for that: the “crick” had fish in it and the pond had amphibians but no fish.
When we kids weren’t hanging out with amphibians and fish, we were playing cowboys and Indians or good cowboys and bad cowboys. The first game probably wouldn’t go over too well in today’s society. When we played Army it was the Americans against the Germans or Japanese. None of us really wanted to be the bad guys, but somebody had to do it. I don’t believe that any one of us ever read anything into it more than kids just having fun playing with toy guns.
At times I have reason to drive east on Hammer Road, and when I go across the tracks, there is an old farm site on the north side of the road where my friend Jim Foley grew up. I would spend a lot of time there in the summer or on Saturdays. We would play in the hay barn or explore the small creek that ran through the farm. There is a woods that sits in the middle of a field east of there. We went there a few times to explore that old woods. The legend behind that woods was in its name; it was called “Dead Man’s Woods” because the legend was that a man who lived near there was snaring deer in the woods. One day he had gone to check his snares and didn’t come back, so the next day his wife went to check on him and found him hanging from one of his own snares. That was enough of a story to make a kid feel uneasy going into those woods. I still can’t believe that those woods still stand after all of these years, especially with all of the habitat that is being plowed under to make more farmland. I know that farmland is valuable and a very necessary commodity, but habitat for wildlife is being destroyed every day in the name of progress. I was out for a drive the other day and as I looked out over the countryside, I noticed the definite lack of wind rows that used to line every field along the way. It saddens me to see that so much of the habitat that once existed has now been plowed under.
Until next time, take a little time to enjoy the outdoors by taking a walk, going for a drive or wetting a line.
Please take a few moments also to honor those who have sacrificed so much for the freedoms that we enjoy today. Also take a little extra time to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, those who have served and those troops who are serving today.