Water Trough

With summer coming to an end, I can't help but thinking of all the days spent outside, with friends.  Some of my favorite summer memories involve the same group of friends... just about all the people my age in a 5 mile radius.  One summer, we were so desperate for a swimming pool (which we had no access to in Smut Eye), that we developed a plan.  The Finlaysons had cows, so that meant they had cow watering troughs, which were shaped very much like a swimming pool...if you squint and turn your head sideways :)
The time between Mrs. Patty giving the go ahead for the seven or so teens and kids to use the trough as a pool and us jumping in it (well, as much as you can "jump" into a 2 1/2 ft. pool) was not very long!

I am not sure how many consecutive days we spent each afternoon in the "pool", but there were many!  And I am pretty sure our parents finally took pity on us, because the next summer they had made arrangements for the two families to use an older community member's pool, in exchange for taking care of it.  We had just as much fun in the real pool as we had in the cow pool!  To this day, I cannot look at a round metal cow trough, without seeing it first as a swimming pool.  One thing you learn, living in the middle of nowhere, is that you make do with what you have.  I learned more about using my imagination through situations like using a trough as a pool, than I did most anywhere else.  Don't get me wrong, any kid can learn to use their imagination in any setting, but where else can you say you spent a whole summer "swimming" in a cow trough?

Really Big, Strong Trees

One might notice, as they drive towards Smut Eye Grocery, a few big, strong trees arching over the road. One might even notice how shady they make the spot underneath and how absolutely breathtaking the contrast of lively green on the clearest blue sky can be on a mid summer day. These trees have been in the same spot for as long as I can remember. There are a few that were lost in this storm or that, but three or so still stand strong.
A few months ago, my family planned a surprise 60Th birthday party for my mother. The party was fairly simple and was really the idea of our family's good friend, Aunt Debbie. When making plans, we went through each area fairly easily. We would have BBQ to eat. People's presence would be the presents. The guest list? This was SIMPLE! The list would be my parents' closest and, some of them, oldest friends. As we made the list, I was once again reminded of how LARGE my family tree is. I mean, if you live in Bullock County, there is a 95% chance that I am related to you. But what stuck out wasn't the number of blood relations. It was the chosen relations that made up the majority of the list. The list read something like this:
Aunt Debbie
Uncle Wiley
Uncle Mike
Aunt Maryanne
Marie
Henry
Uncle Robbins
Aunt Nell
Aunt Charlotte
Aunt Flossie
You get the picture? It's a pretty normal picture until you realize, I have no blood related aunts or uncles. All the aunts and uncles listed (except my great aunt) are "chosen relations". What a great network of family to have? All of these people are those who invested in my life and the life of my family, since before I was around.
You may wonder, how does someone come to call a non-related person aunt or uncle? Well, one couple lived across the road from us for years...I grew up riding their bulldog for fun! One couple was my mom's lifelong best friend and one of my dad's best hunting buddies. Another is actually a distant cousin and one of my best friend's parents. Aunt Charlotte lived with my grandparents as a young adult and ended up taking tons of pictures of my brother and me as we grew older. She was with my family as we lost me grandmother to cancer at age 52 and she still helps preserve her memory for us.
I would not trade this close knit, yet now separated, group of people for anything. They are, to me, family. And they are, to my parents', family. We love our biological families, but love the benefit of having these chosen relations too! Our family tree is bigger, stronger, and definitely more beautiful because of them. What a lively bunch of leaves I have on that branch of my tree!