Hazard's Glory Years

1945 ... The sun is streaming through my open window, Granny is still asleep in her featherbed and I have a big day planned. I am going up the hill near the top where my hide-away is waiting. There are times I just want to go and spend time there alone, well not alone for I have my forest friends who hide and watch me as I make believe. The water tank looms over my hide-away and I feel safe and secure amid the majestic trees standing guard.I bid Mom good morning, packed me a little brown poke of goodies and was on my way. However, my little neighbor, “Cager” Napier was watching me as I started my climb up the hill. He darted out from his yard and started following me, “Idy, I want to go too.” “Please let me come play too.” I cautioned him that his mother, Jo, would skin both of us if I let him follow me up the mountain, cause he was still too little to venture that far from home, even with me. I directed him back home, stood my ground til I was sure he was safe in his yard, then I continued on up the mountain. Huffing and puffing, I reached my hide-away, a big moss covered rock. The birds flitted to and from welcoming me for they knew I was no stranger. I had been here too much. I could look over the rock and see almost all of Big Bottom below me. I watched Mr. and Mrs. P. L. Johnson get into their 1938 Plymouth and pull away, probably going to the A & P. The aroma from the Bakery filled the mountain air. I laughed as I looked down and watched Denver, Ralph, and G. I. step outside the hot bakery for a breath of cool air for they had no idea that someone was watching them from atop the mountain. My eyes wandered to Maple Street as I saw Mrs. Doc Adams busying about in her flower garden. Roy and Minnie Baker were up and sitting on their porch. Ma Brewer was watching as swimmers were headed toward the Brewer Hole to cool off. I stopped peeking on Big Bottom and turned around, “I am going to be a movie star today.” I could be whomever I wanted to be there in the shelter of my hide-away. Who I was depended on the movie that I saw on Sunday. Most of the time it was a good musical. I was a master of pretending and I sat about reliving and doing a scene or two from the movie I had seen. It was such a good day and so complete to be a young girl living in a place called Big Bottom, and yet being carried away to a place called Hollywood or New York.I stepped out from my hide-away to look down on my street below to see what my folks were up to. There they all sat on the porch, smoking their pipes and blowing smoke rings into the air. OOPS, one was dipping snuff. Next door, Mary had Jack laid across her lap and was making sure he had no blackheads on his face. Back into my fantasy world, I sang and danced and pranced around on my rock until I was getting tired and I knew it was time for me to head down the mountain, back to the hustle and bustle of the sleepy little town called Hazard, and best of all, Big Bottom, the bestest place to be alive, thirteen and making believe.