MORE ON THE HOLLIDAY FAMILY CEMETERY

WELL……

Summer is in full swing and the heat and humidity in Alabama is fierce and unrelenting! Years ago, when many of “The Greatest Generation” were still around, we had “HOLLIDAY FAMILY REUNIONS” in Sulligent almost every Summer. Once all the food was shared that everyone had brought to share, and everything was cleaned up, and we had all visited with one another and exclaimed over the sweet babies and beautiful children, and taken photographs and so forth, some of the more hardy crowd would decide to go out to visit the family cemetery.

About 15 years ago, my mother and my daughter and my grandchildren (then about 5 years old and 1 year old or so), along with my brothers and their families decided to join the caravan to visit the cemetery. Now, please know that it was ‘hotter than hades’ and we were all kind of gasping for air before we even got started good! Couple that with the fact that the cemetery is on a dirt road - a RED DIRT ROAD - so the red dirt was swirling around us and please know that this trip was a labor of family love!

And once we arrived, we all piled out of our cars and blithely entered the gate of the chain link fence, talking and chatting and wandering from headstone to headstone and even discussing whether one of our Great Grandfathers actually buried his horse on the outer boundary of the cemetery - and if he did, exactly where did he bury it?!? We were having a great time, even in light of the afore-mentioned heat, humidity and red dirt.

But, even the heat and the humidity and the red dirt and all of the accompanying miseries from these things absolutely pale to insignificance to what was waiting for us - hidden and horrifying……. chiggers…….

If you happen to live where you don’t have chiggers and you don’t know about chiggers, let me enlighten you! According to WebMD, outdoor fun “sometimes comes with a price -- an itchy rash from pests you can't even see.” These are chiggers - bugs so small you probably can’t see them, but they can definitely ruin a few days for you! Of course, you won’t have any idea what’s happening at first. You don’t really see them, and probably don’t feel them as they grab hold of your pants legs and so forth and begin crawling around looking for a patch of flesh to attach to! They can end up anywhere, but provide utter misery wherever they end up! The itching is indescribable and the usual remedies for skin irritations may or may not work - the effects from chigger bites are as persistent as are the ‘little buggers’ themselves! Time may be your only hope…..

Most of us got them….. Some of us worse than others….. My 5 year old granddaughter - who was being carried by one of my brothers mind you so that her feet never hit the ground, ended up with one under her arm! Merciful Heavens……

There is no doubt that it was a nightmare for several days and has most likely given me and my daughter a slight case of immortal fear about getting out into the great outdoors to have a picnic or take a walk in a wooded area or pretty much anything else with the common denominators of Summer, outdoors, walking in the grass - and not having any bug spray handy.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m glad we went to the cemetery! The sober reality of all those who came before us and worked so hard to create a new life for themselves in what was the “wilderness” of the early days after Alabama became a state sort of washes over you as you look at their headstones - and those of all the babies.

I think a lot about my ancestors and the courage and determination and hard work they possessed to be able to do all that they did. I think about my Great Grandmother Holliday who gave birth to those 10 children in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s. And I think about there being no air conditioning. (Of course, their house had a dog trot, thank goodness for them!)

But to be perfectly honest, I also think about chiggers……. and I have a feeling that they definitely dealt with chiggers in those days - most likely without the benefit of calamine lotion - and I have pity mixed in with all the pride in and gratitude for each one of those folks that lived and worked and provided the foundation that has allowed me to live in the comfort of air conditioning and the joy of paved roads and the amazing privilege of being a citizen of the United States of America…… and the freedom from chiggers as long as I never forget the bug spray and think carefully before I think I want to take a leisurely stroll through the family cemetery!