The woods where I played with other children, which were about 120 acres, mostly of a high elevation, amid Raleigh Tennessee (now annexed by Memphis)’s high picturesque bluffs. The trees were very tall and stately.
In these woods were many leafy hollows as well as large clearings with springs and gravel-pits. One secluded pocket, I remember, had the distinct ambiance of being under water. I still know these pathways—as brief as the four years I walked them, and as long ago as they were, I still know them.
The “Green Movement” was already a factor in my early years . TV programs and ecological campaigns advocating the cause against pollution and promoting the love of nature were already familiar and embraced by me (they still are). And I did love nature: the frogs, crayfish, chipmunks, birds, trees, etc. Sure, there were thorns and thistles, mosquitoes, and snakes, but they could be avoided or controlled.
In our rural neighborhood there were no streetlights, just garden lights in neighbor’s yards, a few mercury-vapor lights (the bluish green yard lights that produce a glow like moonlight) porch lights and carport lights.
All of the roads were old country roads, and I remember the many sillohettes of the twisted trees in the moonlight. And there were fireflies’ mesmerizing patterns in the night air, which was always heavily laden with the fragrances of honeysuckle and sassafras, the soft, intermingled smells of many forest trees and foliage, vegetable and flower gardens, herb gardens, mint gardens, tomato plants. And the beauty of the nighttime sky, as the stars are not as bright and sweet nowadays due to all the light pollution.
The city of Memphis annexed Raleigh when I was eight, and since the summer I turned eleven this area (Raleigh, TN near Bartlett) has mostly become a blighted area. But every now and then, when in a rural garden, children’s summer camp or just a rural neighborhood at night, I am there again.
