It is the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend and the campground at DeWayne Hayes Recreation Center is filled to capacity. All 100 campsites are occupied, some elaborately so, with enormous campers, adorned with flags, personalized signs, even satellite dishes. Others are more simply settled. In fact, there are a smattering of tent campers among the sea of travel-trailers and RVS.
The most obvious indication of the holiday are the flags and red-white-and-blue bunting that adorns many of the sites.
It is worth noting that the recreation area — expertly maintained and operated by the US. Army Corps of Engineers — is named for a veteran: Pfc. Loyd DeWayne Hayes, who died during construction of the Tennesee-Tombigbee Waterway, which provides the scenic backdrop to the park.
In another, less obvious way, the scene here is well suited to the holiday. Memorial Day is the holiday set aside to remember and give thanks for those who gave their lives in military service to their country. Take a tour along the meandering road that weaves through the campsites and it’s not hard to imagine that this is what those men and women fought for and what they deemed worthy to die for, even.
It is stuff of a Norman Rockwell painting — flittering children, slightly-frazzled parents, serene senior citizens. Bicycles are the preferred mode of transportation for both the young and old alike. Mid-day siestas give way to evening fiestas. The camp throbs with activity in some areas, reclines in quiet shade at others.
It is a place where the distinction between friends and family seems to blur.
The Hays and Heatherlys are pretty good examples.
“How long have we been camping together?” Kathy Heatherly wonders aloud. “What’s it been? Twenty-three years? Twenty-five? It’s been ever since our kids were little.”
Kathy and Beth Hays have been friends since childhood, going to school together and church together. Their husbands, Mike Hays and Curtis Heatherly, “are just along for the ride,” says Curtis.
The Hays live in Millport, Alabama, and the Heatherlys live in Vernon. They see each other often, going to dinner and church, but somehow their bonds are stronger here at the campsite.
“It’s just relaxing,” says Mike, who, like Curtis, is retired. “I remember somebody saying one time I was sitting around the campsite, ‘Let’s do something.’ I said, “I am doing something. This is something.”
A few sites down, the scene is far less somnolent. Kevin Elfring seems to be doing 10 things at once, moving from his camper to his truck to his ski boat.
“Once you grow up, especially once you start having kids, everything is work,” he says, between chores. “But I love it.”
Kevin’s site is next to his brother, James.
“We’ve been camping here pretty much since it opened,” Kevin said. “We live just down the road, in Hamilton, so it’s convenient. It’s a really good park, too, very clean.”
As is common, kids find each other at camping grounds, which is why although the two brothers have four kids between them, a half-dozen more dart in and out their campsites.
James and his wife, Christon, live in Quitman and while they don’t always camp with family, the camping trips they share with Kevin and his family are special occasions.
“I really love it,” she says. “When we’re camping, it’s just a different environment. It’s laid-back, fun. It’s really a chance to relax and really enjoy each other.”
Later in the afternoon, the Elfrings will take the kids out skiing along the waterway.
The Hays and Heatherlys have simpler plans.
“We eat breakfast, skip lunch and then have our big meal at night,” Mike Hays says. “We eat better camping than we do at home. So, that’s pretty much our big plans for the evening.
“How does that sound?”
It sounds wonderful.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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