Summer Fun in Lincoln, Tennessee - 1930's Style

There were three places my grandfather mentioned in The First Thirty Years that he and his friends played as a youngster. See the map from May 15 post for the location (numbers 9, 10 and 11).

Number 9

Bucks Mill Pond. The community swimming hole where I learned to swim. This was the "Poor Man's" corn pone community recreation park. Back in the 30's it was equipped with a convenient leaning tree, with a steel cable and hoe handle that had been installed by Tip Stewart, who lived near-by. It was on this contraption that the older boys performed miraculous acrobatics to the envy of us younger ones.

Us younger boys were exposed to our first burlesque shows when the young men of courting age with their girls, with morals beyond reproach and children of our most respected families of this community on occasion go skinny dipping in the pond, while us younger boys hid in the bushes with eyes bugged out, this practice of playing super spy ended abruptly when Jack Simms crouched down buck naked behind some bushes in a patch of poison ivy. Even today when I see one of the parties, then involved, it is hard to keep a straight face.

Number 10

"The Bluff." A swimming hole closer to the village and home, the main disadvantage was that it had no swing and access to the water was through a patch of stinging weeds.

Number 11

The Bridge swimming hole (we did a lot of swimming, didn't we). This was at the main bridge of Flint River on the Vanntown-Flintville road, easy to get to when we needed to take a quick dip, to just cool off.

I don't have any photos of the places being describe above, so I am sharing a few photos of my grandfather at about the age he would have been during this time.

The House at Lincoln
L-R: Timothy Marsh, Blanche Marsh, Richard Marsh and Della Flanders

Timothy Marsh and mother Blanche Marsh

Timothy Marsh and mother Blanche Marsh