By Flo Walker

Well, the Fourth of July is over and it’s back to work for me!!! I was thinking about all the times that we had on the lake around the 4^th, how we would stay on the lake until dark and then need a flashlight to cross the highway to our cabin….didn’t bother us a bit!! Once we would get to our “palace” that was un-air conditioned, Mom and Dad would start making supper. My brothers, Chris and John, and I would find chips and cookies to snack on and then just pass out on the couch. Finally, Mom and Dad would have that romantic dinner for two at the picnic table, in the back by firelight!!! What a treat!!!!

We would usually arrive at the cabin a few days before the actual holiday. Most of the time there would be relatives from Nashville or Memphis meeting us there. Before it was all said and done, there were probably about 20-25 people staying in our little cabin. For some reason, that little two room cabin just seemed like a mansion to us kids. It never felt crowded or disorganized. I have to applaud my Mom for keeping things in order. She has a wonderful gift for doing just that!!!

Once we arrived and unpacked, we would head for the lake to “cool off” and wait for the rest of the family to arrive. I can still remember the anticipation of my cousins, Gail and Carol, arriving!!! We were each the only girl and the baby of our families. They were cousins from my Dad’s side of the family. We took many vacations with them throughout my years. Aunt Louise and Uncle Paul were Gail’s parents and Aunt Jewel and Uncle Luther were Carol’s parents. Usually, Aunt Louise would bring a tent and we would set it up behind the cabin. The kids would generally sleep there or in the back of someone’s pickup. Didn’t bother us a bit. Daddy said he would look out the window and all you could see were legs hanging out the back of the truck.

Everybody would bring food and then we would just combine it all. Daddy loved watermelon so we would get at least one, and then take it down to the spring where it would chill for a day or so. Aunt Louise loved ice cream, so she and Mom would make ice cream. For some reason, after being on the lake all day, it would be so cold and then add ice cream to that and we would have to build a fire to stay warm.

It was on one of these occasions when we were preparing to build a fire. Someone went into the cabin to get the trash. That would be the way we would start most of our campfires. Unfortunately, they picked up the bag that had pork-n-beans in it instead of the trash. No one realized the mistake until after the cans got hot enough to explode and hot beans were flying through the air!!!! Thankfully, no one was injured. We never knew who the guilty party was as no one would take responsibility…not a problem…we were all one big happy family!!!! Never a dull moment on the lake with this group.

By Flo Walker

In this life I’m a woman. In my next life, I’d like to come back as a bear. I was thinking back as a child I saw bears in the wild as we travelled on vacation. I always wondered why I never ever saw one at Pickwick. It would be a definite bear haven. If I could be a bear , I would want to live at Pickwick Landing State Park.

There are other reasons why I would love to be a bear.When you’re a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that. Before you hibernate, you’re supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that, too. When you’re a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you’re sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that.

If you’re a mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that. If you’re a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling.
He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.

Yup … gonna be a bear at Pickwick…what a life….AHHHHHH…..

Flo

Before Pickwick Landing State Park was as massive as it is now, there were a few rustic cabins that were just that!!! No air conditioning, no furniture…strictly a place to lay a sleeping bag or to get out of the rain. There was also a campgrounds where you could put up a tent and really “rough it”. My family did the roughing thing. As a child, I didn’t know any better, so camping was a vacation.

We usually camped in this one particular area on top of a hill not far from the cemetery. There was a nice boat dock with a great pier that we fished from. My brothers, Chris and John, and I all learned to swim there. My Aunt Louise and Uncle Paul, from Nashville, would meet us there on many occasions, and bring my cousins, Alan and Gail. We were all pretty much the same age and managed to entertain one another. Looking back, it was the perfect set up for a family. No TV, no telephone, there were no cell phones, no one ringing your door bell…just good quality family time.

One summer weekend we were in our usual camping spot and, before the weekend was over, it started raining cats and dogs. We had everything pretty much packed to go home, but the fish were really biting so there were some other families still fishing off the dock. My Mom, whose name is Joyce, had already loaded us kids up in the car, but she was waiting for Daddy to come back from tying up the loose ends before we could leave. She kept hearing someone calling her name and she would roll her window down in the pouring rain and answer. After about five times of rolling down the window and answering, not to mention the fact that she was getting soaked, she finally quit responding.

As it turned out, it wasn’t Daddy calling Mom. It was some man on the dock that had caught a huge fish, and he was calling “Dorothy, bring the dip net”. Of course, Daddy was watching and listening to alll of this and he was standing back just laughing about the whole situation and waiting to see the final outcome!!!! After the fish broke his line, the man went up the hill to his wife and chewed her out for not bringing the dip net. To this day, whenever we go fishing, we have to yell to Mom, “Dorothy, bring the dip net”. She gives us the same response she gave that man that day…get it yourself!!!!

Flo Walker