Wild at Heart

The title of the book, Wild at Heart brings back childhood memories. My wild side came out when I was invited to go “up on the river” with Granddad, Nannie, Uncle Ray and Aunt Sylvia.

They owned a cabin on the Greenbrier River a couple of hours drive from my childhood home in West Virginia. It is not known for its Class V rapids like the New River, instead it is a serene, slow moving river that typically floods countless houses every few years. However, that doesn’t deter people from owning summer cabins on the banks of the river.

Each of the three bedrooms in the cabin was sparsely decorated with a couple of twin beds covered in a hand-quilted bedspread. The creaking of the old wooden floors wasn’t noticeable until the wee hours of the morning when I would tiptoe across them to go to the bathroom.

The bathroom was not just down the hall. Instead it was a “two holer” outhouse. If you didn’t grow up in Southern West Virginia, you may not know about the Cadillac of outhouses that was equipped with two seats instead of just one.

Going outside in the middle of the night was frightening and fun all at the same time. My grandmother would get out of bed and walk with me to ward off scary wild animals that could be waiting to eat me up. One night my grandmother decided that she would also use the facilities while she was there.

As we walked the short distance down the tree-lined path, she lit a cigarette. She sat it down as she took a seat beside me on the round wooden open hole. She immediately jumped up, screaming bloody murder. Nannie grabbed me by the arm and yanked me right off the wooden seat. I screamed, “What’s wrong?” and Nannie, who is usually calm, cool and collected yelled, “A snake just bit me on the butt in the outhouse!” Aunt Sylvia, Uncle Ray and Granddad come running out of the cabin with a flashlight in hand.

Granddad carefully opened the door and went into the outhouse with a shovel. We waited to hear him take on the snake. Instead we heard laughing. He came out carrying Nannie’s cigarette that he had picked up off of the edge of the seat. All of us started laughing and knew that it was a story we would tell for years to come.

I returned the Wild at Heart book that Tim had checked out of the library. Today’s gift was to give away the companion workbook that he bought years ago. Hopefully, someone will be able to remember their wild experiences as they read through it.

In Giving,

Robin