By: Ruby Batson
Submitted by: Dolores Wilson
July 1937
“Yee-hoooo!” “Yee-hoooo!”
I stop and listen to the familiar sound coming up the hill from the
Soquee River. My home and farm is just
up the hill, you know. I look out to the
field and see my Dad stop pulling corn. “Dad”,
I yell out. “Can I come with you?” “No, not this time. You can come when you grow and little more.”
I wait in our yard.
Mama and me are breaking beans and shucking corn. The big shade trees help keep up cool. I hear our dog barking and I know some folks
are coming up from the bottoms. That’s
what we call the land down next to the river.
My dad just ferried them folks across the Soquee.
Today some cousin folk and their neighbor were there
waiting. They brought their young’uns to
help tote food or dry goods that they may be needing today from Grandma’s
store. As they come by the house, they
shout out a “Howdy” to me and my Mama.
We stop and shout, “Howdy, Howdy” and Mama asks, “How’s the family?” They talk a bit and then head on down the road.
You see, my Grandma, Mattie, ran the local General
store. So, “as the crow flies”, the
quickest path for several families was to cross the Soquee and cut through the
woods. The path was pretty well traveled
cause this was also a trail to the schoolhouse.
We only had one group wanting to come across today. Some days Dad has to stop working in the
fields or at the sawmill two or three times to ferry folks across the
river. He loves going anyhow and never
asks for payment. But today one of the
kinfolk gave him some eggs and tomatoes.
I shout, “Oh, Boy!” when dad brings the tomatoes to the house. There’s nothing better than a slice of tomato
with Mama’s hot biscuits.
After we finish our chores, Mama said Dad was gonna take us
for a boat ride. I am so excited! I love to fish with my Dad. When he comes home, he takes three of us with
him… me, my older brother, and my older sister.
When we get in the boat, I ask Dad, “Where’s the fishing poles?” He smiles and says, “No fishing today!” As he moves the boat out in the middle of the
river where its calm and deep, he says, “Ruby, today you’re gonna learn to
swim.” He picks me up and tosses me into
the water. I am hollering going in, but
I come up dog paddling. I am so happy to
be swimming. I would have stayed in that
river all day, but Dad said it was time to go cause he had some more chores
before supper.
I see the cousin folk coming back to the river. Dad has just pulled our fishing boat to
land. We all get out, and he heads over
to the flat-bottomed boat he built especially to ferry people across the river. We get to stand on the bank and watch. I wave and holler, “See ya’ll soon!” They all smile and wave. I sure hope I get to help my Dad or even
ferry people across myself someday.
We head back home. I
can’t wait for the others. I run ahead
and go straight to Mama and say, “I learned to swim!” She hugs me and promises I can help her with
supper tonight since I am getting to be such a big girl.
Right after supper, I see my Grandma Mattie coming down the
road toting her fishing poles. She
hollers out to my Dad, “Come on Charlie, we are going fishing.” She tells my Mama to bring us all down to the
bottoms in a little while. We go on
down, and Dad has a place ready to build a fire. Mama lays down a quilt for us to sit on. Mama just gets the fire started when we hear
a loud “whoop” and see Grandma pulling in a big ole’ river trout. Her and Dad caught about six fish
altogether. While the fish popped and
crackled over the fire, we began to see the evening sky fill with glowing
lights from lightening bugs. We eat our
fish while listening to the river rushing over the rocks and tree frogs singing
their night songs. This was the perfect
way to end our day on the Soquee.
July 2013
Now realize, this was just one day on the Soquee. I have lots of memories and stories I could
tell. Us kids, there ended up being
eight of us, had no idea what a special childhood we had living on the
Soquee. I know now how to appreciate
that old river. All my kids and grandkids
got to experience all of my special spots.
One special place is the “Big Rock.”
Here is where I learned to swim.
Remember how I was taught, well I don’t think that’s the way they teach
kids nowadays. The kids all enjoyed
swimming and fishing at this special river spot. A big rock hangs over the river and after
swimming we would climb up there to picnic or just relax. Sometimes we would watch fish swim or an
occasional boater float past.
Another spot where we all went to picnic was down on the
bottoms. This is where me and my
sweetheart, Claude, carved our initials in an old oak tree near the river,
years ago. Can you believe it is still
there today? My, my, now that is a story
for another day.
Oh what good times we have had on the Soquee. It will always hold a special place in my
heart. Nowadays, if I tilt my head just
right, I can still hear the river tumbling over rocks and the “Yee-hoooo”
coming up the hill from the beautiful Soquee River.
………………………………………………………………………………………………
This story was told by Ruby Colston Batson to her children
and grandchildren. It was written in her
memory. Mrs. Ruby passed away on May 20,
2014.
