Rod (Roddy) Johnson

My mom, brother, and I moved to Enterprise when Dad had to go off to this place overseas called Vietnam. I had no idea what that meant or where it was. All I knew was I got to live with my grandparents in the world's best playground. We had trees and a chicken coup and a barn with a tractor. Those places were the stages for battles, exploits, and expeditions into the wild unknown conjured by my imagination.

Just living there was an adventure for a kid. PawPaw would wake up early in those cold mornings and go around the house lighting the gas space heaters. I'd follow at his heels watching everything and ready to take my turn holding the match. Funny thing is that I don't think I ever did light one of those. There was talk of them being dangerous which I thought was nonsense. I never see a checker board without remembering PawPaw. When I pick up a checker today and see those tiny ridges in the top and bottom where the checkers fit together, it's like I am right back there in Enterprise sitting at the table with him. Dominoes were also serious business and not to be taken lightly as I learned when I once let on to Uncle Dan which dominoes PawPaw had in his hand.

Better even than all that childhood play was the food, oh my the food we had. I remember the big Lazy Susan on the dining room table that always seem to have a chocolate cake sitting at the exact middle and I can still taste the grilled cheese sandwich that came out of the black cast iron skillet on Mammaw's stove. There was also a never ending supply of biscuits with Karo syrup. I would have lived off those three delicacies but since everyone was always trying to get me to eat healthy food, I got a lot of cream corn. I never ate any of other vegetables until Aunt Anne introduced me to the wonders of sweet peas with a spoonful of mayonnaise on top.

Best of all were the days when my cousins came to visit. Living way out there I didn't have too many other children with whom to talk. When family came I got to find out about things like baseball and Boy Scouts. I learned about football watching the the ball being tossed back and forth in the front. A lot of valuable wisdom was also there for the taking. Five year old me didn't understand until much later why Elvin always said it was important to have a sharp knife handy if I ever had sisters.

It has been close to 50 years since that wonderful time but Enterprise still lives and shapes the way I look at the world. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.