Two Roads Part 12

Neeley suspected Eddie might not ever hold up to the hard work of farming after his accident.  It would be a hard row to hoe for a woman and a sick man to farm, but she was determined they would hang on to their rental farm at all costs.  She couldn’t expect her brothers to shoulder responsibility for her family.  Albert had recently married and had a baby on the way.  His eighty acres was working him hard.  Willie had to make good on the place his father-in-law had made for him.  It wouldn’t do to take time off from his responsibilities there.  She did not intend for either of her brothers to have family trouble because of her problems.

Despite their financial situation, Neeley squeezed back enough money for the children’s candy, oranges, and Brazil nuts at Christmas, reasoning their disappointment would last a lifetime, and the little money saved wouldn’t make a long-term difference.  Mama Cassie had them over for Christmas dinner.  She’d killed a hen and they feared on chicken and dressing and dumplings.  There was sweet potato pie, green beans, roasted potatoes, and cabbage.  They all ate till they fairly popped.  It brought tears to Neeley’s eyes when Mama produced a peppermint stick for each child.  Neeley knew it must have been hard to come up with the money.  She still had a girl and twin teen-age boys at home.  Her husband, John Miller could be a hard man.  Neeley hoped she wouldn’t suffer for her generosity, though today, he was very cordial.

After Christmas dinner, the men headed to the barn and the kids ran off to play.  Neeley and Mama sat at the table over coffee and Neeley confided.  “Mama, I ain’t told Eddie yet but I’m “that way” again.  I cain’t have a baby now. Eddie ain’t doin’ right and we cain’t hardly feed the five we got.  I got to be able to help Eddie git the plantin’ and harvestin’ done.  This one’s due in late April, the worst time.  If it would’a just waited till next fall it would’a been okay.  What in the world am I gonna do?  Seems like the harder I work the more we fall behind.”

A tear slid down Mama’s face as she took Neeley’s hand.  “I ain’t always done right by you, but I hate to see you suffer so.  One time I was in a fix like you.  I don’t know if you remember when I run off from Willie and Albert’s daddy.  You was with me an’ I had to send you back to Ma.  Cox had done come in drunk and beat me half to death.  He didn’t know I was “thataway,” so I slipped the little fellers off to their Granny Cox and went to stay with my cousin Lurleen.  She got me some quinine and it got rid of the baby.  I shore hated to do it, but I couldn’t take keer o’the ones I had, much less another one.  I reckon I can git you some quinine, if you want, but I tell you this.  I better come stay a few days.  You gonna be so sick you’ll think you’re gonna die.  If you want to do that, I’ll need to come take care of you and the younguns a few days.”

Neeley thought a mnute or two, then said.  “Well come on over  this next week. I guess I better get it done.”

Two Roads Part 11

img_1685Image pulled from the internet

Eddie made a good crop that year. Neeley canned and dried all her garden produced. The children cheeks filled out with the good food and all the milk they wanted. Once the crop was put by that fall, Neeley’s brothers Albert and Willie, and Eddie’s cousins came over to help with the well-digging. They’d dug down about twenty feet and were just starting to see water seep in, when Eddie broke his shovel handle and called out for a replacement. As one of the men was lowering it, he lost control and dropped it, hitting Eddie in the head. They dragged Eddie out of the well unconscious and hauled him ten miles to town in the back of a wagon.  He was transferred to Charity Hospital forty miles away by ambulance.  He awoke after a couple of days later, to their great relief, though he was never quite the same. He suffered from debilitating headaches and frequent seizures that left him confused. Worst of all, he raged and had little impulse control. He would have beaten the children if Neeley hadn’t gotten between him and them. Fortunately, she was larger than Eddie and able to control him.

Despite his problems, he was determined to take care of his family.  He’d work till a headache or seizure disabled him, then go to bed and get up and try again the next day.  Neeley’s brothers helped him get his crops in the next spring, hoping he’d rally with time.  Neeley and the children worked beside him, the baby toddling right along behind.  When it came time to pick the cotton, they all picked with the baby either riding along on their cotton sacks or playing between the rows.  Despite their best efforts, they barely made enough to pay the rent for the next year.  They’d be able to eat what Neeley canned or dried from the garden, but there was only enough money for shoes for the the oldest kids, the ones in school.  The others were resoled, reheeled, and passed down.  Neeley always bought brown lace-up oxfords, so they could be worn by boys and girls.  They had fattened six shoats to put in the smokehouse, but decided they’d best sell three for supplies and next spring’s seed.

It would be a hard winter, but they’d squeak by.  Neeley was exhausted from picking up Eddie’s extra load as well as keeping up her own work.  She was relieved to anticipate things easing up till she started throwing up in the mornings and realized she hadn’t had a visit from “her friend” in a couple of months.

Overheard

“
Is Michael Jackson a hermaphrodite?”

“Oh no.  He’s a Jehovah’s Witness!”

Joke of the Day

lbeth1950's avatarNutsrok

A man walks into a bar with a pork pie on his head. The barman asks, “Why are you wearing a pork pie on your head?”

The man replies, “It’s a family tradition. We always wear pork pies on our heads on Tuesday.”

