The summer that we moved to Sylvester, we moved into a three bedroom, Florida-style, white block house (with crank out windows) in the middle of NOWHERE...I mean nowhere...you couldn't find the house if you didn't know where it was. You had to turn down a lane to get to the house, down a dirt road, surrounded by a canopy of trees and woods...and of course, cotton fields.
Well, after moving there, Daddy wasn't working so he took care of the three of us. He made us read for something atrocious like 2-3 hours a day. Every now and then he would take us to Jimmy's hot dogs in downtown Albany and we would sit down by the river and eat our red hot dogs full of chili and cheese, or chili and slaw (my favorite) on the grass, surrounded by moss covered oak trees. It was a glorious time with Daddy.
One day we were tired of reading and feeling the effects of the Georgia heat in July. We were new to the area, but Daddy heard that there was a blue hole somewhere in the county. The county is pretty big, so we started out on an adventure to find this magical blue hole that would cool us off and make us the happiest children within a thirty mile radius.
We piled into our grey Pontiac Lemans, possibly one of the worst cars ever made. As you can guess, the air conditioning didn't work and we were sticking to the seats as we road all over the back roads of the county, in desperate search of the infamous blue hole. We rode for what seemed like hours, but in all actuality was probably half a hour. We couldn't find it. We were so disappointed and hot!
All of the sudden, we spotted water ahead...hitting the road. I am going to say it--an irrigation system was shooting water onto the road. Daddy pulled off of the road and with raised eyebrows said, "Want to get in?" My brother and I popped out of the car immediately while our sister sulked in the front seat with a look of "oh my gosh, how embarrassing. I would never do that." My brother and I stood, in our swim suits, on the edge of the road and waited with expectant faces for the water to hit us. I am giggling as I write this--the water finally came around and pelted us hard and brief and we squealed with delight. I think my dad had a better time watching us than anything else. I think eventually my sister joined in the fun, even if it was out of desperation for something to cool her off.
We never found that infamous blue hole, although I still hear about it pretty often, so I guess it does exist. We did find each other that summer, standing on the side of the road waiting to get hit by chemical enriched water.
