Being an only child made our family's summer vacations all the sweeter. The first two weeks of every August, my father, my mother, me, and whatever dog or monkey we had (yes, I said monkey - traveling with him was interesting - but that is a story for another day!) would head to Western North Carolina to my grandmother's house, where my mother grew up.
Many times, we would spend the first night at my aunt's and uncle's house in Georgia. My aunt and mother - and me - all had the same sarcastic sense of humor, so I adored being around Aunt Iris. My Uncle Leo knew my father's love of cattle horns and snake skins, so he was my father's "enabler." Once, we had to stop to get a snake skin off of a snake that had been run over on the road. I was squirted in the eye, which scared my mother immensely, but I suffered no consequences.
The next day, it was on to my grandmother's house. She lived on 80 acres in the Smoky Mountains - sheer beauty! We stayed in the big, old two-story house that had no air conditioning - not that you really needed it in North Carolina, even in the summer. There was one bathroom. The stove in the kitchen was a wood-burning one. The floors were wood - not the pretty hardwood, but very rough, rustic wood that never really seemed clean no matter how much you swept or mopped.
It sounds rather primitive because it was. That didn't take away from the fun I had there each summer. The house had a big front porch which was great to while away the afternoon on. And there was a bucket of cool water with a ladle, so you could get a refreshing drink anytime. The washer was also on the porch.... The house also had a tin roof. Since we were there during the rainy season - it rained each and every afternoon - the sound of the rain on that roof was musical. We always had the best meals - homemade biscuits with each and ever meal. Lots of fresh vegetables straight from the garden. And cow's milk directly from the cow - though I could never stand to drink it. When my grandfather was alive, he would go to town to get homogenized milk just for me. One of my aunts worked for the local dairy and she would bring ice cream treats for us. I can still taste the chocolate-covered cherry ice cream on a stick!
The best thing of all was getting to spend time with my cousins, especially Audrey, Jan, and Jill, since they were all within a year of my age. It was the time before laptops, video games, and cable television. I always was treated to a stash of comic books for the drive to North Carolina, and they enjoyed those. We had marathon sessions of Monopoly. We picked blackberries that my mother and aunts would preserve and make cobbler from. (We'll skip over the snakes that we had to beware of.) We played in the creeks and in the red clay. We picked and ate grapes that grew on each side of the house, feeding the peels to the chickens. The wasps like the grapes, too, and I got stung right below my eye one year.
Since Audrey lived close to my grandmother's house, we spent the most time together. We also spent a lot of time at her house. One of our favorite things to do was make mud pies. Audrey and I were mud pie aficionados - we made beautiful masterpieces! I loved the basement of her house - since we don't have them in Louisiana, I thought that was a fabulous thing. We would sometimes camp in the woods by her house in a crude little "shack" that I thought was simply wonderful. The next morning, we would cook breakfast at our campsite. I had never been camping, so it was a great adventure for me. Audrey was the person I still credit with teaching me to make cinnamon toast.
My mother would take my cousins and me to the amusement parks and mines in the area. It was a blast. I didn't get to do these kinds of things at home very often, plus to be able to go with my cousins made it even better. And of course, you couldn't beat the scenery! Taking sky lifts to the top of the mountains or riding rides to peeked over the edge was both thrilling and a little scary.
Those two weeks in North Carolina meant the world to me. The night before we left to come home each year, I cried all night. I didn't want to go back to being the only child with no cousins anywhere close by.
Now, as I get ready for a big cousins' reunion in North Carolina - or I guess it could be just a "union" in some cases since I have not met a lot of my first cousins once removed, and a lot of the cousins have not met my husband or kids - all of these memories come flooding back. After we get together to talk and hug and eat, we plan to caravan to the family property we all have fond memories of. And I may just cry before coming home again this year, but at least, thanks to my husband and kids, I won't feel alone when I get back.
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