The barman remarks, “But it’s Wednesday.”

Sheepishly, the man says, “Man, I must look like a real fool.”

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Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen

lbeth1950's avatarNutsrok

imageOne of my Cousin Kat’s best friends was Don Waters who ran the funeral home.  She needed to go to Mason City to see her eye doctor when Don mentioned he had to make the trip to pick up a body at the airport. Cousin Kat was tight as Dick’s hatband and not a bit squeamish about a little thing like riding with a  body. Turns ou it was Mabel Peter’s Who she’d ridden to work with for over twenty years.  Surely Mabel, dead would be less

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Tombstone in the Bedroom

lbeth1950's avatarNutsrok

Cousin Kat  (Kathleen) was proud of being “conservative.”  To the rest of us, it looked a lot like stingy.  When it looked like her mama might be considering dying, it just so happened, Dan Walter’s Funeral Home and Monument Company was going out of business.  She talked him down till she got a real nice headstone for Mama and a beautiful double

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Big Mouth

lbeth1950's avatarNutsrok

When my brother Billy was a kid, my parents dreaded hearing whatever might come out of  his mouth.  Daddy took him to the store with him one day.  As Billy stood on the top step, Daddy and his friend Mr. Shorty stood on the ground talking.  Billy happily reached over, patted Mr. Shorty affectionately on his bald head, and said, “Well hello, little, short fat man.”

Not long afterward, Mother looked out the kitchen window to see Daddy’s friend with one leg, Mr. Charley headed to the front door.  She rushed to the living room, trying to get there before Billy, could ask what happened to his other leg.  She was too late.  As she walked into the room, Biily turned from Mr. Charley at the door to tell her, “Mama, a skeeter bit his leg off!”

My cousin kept hitting Billy.  Mother told Billy to “hit hit back.”  The…

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Messed Up Family

Travelling today. Reblog

lbeth1950's avatarNutsrok

It just occurred to me that Mother may have been raising a tribe of cannibals during the time Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Edward lived with us and I bit my cousin Cathy.  My brother Billy was five months old to Cousin Eddie’s six weeks and much bigger.  Mother and Aunt Bonnie had Snowmanput the two babies on a quilt to play while they did their housework.  Eddie had colic and cried all the time, so Aunt Bonnie wasn’t too surprised at the wailing.  She went in to check on him after a few minutes to find Billy, who was teething, had worked his way over to Eddie. He had a foot in one hand, a thigh in the other, and was gnawing him like a Thanksgiving Turkey.

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Two Roads Part 10

The day after Christmas, Neeley miscarried and was shamed at her relief.  She already had five children and faced an uncertain future.  Mama Cassie came to help out for a few days bringing her youngest daughter, Cynthia.  At nine, Cynthia was about the age Neeley was when Ma died.  Seeing the child playing with her children was bittersweet, remembering Mama had long abandoned her by that point in her life.

Mama Cassie was a sharp-spoken, bitter woman, not given to tenderness.  In the way of many neglected children, Neeley basked in any affection her mother showed and would have never antagonized her.  Cassie must have sensed her questions, since she brought the subject up one morning over coffee.  “I always felt bad I left you.  I wanted you with me an’ felt real bad when I found out Ma died an’ you was with Jep.  I was a’living with my husband Jeb Cox then in Smackover, Arkansas.  He was a mean one. He drank an’ beat me till I lost a baby right about that time.  I knowed if I brung you there he’d a’done you wrong.  I felt just awful about losing that baby, but that wasn’t a fit home to bring another youngun into.  Soon as I was able, I left Willie and Albert with their Grandma Cox an’ slipped off from him.  I just had to live however I could till I married Joe Miller.  I just want you to know I would’a raised you iffen I could.” A tear slid down her cheek.

Neeley understood how hard it was trying to do right by children.  Her heart melted.  “I’m glad you told me, Ma.  You ain’t had no easy life neither.”  Any resentment she’d still held melted away in light of her mother’s contrition.

Eddie made arrangements to rent a farm about six miles down in the low country, eighty acres with a creek.  The only problem was, there wasn’t a good well.  They would have to haul water about three hundred yards till Eddie could get a well dug.  Willie, Albert and a couple of cousins would help.  By March, they’d moved onto the place.  Neeley was sorry to leave her brothers’ place, especially since Eddie told her the house wasn’t as tight and they’d be hauling water for a while, but at least it would be their own place and it was reasonably close to family.  The school was only two miles away, so the kids could get there in good weather.  She was a little down in the mouth when she saw the house.  She could see daylight through cracks in the walls, but she got to work tacking cardboard, newspapers, catalog pages and anything else she could get her hands on over the cracks. Every house she’d ever lived in had paper tacked over cracks, so that wasn’t a problem. There was a good iron cook stove in the kitchen and a wood heater in the front room. That made up for a lot. The first time it rained, they had to set pots around to catch the drips, but Eddie split shingles and fixed the roof right away. The chimney had pulled away from the house, but they tipped it back and braced it before mixing red clay mortar and hay to daub up the seams and cracks. By the time they were through, it was a decent place for the family. Eddie never let her run out of water, hauling in a barrel from the creek
images pulled from internet
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