Invasion of Sandbox City – Growing Up in Dublin, Texas

There on the corner of Thomas and East Harris St. / Harbin Road was a large mesquite tree and beneath the shade of the mesquite was Sand Box City. Dad had taken two, 2 X 6 boards and placed them to form a border facing the street, and had added some sand.

I remember playing there using rocks I picked up from the side of the road as buildings. I had a couple of cars which I remember using to make tracks in between the rocks which served as the roads of the town. I woud spend what seemed like hours driving these cars in those tracks they made. There was two cars i remember the best one was a green hot rod, and the other a red (’57 Plymouth) car which had fins. One night it rained like crazy. The first thing I did when I got up the next morning was to run outside to asses the damage the rain had done to my Sand Box City.

I ran out the pushing the screen door open, and before it slammed shut I was down the steps of the porch and running toward the sandbox. But I froze a few steps form the edge of the sand. There was a Copperhead snake winding its way across and through the city. Dad had already gone to work and Mom was too or she was busy, I do not recall. My first response was an immediately about face and off I was running to tell Ralph.

Ralph immediately, almost instinctively knew what to do. He got his bow and arrows, he had gotten for Christmas and then both ran out the door and back to the sandbox. He got close enough and began pinning that old snake to the ground arrow after arrow, Pretty soon it was just a corpse like King Kong laying in the streets of Sand Box City. We left it there the whole day as we had to go to school, and we dared not to mess with it until Dad came in from work that evening. Dad acted as if he was upset at us for messing around with a poisonous snake, and we got told what for, but now when I think back on it I think he was proud of Ralph’s actions.

Another memory of playing in the sandbox was a gift from Santa I could only hope and dream for that came true.

You see there was this show called the Lone Ranger. He was a good guy and rod a white horse named Silver, and he had an Indian side kick by the name of Tonto, who horse was name was Scout.

It was a Lone Ranger set. the neat thing was that the horses had saddles and bridles that I was able to put on and take off. There were a few horses, with the Lone Ranger and Tonto, although I do not remember if it included the bad guy Butch Cavendish or not.
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Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and that it brought back few memories of you childhood days, no matter what state you hail from.

© Texas Tortilla Factory 2006 – Mike Vauthier