|
Summer Vacation with Relatives
It used to be common for cousins to spend a week or more in the summer
visiting with an aunt and uncle or other relative who lived in a
different setting. For example, I was a "country cousin" who spent
vacation time with an aunt and uncle who lived in Lake Jackson. It
wasn't until fairly recently that I became aware that this was payback
for the summer vacations their "city cousin" son had spent on our farm
before I was born.
I really enjoyed my visits to Lake Jackson,
where they had a nice public swimming pool, a Piggly Wiggly supermarket,
and other amenities unknown to my rural community in Robertson County.
Today shrimp is one of my favorite foods, and I'm sure that began when
my aunt took me out to where the shrimp boats docked in Freeport and
bought some of the "catch of the day" for our evening meal. One year my
uncle, who worked at Dow Chemical Co., ran for justice of the peace, and
I spent some time passing out candidate cards and asking people to vote
for him.
The son of this uncle and aunt, my older cousin, says
that his spending weeks on the farm in the summer was viewed by his
parents as "character-building." He helped pen the cattle, mow and bale
hay, and assist with other chores on our family farm. He remembers that
it was there he learned to drive and was allowed to go by himself in a
car to visit other cousins in a nearby community in Limestone County.
Unfortunately, he got the car stuck in a sand bed and burned out the
clutch trying to extricate it. Instead of getting angry the way his
father would have, his uncle passed it off as not a serious offense.
I also spent a week or two with another uncle and aunt who lived in
Nacogdoches, where he taught school at Stephen F. Austin College. But
they also raised broilers in two large chicken houses, and that provided
an interesting round of chores every morning and evening. I remember
trying to help him out by changing the spark plugs in his tractor and
twisting one off by over-tightening it. I also got off lightly.
For most children who were involved in these exchanges, the main benefit
was educational. It was beneficial to learn that everyday life was not
the same everywhere. The rhythm of life was different in a town or city
from what it was in rural areas. In some cases the visits also provided
opportunities to make mistakes without your parents knowing about it
immediately.
Jerry Lincecum
Sherman, Texas
Published:
November 14,
2005
Categories
Related Handbook of Texas Online articles
Other My Texas stories by this author
| 
