The 1970's were a decade of many changes, there were seven of us kids, we were eachothers best of friends and at times, we were the worst of enemies.  We fought our battles, and at different times one or two of us would come out the victim and the rest would be the hero's.  Ahh, but those were the days, we thought they would last forever and a day.  It was the summer of  1972, when our grandpa murphy got sick, and all the kids and grandkids camped down on the Ole Pennington Creek.  It was a hot summer day as I laid out on the hammock, soaking up the shade and as evening snuck upon me, the sun faded into shade, never giving much of a cool breeze.  My Uncle and Aunt decided to walk up to the hospital to see grandpa, so they asked me and my sister, wanda if we wanted to go, of course we did, grandpa could walk on water as far as we were concerned, we figured he was just having a sick moment, he'd be up and out of that hospital in no time.  So we started off walking the five miles, sightseeing along the way, chatting with our cousins that walked with us.

We made it to the hospital, and Uncle Clyde walked in and then he walked back out, upset, the hospital would not let anyone in to see grandpa.  Clyde went back into the hospital, and soon the police showed up.  The police told Clyde that the hospital had rules to go by and they could not let us in to see grandpa.  I believe it was the next morning, he died.  Since then, hospitals have changed the rules quiet abit.  That didn't help us any back then. 

That didn't stop our family reunions, it just made more of us want to get together down at Ole Pennington.  Our Dad loved that place as much as we did, of course, he and his brothers and sisters grew up around Tishomingo, Everyone knew them when they walked into a local store or bait shop, and everyone knew the grandkids as well.

The older men use to sit around a card table and play diminos, us kids were never allowed to join in, but the way they played, we wouldn't want to, they could tell what was in eachothers hands without looking.  Back then, Mom's sister and her husband and kids would come camping down there too, and it made it that more special, because we loved seeing all our cousins.  Me, and my brother Rodger, and cousins Donna and Kenny always hung around together, going hiking into what little woods there was, we would always make an adventure out of it.  We'd find a cool place along the banks of the Ole Pennington to cool our feet off in, or go fishing.....to be continued