Growing Up on Dump Ground Road - Pt. 2

“Growing Up On Dump Ground Road” was many things, but it was never boring. The idle days of summer were like a challenge to the mind of a child to discover new adventures in everyday situations. My youthful imagination was always up to the dare. Never one to sit around the house, my childhood days were spent seeking a thrill.

There wasn’t much traffic on the red dirt road in front of our house. Mostly, it was the garbage trucks headed to the landfill or the infrequent passing of a neighbor’s car on their way to or from home. Occasionally, the county maintenance crew would come by with a road grader and gravel trucks to resurface our country lane. Aside from being entertaining to watch all the activity, the graders also left us some dirt clods and small mounds of red clay on the side of the road.

Putting our young minds to work, my cousins and I decided that such an arsenal was too good to waste. So, we positioned ourselves behind the small, dirty hill with a stockpile of clods and waited for a passing car. Not long after we manned our post, we heard the sound of a truck coming up the road. With clods in hand, we huddled behind our dirt barrier in great anticipation. Finally, the truck rounded the bend and was passing our hideout. We hurled a barrage of dirt bombs at the side of the passing vehicle. What we didn’t predict was that the brake lights would come on and the driver would get out. Living in a small town, it didn’t take long for the man to figure out who we were and where we lived. After all, our bunker was located in our grandmother’s front yard.

Thankfully, our foolish fun only resulted in a scolding from a stranger and a warning not to ever do that again. He could have told our parents, but he demonstrated a measure of grace amidst his grumbling. The lesson that I took with me from that experience is that our actions have consequences. What we did not realize at the time was that we could have caused someone to have a serious accident. While we considered it to be harmless fun, what we did could have resulted in someone being injured or killed. To this day, I think about the choices that I make and the impact they will have on the

people around me, due to a scary childhood experience on “Dump Ground Road.”

Serving in love,

Bro. Jim