1-29-09...MAMAS SHAWL
We had no water in our house. Well we had water but we had to go outside and draw it up from the well. It was a drilled well. The bucket was a long cylinder type thing with a rope that fed on a pulley hanging above. You dropped the bucket down in the well and let it fill up then draw it back up and empty it into your water bucket from the house. Several times a day this had to be done. There was a hand made wash stand in the kitchen to set the bucket on. Beside the bucket was a wash pan for washing hands. A dipper was hanging on a hook to get a drink of water. Yep. We all drank from that dipper, out of that bucket. Germs? Maybe. But we all survived. When one of us was sick we got our water in a glass. Why not a glass all the time? Heck I don't know. Just the way it was. The bucket, the wash pan, and the dipper were all white with red rings around the rims. The wash stand was built by Daddy out of rough lumber. Grandma made a cover of sorts with feed sacks, gathered it at the top and put a heavy string through it so it could be tied around the stand like a curtain. The curtain was white. It was taken off often and washed, starched, and ironed, to be hung again. Quiet a production.
Mama went out one morning to get a bucket of water. She usually asked one of us to do it but this time she went. It was just coming daylight on a late spring morning. A few minutes later we heard such a screech, then a thump. Norman, Paul and I were in the house and we all three went running out there. We weren't sure what the sound was but knew Mama was out there so we were concerned. We ran out on the porch and there sat Mama on the ground way out in the yard. She was wet and shaking like a bowl of jello. The water bucket was in her lap, turned upside down. Her face and hair was wet. She looked so comical sitting there that we all got tickled. Mama tried to give us the look but it wasn't coming out like THE LOOK at all. It was even more comical. We went running to her saying, "Giggle, Giggle, whas'the giggle matter, giggle, giggle. Mama what giggle giggle haapenned, giggle. I couldn't have stopped giggling for my dear life right then. Giggle, giggle, aaree' you giggle, giggle, hurt?
I don't think we would have ever got anything out of Mama if we hadn't finally calmed our giggles and gotten serious. She finally told us the story. She had her bucket of water and was on the porch just reaching to open the door when she felt something hit her and something went around her neck. She looked down at the same time she was reaching up on her shoulder, and what she saw and felt sent her trying to run. slinging her arms, bucket and all, till she got off the porch and sat down suddenly in the yard, bucket still with her, water all over her. I was about to get tickled again but I saw that Mama was really scared and I squelched that giggle and asked again, Mama what happened?
When we finally got the story out of her and got her in the house this is what we found out. The eaves of our ol' house were the perfect place for birds to build. Seems there was a big black snake crawling up there trying to rob a birds nest. It fell right on Mama's shoulder and one end was hanging down on each side. She had touched and seen the snake at the same time. The screech and thump we heard was her, trying to scream and trying to move at the same time. The thump must have been when she sat down suddenly in the yard. We searched for the snake but it was long gone. Probably almost as scared as Mama was. I still get the giggles when I think how Mama looked sitting in the yard all wet with a bucket in her lap. It took a while for Mama to see the humor in this and I can't say I blame her. I can just about imagine what that thing felt like almost wrapped around her. Black snakes aren't poison but I still don't want one on my back. NOPE!!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
FEEDIN' THE ANIMALS
1-28-09...FEEDIN' THE ANIMALS
I always followed my Daddy everywhere. I was on his heels, in his way, and under foot always. I always loved to go with Daddy to feed the chickens, slop the hog, and feed our horse Ol' Dixie . I just loved to throw out that corn and watch the chickens scramble to snatch it up. If I got too close with my bare feet I'd wind up sometimes with blood coming out of a toe or two. Same with my hands when I searched under a hen for the egg. If the hen was wanting to set she never appreciated me taking her hatching egg.
Next would be the hog. Now those things were smelly and sloppy but that never bothered me. I likes to see them roll around in the mud and mire, and loved to hear them grunt as they stuck their snout in the slop. I'm not sure what the slop consisted of. The bucket sat on the back porch. Mama poured dishwater, potato peeling's and other things in it. Daddy would then carry it out to the pen and mix some kind of feed in it and pour it in the trough for the hog. I think that is where the phrase, A pig will eat anything comes from.
