The Ole Swimming Hole

MVC-012F
Originally uploaded by Sally Ann.

It's rare I don't drive by this small wonder of nature and not remember summer days gone by when my brothers and I and others from the neighborhood would spend a full day swimming in the cool waters at the Tannery Creek Falls. It was as close to heaven as anything could be as a child. The creek was our own private beach and the grandest of swimming pools where the water was "supposed" to be green. Water snakes slithering aggressively on the surface of the natural pool didn't scare us. They were as good of a jolt as any scary movie back then. And those tiny "black things" that clung to the rocks by the thousands were a continual curiosity. We never did figure out what they were. "Leeches" they said. But we never believed them. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, hot dog roasts when the sun dipped down in the west, the long hot walk to the pool and the long hot walk back home. That was all good stuff.