Finding Puppies/ Indian Mounds

When I was a child, things were so much simpler. We were poor but we had love. (Sounds like Loretta Lynn's song). That's the one thing My Mama made sure of."
Pregnancy and sex and body parts were not part of our everyday conversation.
In fact when I married into this family, I was surprised at how freely the word, "Butt" was used. It was as free as any word.
Whoa!!! Not in my family though.
That was a No NO!!!
Bull, (male cow) we were not allowed to say Bull, I had to call them Boy Cows.
No kidding, I am not lying or exaggerating.
Our language was monitored very carefully. When reading the Bible, (even after I was married) I refused to say (Ass). I found the word embarrassing in public.
So I say all this to let you know of the simpler times, the better times, (if you will). To me they were better, as I at the age of 64 see so much lacking in the raising of children.
Too many words are allowed. Too much free time on their hands, Time they should be in the woods digging for treasures. Maybe even drawing pirate maps, we did that too.
OH I was a Tom Boy.
It makes me sad. No, Mams or sirs, We HAD to say Sir to our Dad and Mam to our Mom.
You better mean it too, Never a Yep or Yeah. That got us in a lot of trouble.
It was Mama and Daddy. Total respect was shown or we were shown why we were to do it. My dad did not allow bad words around Mama even from the big boys after they were grown, And he would say, "You don't talk like that around your Mama. "

So to get to my subject.
David and I often discuss how our childhoods were.
During one such conversation I remembered the puppies.
When one of our Dogs had puppies, my Mom would say, "That old dog found puppies again"
She would be so irritated. We lived in the country so they had room to roam , But how did they just go out and find puppies. ( I think the boys gave them away, maybe I don't want to know what happened to them). Perhaps they became Junk Yard Dogs. (that is another story).
That is what I heard so that is what I thought happened. A dog would go into the woods, dig up puppies and bring them home. Simple? Not so much.
My cousins, Pauline (Polly) and Ruth (Boopee) used to search the woods for puppies. We would dig around old trees, We would listen intently for a yelp, We never found puppies.
So how did the dogs find their puppies. I wanted to find puppies.
We would often question our Moms on this and they would say, Just keep looking, (that kept us busy) I bet they had a good laugh after we walked out.
I know that sounds so made up but it really happened that way.
I was maybe 11 years old before I sort of figured it out. I think that is when my Older brother got married and his wife had a baby. OH I had limited Sex ed in school. It was the 50's so most was pretty closed mouth and only the girls sat in on part of it. Boys had their own class.
No, I did not wonder if she found Pat. I saw my sister in laws tummy growing each month and then I understood more.
So that is part of my naivete.

Now on to more silly things I thought. However it was innocence. Don't you just love innocence?

I grew up in Arkansas. Somehow I heard of Indian Mounds. ( Recently After researching family history, I discovered my ancestors were called The Mound Indians.) Kä'dohädä'cho.
It was told to me by an elderly cousin, they lived around Caddo Creek in the Malvern Area. How interesting. That tribe was often called the Caddo Creek Indians.
It is told that my Great Grandpa X 5 or 6 used to go to the camp and live for a few months. His Mom was full blood Indian but his dad was not. His Dad my Great grandpa X 6 or 7 was killed by a group of men.
Apparently the men approached him and his Indian wife and began making derogatory remarks about my Indian Grandma, My grandpa defended her honor and lost his life doing so.
It is told, She was a beautiful lady, that rode her horse side saddle, She delivered eggs to the locals who would purchase them. After the death of my grandpa she did remarry and I believe it was to a Denton. That part of history is pretty vague.
My daughter is researching so maybe she can find more for me on that subject.


I also discovered my dad was quite a horse rider too, The first time my Mom met him, she was about 13 and he rode up on a beautiful horse, She had to shimmy up a porch post to get a bundle of onions for him to buy. She told me she was so embarrassed, as she was a young lady and only wore dresses, and he was a black haired, handsome man, about 18 years old.

So back to the Indians.
They built mounds for burial Etc.
Never knowing it was part of our legacy, or history, I was very interested in these mounds.
Again Ruth, Polly and I would take our spades to the woods and dig up mounds. There seemed to be a lot of mounds in our neck of the woods.
We never found anything. Good thing too, That would have been illegal. ( we did not know it)
We probably only dug down about 6 inches. Stopping after exhaustion or our short attention span was directed to some more promising mound.
I loved the freedom of the open woods and places to explore, With today's society it is difficult to let your children out of your sight.
So I can let you know of my freedom and lack of fear, But I always had to answer when called. In other words I better be able to hear my Mama call.
So I did not wander far.


Hope you enjoy this little blast from my past.