Next came Ol' Dixie and I liked this the best. I would run around to the other side of the barn and get there before Daddy did. I always reached in the big 100 lb. feed sack and get me a big ol' bite of that feed. I thought it tasted sooo' good. Still think it must have. What ever it was I guess it wouldn't hurt me cause' Daddy never said anything. One day I ran in there and was just about to put my hand in the sack when Daddy got me around the waist and hoisted me up and outta' there real fast. He put me down on the ground and said get the shovel. I ran and got it real fast and drug it back. Daddy didn't look away from the sack, just reached his hand out and I placed the shovel handle in it. I'd made the mistake before of handing Daddy the hoe by the wrong end and knew what to do this time with the shovel.
Now Get Back Clydene! By his tone I knew he meant Now, so I moved. "What's wrong Daddy", I said. "Be quiet Clydene", he said. I looked over at the feed sack then and saw it. I didn't know what kind it was then but was later told it was a Copperhead, a deadly snake. It had its head sticking up and its body coiled up ready to strike. I screamed then and Daddy didn't have The Look like Mama but he had the words and the way to say them and I clamed up. Since the sack was almost full Daddy had a clear view but by then I had my eyes closed and didn't see the whole scene but that snake met his 'waterloo', I do know that.
Later as I heard the grown-ups talking about the incident they all agreed that an instinct had made Daddy aware of the danger. I had always got a hand full of that feed before, sometimes before Daddy even got to that side of the barn. But that morning Daddy hurried and got there. Said it was just a feeling. And they say only Mama's have that protective instinct. Heck! I know Daddy's have it to if they love their kids. And my Daddy sure loved us bunches. YEP!!
I always followed my Daddy everywhere. I was on his heels, in his way, and under foot always. I always loved to go with Daddy to feed the chickens, slop the hog, and feed our horse Ol' Dixie . I just loved to throw out that corn and watch the chickens scramble to snatch it up. If I got too close with my bare feet I'd wind up sometimes with blood coming out of a toe or two. Same with my hands when I searched under a hen for the egg. If the hen was wanting to set she never appreciated me taking her hatching egg.
Next would be the hog. Now those things were smelly and sloppy but that never bothered me. I likes to see them roll around in the mud and mire, and loved to hear them grunt as they stuck their snout in the slop. I'm not sure what the slop consisted of. The bucket sat on the back porch. Mama poured dishwater, potato peeling's and other things in it. Daddy would then carry it out to the pen and mix some kind of feed in it and pour it in the trough for the hog. I think that is where the phrase, A pig will eat anything comes from.
Next came Ol' Dixie and I liked this the best. I would run around to the other side of the barn and get there before Daddy did. I always reached in the big 100 lb. feed sack and get me a big ol' bite of that feed. I thought it tasted sooo' good. Still think it must have. What ever it was I guess it wouldn't hurt me cause' Daddy never said anything. One day I ran in there and was just about to put my hand in the sack when Daddy got me around the waist and hoisted me up and outta' there real fast. He put me down on the ground and said get the shovel. I ran and got it real fast and drug it back. Daddy didn't look away from the sack, just reached his hand out and I placed the shovel handle in it. I'd made the mistake before of handing Daddy the hoe by the wrong end and knew what to do this time with the shovel.
Now Get Back Clydene! By his tone I knew he meant Now, so I moved. "What's wrong Daddy", I said. "Be quiet Clydene", he said. I looked over at the feed sack then and saw it. I didn't know what kind it was then but was later told it was a Copperhead, a deadly snake. It had its head sticking up and its body coiled up ready to strike. I screamed then and Daddy didn't have The Look like Mama but he had the words and the way to say them and I clamed up. Since the sack was almost full Daddy had a clear view but by then I had my eyes closed and didn't see the whole scene but that snake met his 'waterloo', I do know that.
Later as I heard the grown-ups talking about the incident they all agreed that an instinct had made Daddy aware of the danger. I had always got a hand full of that feed before, sometimes before Daddy even got to that side of the barn. But that morning Daddy hurried and got there. Said it was just a feeling. And they say only Mama's have that protective instinct. Heck! I know Daddy's have it to if they love their kids. And my Daddy sure loved us bunches. YEP!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)