Growin Up Wild

I grew up in a family of five girls in rural Lawrence County, Alabama. We were adventuresome and boisterous, with each and every one of us having accomplished a broken bone at least once in our childhood. Some of us achieved more than one, all usually thru our own mischievousness or unadulterated penchant for the wilder side of life. Our parents were less than thrilled at some of our antics, but we were allowed to be as big a tomboy as we wanted. Daddy loved that aspect of us and encouraged it for his own gain. It led to 5 ready, able and sometimes willing farm hands, always on the spot to chase cows, mend fences, haul hay and the occasional lawnmower overhaul. Whatever needed doing, most any of us could turn our hand to it.

Life at our house was highly entertaining and unpredictable. Any common, every day event could and often did turn into a fantastic occurrence. I remember Tina and Teresa dressing puppies in doll clothes. Common enough for little girls. Next thing we knew, they were baptizing them in the ditch full of water running in front of our house. And it was cold, wintertime weather! Mama made them dry the puppies and sit in front of the big old gas heater until they dried. My cousins came down to visit one hot summer day. We were down at the edge of the woods where some old car bodies were. My cousins, being boys, were throwing rocks through the glasses of the cars so they would bust. This was before shatter-proof glass and a sliver of the glass flew off and cut the end of my sister Lana’s finger nearly off. I, personally was run over by a station wagon, driven by my four year old cousin, who, too short to see over the steering wheel while sitting, was standing in the seat of a still-running car. Luckily, even though the tires passed over the backs of my knees, the ground was wet enough and the ground indented enough that no damage was done. Vicki, the oldest, and likely the bravest, was galloping her horse across the pasture when she traveled under a low-lying limb and was knocked unconscious. And Thunder, her trusty steed, stayed beside her until she came to and crawled back on.

These are only a few incidences where the normal everyday activities of any family have turned into a fiasco. How our Mama survived us is a wonder. I do recall the local Doctor telling her that he knew it was summer when the Waters girls began to come in. I must say, though, that we had a wonderful childhood, filled with laughter, excitement and fun. Our parents did a great job of raising us and, for the most part, we turned into fairly respectable adults.