Childhood Memories of a Virginia Wanderer

By Dewey Plaster

Many people have fond memories of their childhood. As parents, we tell our children and grandchildren our stories of growing up. Stories of playing outside with the neighborhood kids, being on the farm, our pets, and things we did on vacation. These are stories that cannot be lost but must be told and retold. Reading these stories will help you remember your childhood and inspire your children to enjoy life and have adventures as kids. And come to love their parents and later appreciating the chance to create lifelong bonds and memories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 18, 2017
• ISBN: 9781635751475

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Childhood Memories of a

Virginia Wanderer

Dewey Plaster

ISBN 978-1-63575-146-8 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63575-147-5 (Digital)

Copyright © 2017 by Dewey Plaster

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

296 Chestnut Street

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Preface

I have been known to tell stories, and I can tell a lot and go on for hours. People said that I should write my stories down. I thought I had better write them down before I forgot them. I also wanted to let my kids know who I was, and this was one way to do that; to tell them about my life. When we go to where I grew up in the hills of Virginia or to places I once visited, I loved telling my kids about what I did there or what my family did. And then we built new memories together. As I have gotten older I realized that I loved the memories of the things I did in my childhood. Those days are gone and I do not want to forget them. So these stories are dedicated to my family.

The stories I have written are based on what I really did as a child. In some cases I have taken several events and merged them together but they really happened. The story Pork Rinds is based on actual conversations that I or my father had with neighbors, but I used fictional names. I wrote it for my kids, and I felt they would enjoy something really Southern. The Creek is based on things I actually did, but it takes place after I had grown up because I was reminiscing one day and wrote it like that. I was longing for those days and wanted to remember the old place as it once was and to relive my experiences there. The Letter takes place many years from now and was written because I wanted to return to where I grew up and share my life there with my wife and have the kids and grandkids return there, too.

Playing with the Neighborhood Kids

Early in the morning I ate breakfast as fast as I could. School is out for the summer in the suburbs, and there are lots of things to do. I finished eating cereal and ran outdoors. The rest of the neighbor kids were outside at one friend’s house. I went to meet them, and we talked about what we wanted to do. We decided to play cowboys and Indians. We loved being both, so it’s easy to decide what we want to do. We would switch off from time to time, playing the different roles. When we decided who we wanted to be we got out cap guns and cap rifles and loaded up. The ones who wanted to be Indians would go into the woods behind the backyard and cut down limbs from some trees and make bows and arrows. Then we ran around shooting each other. We loved winning, and other times we loved getting shot. Sometimes the cowboys won. Sometimes the Indians won. We thought both were cool so it was easy to play the different roles. There were those of us who had Indians as ancestors, and we took pride in that. Everybody wanted to be an Indian. But cowboys were cool, and we loved being them, too. Later on when we were done we target practiced with our homemade bows and arrows. Eventually the sticks broke so we either made more or decided what we would play next.

We saw a cop show the other night so we played that. We got our guns again, and the game was like hide and go seek, but when we found the robbers we shot them with our cap guns. After that we decided to get on our bikes and rode to the top of the hill. Then we imitated the thing where the police are being called by the radio dispatcher and then we pedaled for all we were worth down the hill imitating sirens with our voices. We screamed all the way down the hill. We did this for about an hour or so and didn’t get tired of it. We were sure that some neighbors were tired of hearing it, though. But that’s okay.

After that we played a game of football. We chose up teams and played for the rest of the morning. Everyone wanted to be Dallas. If the team who was not Dallas won then they yelled that they were Dallas and won the game. Dallas always wins.

When we were all done playing for the morning we went to each lunch. Sometimes we ate sandwiches. Other times we ate soup. I loved tomato soup with a little salt, pepper, and crackers. Another easy lunch to make is Spaghetti-O’s. I don’t eat those anymore because once my mom accidentally scorched them in the pot, and they tasted burned. I never got over that taste. Yuck! Sometimes we liked to just eat raw hotdogs and cheese slices. I used to love eating cheese slices by themselves until the cheese seemed like it was no longer real cheese. Tasted yucky. After lunch the boys and I went and climbed a nearby cherry tree and sat up there and ate cherries for a while. We would spit seeds out and would try to hit things with them. Then it clouded up. It got kind of dark. It was going to rain. So we all went home.

During the afternoon there was a thunderstorm so we had to stay inside. There was a lot of lightning and thunder. The thunder shook the house pretty hard at times. At one point the power went out, and we were in the dark for a while. Eventually, the power came back on. So I watched a little TV while it rained. When the storm was over but the sun had not come out yet I went outside. It had rained real hard, and there was a lot of water washing down the ditch alongside the street. So I ran to the side of the bank next to the street and got mud and started damming up the water. Some other kids came out and helped. We had a big dam made up and had quite a pool of water. We made boats out of sticks or leaves and floated them. Then we got some big rocks and bombed the dam. Boy, the water went rushing out. We would run through the water and play in it as we would with the mud. We got pretty wet and muddy. Our feet were covered in mud. The bottoms of our pants were soaked. Well, at least for those who didn’t have shorts on. Then we got into a mud fight and threw mud everywhere. Now that was fun. Some of us got a big ol’ gob or two of mud in our mouths. I guess we should have kept our mouths closed. Later on our moms were not too happy with the muddy clothes, but it was worth it to have some fun. When we saw the rainbow against the black clouds we thought we could find the end of it and the pot of gold. But it seemed the further we went the further the rainbow got. So we gave up and went back. One kid would always say, God put the rainbow there promising never to flood the earth again.

One older boy we didn’t play with had made a go-kart and was going to test drive it. He had made a basic wooden frame and put lawn mower wheels on it. Then he took the metal part of a wheel barrow (pronounced wheel barrel) and made a seat out of it. He then made a steering wheel, which really wasn’t a wheel. It was steered like a sled where the front wheels were on a board which turned in the center of the go-kart and was controlled by pulling on a rope attached to the sides to turn it. The brake was a stick attached to the side and was hand operated. There was no engine. We all lived on a hill so he test drove it by rolling down the hill. He must have gone thirty miles an hour. We ran as fast as we could to keep up with him. He went so fast that he had to use the brake. It did not work very well, and he was pulling on it as hard as he could. He almost missed the first turn at the bottom of the first hill. He blew through the stop sign on two wheels and kept going. He slowed down some on the flat straightaway, but there was another hill. He pulled for all he was worth going down that hill and managed to stop before he went out on the busy turnpike. When we caught up with him we could smell burnt wood from the brake. For us, that was the best go-kart ever. And we almost got to see someone run out in the traffic. The close call was exciting.

There was a store at the bottom of that hill so we decided to go in. We all bought pop and some penny candy. Tootsie Rolls, baseball card bubble gum, and a candy bar. We hung out there a while outside in front of the store. We drank our pop and ate our candy. And then we saw who got what for baseball cards. We never heard of any of those players so we thought they were no good.

Later on after playing in the mud and before supper I got cleaned up and changed. After supper I went out