“A Brief Vacation”

Newark Journal, Newark Arkansas, 19 June 1908
O. F. Craig, Publisher
Copyright held by Robert D. Craig and may not be used for reprint except by expressed consent.

Oscar Franklin Craig, 1875-1941, reminisces in the following article about a trip back to Obion  County, Tennessee.

A Brief Vacation
Pleasant Moments Recalled by Trip to the Old Boyhood Home

Union City, Tenn., Jun 16. (1908) — A little vacation is a wonderful tonic for the man who has been tied down to office work ten to fourteen hours a day for four or five years, I feel considerably invigorated already as a result of the few days spent here, carefree, ‘midst the scenes of boyhood, and have lived over again many of the little incidents of the years gone by, when a rag saturated in turpentine adorned the big toe of one or both feet.

About a mile from town is the old country school house, known as Pleasant Valley, where I attended my first school.

Can anything be more pleasant for just a few moments in the busy humdrum of after years, than to permit your mind to wander back to the days of your school life? The sweet memories and incidents that came up; the smiling faces, pleasant countenances; the old school house, the playground, the old school house door that has so often swung back to admit the motly crowd of youngsters; the very old walls and everything speak forth of the happy hours: while in your mind’s eye you behold the teacher who labored so patiently and faithfully with the little crowd of anarchists whom she must transform into great (?) And useful men and women. As these pleasant memories come back to one, they eye is almost moistened as he realizes that those days are gone forever, and so many who took part in those happy hours have crossed over the great river.

As we contemplate that never again will those days return; that the participants who so joyously romped the play ground together, are scattered far and wide, and some departed to their eternal home, one is painfully reminded of the swiftness of time and is made to realize that we are fast journeying toward the setting sun.

It has been about twenty years since I left here, and in some respects twenty years works may changes.

Today I am going down to the famous Reel Foot Lake, about twenty-two miles from town. This lake is about fifteen miles long and about seven miles wide at the widest places, while at some places it is not more than thirty feet wide. It was made by the earthquake of 1812 and in some places is so deep that no bottom has ever been found. This is perhaps the most noted fishing resort in the entire South and thousands of pounds of fish are taken from its waters every years. For some three or four years it has been under the control of a corporation which has sought to monopolize the rights of taking fish from its waters, but the Night Riders have been taking a hand in the matter and have about succeeded in freeing the lake.

We who have known nothing of the Night Riders except what we read in the papers except what we read in the papers about the burning of the great tobacco barns in Kentucky, look upon them as a lawless and blood-thirsty set, but it seems that they have accomplished much good in many instances, one of which is the freeing of this great fishing resort from the grasp or a corporation that sought only to bring dollars and cents into its own coffers.

I heard a prominent man remark yesterday that so long as the Night Riders confined their operations to the lines pursued in the community heretofore, there was not a jail in Tennessee that would hold them nor a jury that would convict them.

But here comes the rig to take me to the lake, so I must cut this short and skidoo. O. F. C
(Oscar Franklin Craig)