Growing Up in Jefferson City - Part III

Hey there, this is Dub again, pinch hitting for Grammy.

When I was in high school, I worked for Shel Emert, down on the creek, chopping out willow sprouts and he would come and get me on his horse to take me to his house for dinner. I got to ride the horse and it was great fun. His wife, Love, had been a teacher of mine, and I had it made, because she liked me.

It is said that Shel was a horse trader. They were one time dragging a dead horse off to put in a hole on his property. We went by a fence row, and there was a black snake that scared the horse pulling the wagon that we were in (scared me too). Shel finally got the horse calmed down, and we took the horse we were dragging, and put it in the hole.

The old-time sawmills in Saw Mill holler made saw dust piles and we went down and played in those piles of sawdust. We watched the workers split logs into slabs. It was exciting for us to watch them. They brought the logs down the hill on trucks and would roll them down the hill and would catch them with hooks and move them into the saw mill, then saw them into slabs.

I caught some crawdads for my high school biology class so we could dissect them. It was fun.

On the way to Mossy Creek there was a hackberry tree we had to go under. It was a straight path to Mossy Creek. The first person to go under the limb would get to swing up onto it and hide. Then he could fool the others that came looking for him.

Part of the fun was having a Catawba ball fight. They were sticky and would stick to the person they hit. We would play fox and hound at night near the school because we lived right near it. We had cow pile smashing, because there were pasture fields nearby. If someone got near a pile, they would throw a rock into it and splash it on those unsuspecting others who happened to be nearby.

We had home preaching from Carson-Newman preachers who came into our homes. Everyone listened to the Midday Merry go Round on the radio and we had the first stereos ever heard by this means, because everyone's windows were open. This was before the stereo was ever invented, ours was just natural.

We visited neighbors, sharing food, stories, and feelings and death. We were always there for each other. As kids, we made skate board scooters. We took one part of the skate and put it on the front of the board, the other part on the back of the board, and put a handle up where we could hold it with two hands, and away we went all over Jefferson City.

I remember when I was little and I was very sick, I heard my mama out on the back porch praying for me to get well. She came in and said, "you are always going to be my good little boy, aren't you?" and I have always tried to be.

The rest of my story tomorrow.

Thought for today: Isaiah 40:31 "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

This is all for today. This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off. Bye for now. May you have God's peace within you.