Friday Memories - Summer (Upate: Need Prayer)

When I was a kid, summer was a special time. We lived on a street called Stewart Place in Nashville, Tennessee in a very small house that I think our folks bought for $5,000.

We didn't have a TV until I was about six so we kids did a lot outside playing and running around. One of my favorite things was to pick huckleberries off a Huckleberry tree to use with a straw. You could create quite a sting with those pea shooters.

My sister and I and our friends would walk down to the local public swimming pool, the Cascades, to go swimming as often as we could afford it. If I remember correctly, we would walk across the dirt track of the original Nashville Speedway to get to the swimming pool. This was in the early 50's when a lot of the Nascar drivers were still running moonshine to make their real money. Racing their cars was more fun than lucrative in those days.

We also walked past a small amusement park called Fair Park. I suspect both the Cascades and Fair Park would be shut down by today's health and safety standards, but they were both fun places.

I remember one summer getting really sunburned on my back and shoulders. That night I had these huge water blisters on top of both shoulders. They were probably 2 inches long and an inch wide. I remember my Mom breaking the blisters to let the water out. It was a long, painful night.

Of course, we caught fireflies in jars at night. We had a couple of Maple trees in our little front yard and the fireflies would sparkle up in the leaves.

We also caught June bugs and we would tie a string to one of their legs and they would fly all around at the end of our string.

When it was really hot, with no air conditioning in those days, we would go down into our cellar because it was cooler down there. After we got our first, small, black and white TV, we would take it down there with us. I remember watching Queen Elizabeth's coronation that was shown live in 1951. That was a big deal.

And probably the grossest thing we would do is chew tar when the streets got hot and the tar patches would get really soft. We would pull off a small piece of tar and chew it.

It's a wonder I'm still alive -- but it was a good time of life.

Prayer Request: Betty's older sister, Margie, who lives in Franklin, Tennessee was in a serious automobile accident yesterday. She was broadsided by another car on her side. The car was totaled, but the miracle is she only suffered a broken, left pelvis. She's in the hospital until probably Saturday or Monday and will then go to a rehab hospital. Needless to say, Betty can empathize because of her accident a year and a half ago. If you believe in prayer, please say an extra one for Margie's relief from pain and quick healing.