Chronological, when I taught it was when I cleaned closets. Earlier decades we had children in three different schools and grades and never had 100% free at the same time. In childhood, I had Good Friday and Easter Monday and then onward to Memorial Day. Now, advertisements are where to go and even my LFL children talk of long plane rides to exotic places. Except for one summer after I was in the 10th grade ,( may have told once and will repeat if sufficient requests come in) all of our trips had destinations to Baton Rouge or New Orleans for seasonal shopping or to Shreveport for family visiting.
However, two destinations occurred more than once a year over a period of time and counted as “getting out of town” excursions. In one way both were the same type of trip involving river camps, yet slight differences set them apart. Let’s start with Tangipahoa River camp which belonged to our next door neighbor over the hedge. It was a women’s and children’s trip whenever the weather was more than the adults could stand. Participants were two middle aged women in tennis shoes, a teen-age girl, myself, and a slightly younger boy. A dirt back road enabled us to drive to the location at the river. The useful room the cabin was a long screen porch for sitting, looking, eating, playing games, and avoiding mosquitoes. The older girl painted her toe nails and worked on a tan. The boy and I were compatible enough to try to coax out craydads from their chimneys before either fishing from the dock or swimming to cool off.
The other camp had more regular visits because they occurred when my daddy and uncle decided it was time to go fishing. My uncle owned the cabin on Cane River near Nacogdoches, Louisiana. Again we could drive to the cabin. I’ve already spoken of the porch. The next long room in was for sleeping, five double beds side by side. Aunt and uncle, my parents, my oldest cousin and her husband, her two boys, and then I got the last bed. Night time was conversation til we all drifted off. Heavy snores filled the air along with the squeaky turning of an exercise wheel for one of the boy’s pet hamster. A minimal kitchen and toilet only room closed off the end of the sleeping porch. Stories abound from a year long Canasta game to avoiding snakes to David’s discovering that if we had shrimp for supper, he had to peel his own.
I started this thinking of the places as showing what I had missed. That turned out not to be true. Those places and people involved taught me common events can take on amazing importance. I learned to make activities relate to a place. Water and its vocabulary became foundational to me from head, channel, mouth to the specifics of estuary. Very few Bible stories lack a river from the Garden of Eden to that River of Life we can only imagine. Crossing a river is a metaphor for big steps in life. Ezra has been given permission to return to Judah after an exile. He is hesitant about asking the king who granted permission to also provide a guard for the journey, When the time comes to cross the river and move on, this is what he asks of God.
There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions.
Ezra 8:21
Let Me Tell Ya 