2-22-11...THE POT
Brenda and I were like "Lucy and Ethel". If one got into something you could bet the other was right there helping. I was the one who usually did the thinkin' it up. And we both did the doin'. Brenda was quiet and shy and didn't say much. I think because she couldn't talk plain and was teased. When I was four month's old My Parents bought and moved into the house that became home. I grew up happy there. We had only lived in walking distance of the house as the crow flies. The people who lived in our house and we lived in theirs. Each family bought the houses at the same time and we just switched. Daddy wanted this house cause his sister lived just across the pasture. Brenda was 11 month's old then. Of course I don't remember this but the story was handed down . Anyway that was the start of a wonderful loving home. It still sits there today but I only went back one time and it broke my heart to see it. Just bears out the meaning of YOU CAN'T EVER GO BACK. Oh but I can go back in my memories any time I want to. My Daddy worked in the coal mines just up the track. He usually walked because we had no car but I remember him hitching a ride on a slow moving train. That was scary to me.
The house was not much more than a hull very open and cold. Of course there was no indoor plumbing and no electricity. We had a outside toilet and it was not close to the house for obvious reasons. Catalogs were the toilet paper and you didn't want the colored pages, they didn't work well. At night we had a 'slop jar'. Yep that's what they called it. Kinda like a bucket with a lid and a bail for carrying it out. We could pee in it but nothing else.
One night when Brenda was there we were messing around in my bedroom. We were supposed to be in bed but we were still playing. We thought we were being quiet but of course we were not. I thumped Brenda on her ear just being honery. That hurts. I've had it done to me and I knew it hurt but I was being a little terror. I thumped her ear and turned to walk away. Brenda got me around the waist with both arms then thumped my ear. She started to walk away and I grabbed her. Brenda was strong as an ox and pulled lose from me . I had my heels dug in and when she pulled lose I went back like I'd been shot out of a cannon. I had left the lid off of the pot so when I quit stumbling I sat down hard right in the pot. I was stuck in a pot that was half full. I must have looked funny because Brenda got tickled. I wanted out of that pot but knew I'd better not spill it so I was using my bare feet to pull toward the door. Brenda whispered, “Clydene your Mamma is coming, hurry up”. OMG I heard Mamma coming out of their bedroom saying, “ I told y'all to go to bed”. “We are in bed” Brenda lied. Now I'm panicked. I got up, pot and all, and I was moving on. Just as Mamma opened the door the pot turned lose of me and hit the floor. It landed on it's side and rolled across the uneven floor emptying out. It came to rest at Mamma's bare toes. Poor Mamma she didn't even ask us how this happened. She was used to our capers. She sent us after the mop and mop bucket. The mop was soaking in bleach water and ready. Pee was everywhere even under the bed but we cleaned it up slicker than a whistle before we were allowed to go to bed. Mamma threatened a switch if we made another peep. By Golly we made nary a sound the rest of the night.
