When I was about five years old we lived in Virginia way out in the middle of nowhere. There were only two kids at this time and we were both still very young. My dad was taking care of a campground type of place and raising turkeys. Men would come here to hunt and relax for a few days. I can remember a river running by the house and a great big willow tree by the river. It was a huge house and it had a rock wall built around part of it. We had several outbuildings on the property too. My mother was short-barely five foot so Daddy made sure all the guns were placed high so the kids would not get to them. He taught us a few lessons as we started growing up. Mom was afraid of everything out in the country including thunderstorms. She passed that fear to the girls and Daddy was not going to have any of this. He would put us out the front door and lock it and tell us to come around to the back door so we would learn not to be afraid. I am sure this helped us out a little later on.
My dad would also bring animals home for us to see and learn about. Sometimes he would take us out where he knew snakes were hatching to let us watch and learn. One day he brought a raccoon home to show us. This always fascinated us very much.
This particular day the raccoon managed to get a hold of him though and it bit him in the leg. Now this left a lasting impression on my sister.
Shortly after this Daddy got us a dog from someone who was trying to get rid of one. They had a son and it was too attached to the boy. Now I would follow this dog all day long but he would not fool with me. I tried everything that I could to get this dogs attention but to no avail. Well by now you know I am the one that would also follow Daddy wherever he would go. My sister would stay in the house with Mom and sometimes watch out the window.
One morning I went out to try to feed the dog because he was barking at something under one of the buildings. In the meantime my sister kept telling Mom that there was a raccoon outside. Well Daddy came out the door to stay with me and boy did we ever get a surprise. All of a sudden a bobcat came charging out to the edge of the building and of course the dog sent it back under the building. Well Daddy is yelling to Mom to get his gun and trying to get me to run back to the house. I was frozen to the spot. The bobcat finally charged out from under the building and Daddy was kicking it in the mouth while the dog was grabbing its heels. Remember Mom was so short she could not reach the gun so she had to get a chair to get to the gun. She finally got it to Daddy and he shoved me inside the gate. By this time the cat had run back under the building and was trying to charge from there. Now my dad was six feet three inches so you know it is not going to be smart for him to get down in front of that building. But that is exactly what he did. The cat charged him and he shot it. There could have been a very different ending but God must have been watching over us. A government inspector came out to check things and the cat was rabid.
The dog went back to the folks that Daddy had gotten him from and I am sure there was a little boy that was very happy. My dad said it was time for us to move because I was due to start school the next spring and I would have to walk about a mile to get to the bus. There was no houses or people that could keep an eye on me so he said it was time to go. I am just very thankful that things turned out the way they did. Sometimes I hear on the news about kids disappearing out west when they are camping and I can't help but think about my episode an say "thank you God".
When I was about five years old we lived in Virginia way out in the middle of nowhere. There were only two kids at this time and we were both still very young. My dad was taking care of a campground type of place and raising turkeys. Men would come here to hunt and relax for a few days. I can remember a river running by the house and a great big willow tree by the river. It was a huge house and it had a rock wall built around part of it. We had several outbuildings on the property too. My mother was short-barely five foot so Daddy made sure all the guns were placed high so the kids would not get to them. He taught us a few lessons as we started growing up. Mom was afraid of everything out in the country including thunderstorms. She passed that fear to the girls and Daddy was not going to have any of this. He would put us out the front door and lock it and tell us to come around to the back door so we would learn not to be afraid. I am sure this helped us out a little later on.
