A Hot Summer Day on Cedar Street

Another very hot day at 116 Cedar Street. There is only one box fan in the house, and the windows are raised as the cool morning breeze blows in. After I rub my eyes and stretch, it’s time to get up and see what’s on the agenda today.

After a quick Pop-Tart, I head out the door, hop on my bicycle and ride down Second Avenue to my Grandpa and Grandma Nelson’s house. Grandpa is sitting in the old green porch swing, chewing his King B chewing tobacco.

I ask, “Do you think the yard needs mowing?”

Grandpa replies, “I reckon.” That’s a Southern way of saying, “Yes, it does.”

I go to the old shed, pull the push mower out, fill it with gas and pull the crank. It fires right up. After about an hour and a half, I am done. No weed-eating, just mowing.

I put the mower back into the shed and wipe the sweat from my face. I head onto the back porch, through that old screen door and into the kitchen. There is an old water dipper hanging by the sink. I fill that dipper up and take a long, cold drink of water. Then I hang the dipper back up and go to the front porch.

A side note: I don’t recall my grandma ever washing that old dipper. We just used it and went on. Before they had running water, they lived up on Brotherton Mountain and had a spring from which they carried water to the house. I guess tradition is hard to break, even after they made the move to Algood and had running water and an indoor bathroom.

I notice through the living room window that my grandpa is talking to someone. As usual, a squirrel is on the side of his swing, and they are having some sort of conversation.

I walk outside, and my grandpa gives me $3. Now, that was a lot of money in the early ’70s.

After sitting on the swing with my grandpa and hearing a story or two, I hop on my bike and ride down the path that runs beside the home of Hessie and Harley Hicks. Once I leave my Grandpa Nelson’s house, I soon find myself in my Grandpa and Grandma Hunter’s yard.

I see Grandpa working in his woodshed, making pocketknife handles out of Elmer’s glue and used coffee grounds. If you had a busted-up pocketknife handle, Grandpa was the only one in Algood who could make it as good as new.

I fill up the old push mower, and off I go mowing their yard. After a bit, I am done and put the mower away. I grab the water hose, let it run for a minute and take a drink of hose water.

Now, the Hunter hose had a Big K taste to it. Not too strong and not too weak, but a nice rubber taste.

As I go onto the back porch, I can smell my grandma making sauerkraut. Man, did that stuff stink. I grab some banana pudding and run to the front porch, where my grandpa is sitting and whittling an old stick of cedar. There is nothing like the smell of fresh-cut cedar. After a few sniffs, the smell of sauerkraut eventually leaves my nose.

Grandpa pulls out $3. After about four hours of mowing that morning, I have made $6.

I ride back home and walk into the house. Oh, my! My mom and dad are making sauerkraut, too. I run to my bedroom holding my breath, get my piggy bank out and put $5 in it, keeping $1 out. Then I run outside as fast as I can to catch my breath.

By this time, some of my friends and I meet up at Fred Bufford’s gas station, where the furniture store is now, next to the railroad tracks. I put my 15 cents in and select an ice-cold grape Nehi Coke.

You see, in Algood, it didn’t matter whether it was Coke, Pepsi or R.C. Cola. When we wanted a drink, it was always, “Let’s go get a Coke.”

Then we would go inside, and Fred always had a smile on his face.

“What can I get you boys?” he would ask.

I would lift the lid on that ice cream cooler and get myself an ice cream sandwich. Then we would go outside to eat and cool off.

We would hear a sound in the distance that was a common occurrence in Algood. That L&N train—you could hear it coming down the mountain. Then, as it came around the curve by the Thompson Manufacturing Building, it approached us.

As we held our ears, that train whistle would blow. Many times, we would make a hand-and-arm gesture up and down, and the engineer would blow it a couple of times for us. The ground would vibrate, and the bell would sound, “Ding, ding, ding,” as the train moved on down the tracks toward Cookeville.

What I would give to hear that old train once again.

At age 8, I always wanted to be a train engineer. As is often the case, that dream would change many times as I grew into my teens.

Well, that was the excitement for the moment, and off we would go back to Cedar Street. Many times, my friends Terry and Marcia Flatt would ride their bikes over from Durant Street to hang out.

There was always a new adventure, a new challenge and a new day growing up at 116 Cedar Street.

I am thankful to have had a mom and dad who always took us to church every time the doors were open. They taught us about Jesus, family values and hard work.

As I reflect on this story, I see Jesus in almost every bike ride and every game of tag or hide-and-seek. That old train was teaching me to expect that it would show up every day, just like Jesus shows up in our situations.

Mowing those yards taught me about hard work and gave me a love for doing a great job and cutting grass. Drinking from the old dipper and out of a hose pipe assured me that water was good, whether it was standing still or running.

Lastly, I learned there are two things in life that stink: a skunk and sauerkraut. Life is a lot like that. Some situations smell good and others not so good, but at the end of the day, a nice bath will clean us up and make us feel better.

I have enclosed a picture of me at age 6. I encourage you to make good choices, and when you fail, get back up, dust yourself off and try again.

Thank you for joining me each week as we visit growing up on Cedar Street in Algood, Tennessee. Until next time, help me keep Algood and its rich history alive.

We have several people running for office, including for mayor of Algood. We need that position filled by someone who has been a longtime resident of Algood. My friend Bill Bilbrey will grow our town as mayor with integrity and honesty and keep family values in place, making Algood the greatest small town there is.