A Tom Sawyer In Mayberry

Growing up as a young boy in the south was truly a unique experience. Now I know the first thing you think of is the south, the '60s and all the ugliness some would like you to remember. But because I had parents who loved me and in many ways shielded me from a lot of what was happening I feel blessed to have had a very special childhood.

You see I grew up before the internet, video games, and all sorts of distractions children encounter today. While I was blessed to have had nice toys, fast bicycles, a wagon and much of what we all remember. My greatest memories are of making things to play with. It wasn’t uncommon to find some old lawn mower wheels, and with a few old boards and some rope and nails, make a go-kart that was powered simply by gravity and ride it as fast as possible down the steepest hill we could find (without brakes). And just for extra measure, tape a smoke bomb to the back of it so we left a cloud of smoke behind. And bicycles weren’t complete without an old baseball card clipped inside the spokes with a clothespin. Wonder how many first edition cards I ruined that way?

I remember the woods either behind my house or at our grandparents were a magical place. There was something about leaving the safety of the yard for a place where there might be Indians hanging out or maybe we were Robin Hood and his Merry Men, or perhaps we were actually the first explorers to ever set foot in those woods. We learned that our imagination could take us anywhere. And that big tree house that we built high up in the trees could in the span of one day be a fort in the Wild West, or a spaceship to the Moon. There was no limit to where we could go or who we could be in our imaginations.

I remember fishing and swimming in the creek when there was no fear that it could be contaminated. The only fear we really had was snakes, and we were always on the lookout for them, real and imagined.

Many a night I can remember playing ‘til late with my cousins outside at my grandparents. Somehow we always wound up in Daddy Queens’ barn, playing king of the mountain on top of the hay. And you know what; he seemed to always know, because he always caught us and ran us out. But you know I don’t think he ever told our parents.

As a child I was always fascinated by the stories of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn. Looking back I really did have just as many adventures, even if many of them were in a make believe world. And I was blessed to have family and to live in a community that protected children from the harshness and ugliness of the world outside. Now we may consider Mayberry to only be a place that existed on TV, but the little towns and communities where many of us grew up weren’t that much different.