Have you been up on West Mountain lately? It's still gorgeous.
I think it's amazing that we have a beautiful camel-hump of a mountain right in the middle of town, sandwiched between Prospect and Whittington Avenues.
So here's my love story. My mom and dad, Ann and Irven, fell in love in third grade.
An only child, mom lived in a big pretty white house on Prospect in the 1930s. Her daddy was a surgeon. Irven lived in a not so pretty house with three brothers and sisters on Whittington. His father was an architect and they were struggling through the great depression.
But love can survive anything and Ann and Irven really didn't care that she was "rich" and he was "poor". They wanted to play together.
So every afternoon eight year old Irven would use the deer trails and run over West Mountain and end up in Ann's lush back yard. Ann's father, the surgeon, wasn't too happy about the ragged little boy in his back yard. Ann was precious and who was this kid? So he told the maids to only let the kids see each other once a week. Surely this boy would get tired of running over a mountain.
The maids felt so sorry for my dad, who continued to show up, knowing he wouldn't get to see Ann. So, every afternoon, they left a glass of milk and a stack of cookies out so he'd have the strength to run home.
My dad died when he was in his early 50's. We were all in his hospital room talking to him when he suddenly took my hand. "Make sure you pour my ashes out on West Mountain. I'll always be running to my girl."
And we did. So, if you are up on West Mountain at night and for just an instant you see a streak of gold and silver in the wood maybe, just maybe, it's Irven running to find love.
PS If you liked this post I hope you'll check out the others at Hot Springs Love. More cool stuff in Hot Springs that I love.