In my daily travels along the roads and side streets of Yazoo City this summer, I have noticed countess children enjoying their summer break by riding their bicycles all over different parts of town, and congregating at several different snowcone stands as a way to beat the heat.
Seeing all those kids having fun brings back memories of how my friends and I used to spend our summers in my hometown of Hazlehurst.
It was and still is a small town, and most of our parents either worked or lived inside the city limits, and we kids were allowed to ride bikes along the main streets of town, mostly in the areas centered around the courthouse.
We would ride up and down sidewalks and even into certain neighborhoods, cutting through the backyards and lawns of our friends and neighbors, generally causing a ruckus as most kids do when they are having fun.
Usually in the late morning, when the sun was almost at its peak in the sky, a person would find about 15 kids clustered in the doorway of a small snowcone shack in the middle of town, right next door to the old train depot with its caboose parked next door.
The sweet elderly lady who ran the store would always wait patiently while we kids scraped together our pocket change to purchase a ten cent popsicle, or even a twenty-five cent snow cone.
Once everyone got their desired treat, we could be seen either climbing all over that old caboose, or comparing the blue, green, red, or purple color stains on our tongues, all while being watched under our host's careful eye.
I never learned her name, but I think that lady enjoyed our daily visits to her store, and I remember her grape snow cones always tasted a little bit sweeter each time, as if she made them with love.
It always makes me smile when I see our local kids having fun in the summer time. Maybe one day soon I will stop and enjoy a grape snow cone, just for old times sake.
