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Show O S R e ; ™ haa et O e e T e T et R i Y Pt i i e P R e W i i AT il * the dam?” we asked the ~ hiker. The man looked at us - like we were lost or stupid. Coverixlg roads left 'eXposed’ - cameon the heels of several * tough years, losing the crop ~ the past few years, ‘watched it climb the walls at the neck of ) wouid mean losing “the oper~ the waterline at the neck of the dam, inching toward the ~ ation,’ bemg forcedto the dam and tried to rememwaterline. Then, fullto the - sell out. " Stealing water was =~ ber it had ever really been " fingers, we began to watch the - no small offense, and guard“that high. marks beside the spillway, They drained it. to work - Ing 1t was necessary for survival. No one was evet shot in on it, to reinforce it, to make ~ slowing each day as we those ditch wars, not on the it more earthquake proof ~ rounded the ninety degree i trying to save each precious drop. We looked at air, telling us that summer is indeed, over. We watch it {reeze around the shores, “The dam is three or s0 watch as the rim of ice creeps mdes southwest,” ‘he sa.rd toward the center. We watch the fishermen move in and crouch around their dark holes, peering like Demeter “swinging his body around, motioning in the direction of that wall of concrete. ~ - dam'ingo the crisp autumnn “How much f&i‘fllfil‘ to 3 T, g TN O v N — \i\, ATERKN@ E H T “ rg“hrs . trail doesn’t go to the dam.” - He caught our blank looks “and added, “Oh, you mean ~ something like that. I-was riv- into the black underworld, quiet, trance-like, waiting, around it each morning, “glancing at the dam. Or what used to be the dam. The - often with children, sit in alu- This trail eom’e‘s out below the boat ramp.” ‘We know the Jatin 1is; the B minum boats and rubber rafts brown mud was an ulcer. I reeling in crappie in the - watched in horror/fascination - hid the black marks with a | inlets. We watch the bright as 1t grew off their winter paunches appear, decades-old connec- LT AR T S T S have. Probably always will. “from another time. The finWe called it Cooney Dam ger-like extensions of the dam ;’ ~ where I grew up, and I call 1t' - became swamps, then meadPineview Dam here. - ows, as the water receded And we watch it. It isa ~ from fingertip, to knuckle, to - constant in our lives. We ~ watch mrst,rls_lng from the T TR .._._1_._-....-..:.»-- 0 ......._.-\. -_-4.-.................................................................................. .......... Tl river below. - My hiker friend says the TR | Farm-wives tried to maintain strained friendships, but drew in tighter and tighteras the - summer progressed mostly - staying home. Neighbors, ‘who 1n better times hayed and threshed or combined ‘ grain together, communicated . with shouts and threats at i;he g sausfactlon in a dam full of | Water In the west, water ls hfe. | “Ttwas a dry vvmter thls year, but last summer was - cool and wet, and the dan'lo “still looked healthy last fall, | ' Once again, the mist rose as reasonwe feel personal trithe nights cooled off in umph with the fllingof th’e‘ )| “autumn, and this winter flsh-- | o dam is because we are botl1 - ~ ermen peppered the sheet of TN ~ country girls, daughters of 1ce. This spring the water is - farmers, ranchers I rememon the rise. We watched 1t s " body from our prying eyes. And it snowed. And it snowed Our hopes for the - dam rose like the snowdrifts ~_obscuring our houses from ~ ber drought years - my father ; chmb to the waterline, and ~ we check the black lines near | sight. The meteorologlst said, called it “drouth” - when . “This is dry snow. There’s ~ farmers sometimes guarded | ™ with wellbeing. ‘We watched it, proud as new parents, the amniotic {luid leaklng into the that covered the lifeless form, that hid the hemorrhagrng | - the palm holding water in « 'eeupped hands as _ ing dry years we worrted. = - ditchbank. Old memories, whose baby was two weeks | salt into the wound. | - It was better when it snowed, the snow a shroud tions surfacing like specters Bailey Ditch at least, but dur- tom. It seemed to us that the ~ but strong onés. Small wondam was over-ripe, a mother - der that we derive personal - surveyed the damage, rubblng - We see submerged roads “the dam”-as