MY MEMORIES

Chapter 6

Deerfield

It was quite sometime after we moved before we got acquainted with our neighbors. My daddy was working a road crew and eventually we got to know their families.

Mama and I still played together. Lots of peddlers came through the country and I would pretend to be one of them. When I got inside the house I would take my cue from them and ask my mama if she had a little girl. She would say, "Yes and if you go into the other room she will be there." I would come back and tell her what a sweet little girl she had and then make my sales pitch.

I also played by myself so much I invented playmates but finally changed them into a husband, 6 children and 8 dogs. I had them all named and would report to Mama each day how my family was progressing. Sometimes everything was OK. Sometimes I was having problems with my children but my dogs never misbehaved.

I noticed that Mama was sewing baby clothes but I thought they were for a newborn cousin. I stood right behind the sewing machine and asked questions all the time she was sewing. She didn't have the patience she usually had with me, and one day I asked, "Mamma are you ever going to be in humor again?" It must have touched a tender spot. She had me come around to her and gave me a big hug and kiss and I felt a whole lot better. She said that if I would go play she would hurry to finish her sewing and read to me that afternoon. Needless to say, I went to play a happy little girl though, truthfully, I felt pretty well grown up.

Mama saw the doctor pretty often that summer. She had what she called weak spells. She fainted a few times and daddy hated to leave her alone. The doctor told me one day that I was a smart little girl and could help my mother when Daddy was at work. He told me that if she should fall, or sit with her eyes closed, and not answer me, I should throw a little water on her and wake her up. I said I could do that.

About a week later Dad had heated the wash water for Mama before going to work. She had finished the washing, had the clothes drying on the clothesline and used some of the wash water to scrub the kitchen and the back porch. It had taken her all morning. She sat down in a chair, breathed a sigh, closed her eyes and didn't answer me when I called to her. That was my call to duty. The nearest water was a wash pan we washed our hands in and had quite a bit of water in it. I picked it up and threw it all in her lap. Poor lady, she was only resting after a hard morning's work. Now she had to clean part of the kitchen again but she told me not to feel bad, I had done exactly as I was told. I didn't know whether to feel good or bad but after that mama made sure to answer me the hundred times a day I called to her

Three teenage boys lived up the road east of us. They visited us quite a bit. They went home one day and at dinner they ask their mother why a good-looking man like my dad would marry a woman with such an ugly figure. Their mother turned to their dad and said, "Take these boys to the barn and have a talk with them."

A couple of Sundays later they were at our house and we were all sitting under the trees in the shade. In those days during the hot weather everyone entertained on a porch or under a shade tree. I was showing off as usual and it seemed to me the conversation was at a stand still. Suddenly I remembered the time when we lived at the Bungalow and my mama, after I had pressed her all day for an answer, had told me they would get me a baby to play with a year from that July. I said," My mama and daddy are going to get me a baby sister to play with this July." It was already July and Mama's due date had passed but I had not suspected a thing. I never heard a silence so deep. This was not talked about in those days. Having a baby was "a confinement case." The word "pregnant" was never spoken out loud and women were seldom seen in public during the last few months. Daddy took me into the house and set me down in a chair and told me to stay there. I did, but I couldn't understand what all the commotion was about. I had stirred up much more than I had intended. I thought doctors brought the babies and wondered what the folks were so upset about. I decided they wanted to surprise everyone and I had ruined the surprise.

The boys went home and ask their mother why my folks had told their little girl about them having a baby in July. For some reason their mother didn't like me much. Possibly because I had broken a pretty lamp globe of hers. I had said oh-oh. I didn't aim to do that. I'm sorry. She hadn't said anything. She said to the boys, "Knowing that little girl I don't expect they had to." One of the boys told daddy about it.

A few mornings later Daddy got me up early and told me that a neighbor girl I liked a lot wanted me to come up to their house for breakfast. We hurried to her house and daddy left. I had a lot of fun that morning. They had a birdhouse that seemed to have apartments. I wondered how many birds lived there. I could imagine the mother bird sweeping floors with her wing. I wondered about her children. I hoped I could see smoke from the chimney while mother bird was getting breakfast. They also had one of those weather-predicting houses where the girl or man came to the door, depending on the type of weather to expect. I fantisised about them much like I had about the birds and the birdhouse. I still like those weather vane houses.

We were about to sit down to dinner when Daddy and Grandpa Jones came and got me. I didn't much want to go home but they insisted and Grandpa had a pink peppermint for me so I went without much ado. When we got home I ran into the house and saw mama in bed. That really scared me. They took me around the bed and pulled back a little white blanket and there was a baby. I said, "Is she ours to keep?" They said, "Yes," and I was so happy I nearly fainted. I had a baby sister to play with but there were times during the next several weeks I was not quite so proud of her.