| Fun In The Summer! |
| "Let's go swimming!" These are the words that were heard many times when I was a young boy. "OK, which place? Benjis, Ballast Pits, Indian Lake, Ledbetter Lake - which sounds the best today?" "Let's go to Benjis," I would say. "We can play in the hayloft and then when we really get sweaty, we can go jump in the pond." Most of the guys agreed Benji's was a favorite place to swim and have fun. Benji Alexander's house was located off Highway 74 going toward Charlotte. It was across from Danny Jenkins and Guy Trexlers' houses. During this time, the new highway had not been built and it was only a two lane road toward Charlotte. The dirt road led off of Highway 74 on the left, up to Benjis house and garage and on up the dirt road was an abbatoir. I believe the name was Williams Abbatoir - run by the Williams family, which was kin to Benji's family. This is where we could go and watch them slaughter hogs - of course at that time, this was entertainment for the guys. Also, at that location was a barn with a hayloft upstairs - this is where we would go and have the most fun. We could throw hay at each other and jump out the door onto bales of hay. "Alright, guys - it sure is getting hot in here," one of us would say. "Let's go to the pond!" Behind the abbattoir was a pond with an earthen damn. This was a great place for swimming. We would hurry on down and head to the woods to get our bathing suits on. There was also a boat we used to get out to the middle. One particular instance of this remains firmly planted in my mine. We took the boat out to the middle of the pond and my brother and the other guys started rocking the boat. This was trouble. The boat turned over and I could not swim! "Help me, help me!" I yelled. "Go back to the boat, Joel and hold onto it," my brother Randy yelled. "If you don't, you're going to drown me and you." Luckily for us, I followed his instructions. This was a hard way to learn how to swim but I did. Once I went back to the boat, everything was ok as we righted it again and everyone got back in. After that event, I always had a better time when we would go swimming - and, needless to say, the other guys would, too. |
| So, as the Train of Life keeps chugging along, another page written of my Childhood Memories of.... Rockingham Remembered. |
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