The Elam family lived nearby, excellent neighbors, though not too long descended to Cuthand Creek from the Ozarks. You did have to watch your step around pipe-smoking Granny in her long skirts, brogans and speech bearing the distinctive mark of ‘the hills.’  A feisty, old lady, she tended to get fired up when offended.  I loved her distinct language, pronouncing her judgment of their landlord.  “That ol’ goat ain’t fitten for the dawrgs to spit on.”  She also used terms I’ve not heard since, “Usn’s and Yen’s.”  “Them hawg’s ain’t yen’s.  They got usn’s mark in their ear. Now git out’a here afore I blow a hole in yen’s.”

Annie and John had to walk the four miles to school, a real hardship, especially in bad weather. It was starting to drizzle one day as Mr. Elam caught up with them up the way home.    Hoping to help them get home before the rain started in earnest, he offered to let them double up behind him on his white horse, not a great burden since all three of them were beanpoles.  Annie was wearing a pair of deep purple sateen bloomers, (knee-length panties) so new they’d never ever been washed yet.  In those days, fabrics, particularly dark colors, faded.  When Anne slid from the horse, she was horrified to see her bottom imprinted in deep purple where the sateen bloomers had faded on the wet back of the horse.  The image remained on the horses back for all to see, embarrassing her for weeks to come.

Ken Elam, Granny Elam’s bachelor son may or may not have been inspired by the bloomer imprint, but soon surprised Annie by coming to call. He was a painfully shy young man in his late twenties, somewhat backward in behavior, and had never even spoken to her. She was only sixteen and never dreamed Ken would consider himself courting her.  He showed up dressed in his best with a large gorgeously wrapped gift, and sat talking to Daddy for a few minutes before asking for Anne.  Of course, having no interest in Ken, nor any idea he was calling on her, she was occupied elsewhere and confused to find he wanted to see her.  She stepped into the front room and was surprised to have him thrust a gift at her, then turn and leave abruptly.  By this time we’d all gathered to see what was going on.  Daddy told her she might as well open it.  Upon opening the box, she was stunned to find an impossibly sheer, sexy negligee, a most inappropriate gift for a young girl.  Appalled, she didn’t want anything to do with it or Ken.  Under different circumstances, if Ken hadn’t been so socially awkward and painfully shy, Daddy would have returned the gift and had a “man to man” with Ken, but after discussing the matter, he and Mama decided poor, bashful Ken had probably just asked a salesclerk to help him find a “gift for a woman” and been sadly misled.  They just let the matter drop.  The romance was over before it started.