Growing up in a war project neighborhood's built for veterans who were returning from WWII, was quite common for we war babies, as the housing was affordable. The neighborhood where I lived was populated by a large number of boys and girls my age. We played in the street most of the time or in a front yard. Then as I grew a little older, there was a allure of the large wooded area which surrounded Westlawn and was particularly impressive between the area of the horse shoe of Tally court and the railroad tracks. Here large oak, pine, hickory. walnut trees and many other species too provided ample opportunities to climb or just admire their majesty.
Not everyone was allowed in the “woods” as parents and children referred to this mysterious area. When school was out and we returned home to play because there was not that much homework then as compared to now, the cry heard all over the neighborhood from parents to children was “do not go into the woods” and those of us who did not hear our parents admonition, quickly retreated in mass to the “woods.”
We considered ourselves engineers, surveyors, heavy construction operators and builders as paths were cut for easy access, forts were built, steel cable was strung from tree to tree providing pipe slides, attention to detail and not “building” close to the enemy (houses) and lookouts were placed strategically in very tall trees, semaphore was learned and practiced and the “yard kids” signaled of impending encroachment into our place of joy.
All of us learned the importance of china berry trees and hollowing out bamboo to make “berry shooters” or an early version of pea shooters, but much more effective in keeping intruders at bay from our space. Walnut trees provided obstacles about the size of our little hands which could be thrown into tires which were tied by rope to a tree limb and made to move rapidly back and forth. Timing and precision were the order of the day and many a great baseball or softball boy or girl honed their early skills in this manner which made them ready for high school and college sports.
Growing a little older we learned the sports of “stick it to em” which was played in the “woods” but mostly in our neighborhoods. Running and stamina, nurtured through playing in the great out of doors, prepared us for for this game which was to first hollow out a spot in the earth about the size of a tennis ball and each person had a hole along a straight line. Memory was essential because from behind a line distant from the holes we all lined up. Then a person rolled the ball toward a hole. As the ball stopped in a particular hole and if that was your hole (memory) everyone ran and the first person to the ball could throw at the person into whose hole the ball landed, while that person was running very fast toward a distant imaginary line. Of course if the person running had not yet reached the imaginary line, then the person with the ball could “stick it to em.”
Now a little older and able to climb tall buildings and run faster than a speeding bullet we “woods” children climbed to our hearts content, no longer inhibited by our once small limbs and no fear what so ever of heights we built pipe slides higher into the tree tops, made parachutes and fell free from great heights and swung from limb to limb like Tarzan and became attuned to the calls of nature, being able to tell the rattle of a snake, from the rushing through brush by a rabbit.
Now we were old enough to enjoy Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting too because both were a natural extension of our early years. Deep woods camping in areas more extensive than any we had know from our early years was common. As was the motto of being prepared as survival and self reliance coupled with team work was the order of the day or every day in our grand adventure of Scouting, where virtually every boy my age participated even through high school. In these years long lasting friendships were developed and skills honed which served all of us into our adulthood.
I do not recall any of the “neighborhood boys” who did not either volunteer, be volunteered or were drafted as the Nam period came and then went, all of us surviving not by chance, rather we all thought as a result of our childhood experiences and training.
Ending my recollections of the great out of doors will end here, for if not then this would become a larger body of work because the great outdoors and my college years and shortly there after are filled to the brim and over flowing.
Copyright: 1986-2010