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Ceralvo
"The Flood"
a jrd stat on 12/12/10.
My neighbor was a young girl in 1937, and was living in the old Barnard (Her
grandparents) house with her parents and other siblings. This house was used, at
one time, as a hotel. Eddie and Carrie Heflin, and their children, watched the 1937
flood claim this house. What a dreadful feeling that must have been! It was not
uncommon to see a building floating down the floodwater of the Green River in 1937.
How terrible it must have been to see your home being claimed by the Green River!
The family survived and eventually moved. There are a few of the siblings left and
like most families, are scattered through out the country.
The McGuyer's owned some land to the right of the gravel road going to the church
and the river. From the gravel road to the "Bottom Land", where I hunted, was a
farm access road. It was a dirt road and included a large hill going down to the
bottom land. Some of the time, we could drive to the "Bottoms", but most of the
time, it was a long walk from the top of the hill. Of course, the flood of 1937
covered these bottom lands and about everything else in that area. At the bottom
of the hill, the dirt road leveled off and the drainage from the bottoms was through
a culvert under the road. It would not take a very big "Rise" of the Green River
to start backing up the floodwater and cause the drainage ditch to fill and
overflow its' banks. Regardless, hunting on the McGuyer property was great, if
you could get there. Most of the time all would be successful, but the return trip,
up that big hill to the car after a morning hunt, was an exhausting effort.
As great as the "McGuyer Bottoms" was to hunt, there just seems to be a better
place to hunt and that place is just over the ridge or hill that you are approaching.
Once a young boy becomes knowledgeable of a hunting area, the itch to see what is
over the yonder hill becomes a challenge. The biggest thrill of any type of hunt
is not in the "Collecting Of Game", but in the stories to be told after the hunt
and as time evolves, the thrill seemed to increase as the years pass. Even before
my first solo hunting trip, I had heard stories about the abundance of game on
"Hickory Ridge". The McGuyer Bottom Land was great and I always appreciated the fact
that I had permission to hunt in that area. The knowledge of hearing about a nearby
ridge called "Hickory Ridge" caused me to want to go to "Hickory Ridge" and I did.
Most of my trips to "Hickory Ridge" were successful, and I can remember and recall
a few trips that were very productive. The actual hunt and the "Tale", years later,
are not necessarily in line with each other. One always seems to forget the bad
trips and not only remember the good trips, but those trips always seem to get more
successful and more enjoyable as the years pass. Good luck to any future hunters.