Part 5 (1/2)

Papa and Maet Old Scotch to obey us And there seeht us how to do In a jiffy they could cut a slot in the side of a pumpkin leaf stem and make us a horn to blow They showed us how to put a chicken's head under his wing, swing hiround, fast asleep Papa taught us how to tie a certain kind of a knot in a rope for one occasion and another kind for another purpose And he taught us how tocalves

We owed a lot to our parents forthe most respected parents in our coanizations concerned with business or big governoers with high standards of rity As in play, so in life, they wanted their children to abide by a set of rules which would lead thee of the difference between good and evil, with a desire to do the good and shun the evil

They ht of God as soht was right, and they did it with consistency and sincerity More than that we have no right to ask

Some families have their own little unique custo with other families, it seeiven naest one ”Baby” until the next one arrived Then we called the new one ”Baby” and the one before hihtful naer brother was born Joel, just older than I, couldn't say Clarence, so he calledBaby and he called the new one Baby No, he wasn't slow about learning to talk You see, we didn't give hi, and he was just three when the new one came Another custom not common to all families e smaller ones wore dresses around home for the first three or four years of our lives ItCome to think of it, I never heard of diapers until I was alrown They were not diapers, they were breeches-in our fa I ever heard them called until I was athe simple life I wasn't any poorer than the rest of my family, but I was the si ourselves Inwe did, there was an element of co us kids to apply pressure to each other They found that it worked better than when parents tried to force kids to work faster

In the cotton patch you could hear us kids saying such things as, ”I picked ht hear so like, ”Come on, Slow Poke”

The plan worked well No one wanted to be outdone by a brother, especially a little brother And if a little brother could outshi+ne a big brother, even just once in awhile, that was a real feather in the little one's cap

Oh, yes! There was hurry and there was pressure But it didn't seeet us down as it does soists in those days to tell us that pressures would warp a kid's brain We didn't know that competition and hurry would drive us crazy until these educated people told us about it

So we lived hard, orked hard, and we played hard Then ere able to go to bed and sleep hard Never in my life did I ever hear Maht, because I felt tense and worried”

There was really nothing to worry about like there is today They didn't worry that we kids et into trouble We didn't have to leave hoht at hos Most of our troubles were brought on accidentally, we didn't deliberately plan the, we had nothing to lose No one would steal from us because no one wanted e had So, whatever pressures we ht of welcoed us to see who could pick 100 bolls first The first one to pick his 100 bolls would call out, ”hundred” Then each of the others would call out the nu the saot in in a shorter period of time But, as in all activities where kids are involved, we so of hu while I picked cotton and countedwas relaxing and it allowed my hands to do their work faster And now, 65 years later, I learn that I was doing soa

At any rate, it really worked for me I could pick cotton faster than a brother or tere older than I was Now, I didn't necessarily use et more of the family cotton picked I used itcotton, and that not for very long at a time

But my little scheme backfired on me One of those brothers couldn't stand to be outdone by a younger brother He told Ma, because he knew I couldn't count bolls while I sang a song But he rong I could Anyway, nothing I could say wouldsome of my brothers early in life I believe there were tilad to ”sell me into slavery” as Joseph's brothers did him

But my parents didn't seem to doubt my word I really believe they understood that I could do a thing or two that some of the others could not do-and perhaps were not at all interested in doing

I believe little things like that were the beginning of a wee bit of an unconscious rift between so of a stronger bond betweenback, I reether and there was no one else around I really don't knohy I was the only one there a lot of tiood coht he was the best and nicest man in the world Or perhaps I ith Papa because of s, like,

”How do you shoe a horse?”

”How do you tighten a loose wagon tire?”

”How do you make a row-binder do what you want it to do when the manufacturer couldn't sees and s he did fascinated me

The situation was much the same between Mama and me

”How do you churn milk and make butter?”

”How do you 'take up' the butter after it is churned?”