REFLECTIONS
The Lake House
Yeah, I'm told it's been taboo to mention the Lake House, but I'm still overwhelmed even after these 5-6 years I can't contain myself anymore. So without further ado, I'm going to reflect on many memories of Lake House, a place so dear to all our hearts. Especially mine. We didn't go to church, we pretty much went to the Lake House every Sunday, or nearly every other Sunday. It was a sanctuary, and a peaceful place (mostly). Being a two story house with no working air conditioner for nearly 25 years, it was like stepping back in time. Everyone needs a place like this. So many kids now-a-days, just don't appreciate what they have or how well they have it. So imagine this...
A place where...in the Spring you could grow a small garden. Only tend to it maybe once a week, and still have some veggies to eat. As long as the rabbits didn't eat it, or then the owls might get the rabbit that would eat your garden. A true circle of life in force. A place were tadpoles and crawdads could be caught in the trickling water in the spring. During the Spring we'd plant a few flowers, and Grandmother would plant some in her ever rusting old yellow wheelbarrow. We'd had some awesome fish feasts during the Spring too, especially back in the 1970's. We'd catch crappie by the dozens. Easter Egg hunts were amazingly difficult with the amount of land we had and all the crook and crannies used as hiding places. Later Mike and I would always go fishing during Spring Break. Cliff would join us on many occassions. Whipporwhils would sound off (from around the old sink hole down the slough) when the nights became warmer.
Swimming and boating were summer pasttimes, but we were forced to be very mindful of snakes and rude boaters. We'd at least make 3 - 4 batches of homemade ice cream during the summer, definitely during Fourth of July and Memorial Day weekend. We played outside for the most part in the summer. We used antenna TV for many years and only could see 3 - 4 stations up until about the year, eh, around 1996. Most TV was watched at night anyway after a big homemade meal. Nearly every Saturday and Sunday morning I'd (we'd) wake up to the smells of breakfast and coffee. Pappy and Grandmother were always first out of bed. Pappy always made Grandmother's coffee, but never drank it. Many times when I slept in the den, I'd feign sleep as Grandmother would go outside in her nightgown drinking coffee and listen to the morning song of the birds outside. Mom would normally get up next and help with breakfast. Every meal was made for an army... somehow we all kept skinny despite what all we ate. We'd talk with our neighbors and swim to the Child's makeshift Lake House or fish off the old Coefield pier (before it was taken down). The sailboat races were a highlight, of course, and the occasion sleep over on the boat anchored out after the big race. All the sailboaters would play their guitars and sing around the campfire on Goat Island. Yes, Brianna, there WERE goats on that island! Summer was also the time Pappy made sure the yellow birdhouse always had bird food in it. We always made a point to always check our shoes before putting them on...never knew if there might have been a spider, scorpion or small snake inside a shoe. It became common practice.
Fall was a beautiful time with all the forest in a variety of colors. With the water being drained by the dam we were able to walk along the shoreline again and pretend to fish, while trying to get our lures from the tops of the trees behind us. We did aim for the water...right? Fall was also time to clean off the road of all the leaves. By August our favorite muscadine spots were rip for picking. If the season was good, Grandmother would make Muscadine jelly. Even my dad who didn't like muscadines, ate the jelly. It was about 80% sugar. Again we were all skinnier back then...somehow. We also were fighting the beavers during the 70's too...very long ago putting mesh around our pines. The main female beaver would mark her territory at the mouth of the slough. The hoot owls would sound off at night signaling the coming winter. I'd also drive out to the Lake House on occassion and not even go in the house. I'd simply take my tuba and practice outside. It was the perfect place to practice. I saw the last eipsode of Cheers at the Lake House during college, and had my first deer-burger and deer-sausage patties there as well. (I had invited my fraternity up there with Pappy's permission, and only 2 guys showed up...so it was just the 3 of us!)
When winter came, we were outside even more. We weren't scared to walk through the forest. We'd take a snake stick (a thick broken tree limb) and go walking... probably at least 2 - 3 miles and not even know it. We'd going around to the small park, or the big park, or the top of the mountain, or see the old water tank area, and the chimney of old forgotten farm land (now owned and built on). There was an area near the top of the mountain where these large smooth rocks came out of the ground. We could see the lake at the very top near someone's house. We'd traverse to empty half-built houses around the empty forest-grown lots. We had trails through the woods we walked them so often. Rodney and I had our own personal trails also. The depths of winter was when (what water we had left) the slough would freeze over. We'd find raccoon prints on the shore. We once made a plaster of a print or two. (Remember I'm a raccoon nut!). Winter was also the time when we all hacked away at fallen trees for firewood. On many a cold night we'd all watch TV and snuggle up to the fire as Pappy massaged Grandmother's feet. Building the fire was always a treat. I think Winter was my favorite season...the food seemed warmer, the family wamer, and our walks were more inviting, even in the cold. It made everything worthwhile with every little thing we worked towards. Even putting a puzzle together at the dinning room table, or playing dominoes or even rummy. I'm only 36, and those were my good 'ol days. That was my life out of school, out of the city, away from it all. It was our little piece of Heaven and I'll never forget it.
Memories of: SIX FLAGS over Gerogia 7/2
I actually remember this ride. We rode it many times before it became the Monster Plantation. When I ask people about it, they don't know remember or even know what I'm talking about. I barely remember that much of it, myself, and the name of the ride really stuck. You'll never guess what it was fashioned after! No WONDER I have memories of this, because I have very attached emotions towards the real book characters created by Joel Chandler Harris! I imagine it was a Disney deal why they couldn't use the real character names. Well... here's the link to an article I found when trying to research the ride!
Tales of the Okefenokee Swamp.
I think they even named the man-made river that went through the middle of the park also the same name, where you could ride an open boat (with a glass bottom?), and be shot at by fake 'Indians' trying to shoot darts at the boat as you passed lazily by. Of course nothing 'really' shot at the boat. That was long before Warner Bros. bought out Six Flags and changed the names of the six areas. In the Spanish section they had this neat 2 room building you'd walk through on one side. Inside were various gravity 'defying' inventions to marvel at. Of course to help keep your own balance "off" the floor you walked on was sloped as well. Dad always said everything could be explained, even the water that flowed up, but he never really extrapolated that I remember. Not many remember those walk-through rooms either. The highlight (before the Mindbender) was the Scream Machine, the wooden rollercoaster in the Confederate section near all the carnival arcade skill games. Most of that is actually still there I believe, but you're unable to picnic near the water on the opposite side of the Scream Machine anymore. That's where we would have our own picnic as we watched the rollercoaster being run, and it's perfect reflection in the water below.