Front porch swings and Cottonwood Tree's


The weather in Alabama during the month of August is usually very hot and very dry. A time known in the south as "dog days".  Farmers had to work their crops during any kind of weather. Wet, dry, hot or cold it didn't really matter. One great relief was that once the farmer got his crops "laid by" he could set on his porch and wait for harvest time. Of course the whole thing depended on getting rain. Hopefully the rain would bring no bad storms or tornadoes with it.
 
Air conditioning was something the local movie theater had. Most of us never even gave thought to having it in our house. At that particular time of my life the heat was much more tolerable. I reckon having been born there, I was more acclimated to the regions summer heat.
A vast majority of homes in our area boasted large front porches. More often than not each porch had a porch swing. Some houses with long wrap around porches had two swings. I feel its safe to say that the front porch swing was as southern as grits and sweet iced tea. I spent many an August day trying to catch a cool breeze as I sat in the porch swing. This isn't meant to imply farmers spent all of July and August just setting around. Farming is a year round daylight until dark proposition.
Actually my dad and my uncle Bill didn't just farm for a living. They were on the road a great deal hauling lumber  for the Early Lumber company.  Uncle Bill owned three tractor trailer rigs. All three had flat bed trailers. I can't recall how much lumber each rig could haul. As I recall, the lumber loads paid pretty good. The real trick was to get a load coming back. Independent owner operators couldn't afford to run empty or as they called it "dead heading". Thus the reason my dad and my uncle got into the used car business. The used car thing is a story in itself. At any rate my dad was away quiet a bit of the time.
Uncle Bill had a good sized yard. I'd estimate from memory about 1/4 of an acre. There was the normal assortment of flowers and bushes. All my folks kept pretty yards. In this particular yard there was only 2 trees.  Both trees were in the southwest corner of the yard, One Locust and one Cotton Wood. Us kids had played under the old Cotton Wood for as long as I can remember. Not good for climbing or hanging a tire swing, the old tree's only redeeming feature was the shade it could provide. Well I reckon kids, because they didn't know any better, looked at the old tree differently. To them its was a perfect place to play and that was that.
All of these old memories seem to have a way of popping up as I make my way through life. Kind of like reliving my childhood. Lord only knows the number of June Bugs and Lightning Bugs we caught in that yard.
Posted by OLD DUGGY at Friday, January 06, 2012 11:26:08 AM
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