Adventures in the Big Woods

By Barnie Slice

This book is the story of three boys who lived in the late fifties and how

they lived without electronic gadgets of any kind. They came from low

income families. Television had just hit the market in black and white

form and that was all they had. They built their own toys and made up

their own games because money was sca

• Language: English
• Publisher: LitFire Publishing
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781641514743

Barnie Slice

Although Barnie's talents lie in the art world, he has always had a passion for writing. When he was very young, he hand wrote long letters to his grandmother, aunts and uncles and this carried on through the use of typewriters, word processor and finally, computer. Barnie writes mostly about his life experiences, which is very colorful. Losing his mother at age seven caused him to grow up early and the hardships gave him the character and experiences to fill many volumes of stories. He likes to incorporate his childhood memories into the characters of his books. Barnie enjoys illustrating his own books and takes great pleasure in writing new adventures with his characters. His cartoon work has been in several magazines and newspapers in his southern state. There are many books in his head and, God willing, he plans to get them all in print. Barnie resides with his wife by the sea near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Book preview

Adventures in the Big Woods

The story of three boys who lived in the fifties before the Electronic Age

Copyright © 2018 by Barnie Slice.

ISBN: 978-1-64151-474-3

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Printed in the United States of America.

LitFire LLC

1-800-511-9787

www.litfirepublishing.com

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Introduction

This story could be the story of any group of boys who grew up in a rural area surrounded by adventuresome places to play in America’s heartland, southland or anywhere there are places to go and things to get into.

This is the story of three young boys in the twelve to thirteen year old age range. The time is the late fifties before the electronic age stopped kids from spending time outdoors, inventing their own games and making most of their own toys.

Randy Sims is the leader of the pack and he is followed by Alan Shelton and Bill Finch, his two best friends. All three boys are from modest income families and attend school in an old wooden schoolhouse out in the country not far from their homes. The adventures they share and the mischief they get into is reminiscent of the early childhood of the book’s author.

The author hopes that young readers will experience what life was like in those days before the electronic age. It was good times but it was not all good. There were hard times, too. Life, in those days, was simple but primitive by today’s standards. Everybody knew each other and almost everyone went to a church on Sunday. The fathers worked but the mothers usually were too busy at home raising kids and doing housework. There was always chores for the kids to do but they always found time for play and adventure, especially in the summer time when school was out. This is the story of the adventures of the three boys that took place in one summer.

The Author

The yellow rays from the morning sun beamed through the tall pines as the boys crossed the grassy field toward the woods. The grass was still covered in dew from the night before and their Keds tennis shoes were wet from the dew. It was the first week of June just after school got out and they had a whole summer of fun ahead of them and didn’t want to waste a minute of it!

Excited, they hurried along into what they called The Big Woods, a place that they had never fully explored. The Big Woods was a tract of several hundred acres of southern woodlands with sweet gums, hickory, tulip poplars, and a few oaks but, mostly pine trees. It was bordered on the east by a large muddy river called Broad River that flowed southward and on into the city of Columbia some seven miles distance to the southeast. The cliffs overlooking the river on the east side of Big Woods dropped a hundred feet or more to the rocks and muddy waters below. The woods abruptly ended on the south side by a four lane paved highway that crossed the river on a huge concrete bridge and swung up a steep hill, on past the west side border of Big Woods and drifted off into the country somewhere to the northwest. The highway was part of a road system that went eastward into the city of Columbia after crossing the river on the southeast side and the boys understood that this was the southernmost boundary that they were allowed to travel. Nobody seemed to know who owned Big Woods but they were never challenged as they explored them.

The boys all lived in lapboard framed houses on the north side of Big Woods in an area where homes were scattered across fields and small patches of woods. Even though each house was different they were about the same size. Dirt roads crisscrossed the area and only the main highway, that bordered the west side of Big Woods, was paved. After coming up the tall hill the four lane highway merged into two lanes as it headed northwest into farm country.

Randy Sim’s house was the only one that was painted white and his folks were just a hair better off than the other two boy’s families. He had a younger brother and two younger sisters, one still in diapers.

Alan Shelton lived with his mother, dad, older sister and younger brother in a little clapboard house just about a quarter mile across a field northeast from Randy.

Bill Finch lived just two houses down from Alan with his mom, dad and a younger sister. The little community church stood just half a mile past that.

Randy always took control and it was natural for the other boys to follow wherever he led them. Randy was not bossy to the others but it was understood that he was the unannounced leader of the pack and so, they all got along just fine with the way things were.

The warm air felt good as they crossed the sandy field covered in broom straw and walked into the edge of the tall pine woods. Immediately the air turned cooler and the sweet smell of honeysuckle filled the air as they stepped into the shadows and undercover of the forest. Growing up in