Around Thanksgiving 2002, I was in the Hope area and had no idea what Tom Ed would have
in store for me later that week at Grassy Lake. This was around the time of Jay Curtis’s , Mary
Jo’s husband, funeral in Little Rock. Dean, Tom Ed, Nelda, Nell C., Bob Powers, Darryl M.
and I had attended so I went to Hope for a visit after the funeral. I recall having Thanksgiving
dinner with the Hayes that year.
Would you believe Tom Ed took me riding on one of his "mules" One (four wheeler) had gotten
unhitched and had run into B.J.'s car earlier. Tom almost got us lost out on Grassy Lake near
Yellow Creek. I later learned he was having eye difficulty in one eye and had not been on the
route we were traveling in over twenty years! I also learned later from someone who had a
cabin there that the roads had been washed out by rains several years before. We were out there
without telephones or flashlights. Darkness and cold were approaching! To top that off, no one
knew exactly where we were had we been declared missing! On the positive side, we did see
five grazing deer even though they paid little or no attention to us!!
While I was driving, we took a road that looked ok to us! Uh oh.. we finally saw that we had
made a circle and were back where we had come from! Tom Ed and I decided we had better go
back to Yellow Creek and return to Grassy Lake Lodge by the main highway at McNabb.
Here we were--three miles from the main entrance to Grassy and out on a well-traveled
highway in a vehicle with a speed of under ten miles per hour! We had to pull off the road and
let the faster cars go by. At least we had headlights in the cold dark of night! Needless to say
we arrived back ok and had a great story to tell B.J.! She had a great evening meal for us to eat
and we enjoy laughing about our adventure on the "mules!"
You never knew what you were in for when you went on an outing with Tom Ed. He never
changed a whole lot over the years and we have many good memories of our times together as
good friends!
CJA, Jr.
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in store for me later that week at Grassy Lake. This was around the time of Jay Curtis’s , Mary
Jo’s husband, funeral in Little Rock. Dean, Tom Ed, Nelda, Nell C., Bob Powers, Darryl M.
and I had attended so I went to Hope for a visit after the funeral. I recall having Thanksgiving
dinner with the Hayes that year.
Would you believe Tom Ed took me riding on one of his "mules" One (four wheeler) had gotten
unhitched and had run into B.J.'s car earlier. Tom almost got us lost out on Grassy Lake near
Yellow Creek. I later learned he was having eye difficulty in one eye and had not been on the
route we were traveling in over twenty years! I also learned later from someone who had a
cabin there that the roads had been washed out by rains several years before. We were out there
without telephones or flashlights. Darkness and cold were approaching! To top that off, no one
knew exactly where we were had we been declared missing! On the positive side, we did see
five grazing deer even though they paid little or no attention to us!!
While I was driving, we took a road that looked ok to us! Uh oh.. we finally saw that we had
made a circle and were back where we had come from! Tom Ed and I decided we had better go
back to Yellow Creek and return to Grassy Lake Lodge by the main highway at McNabb.
Here we were--three miles from the main entrance to Grassy and out on a well-traveled
highway in a vehicle with a speed of under ten miles per hour! We had to pull off the road and
let the faster cars go by. At least we had headlights in the cold dark of night! Needless to say
we arrived back ok and had a great story to tell B.J.! She had a great evening meal for us to eat
and we enjoy laughing about our adventure on the "mules!"
You never knew what you were in for when you went on an outing with Tom Ed. He never
changed a whole lot over the years and we have many good memories of our times together as
good friends!
CJA, Jr.
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