Out for a stroll on Red Hill

On any given spring or summer day you may find these geese strolling along the side of Red Hill on West Chatham Street in Apex NC. The geese have become a regular part of the character of that area and they frequent the small pond just up the hill from this scene.

In May and June of each year the hill in the right of the picture comes alive when the Erin's Prairie daylily flowers come into full bloom.

During winter months Red Hill, a name that goes back to the 1940s-60s, was a favorite place for local sledders when winter days were short and snow blanketed the town. The hill was routinely blocked off by local police for a day or two, depending on the severity of the snow, and sledders from all over town would flock to the spot to race down the steep hill. Many a run down the hill would end in the ditch on either side or sometimes lead to crashing into a tree along the way. Rarely did anyone ever get seriously hurt, much to the surprise of the many that raced down the hill.

Even during modern times, the hill continues to be a destination location for sledders on the occasional day when a deep snow falls around the town. This has truly become one of the places where memories are made and remains a site for one of the traditions locals remember long after they have grown up and found other activities to bide their time.

Dad's garden

In the 1950s and 60s my Dad always planted a garden in the back yard. He labored long and hard all summer to raise a crop of vegetables and melons when the days were long. He would get up early before the day got hot and go out and labor in the garden each day to make sure everything was done that could help produce a bounty my Mom could can for the winter. When times were good and the rain came, most times the garden did well.

My part of the job was to pull weeds and chop the garden with an old hoe. Several days each week after school I headed to the garden to carry out the work assigned to me to help the process along. Chopping, pulling weeds, setting stakes, tying up tomato plants and later picking the beans, okra, tomatoes and squash as they began to come in made up a daily routine. The days got hotter as they got longer and each year the task seemed to last forever. When I got older, I was allowed to spray a white powdered insecticide with an old tin hand-pump sprayer onto the blossoms and plants in a continuing struggle to stay ahead of the season's bugs that also wanted their share of the produce.

After most summers we ended the season with a lot of jars of all the items the garden produced and stashed them in the small pantry in the kitchen. During the winter, one or two of the jars would be taken out every day or so to add to the other food items my Mom would bring home from the grocery store. The old garden went a long way to help provide the food we needed and is now a cherished memory of life "back in the day" when times were slower and life was good.

As I got older, the garden slowly faded into the past. My Dad continued to make the effort to have a garden most summers, but as he got older his time was more often spent going to his day job at the local auto dealership each day. The space the garden occupied gradually became part of the lawn I continued to mow until I graduated from college. My Dad passed away a month before I graduated from college and the annual garden became a thing of the past and a distant memory of how it used to be.

The old leather belt

 

Ahhh... the old leather belt. The one that served through many years in my career job and through all the years of raising four wonderful children with my wife and lifetime partner. The belt that was my favorite for some 25 years or so. It recently wore out from buckling it too many times and almost broke in half at one of the holes. I tucked it away thinking that after a while I would eventually decide to part with it.

Then one day I discovered a new product called Gorilla Glue! The glue that can hold most anything together. Almost as popular as Duct tape!

I applied some Gorilla Glue to the leather along the tear and clamped it to dry overnight. The next day I checked back to see if the glue had worked it's magic, and surely enough the belt was in good enough shape to occasionally use again. It hangs proudly once again on my clothes rack next to the new one I purchased when I thought this one was gone for good.

Yes, it does get to be worn again from time to time and will eventually become one of the items I pass on to my family.