Down Memory Lane

I haven’t written much about my dad’s mom and dad, mainly because I didn’t get to know them like I did my maw and paw.  My dad’s mom passed away several years before my birth and his dad, who we all called Popper, died when I was only five years old.  So about all I know of them is what I have been told by those who knew them.  But, not really knowing them does not keep me from sharing about the rest of the family.

There is the occasion when some of the family decided it would be nice to get everybody together for a cookout/picnic down at a local river.  Several family members and their children came, chicken was fried over an open fire and we had a good old time.  Some of us young’uns thought that we might get to go swimming in the river, but that didn’t happen.  We had failed to take into consideration that the cookout was in the late afternoon and it was after dark before we ate.

After all the food was eaten and the adults were sitting around talking and us young’uns were playing, the fire began to die down.  A suggestion was made that all the young’uns go out and gather up some pine cones and wood for the fire.  A stick of wood was pulled from the fire and given to the oldest young’un to use as a torch and off they went.  The gathering was going just great until a loud cry came from out of the darkness.  Suddenly there was a great stampede of young'uns headed back toward the safety of the fire and family.  With the oldest holding the torch leading the pack.

Once they were all back to safety, everyone heard laughter coming toward them.  Out of the darkness came the father of the oldest young’un, he was tickled to death at how he had scared all us young’uns and particularly tickled at how the oldest one had totally forgot about the light he was holding.  That was an embarrassing moment for me, not just because it was my dad that did the scaring, but because I was the one with the light.

It’s nice to be able to look back at memories like this and really see the fun in the moment and how much family can mean to you.  Til next time, enjoy life while you can.