The other night I was sitting at a coffee shop with some good friends having good conversation, when I began to tell them about some of my childhood experiences of going "down hoopie" with my family. Being that I am from West Virginia, and they are from Texas and Oklahoma, they had never heard the word "hoopie" and wanted to know exactly what it means. Hoopie, I told them, is a place "down the river" from where my family's home was. It was where my Grandma Altie and Grandpa Charlie lived (although they weren't actually my grandparents at all; they were the parents of my great uncle). Several times during the year, typically at squirrel, deer, or turkey season, my entire extended family on my dad's side would make the trip down the river to hoopie. Grandpa Charlie and Grandma Altie owned hundreds of acres with beautiful forests, streams, and fields and two farm houses. They lived in one of the houses, and we would stay in the other when we visited. Their house was updated, but our house had been built in the early 1900s, and no updates had been made. I only remember one electric light in the entire house: a lone lightbulb that hung over the dining room table. Accompanying the lightbulb was always a strip of flypaper, dotted with its victims. There was a water pump in the backyard, and we bathed by pouring water into the kitchen sink. There were heaters of some type in the bedrooms, but I remember that we always had to turn them off at night because there was too much of a fire risk. So we would bundle up with an abundance of blankets and wake up in the morning with icy cold noses. Despite the lack of modern creature comforts, I always smile when I think about hoopie. Here are some of my favorite memories:
- Having huge farm-style family lunches at Altie and Charlie's house when the men came in from their morning of hunting
- Exploring Altie's bookshelf and reading books that seemed so old they would surely fall apart in my hands
- Walking in the woods and seeing frog eggs for the first time (this happened shortly after I had seen E.T., and I remember asking my dad if they were E.T. eggs)
- Running through the fields, streams, and woods and catching all sorts of animals...turtles, salamanders, frogs, etc.
- Sitting around the living room and singing gospel songs, occasionally accompanied by someone playing the spoons
- Staying up late telling stories and jokes and thinking that I must have the best, most fun family in all the world
- Exploring the barns and sheds with my sister, always being fearful of meeting a snake
- Going out to the potato patch with my dad and Grandpa Charlie and sitting under the weeping willow that stood in the middle of the field
While "hoopie" is associated with a particular place for me, a more accurate definition might be that it's a state of mind...kind of like margaritaville without the alcohol and tropical weather. It's about having fun with family doing simple things. It's about unplugging from all of the "conveniences" that have crowded our lives and enjoying nature and the company of good people.
So, do you have a "hoopie"? I hope so.
