Remembering the joys of Christmas

I've always called them gravel lakes. I thought of them as places to swim, boat and fish. The first gravel lakes I experienced were at Mystic Springs (near McDavid), and I've also spent a lot of time at the gravel lakes of Bluff Springs. There are also lakes along Old Flomaton Road in Century and probably other places in the area, but I have little experience with those.

As a child and teenager I often walked with friends, brothers and cousins to the Mystic Springs gravel lakes to swim, play in the sand and gravel, pick dewberries and search for Mayhaws. During my sons' childhood we often w...