Making memories and carrying on tradition

The other night I was taking my son to meet up with his girlfriend. When I got to our usual meeting place her aunt pulled in to pick him up. I went over to speak to her and she told me that on the way to meet us she asked her niece who she was dating. She told her and said his sister is Kailee and his other sister is Jess. The aunt replied "tell me who her Momma is - that's who I will know." She told her who I was and she said - "Oh yes - now HER I know."
I got to thinking about that conversation coming down off the mountain and thought that is just one of the many great things about living in a small community. Chances are, unless you are a "transplant" in the area with no ties to anyone, then usually everyone knows you or has heard of you. It's [usually] a great thing to be able to relate to who the boy or girl is that your child is dating or running around with if you have someone to associate them with. All the kids that come to my house either belong to someone that I graduated with or someone that I met in school or someone who went to school with my siblings. Knowing who the parents are for the most part insures a little more security and a little less worry for your child to be associated with them; because more than likely they have inherited their parent's traits.
That same night I stopped at the local convenient store located in the town of Tellico. When I walked in there were two boys sitting at the table decked out, head to toe, in camouflage. One of the boys happened to be my boss's grandson. I threw up my hand and asked them "what are you all huntin' tonight?" [well in the south I could almost answer my own question, but I know how they like to have bragging rights to their plans and the results of the hunt. So I let them answer themselves.]
After I left there and headed home I continued on with my thoughts about the small community that I live in. I thought about the boys and wondered between the two of them how many years of tradition had been carried on by their fathers, uncles and grandfathers that had shaped these boys into experienced hunters starting at a very early age I'm sure. Trust me when you living in the south it means that the only thing more important than the local high school sporting events is the need to hunt or fish. When a boy (and some times a girl) starts to walk and talk they have already learned what hunting and fishing is about because they heard so many stories about it - beginning probably when they were in the womb!
I love driving down the country back roads and passing all the young teenagers in their pick-up trucks with their dog boxes in the back. To me that means that tradition still lives on and those boys are carrying on that torch for hunting and will pass it down to their children in a few years.
It seems like the older that I get, the more I focus on the simpler things that life has to offer. The future, while it is important, doesn't always seem to be the main topic of my attention. I seem to dwell more on the past and the memories that are associated with the things and the people that cross my path now. I look at these kids who run around with my own children and I can't help but smile thinking of the times I spent with one or both of their parents and the memories that we mutually share as adults from all those years ago.
I allow my children a little more freedom than I was probably allowed growing up, and some times more than the teenager that lives down the street. But when I look at these kids that infiltrate my home quite often, I look at them and my own children and I see me many years ago. So when I see them laughing and plotting out their plans I giggle to myself because I know that one day in not so many years their children will be doing the same things with each other....making memories and carrying on tradition.