# Re: Summer story

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Posted by Pete on April 04, 2021 at 00:49:30

In Reply to: Summer story posted by Austen on April 03, 2021 at 01:37:25:

Those sound like good memories, Austen. One thing I regret about growing up is that my family never really had big get-togethers with the whole extended family. We had some cousins we'd see every so often, and our grandparents every couple years, but that was it. Different parts of our family were usually feuding, and my parents chose just not to involve themselves with it, which was probably good on some level, but also meant we never really got to know our aunts, uncles and cousins.

On the other hand, I had amazing friends growing up, and wouldn't trade anything for that - and we got up to plenty of "redneck" adventures ourselves. I'm working on getting this story finished, but me and my friends, with some help from my dad, built what my mom sarcastically called a "redneck waterpark" in a lake near our house - a raft we used as a diving platform out in the middle of the lake, a rope swing over the water, a zip line, even a redneck water slide. We were super proud of it! Going to a "real" water park was a rare treat, I think me and my brother asked to go once or twice for a birthday gift, but we'd honestly rather splash around in our own home made version. Less crowded, no lifeguards yelling at you, and no chlorine in the water to hurt your eyes!

On another note, I actually moved to North Carolina once I got out of high school for my first job, as a firefighter. Rural North Carolina and rural West Virginia have a lot in common, and if you spent some time in NC, you probably have a rough idea of what life in W.Va. would have been like. Not to go too far off on a tangent, but I think NC has done a much better job with its economy, and attracting tourism and other business. W.Va. was, and still is, stuck on this coal mining thing that's been a dying industry for almost a century at this point, so the cycle of poverty just keeps getting worse and worse, but no one wants to try anything NEW to try to fix it!

Anyway I won't get too political here. But thanks for sharing your story, and thanks for reminding me to get to work on my own!

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