The Blue Hole

Memma was a great story teller.  She told me a story about the Blue Hole in Larkinsville.  The Blue Hole was a "hole" or small pond of water out in a cow pasture.  We lived on a farm and a spring of water ran behind our barns into the Blue Hole.   Memma and I would go down to the barn each night to feed the animals and milk old Bessie, the cow.  After that, we would walk down to the spring and feed the ducks and look for baby ducks and depending on the season, duck eggs.  One evening, we walked around the spring to the Blue Hole.  There were rocks around the Blue Hole and Memma and I sat down and looked down into the deep waters.  "Well, my Mama told me, Memma began, that years ago, a man and his wife and two kids were riding in a horse and wagon when something spooked the horses.  The horses rared up and shot off down the road like a streak of lightening.  The man pulled and yanked on the bridle, but couldn't get the horses to stop."
I squealed, "What happened to them, Memma?"
"Well, they went over the embankment and they were never seen again," she said.
We both peeked over the embankment.  I slowly slid down from the rock and Memma stood up.  "Yes, that is why it is not safe to go swimming here.  They say there is no bottom to this place. "
Well, her point was well taken and I never went near that place.  But, years later, the old Blue Hole became a popular swimming hole for the older boys from near and far.  Some even told that they tried to find the bottom but couldn't.  I don't know.  I listened to Memma's story and it made a lasting impression on me.
I do know that back in the day, old people used to sit around talking about grown up things and I loved to listen to their stories.  Often, I heard people say that Larkinsville was sitting on top of a body of water.  Probably the Tennessee River, they speculated.  Wow, I don't know.  Guess folks never had problems with their wells going dry.  Just saying.