Age of innocence

One thing I have always wished for, was that my children would have had the opportunity to grow up in the 80s on a family compound as I did. Being raised on a family compound was one of the purest experiences of my life. There was our matriarch's home and my uncles and their families each had houses there. The land was immense and beautiful. There was a horse pasture located to the back of my grandmother's house with a live pond that we often used to fish for crawfish, it was also used by the ducks. There was a garden filled with vegetables year round, every thing was so fresh and succulent. One of my uncles was a mechanic, another was a welder who had his shop had his house. My other uncles did the farming and maintained the land. One of my favorite times, was when my uncles had butcheries. They would fatten up a hog just for this occasion. The compound would be bustling with people for this occasion. After the animal was slaughtered every person in attendance would have packages of meat to take home, the rest was cooked at the gathering. Nothing went to waste. I didn't know what fast food restaurants were until I was a teenager, my happy meal consist of a sandwich and chips. When the pecans would ripen and fall from the trees, we would pick them and take them to be sold. We were allowed to buy candy with the money we made from our sell, we were careful not to buy the same candy because we would play store later and sell our candy to each other for a few pennies. I can't recall every saying I was bored. We were outside, using our imagination playing with the animals.