I have determined that it was the summer I was 10 ½ years old, and my sister, Ann, had had her 9th birthday in June.  I remember it well because that was the year the band of Gypsies came through and camped for a few days near Mr. People’s store. 

Gypsies—adventure personified. We found all kinds of reasons to go to the store so we could look them over again and again.

And that was the summer my brothers found a 5-gallon jug of moonshine whiskey hidden in a culvert that ran under the road at the edge of the kudzu patch. Rumors were that Mr. Peoples sold moonshine in his store, and my parents said it seemed very strange that after the sheriff was called, the whiskey disappeared before he could get out there.  Moonshine and Gypsies too—it was almost more than we could stand.

Don’t ask me how two little girls ever came up with such an idea—I don’t know. Maybe we were just in the slump of an emotional letdown after the Gypsies left and all the excitement had died down over the moonshine. Or, maybe, we just saw the opportunity to broaden our culinary skills. We were already experts at mud pies. Covered with soapsuds meringue, they looked delicious lined up on the edge of the porch.

We had snapped and canned all the catalpa beans from the tree in our back yard. Jars of the long, slender beans sat on Mother’s pantry shelves as tribute to our ingenuity. And, while the delightful, enchanting Maypops lasted, we served them in every manner thinkable—and unthinkable.  When our Dad got a mouth full of Maypops seeds in his banana pudding, we were forbidden to bring any more into the house.

On this particular day, we had been sliding down the levee of the small pond near the back of our house.  We had taken a cardboard box and opened it out flat, turning one of the end flaps upward. As we pulled back on the flap, it allowed the box to glide over the grass as we headed down the levee. This was before the age of “the disposable,” but that’s what we had, a disposable sled—it was perfect.

We took turns. I would slide down, and Ann waited for me at the bottom of the levee. She would drag the box back up and slide down while I waited for her.