The Girls of Beaver

In the very early '60's Erma and Curly Fruits purchased some land where the White and War Eagle Rivers empty into what would become Beaver Lake in northeastern Arkansas and built a small home.

Erma was a widow with three children. She met and married Curly Fruits when the kids we not quite grown. They were a fun couple, with a love of the outdoors, their family, dogs and a cold beer.

Their oldest daughter, Virginia, is my mother's mother.

I was born in '64 and spent so much of my childhood with them at the modest little home in the Arkansas woods. Rising early in the morning to fish with my grandpa Curly, snuggling into a warm bed in the back room reading Readers Digest, playing Yahtzee at the kitchen table, sitting on the front porch listening to the adults talk, sing and laugh.

My Grandma Virginia has four children. My cousins were such a huge part of my life growing up. Our family is close...sometimes painfully so...we fight, we laugh, we support, we protect, we love.

My mother's older sister has two girls. Two and four years older than me. I was the bratty little cousin who followed them around, wanting to do everything they did. They didn't kill me...I thank them for this.

My mother's youngest brother also has two daughters, very close in age to my sister. Thick as thieves, those three. We didn't kill them...they haven't ever thanked us for that...hmmmm.

The two boys, my brother and a much younger boy cousin...they were just "the boys". Not ignored...just, not girls.

The girls, well....we're pretty tight. Still.

When Erma and Curly were gone my folks bought the little place at the end of Pine Creek Hollow Road. It is the only place left of my childhood. It is where I return to remember...who I am and where I came from.

I spent the weekend in Pine Creek Hollow with my cousins, two very close friends (HP's-Honorary Petty's) and my oldest cousin's daughter...we are training the next generation of Petty girls.

It's our annual 'Girls Weekend". We began nine years ago. The participants have changed some...narrowing down to Pettys and two HP's. The best two days of the year.

Janet is wise, confident and cool headed, soon to be a grandma...wow!
Carrie...Carrie is a nut, a very accomplished, together, successful nut, crazy about her boys...or maybe the boys are making her crazy?
Kim is intense, loud and passionate, funny and fiercely loyal, my closest confidant, also crazy about or being driven crazy by her boys.
Bec is the most honest, real person I know, no middle ground.
Donna is the loudest person, funny...oh my god is she funny, she has two persona's...professional and lunatic and she likes to have her things lined up just so.
Tracy laughs more than anyone I know, bright and goofy.
Amanda, she is a Petty through and through...spunky, talks easy, loves animals, honest and genuine...as only the young can be.
Me...I think I'm invited because I'm good at crowd control...that and I'm the only one who knows how to turn the water on and I have a key.

We laugh, we eat, we float, we talk about everything. Cold beer, sunburns, egg salad, enchialdas, the gooey feel of lake mud between my toes, the smell of a plastic float, blowing a fuse, the sound of the bathroom pocket doors, the smell of bug spray, coffee with sweetened condensed milk, oreos, the walmart stop, ETFB (estimated time of first beer).

These are the girls of Beaver.

Erma would be proud.