Personal Narrative: Growing Up In A Heanet Pond

In the mid 70’s, my family bought a cabin on the Illinois River. We spent all our free time there, weekends and most of the summer. For years my family enjoyed their time at the “clubhouse” as we called it. It was our home away from home. There were about 20 cabins there, so it was like our own little community. Just about everyone there was like extended family. Any time someone needed help, the neighbors showed up. Everyone there had similar interests, hunting, fishing, boating and water skiing. I spent most of my days enjoying these activities.

The thing that I miss most about summer is King's island. I had a pass so I could go when I wanted to and it was always a fun time. It is a good time to hang out with friends and go on rides. My favorite ride there is the beast because it isn’t too bumpy and it has a ton of sharp turns and caves. It also is slightly scary with all of the fake warning signs. The food at Kings Island is also decent so I wouldn’t have to go get lunch. If I get tired of the rides then I can go on the water rides and the wave pool. The water rides don’t usually have the longest of lines if you get there early but if not then they are worth it. My favorite overall is the Tropical Plunge. This ride has the drop shoot, You stand in a vertical tube and you wait for the countdown and the floor drops underneath your feet. You then shoot down the tube and you make it to the end. All of these factors make Kings Island a very fun place, and the thing that I miss the most from summer.

Kids on my block always loved to play outside. Growing up we always knew each other. We cherished the times we would spend with each other. Whether it being on the Scorching hot days of Summer, the chilly days of Fall, Or the rainy days of Spring. We would be on that street hanging out and spend time with each other.

Growing up in Washington, Pennsylvania was like living out the proverb, "It takes a village to raise a child"! If I was at a friend's house and I did something wrong, their parents would chastise me! When I got home my parents were waiting for me to chastise me again! It was wonderful because everyone was like family! It was at a time when people still went to sleep with their doors unlocked! Small town America at it's best! One of my favorite things to do was on Thursday nights, all of my friends would go to the local roller rink and skate! Sometimes, especially on holidays like Thanksgiving that fell on Thursdays, kids would come from neighboring towns and from as far away as Pittsburgh to our local roller rink! It was so much fun and truly

All of these memories have been brought home to me more often now that I am raising children of my own. Unfortunately, we were not been able to give them that benefit of small town life at first. We lived for most of their childhood in the big city of Sacramento, California. We were afraid to let them go play in our own yard, much less run around the neighborhood with other kids. All of the houses seemed to be stacked up against each other. The buildings surrounding our neighborhood were

The story you are about to read is me recollecting the events of January, 6, 2008. We just moved away from Judsonia Arkansas to a place called Fisher. You see around the areas close by there are fields of beans, and other agriculture products. Fisher is a small town closer to the countryside, which I particularly didn’t mind.

If you try to race a swarm of Yellowjackets, you are in for a world of hurt. When I was 12, my friends and I decided we would have a race amongst the magnolia trees near our house in the country. Closer to a shrub than a tree, the limbs hung low to the ground, creating a perfect obstacle course for the neighborhood kids to play in. When we decided on a set of rules and nominated a referee, we made our way to our starting positions. After we started to maneuver our way through the bows and crooked trees, I ended falling behind due to me being the slowest of the bunch. It was at this point, I heard a faint noise from under my feet and immediately stopped to inspect the ground around me only to see a Yellowjacket nest. During my slow understanding of the situation, I had managed to step on and kill at least one of the yellow bugs that were guarding the nest's entrance. The reaction was not something I had

Growing up in my neighborhood was really fun. I grew up with all my friends in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Some of my friends and I joined the football team in my

Imagine going on spring break and going to the beach and anything else you want to do but with no crowds of people trying to do the same thing your doing. This is exactly what Jekyll Island is. The Island is in southern georgia only about thirty minutes from Florida. There are many things to do on Jekyll for everybody whether you like to go to the beach, go bike riding, or go golfing there, there is something for everybody to do there but without the crowd. I have been there twice now and I can say I will be going back.

To my surprise I won the contest, the contest everyone was talking about. It included a trip to a mysterious island, Turtle Island. No one knew what was so special about the island because the winners of the contest in the past were required to sign a contract to guarantee they wouldn’t tell anyone about what made the island so special. No one really knew anything about the island other than the fact that they wanted to find out what was on it. The letter I received the day before told me to meet at a pier about 2 hours away from my house. When I got to the pier the other 9 contestants were getting into the boat. About 30 minutes into the boat ride another contestant pointed out 3 huge and round rocks with trees, grass, buildings, water parks,

When all the fishing poles were loaded up and the the tack box was all organized, we piled in the little truck. The whole way there grandpa was telling me and my friend Reed all about the biggest fish he had caught in his life.

I am a women who loves to spend time with her family and friends in the woods ,at the lake, and by a campfire. I have been around hunting ,fishing, and the great outdoors, since the day I met my husband over twenty-five years ago. I have enjoyed our priceless memories of hunting and fishing together ,but I decided to come out from behind the scenes and give the boys a run for their money. In 2016,I got my first buck. It was a life changing experience . I have so much respect for God's Country and all fellow hunters that I want to share my husband's little saying "Dirty Doe" with all my family , friends, and anyone who will listen. It is a phrase he says when he is out hunting and it has seemed to have caught on with all his hunting buddies.

Chance Jones-For the fishing opener my family is heading to the cabin. My cabin is located in elk lake When it's warm out my awesome family go out on the lake and fish. My grandparent will probably come with us too. My family goes on a fishing trip this year. My family goes up to the cabin every weekend over the summer or if it nice that weekend. Me and my dad every weekend we took the boat out and find a good fishing spot. Me and my brother when we go fishing we see who catch the biggest fish. But I win every time.we fished for bass, northern pike, crappies. If they are small we let them go back in the water. On a hot day we take the boat out and go tubing with my family. Or me and my brother go swimming in our lake.

Where you grow up decides what you are going to be for the rest of your life. To describe the neighborhood that I grew up in, a lot had to do with the environment that was around us. I grew up with my brother who taught me a lot about how to behave around people and at school. Anyways very early on in our childhood we became best friends with the neighbors down the street “the Johnson’s”. My good friend was Louie who is a year younger than me and my brother George hung out with Riley who was a year older than him. I was better friends with Louie than George was with Riley, our parents were also good friends, but I spent almost all my summer days, and most weekdays after school at their house. Me and Louie played everything and did just about everything that kids did. We both had big imaginations and we both liked to adventure. We lived in a very kid friendly neighborhood due to the park behind my house which was only separated by a forest. We built all sorts of forts and came up with so many games around my pond which in total is the size about two football fields. My Dad and I make a rink every year out on my pond and both of our family's play hockey so that is always fun and competitive. We slowly, as kids do, got more mature and our games became less of a made up joke but more as a project around the neighborhood.

As a child the most important place to me was the block in my neighborhood I grew up on. It was a particularly long and very wide street with several pairs of incredibly tall palm trees spread throughout both sidewalks. There was no shortage of playmates; almost every other home on the block had children around my age I could play with. There was also an older generation of teenagers that hung around together. I also had other family members living down the street from my house on the same block. As the children played daily so did the adults. The men of the block all met daily after work rotating from one home to another. They could be seen sitting around every