Good morning everyone. I hope all of you are doing fine.
I am feeling so much better than yesterday. Got a good night’s rest last night; love the sound of rain on a metal roof. It reminds me of being a young girl and the house we lived in then.
When I was about 9 years old, my Daddy, Mama and I moved to live in a little house in the big city of Merry Hill. This was the first house my parents had ever owned. Well, come to think of it, I guess they owned the house that burned when I was about 3 years old; but after that time they had always rented. My parents were farmers, farming for other people for a share of the crops, and a house was always part of the deal.
The first house I was old enough to remember was near the Albemarle Sound; within walking distance. I don’t know how old I was when we moved there, but I started school while we were living there. There was a huge pasture between our house and a house owned by the Bond family. In that pasture were several cows, a couple of mules and one bull. I was scared to death of the bull. There were also lots of snakes in the area. John Bond came over to visit one afternoon; Mama and I were sitting on the back porch. She was shelling butter beans and I am pretty sure I was NOT! Daddy and John were standing by the front door of John’s truck. Suddenly, John calmly reached into his truck, removed the gun from the gun rack and shot right at the corner or the porch – about 3 feet from where I was sitting. He had killed a rattle snake that was almost as long as I was tall. Mama used to bring in garter snakes with clean clothes she had just taken off the clothes line. Mama got run out of the bathroom once by a snake. My sister Faye and her boyfriend were in the living room when Mama runs out of the bathroom, across the hall into her bedroom – all the time trying to get her “undies” pulled up. Boy, was her face red! So was Pat’s – my future brother-in-law. We used to walk down to the sound to take a bath at the end of a long day in the field. Now you have to remember I was very young and of course, I hadn’t been doing any work; but I loved to go along for the bath. Of course, we all had on swim suits and we took a real bath when we got home, but Daddy loved to go down to the sound and “rinse off” as he called it. We would bathe with the cows drinking right along beside us.
Daddy and Mama raised their own pigs and chickens. We had a really mean rooster and I remember going out to the pig pen one Sunday after Church. Daddy didn’t go that day; I guess one of the animals was sick or something because he usually did go to Church with us. I had won the Sunday School poster that day and I went to show it to Daddy. I still had on my Sunday dress, little white shoes and socks. As I started across the yard, the rooster attacked me. He didn’t really hurt me but he ruined my poster and tore my dress. I think we had him for supper one night that week.
I mentioned in an earlier paragraph about moving to Merry Hill. If you don’t know anything about Merry Hill, it was 3 stores, 1 Church, Post Office and school. Most of the people were farmers; a few worked in town. There were about 12 kids right there in Merry Hill and we went to Church and school together. The little house Mama and Daddy bought had only 4 rooms and an unfinished upstairs. There was no inside bathroom and I thought that the most terrible thing in the world. Eventually, my little bedroom was divided and a bathroom was added in one end. For a while I “lived” in the attic. Daddy had closed in the rooms with sheetrock and I had a small bedroom in one end and a small living room in the other end. I was the envy of all my friends, because I had my own apartment. It was heated by the chimney and had two very small windows I could open in the summer. My bedroom was over Mama and Daddy’s bedroom. I always played my stereo when I went to bed and as long as Daddy couldn’t hear the drums, it was okay with him.
I guess by now you are wondering about my subject line. As I was sitting here thinking about something to write, Haley jumped up on the couch beside me. She turned around and around about 15 times and finally made her bed and laid down. Within a few minutes, she was snoring and it reminded me of my Daddy. Boy, he could really snore! One night about 10:30, I decided to switch my bedroom to the other end of the house and move my living room over Mama and Daddy’s bedroom. The next morning Daddy asked me what in the world had I been doing? I laughed and told him I had to move my bed because I couldn’t keep the sheets on the bed. He didn’t understand what I meant. I told him he snored so hard that he sucked my sheets right off my bed so I had to move my bedroom. He got a pretty good laugh out of that.
I guess you can tell I was pretty close to my Daddy. My siblings are 10, 12 and 15 years older than me. By the time I was old enough to be of any real help, they were all gone from home and it fell on me to help Daddy in the fields. But, I had much rather been doing that than all the “girly” things at the house with Mama. I could plow the fields, put out fertilizer, knew how to work in a tobacco field and barn but I couldn’t boil water. I was quite a tomboy. My Daddy died my senior year of high school – 1966 – just 5 weeks before I graduated. I often think of all the things he missed in my life….my graduation, my baptism, my marriage, the birth of my two boys, so many things. But I know where he is and I am so thankful I have the guarantee of seeing him again one day.
I hope I haven’t reminisced too much in this email. I was a blessed child as I was growing up. I was loved by my parents and brother and sisters. I always had a nice place to live and all I needed. Not everyone was so fortunate. Like everyone else, I take those blessings for granted.
I hope all of you have a great week. Embrace the day and all it has to offer.
Brenda
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