This Country Needs More Picnics

Mom standing in front of her beloved Buffalo River

   My sister and I have October birthdays and a few years ago we started going on what we refer to as a "big birthday adventure."  We pick a place that we haven't been to or visit a place that holds significance to us and spend the day just having fun.  Last year we added my husband, our mom, our brother and sister-in-law to the adventure.  Last year we drove to a neighboring county, located a cemetery and the grave of our paternal great-great grandfather.  We packed a picnic lunch and had dinner "on the ground." We decided that we would continue this tradition and we came to the conclusion that this country needs to slow down, spend more time with family and have more picnics.
   This year we chose to go to a place that is special to our mom and it also holds a lot of childhood

Mom, my brother, Bruce, my sister, Judith, and me

memories for us kids.  My mom grew up on the lower end of Buffalo River, now the National Buffalo River.  Like many of the families from this area during that time they lived in different houses up and down a stretch of the river from Rush to Cedar Creek.  Mom said that sometimes the river would get in the houses and people would have to move or sometimes the houses were just not inhabitable and the family would have to move.  She told of a family that lived in the area whose house had a dirt floor.  Mom lived with her grandparents, Jim and Molly Brantley.  When she was very young they lived at what is called Cedar Creek.  That is where she went to her first year of school.  The old one room school house is no longer there but a portion of the rock fence still stands.  They lived for a time across the river and to get to school she rode in a boat.  Her teacher, who was boarding with a family who lived across the river, would bring Mom and another child across in a boat.  Mom didn't go the entire term because of the difficulty of getting to school. 
   Years later after Mom and Dad married, they only lived a few miles from Cedar Creek. When we were kids they would take us to the river on Sunday afternoons to swim, play, and have a picnic dinner.  See my blog "Back in the Hills" for more about that
   Today was a very emotional trip for Mom.  The landscape has changed due to flooding and time and she couldn't recognize some of the places.  She gets emotional just talking about life on the river.  I think anyone who grew up on the Buffalo has a deep sentiment for the river and the river way of life.

We used to camp on the gravel bar on the far side of the river.

   We looked around for what was familiar, shared our memories, and took a lot of pictures.  We had our picnic of typical southern fare; fried chicken, pimento cheese sandwiches, potato salad, baked beans and apple spice cake.  Mom was busy filling her plate when a bird flew over and pooped on her head and her plate!  My sister and I got hysterical laughing about it.  There's never a dull moment when we get together.
   I hope we can keep this tradition going in the years to come. During the entire time that we were on our "big birthday adventure" there were no worries and no talk of problems.  We were just a family spending a Sunday afternoon together.
   I think we can all agree that this country needs more picnics.