The Sand Pile

This morning I was reading the digest from one of the yahoo groups I am a member of and one of the members was talking about someone playing in a sandbox. When I was growing up, we never had a sandbox, but we did have a sand pile, two in fact. The first was located on the west side of the big cedar tree in my parents yard on the south side of their house. The second one, and its subsequent re-incarnations was under the big water oak tree in their back yard. I am not certain, but I think that the sole purpose of those sand piles was for us to play on. I know that some building projects require sand and here at my house, there was a sand pile for several years that was the remains of sand used by the brick mason who did my chimney. But I don't think that was the case at my parents house. Also I don't know the source of the first sand pile but I am fairly certain that the second one was the result of a pint of whiskey slipped to one of the county's truck drivers. Back then such things were a common part of doing business, today if something like that happened and was discovered, chances are 2 or more folks would spend time in the minimum security prison in Montgomery.

Regardless of their source, the sand piles were great fixtures in my growing up. When you are a child, there are a lot of things you can do with 3 yards of washed sand. Unfortunately for us, we had numerous outside cats so one of the first things you did was be very careful. If a place on the sand pile looked freshly disturbed and slightly mounded, you did not play there. Looking back on it, it is kind of embarrassing recalling just how long I continued to play out there. It was a place of endless construction projects and dreams long forgotten, but from my recollect mostly a place of great fun.