vickie gee
Well-Known Member
Camp Albert Pike...started camping there when I was around 12 years old. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought such devastation would occur in a place where I have such fond memories. I am sure you have all heard about the flash flood due to heavy rains there early Friday morning which has resulted in at least 18 deaths. Life is so precious. I am reminded to treat it as such. Although it is around 2-3 hours from the area I live in it is such a popular place for people here to travel to and escape this Texas heat. I knew when I heard the news Friday that I would know families of some of the victims and I just hoped that I would not know any of the victims personally. The dread became reality as I got to work this morning. Two of the victims worked where I do. Both also had a grandchild also pass in the flood. Another father and daughter were friends with my son and his family. In the nearby community the news came out of a lovely young mother, her child, and even the grandmother also among those that did not make it. I still have not heard all the names of those who drowned...I am just relieved that the number did not go as high as originally reported. I pray for all the souls that were lost there. I will still cling to the memories of all the times I camped there both as a child and as an adult. It was there I first taught someone to swim. Went on my first snipe hunt. Got my first kiss (from the boy who got daddy's permission to take me snipe hunting), first listened to Jethro Tull, got my first whiff of pot (even though I did not figure out for several years what it was), saw cherry bombs explode in water, realized that early-developed curvy twelve year old girls had an advantage over us skinny beanpoles, learned to love mountain views and floats down the river in old inner tubes or air mattresses that you had to constantly stop to blow more air in, experienced the scariness of walking into the old Indian graveyard late at night, and always the smell of a huge breakfast being cooked outdoors. It is these memories that helps me to understand that all those who perished up there Friday were there to enjoy nature and make their own memories. They had no way of knowing. God bless their families.
