A Personal Commentary on the Post-Modern World
Published Each Sunday @ Dr. Gary D. Lemmons, February 07, 2010
I Remember...
"Life in Flowertown"
I remember..."life in Flowertown."
I grew up in the “Flowertown” community, just north of Tullahoma, Tennessee, about 140 miles north of where I live today. Flowertown is just a memory now. The City of Tullahoma has swallowed it up. It has largely been covered-up by asphalt and concrete. The little elementary school that was once the hub of the community was consolidated in the early 1950s. Calvary Baptist Church, which acquired the old school building and property, built a new sanctuary and flourished there for a decade or so, but it too relocated. The area surrounding the old school site is covered with strip malls, convenience stores, a plethora of restaurants, a Kroger’s grocery, and a Walmart Super Center.
As a boy, my friend, David, and I explored every nook and cranny of the Flowertown community. Often, we would carry firearms to shoot the occasional squirrel or the itinerant ground-hog who unluckily wandered across our path. My Momma would clean and fry squirrel. She made a sort of gravy that my Daddy and she enjoyed immensely.
I didn’t eat squirrel. Although I was a good Baptist and didn’t believe in “Evolution”, or as the brethren in the Church referred to it…”Evilution”, I felt that those squirrels were just a little too close to the “rats” to suit my taste.
Before any of my “progressively liberal” friends start in on criticizing my Momma and Daddy for their dietary choices, let me tell you something. Both my parents came from “economically challenged” environments. In other words, their families were “poor as hell”! Both knew at a very early age that, if they were to survive, they were going to have to work and work hard. Both were deprived of an education that would have allowed them to have achieved far more than I will ever be able to accomplish. Both of them had experienced the Great Depression up close and personally. My Daddy had fought in World War II, a light machine-gunner in Company E, 377 Regiment, 95th Infantry Division (the Iron Men of Metz), 3rd Army. My Momma had waited patiently for him during the war years. Following the war, both of them became Christians and developed a strong love of GOD, family, country, and community…in that order…, and both of them had great requirements, expectations and hopes for their two boys.
I haven’t killed anything since 1968, save fire ants, snakes, and flies, but if I could do it today, I would knock off a couple of squirrels for my Momma to fry-up. I wouldn’t eat any of them, but I would do it for her.
My Momma and Daddy were good people, but they were NOT uncommon. David's parents were the same, so were the parents of Archie, Peggy, Larry, Jimmy, Mike, Doug, Dale, Stevie, Linda, Chuck, Ronnie, Ann, Johnny, Jimmy Wayne, Spike, Frankie, Freddie, Thomas, Donnie, Eddie, Wayne, Robbie, Gene, and Leonard, and countless other friends and relatives that I could name would time, space, and memory permit.
But back to me and my friend, David...
In those years of the early and middle ‘60s, we had a great time wandering around Flowertown. Often times we would end up on the L & N Railroad track. Occasionally, trains would come by, and guess what…we would get off the track! We would stand there holding our rifles or shotguns and wave at the engineers and others in the lead engine of the train. They would wave back. We had no notion of pointing one of our weapons at the train. Our daddies had taught us that firearms were dangerous and that if we wanted to be allowed to carry one, we had to be responsible! We never dreamed of pointing a weapon at one another or at anyone else.
It seems to me that winters were colder back then, and we had more snow. I can recall that it was not unusual to get good snows as early as November in those days. Usually school was out no more than a day or two, but it was an exciting time. David and I would bundle up. We would wrap plastic bags over our construction boots and go off to explore an entirely new environment under a mantle of white.
Oh, well, so much for the reminiscences of an old man upon his childhood and youth.
Was it a better time than today?
Not for my children or grandchildren; for it was not their time!
Each of us has our own moment, our own unique period when life is new, exciting, and enchanting. For me it was those magical and glorious days exploring Flowertown with my good friend, David.
I remember..."life in Flowertown."
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