Growing up Going Country, Be Quiet or it will Sink!

 Now in a few weeks it will be October, it will be time for ghost stories and things, I am getting a jump on them.  I hope that you enoy this childhood story, let me know what you think.......

Now going to the country was always an adventure for us.  We knew that grandpa was going to take us on a trip into those Georgia woods.  Along with the trips into the woods, came tall tails.  One day, he told us, "chulin get your naps in, cause we are going to the woods at almost dark."  Well when I heard that my heart began to pound.  First thing I thought was, those woods are so dark, and there are all kinds of weird sounds.  Grandpa had told us about those mean old Bobcats, with those red eyes.  I did not want to meet one of those things at night!  So I ran to grandpa, and I said, "grandpa, why almost night; he said cause we are gonna see if we can find that money."  He just smiled, and my grandma laughed.  Today, being as smart as I am now, I should have known that they were just yanking our chains, but when you are talking to kids that are only 11, 10, 9, 8, years of age.  It is a big deal.  We are going treasure hunting in the Georgia woods, and we are going to be rich, because Grandpa knows where it is at, right!  Well the old tale goes like this.  Long time ago there was an old man who lived in a house all alone that he had built in the woods many years ago.  He had lots of money.  A long time ago, people did not believe in banks, go figure.  So they put their money, under mattresses, under floor boards, in attics and so forth.  Well this old man buried his.  But when he died he never told anyone where he buried all of the money.  But the story goes that when people have gone through the woods looking for the money, if anyone got close to the money, and they were talking to each other around the money.  Trying to figure out where it is buried, the money sinks further down into the ground.  Go figure.    So it is dusk grandpa gets his shotgun, for the lions, tigers, snakes, bobcats, bears, and thieves.  His lantern, his cheese in his pocket with pocket fur on it, but it is still good, his pocket knife, it is so sharp, and us four scared grandkids in tow.  The closer we get to the ruins of the old mans house he is constantly telling us to be quiet!  Oh my goodness it is so dark in those woods, grandpas lantern is growing dim.  Those Georgia pines being so tall are blocking out the moon light.  We are getting closer to the ruins of the old mans house.  Oh my I can see part of the old fireplace.  Hush says grandpa, and his lantern goes completely out!  My heart is racing; I want to scream, not because I am scared, but because my brothers are squeezing the daylights out of my hand, both brothers.  They are holding the same hand!  Grandpa eases his shotgun off of his shoulder; that can only mean trouble.  He motions for us to sit down.  In my mind, (city mind) I am thinking, you got to be kidding, on this ground, this is dirt and bugs, but I sit and motion for the others to sit and to be quiet.  No wonder I have MS, I got it from the woods!  Grandpa says to "stay put" he walks on ahead.  Something zooms across the ground in front of him, a ghost maybe; you know those woods are full of ghost, or so they say.  He looks around the partial fireplace, he moves some of the bricks around, kicks around some of the pieces of wood, opens the door to what was left of the old house.  Goes through it, our hearts sank, but he comes out the back side, takes the barrel of his gun pokes at the ground, then walks back to where we are.  He motions for us to get up, and then we proceed to head back to the house.  When we can see the house, grandpa, then shouts, "run choulin, run," and we do just that.  Grandma is waiting.  We proceed to tell her about our trip.  She is smiling the entire time.  I now realize it was all a hoax.  No sinking treasure or nothing.  Just a little something to make our visit interesting.  But to small children it meant the world.  It made life large.  It made, Georgia, Georgia.  It made the woods special.  More about those woods later, I really do not think there ever was any money, I think they were just ranking our chains, you know it worked.  More later!  sherry/smomdukes