The Ole Grape Arbor

It was a Sunday afternoon one spring years ago before many people had air conditioning. My Uncle Harvey (daddy's younger brother) and his family were down from Fort Bragg (Spring Lake) and we were all over at my Aunt Callie's (daddy's older sister) and Uncle Bill's house on Live Oak Avenue, now Covil Avenue, for Sunday visit and lunch. After lunch all the men would head out to the backyard to sit under the grape arbor and later after the was cleaned the women would join them and just talk and smoke cigarettes while us kids played near by. They would talk about politics, friends and when they were children. Sure wish I could remember some of those conversations, but when you are a kid those conversation don't seem worth listening to.. The grape arbor I remember being held up by 4 huge railroad cross ties (drug from the near by railroad track after they were changed out for newer ones) probably about 8 foot apart with the vine growing up in the center. Now those were the days. The picture doesn't do justice to what the arbor looked like in the 50's.