By Wayne Dozier
Special to the Elmore/Autauga News
Growing up in North Elmore, Alabama we had some things that many city kids never got to experience. One of those things was the ‘ole swimming hole’. About 3 to 4 miles back behind Dozier’s Store and near Flatwoods, Ala. was a creek called Calloway Creek. I don’t know whose land it was on. Back then most people didn’t mind you fishing or swimming in their creek. Most of them didn’t care if you hunted on their land as long as you let them know so that they didn’t get shot.
About this time of the year a bunch of us guys would start getting ready for school to be out. That meant that we had to start damming up the creek. Calloway Creek was a favorite swimming hole for many young boys my age. We would ride our bicycles as far as we could go. Our parents all knew where we were and what we were doing.
None of them ever came to check on us. They just believed we knew right from wrong and we better not do anything that destroyed other people’s property.
After riding the dirt road to near the creek we then piled our bicycles in the ditch and went about half a mile into the woods to the deepest part of the creek. You didn’t worry about someone stealing your bicycle because people just didn’t do things like that in the country. We all brought empty feed sacks and a few shovels. We filled the feed sacks with dirt from around the area. We then built a dam which backed up the creek and made a beautiful homemade swimming hole.
I don’t remember any girls ever coming so we could jump in with our underwear on or just strip down to our birthday suits. We would fix a board at the deepest part to be used as our diving board. Sometimes we might have a rope hanging from a tree limb so we could swing out over the creek and turn loose over the water.
SNAKES==that was something we didn’t have any trouble with at the swimming hole. I guess we made so much noise we scared them away. We did have snakes back then; they were just not invited!!! After a hot summer day of working in the gardens or baling and hauling hay and throwing it up into the barn we were ready for our daily or weekly bath. You may think I’m kidding but we didn’t believe in wasting water so unless we were really dirty we might skip a day or two taking a bath. We all had the same aroma after all. We did wash our face, hands and feet.
As far as I know all of the guys that used to do things like this with us never ended up in jail or prison. I wonder if boys this day and time had something like this to entertain them; would we have a lot less kids getting into trouble? Of course, all of us had a family and parents in our home. COULD IT BE THEY HAD INSTILLED IN US FAMILY AND HOME VALUES THAT KIDS OF TODAY ARE NOT GETTING?????
I drove down the road the other day to where we used to ditch our bikes and head up the creek to the ole swimming hole. The whole area was underwater now and was really a swamp. I’m so thankful I still have the memories of growing up in the country and can share them with my family and friends like you.
Wayne Dozier is from Elmore County and works in Prison Ministry. We love to hear his stories! Thank you Wayne for allowing us to share them in the Elmore/Autauga News for our readers.
