After reminiscing with remembrances of the old Tongie Pool of my youth, only joy and exuberance would be the words and thoughts of the day as we gleefully looked forward with youthful anticipation to a loud splash, screaming and hollering as we made our way from the muddy, hog ponds of our farms. Ponds being filled with what seemed like snapping turtles from the Jurassic period, unknown quantities of snakes bobbing beside you or wallowing in the deep holes of Jarbalo Creek, filled with those things of the unknown, including enough pesticides to cauterize your retinas.

What a wonderful, carefree time it was, not only for myself but for those of my mother’s generation as well, and we all have the finest of memories of steamy, sticky days, scratching chigger bites and bee stings and exchanging them for a refreshing fellowship with the old Tongie Pool, which shone like the Hale-Bopp Comet as we entered Tongie.

Hearing the kids screaming and enjoying themselves with reckless abandon that comes only with youth was truly to behold. Well, the time has come to replace the old with the new, but thankfully, in the same location, which seemingly preserves some of our thoughts. So long to Chief Tongie Pool of the past and say hello to a new generation of happy kids. Thanks for the great memories.