I go to Bama and away from my keyboard and everyone gets amnesia!? Lordy Lordy! I've had the time to 'member but you've all tried to be online at Mom's and know how frustrating that can be. But I'm in front of my 'puter now and will try to spark the conversation. Hmmmmmm! now let's hop into the way back machine. This'll be before some (sorry).
Granpa Garner loved peppermint sticks, or so we were told, and we never went to their house without a few to give him. Then one day we discovered the GIANT peppermint stick. It was about a foot long and as big around as a half dollar. WOW! was he ever gonna love this. Well he made as big a deal about it as we hoped he would and we continued to bring them to him at every visit. Much after he'd passed and I'd grown I realized what a pain in the ass that thing musta been. Visualizing him sucking on that humongous piece of candy cracks me up now. Knowing that to eat it he'd have to shatter it with a hammer to eat any of it makes me appreciate how much he loved the gift & givers more than the peppermint. Wonder how many were just tossed.
I sat with Unc last week at the coffee shop that used to be Grandad's paper. I was totally washed in memories while talking with my brother. The register & coffee machines occupied the press, the Linotype was replaced by what seemed to be a private sitting area. Grandads Coke box had a bathroom in it's place. Just behind where I was sitting I could see Grandad in his lite grey pants and long sleeve white shirt, sleeves rolled up, setting type in a tray by hand. I wanted to go out the front and up the stairs & past Grandads office where all the confetti was and the glue pot where he made note pads for us. I had more than coffee & a danish that morning.
Zippidee
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, February 02, 2009
Whoa!! Now!
Hang on cause we totally skipped a few Millington years.
Yo unc! Do you remember picking cotton with me behind the house on Arnette Place? Lawn mowing wasn't getting enough work so we asked the guy (was he our landlord while waiting on our house to empty?) down the road if we could pick cotton. Liked to killed us! what'd we make 50 cents each? For the whole day!
How bout trips to Shelby State Forest & swinging on the vines?
Here's one. Dad & Duffy taking us all, five boys, fishing in Duffy's boat on the Mississippi. We get to the boat launch and unload the car & boat. Duffy backs down the ramp and is stopped for a reason I can't recall and he gets out of the car forgetting to set the brake. The boat & car wind up way down in the Mississippi. Turns out there was a very steep & deep drop at the end of the ramp. Could have been what he was being told when stopped.
OK so now I'm on a roll. It was in the fall. An overcast Saturday with just enough wind to make you pull you collar up. Dad had promised to take you and I hunting and Dad kept his promises. He spent Friday night showing us how to clean the guns, plenty of oil helps get rid of & prevent rust. A 4-10 shotgun from his youth and a Springfield bolt action single shot .22 caliber, his very first gun. Well I don't think we were quite sure what we were hunting. Coulda been squirrel dunno not sure I cared. I had a gun in my hands. The single shot .22 Calibre. Ray had the 4-10 shotgun. We were walking in single file, Dad, Ray then me, through rows of cotton towards a wooded island. Seemed all cotton fields had these and our suspicion was there'd be critters to shoot in them. Any way for some reason (I personally remember a bird)Ray decides to cock the shotgun. This is done by pulling the hammer back with your thumb. As ray is cocking the gun he's raising it(in anticipation of 'Baggin a Bird')and as he reaches the level of the top of Dads hat his thumb slips of off the freshly oiled hammer. Blew Dads hat off. When he turned around there was look & tongue a plenty. We returned to the car & Dad never took us out with loaded weapons ever again.
P.S. Both of those guns are in my shop.
Yo unc! Do you remember picking cotton with me behind the house on Arnette Place? Lawn mowing wasn't getting enough work so we asked the guy (was he our landlord while waiting on our house to empty?) down the road if we could pick cotton. Liked to killed us! what'd we make 50 cents each? For the whole day!
How bout trips to Shelby State Forest & swinging on the vines?
Here's one. Dad & Duffy taking us all, five boys, fishing in Duffy's boat on the Mississippi. We get to the boat launch and unload the car & boat. Duffy backs down the ramp and is stopped for a reason I can't recall and he gets out of the car forgetting to set the brake. The boat & car wind up way down in the Mississippi. Turns out there was a very steep & deep drop at the end of the ramp. Could have been what he was being told when stopped.
OK so now I'm on a roll. It was in the fall. An overcast Saturday with just enough wind to make you pull you collar up. Dad had promised to take you and I hunting and Dad kept his promises. He spent Friday night showing us how to clean the guns, plenty of oil helps get rid of & prevent rust. A 4-10 shotgun from his youth and a Springfield bolt action single shot .22 caliber, his very first gun. Well I don't think we were quite sure what we were hunting. Coulda been squirrel dunno not sure I cared. I had a gun in my hands. The single shot .22 Calibre. Ray had the 4-10 shotgun. We were walking in single file, Dad, Ray then me, through rows of cotton towards a wooded island. Seemed all cotton fields had these and our suspicion was there'd be critters to shoot in them. Any way for some reason (I personally remember a bird)Ray decides to cock the shotgun. This is done by pulling the hammer back with your thumb. As ray is cocking the gun he's raising it(in anticipation of 'Baggin a Bird')and as he reaches the level of the top of Dads hat his thumb slips of off the freshly oiled hammer. Blew Dads hat off. When he turned around there was look & tongue a plenty. We returned to the car & Dad never took us out with loaded weapons ever again.
P.S. Both of those guns are in my shop.
The tounge.
The tongue wasn't always associated with anger. The tongue was a sign of intensity. If it appeared while angry or upset then there was cause for concern 'cause it were a intense anger or upset. The intense part was usually short lived with anger but with other things could last as long as the task.
Quick story of intensity. Maine, it's snowing, Dad stopped for gas. While out of the car he decides to clean the headlights, they'd get real dim with road crud, he leans over and gets real intent on cleaning that light. Someone in the car makes a crack about him licking it clean. When he gets back in the car he can't understand why everyone is convulsed in laughter. No one was going to tell him either.
Quick story of intensity. Maine, it's snowing, Dad stopped for gas. While out of the car he decides to clean the headlights, they'd get real dim with road crud, he leans over and gets real intent on cleaning that light. Someone in the car makes a crack about him licking it clean. When he gets back in the car he can't understand why everyone is convulsed in laughter. No one was going to tell him either.
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