Spotlight and Root Hog or Die!!!

As children, one of our favorite summer time activities was a game called spotlight. Spotlight was basically hide and seek in the dark, with a flashlight. The twist was that you didn’t have to actually be tagged to be caught; the “seeker” just had to shine his flashlight on you. Spotlight was a neighborhood event. Kids,,big and small, from all over Elk Park would gather, usually at Larry, Hoss, and Tooter’s house, and at sundown the games would begin. We played for hours. Some of us were actually there for the thrill of the game; some had other things in mind. Spotlight was the perfect excuse to hide in a Christmas tree patch, or an out of the way corner of the yard, to be alone with which ever other kid you “loved” that summer. I, of course, was never part of this group. I was way too little and mostly just tagged along. Someone had to supervise all that necking that was going on in the bushes. The games went on each night for as long as our parents would let us stay out, or until we were too tired to play any longer, whichever came first. Spotlight was indeed the highlight of summer fun.
The Elk Park kids didn’t let a little thing like cold weather ruin our fun though. With winter came “tube riding” and Root Hog or Die!! Again, our adventures took place at night. We waited with anticipation for the first snow to fall, the first snow worthy of bringing out our sleds that is. When the weather conditions were right, we gathered big and small, at the top of Dark Holler Road. It is actually Dark Hollow Road, but who says hollow in the mountains? Root Hog or Die was played in teams. Each sleigh held two people lying down. One person had to steer the sled, the rider’s job was to keep other teams from making it to the bottom of the hill intact. Granted, this was not exactly a safe pass time, but boy was it fun. After everyone made it to the bottom of the hill, usually by means of rolling rather than sledding, we pulled our sleds back up the hill and started all over again. This too, went on for hours. If the road was not slick enough, someone would spray it down with water so it would freeze over again. When our toes couldn’t take the cold any longer, we put bread bags on our feet under our socks and boots. This strategy made us good to go for at least another hour. On the nights that we wanted to do something a little more low-key, all the kids and a pile of inner tubes would load up in the back of some dad’s pick-up to be hauled to Lewis Cornett’s hill for tube riding. I have seen as many as twenty-five people standing at the top of that hill waiting for a turn or zooming down it on their big, black tube throwing snow behind them to decorate their magnificent ride.
Spotlight, Root Hog or Die and Tube Riding were adventurous, carefree and incredibly fun. Mostly, they were the expression of family and friendship. I haven’t played either game in more than twenty years but I can see every face and call every name, even those who are no longer with us. Larry, Hoss, and Tooter Hicks, Sylvia and David Hicks, Tom Cable, Chris Gross, Donna Hicks, Tina and Jimessa Cable, Angie Cornett, occasionally Brad Benfield, Ricky Norman, or some invited guest, and Andrea, Jamie and Me. We were the spotlight players – the tube riders, bound by community, bound by blood, bound by friendship.