Have you ever walked along a dirt road?
I was thinking how long it has been since I walked a dirt road. When I do think about it there are such fond memories of Mississippi.
My Grandparents lived in Mississippi and when we would go to visit them we traveled miles and miles on dirt roads. This was a time before many roads were paved in Mississippi.
It seems to me now knowing the difference that there was a certain cooling effect in the areas with dirt roads. I liked to play outside and make houses. I would find sticks and lay them down flat on a grassy area on the ground and form rooms. I made doorways where I could walk into the rooms and I would sit on the ground pretending I was sitting at the table drinking tea. My house would have imaginary curtains and windows and filled with anything my imagination wanted but in reality there were only sticks.
We spent a lot of time outside back in those days.
As I walked along the dirt road I would draw pictures with a stick and make hopscotch squares. As I may have mentioned before in my posts I enjoyed the sound my shoes made as my leather soles would make a crunching sound when I walked over small bits of gravel in the dirt.
On a hot day there would be occasional cool breezes along those dirt roads. Now everywhere I go there are paved roads and parking lots which seem to double the heat. I think of animals that walk on pavement and how that it can actually blister their feet. Pavement is not normal for any of us in this world.
With dirt roads comes dust and that is quite a problem for humans but that is natural and it all balances out if we only let it. The dirt roads were only for us to travel to and from, we made the dirt roads otherwise they were fields or forest.
We have taken a lot from our earth and not treated it kindly.
In the 1950s we had a very small cabin at a lake and we would go swimming during the summer. We borrowed space from the lake to cool off during hot days.
I will never forget the day that my brother and I and some friends were walking along a paved county road up at the lake and we went off that road on to a dirt road and followed it over to a stream and a bridge. We had our dog Smokey with us and we were a good ways from our cabin.
Smoky was having a good time exploring until the bear arrived. We had taken our shoes off and never knew the danger until Smokey alerted us of the bear and we all took off running, Smokey eventually caught up with us. We made it to the pavement still running and screaming as we ran and by the time we made it home we had blisters on our feet from running on the hot pavement. I will never know if the bear ever chased us because I never looked back, I only ran.
I have many memories of fishing with my father in the spill ways and swimming beside our boat as dad paddled beside us. It was a time when most everywhere we would go there where dirt roads. Those were the good times.
Children used to play outside much of the time but today things have changed.
For those that have never walked along a dirt road it might be something that you might want to do and let your children experience before there are no more dirt roads.
Grandma Donna
