A visit with family
I spent last weekend with my mother and brother traveling to Arkansas to visit my aunt and uncle. They live in Arkansas, North Little Rock to be exact, and I got to cruise around and see my old stomping grounds. It was nice to reminisce about the old days and how much fun I had being a tom-boy and trapesing through the woods in our old neighborhood. My mom, brother and I went to one of our neighborhoods that has, for the most part, been kept inside this little nugget of the woods in Jacksonville right outside NLR. I was so pleased to find that progress had not taken over and built new homes all around. My neighborhood has been protected from the evil cluches of sprawling new homes. Once to turn down the street, all highway traffic is gone and you are surrounded by trees. As a tom-boy, this was bliss and all the kids in the neighborhood we always gone from sunup to sundown. As I drove around thinking of all the fun I had, I kept saying to my mom, "We built a fort out in that field, We built a fort behind their house, We tried to build a fort in that tree". Of course, a fort was mud and grass sandwiched between fallen tree branches. We were always in the process of building forts. I don't think we ever actually had a building perse. As we drove by the tree that we tried to build a fort in, there was a man mowing his lawn and he stopped to talk with us for a few minutes. He said when they moved to the house a few years ago, there were still wood planks nailed into the tree up the side of the trunk of it. The wood pieces on the tree trunk were pretty much our fort so it was still intact! Glory be!


At the end of our neighborhood was a small pond where we would go fishing almost everyday. It was pretty nasty and snakes were always around it and in it. I was afraid that the pond had dried up or been filled in, but it has been kept pristine and even was made a park. Actually, one of the men in the neighborhood died in a plane crash and the city made the pond into a beautiful park in honor of him. I was so pleased to see that my neighborhood had been preserved and had not ruined my image of it as a child. As I walked to a bench and sat next to my mom, we both got teary-eyed at how much we love Arkansas. If you have never been, I highly recommend it. It has to be one of the most beautiful states in the U.S.


So, we visited my aunt and uncle who are a couple of funny characters and who made us laugh and cry the whole weekend. They are huge gospel music fans and although I don't like that music very much, there were songs that I found myself singing to. My uncle is actually a gospel music icon and played piano with many famous gospel singers. We had a nice time talking of old times and old songs. It was a great weekend.