well. Always colors dancing into the air when it crashed at the bot- ‘some part of me as raw as the ~-overdue, bulging uncomfortgaping mud. Each morning I ~ably, but brimming with life, ~ years, we watched it go down. fee, wearing holes in their sending prisms ‘of rainbow like a freak show, and I felt new loss each morning as the “water crept farther down into the neckof the reservoir, But mosflv.we watch the level of the water. In drought ~ irngating boots. But, we call the water behlnd the barrier N triumph down the spillway, SEREAS - from too much pie and cof- 3 the splllway each day. Itis ™ e T -gr " not much moisture in it. _ the headgate on the ditch at ~ getting close to the top and We re still in adrought PEAE * night with rifles in their laps. 4» we have hopes that it wall fill 5 T But stll. - T T oms BOIURIES ."7}'AUTO ACCIDENTS T CHILDREN WELCOME fifi&&m M&Yfifiéflii’ suamea 4§ HEADACHES DISC PROBLEMS T 2 . QR LEWIS D. Q&R?Efi 2580 N H%W tél EDEN 5(}% OFF Initial Evam darp&r izez,%g Mwe'mznéhzreprsatse | €xgxreei ~3t-49 mwmmwmmmmmmmmmmmw ¢ s was sometimes stolen in the " we: mrgllt make it.” Ttisa G B middle of the mght and it . promising start, a hopeful wav5 pdes of snow surroundlng our ~ was serious busmess If a fel— ey to ‘begin the summer, a feel- slid from the roofs onto the houses. Even if it was dry i low : lost his crop, it meant a ~ ing like money in the bank year of uncertainty, a year of : - A few more good spring snow, it was so much snow. . "We watched that spring mmmmmmmmsfi L TR landmark it passed a new vic- ~ finance the seed, the fertiliztory. We watched as it slid ~ er, the gasoline it would take up to the boat ramps, crawled “to put a new crop in the AR 23 2% S R ’X?E) EERETE L~ AN, A R P Hubiin R G Nery ‘,\.—\\., “}",)\'{J;lf‘.')t 12 ;,’ \:- ] " THE AD | ANSWERED ABOUT \\ My PERSISTENT HEADACHES SENTM £ ) (2 BSPIRIN AND SAID TO MAIL THEM Y ! ma*msa fim IN THE MORNING !/ o Some things are meant to be bougltt over the phone hje insurance isn’t one of thenr OPEN | WAYNE V. PEART_\; ?12 S 7400 B. Huntgville ’}‘e§ {23»{33}"’45 ’%? . 745-2728 61 2-2886 ;{3”,‘, . O vumtsvile ;;_-’;,.ft%nrs&mfie watchmg Crime Prex-'emi(m: [t’s “o faughng Maves ,’"“ o us over the top. Count on it, 5 full or not, we will be here | - ground next spring. Ifit toward the swampy fingers 7. FOR - ALL YOUR INSURANCE '_;)féctmn.; t"»’itdrui Lpuekew is tsef *wn*t» wmmz‘ku t ;*» vh aise 31 ered Dy mail In some cuses, schicmes e fhealth ihis f PP e buft around legitimare E’It‘&;iii.?"v leading viciims inas DY ficwn f?s.msm'&»fi 3(’“””’0‘3‘ A swindles, Consult medicu professt “ctix for advice hat meels your mdividual YO Sugg.se:.ci.»liil'.-tii_ tratd hea. h oneeds. s vour posuster o ' : | The !nsurance Group y y Sheriffs Office esCount the Weber of rt “Cou ‘ - storms this week should put doing without, a winter of worrying if the bank would 'BED AND eeewAM?«%S? ; “snow on the mounlams as we . ~ With this coupon, receive A My friend and I look for = his share of the water. Water - walk. “Still some up there; as the dam began to fill, each mmmm‘mmmmmma&mwfi S Nsw Year's ?@sotutwns hd :fisy'mdumm-mmmwmafi'mfiobfi:' '745-0977 mmmmmmmmwmwmmwwwmmmmmmmmm Maifie Chiropractic one of your - 'The crops were burnmg up and each man meant to get . We shoveled our roofs three, four times." Our sidewalks resembled topless tunnels. Our (,hrldren | *emmx AND gwmm&: wsstru mzz“ - T gl and grew, replacing - watery hand. It tumbled in H the blue-gray waterscape with like butterflies in early sum-——— -an ever-larger wound. It | commanded my attention © mer, and later watchas | saileliders skim the surface skiers zig and zag across ‘the to long.two by twos propped - blue water pocked Wlth boat ‘over their shoulders, wearing 3 after boat. TN turn, straining to see how many. of the black marks the water had eovered m the , | mght It happened The water bellied up to the waterline, - eted, still following the road | ,Eaeh Spring their counterparts, impatient, younger the res-er-vwah? The reservoIr 18 about two miles down. ~ barrier that holds the water back. Didn’t our fathers walked for mdes on summer days with canvas dams nailed P Volume 1, E%seueg | J eneery T P Ogden yerrey News -—-Page-8 ' | Valruflg C'?lSl_f?nrers:As Parmeis e L e AR |