IN THE GOOD OLD SUMMERTIME
It is June! Are you as excited as I am? What? You don’t know!? June first is the day you are allowed to take off your shoes and go barefoot outside! You can tip-toe across the yard – not through the tulips, but through an obstacle course of sandspurs, cactus, stinging nettles, and oyster shell. Just remember, when you’re pulling a sandspur out of your foot, if it sticks in your hand, don’t pull it out with your teeth! My mother knew a boy who did this and had to have surgery to remove a sandspur from his throat. I’m sure you won’t forget this because you’ll be reminded at least once a day – all summer long!
As a child, I’d sit on the front porch of our home and listen to the ‘gators calling for a mate from Egan’s creek one block away. I wasn’t allowed to go to the creek because of the ‘gators and snakes (rattlers and water moccasins – take your pick) that lived there. Sadly, that is where the biggest and best blackberries grew. Today there are homes on the edge of Egan’s Creek. I don’t know where the ‘gators and snakes are.
Even with a creek just a block away, I had to be content “swimming” in an over-sized wash tub my mother put in the yard and filled with water from the hose. Our house was about a half mile from the beach, but we seldom went there. Perhaps it was because of all the black globs of oil that littered the beach. It was during World War II when, at night, you could see a ship that had been torpedoed burning on the horizon.
One day a week, after school, I’d take the school bus to the beach where my mother and a friend were manning the plane spotters’ tower for the day. I liked to watch the sailors with the shore patrol riding their horses along the beach. The horses were stabled at Ft. Clinch on the north end of Amelia Island.
I still have my dog tags. We wore those to school so that we (our bodies) could be identified if the school was shelled. There was concern that we might be bombed by planes from an aircraft carrier or shelled by a submarine from off shore.
That was then. Now teachers and students worry about being shot by fellow students. Every generation has its problems.
Well, that’s enough of “walking to school through the snow up-hill both ways.”
My thanks to all who have responded to Mary’s Corner. I enjoy hearing from you and appreciate your taking the time to get in touch with me.
Until we meet again,
Mary Nolan Brown