Many years ago, when my father died in the wee hours of the morning, all five of us children and our spouses gathered back at home with Mother. She asked that we all spend the night, so she could have one night with all her five children under one roof. It was a challenge, but we managed to find beds for eleven. Every bed and sofa was taken. It must have been a sight. Continue reading
Mother
“It couldn’t be helped!”
Daddy should have been a polygamist the way he laid out work for the whole family. His list for Mother might start, “Take the power saw by the shop in Springhill (22 miles away) on your way to the tractor place in Magnolia (24 miles beyond Springhill) pick up a magneto. It ought to look like this. (He’d dangle two broken pieces) On your way home, Continue reading
Hello, Mr. Flu!
Mother always had a special capacity for bungling. Sometimes she just talks to hear her head rattle. That can be as dangerous as leaving a loaded gun lying around. When Mother was a teenager, the flu came to town. The Pyles family next door all got the flu, except for Mr. Pyles. He was struggling to care for his wife and six children. The Continue reading
Dozens of Cousins
Neither Corwin nor Kelvin could be rounded up for this cousin picture. They had other fish to fry.
Aunt Essie, like all of my aunts, was a wonder of fertility, if not child-rearing acumen. She had seven of the meanest boys outside Alcatraz. Thank God, her reproductive equipment gave out before she managed more. I thought Mother was just exaggerating when she said they’d all end up in jail or dead before they were thirty. She was wrong. Only four of Continue reading
Applesauce on the Rooftop
There were unspoken and implied rules. My personal favorites were the implied ones, open to interpretation. These were based on old adages such as, “If everyone else jumped off the top of the house would you?” The obvious answer was, I’d probably have been the first to jump, then swear I was pushed when some other dumb butt jumped and got hurt, implicating me as the ringleader. Continue reading
Mind Your Pees!
Mother keeps a five-gallon thermos of ice water and a stack of plastic cups on her back steps for passersby in her neighborhood. She leaves a container for used cups so she can wash and reuse. Dozens of people stop by for water, every day, mainly children. One day, a lone six-year-old stopped by, got a drink, turned his back to the street, peed in his Continue reading
The Snake in the Fan
Back in the days before we had an air conditioner, Daddy brought home a huge second hand water-cooled fan, thinking it might be an improvement over our attic fan. He hooked it up in the dining room window, where it blew directly over the Continue reading
Children’s Tender Feelings
Farm kids learn early not to make pets of livestock. There’s no way those friendships won’t end badly. Knowing this, kids still sometimes get attached. My younger sisters Connie and Marilyn bottle-fed an orphan calf until it was old enough to be put out to pasture with the rest of the cows. Long after he ran with the big boys, he’d hang around Continue reading
Y’all Got a Snake in Y’all’s Tree!
It’s not everyday one hears a dynamic statement like this! Melvin was the ex-husband of Mother’s old friend, Maggie. A good man, he’d gone just a bit “off the rails” and Maggie, had reluctantly left him as a result of his increasingly fantical religious leanings. Mother and Daddy had long been faithful congregants of their church, only missing services if unable Continue reading
Nutsrok 