Supper time

Supper Time1

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As a child we played in the barn yard every night till supper time .We went in the loft and made mounds of hey to jump on. Papa kept his barn clean, the tack room had every thing right in it’s place, he even had an iron stove in there so he could work in the winter. His place to go when the world got too big for him.3

My cousins and I played army, had corn cob fights. If you have never had a wet corn cob get you upside the head you haven’t see the right stars. I can tell you from my own painful experience they are really all colors. It’ s just about as bad as throwing a rock up as high as you can throw it and hope it don’t come down on your Daddy’s head. That happened many a time. It was supper then straight to bed. Lord the night seemed so long then, and the summers were forever. 4

All the family visited summer and fall. The city cousins came down from Ohio with a card board around their neck with their name and where they were going. Wonder we didn’t lose one, but they were so mean no one would keep them long.
My cousin and I didn’t like it when they came down. They got the attention and we were expected to give in to them all time.5

One time a cousin wanted to go hunting with the .22 rifle.We told him not to bother Pa’s guns, but would he listen?
He got me down and sat on me to make me tell where the bullets were. I just knew that city fool would shoot him self in the foot, we reminded him to set the rifle across the fence before crossing it himself .And check for a bullet in the barrel, don’t look down in there fool. He never did kill anything.6

Papa played his banjo of an evening if the breeze was good.He could sit there in that straight chair, it leaned up against the wall and go to sleep playing Sally Goodden. I have a picture of that, it’s worth it’s weight in gold.7

One night bout dark a neighbor came running in ,needed Mother, his girl was having her baby, it wasn’t turned right.
Mother took off on the horse, any other time she wouldn’t get on him for money. My cousin and I didn’t know anything about birthing, we weren’t supposed to hear about the baby because she said it belonged to an uncle who was in France in the war. We was asleep when she came home, asking Daddy was a pure old D waist of time, we ask him where she went in such a hurry, I never had seen Mother run or volunteer to ride the horse. He would always say she went to a bear dance. I don’t know if the baby lived or not, never wanted to know, it would be a cousin and we had enough anyway. Uncle didn’t marry her so I guess the baby wasn’t his, although he liked babies a lot.8

We had one night when we was scared to death. The house had a porch upstairs, from there you could see for miles.Mother, two of my aunts and my cousin and me were setting up there where it was cool. The river was just a short way down the sugarcane road. Papa kept the brush cut so we could see the river, or so the grown ups could see if we were in the river. 9

Suddenly lights started shining on the ceiling of the porch and into the hall. The light was about like a close flashlight .We couldn’t hear any talking, usually if any one was down there fishing we could hear every word they said. We didn’t see or hear anything. My aunt went and got the big dog, he usually barked if any one was with in a mile of the house. He just played around a while and made a bed to sleep on. We never did find out where the lights came from.10

The men went down to the river and crossed to see if they could throw light that far, they couldn’t, and we could see the flash lights. We didn’t see any ground light the other time.11

I have a good one to tell about when the soldiers had maneuvers in the sugarcane field or any place they saw fit.But that’s a WW2 story for another time.
Copyright Joan Bray 200812