starting to School

Well I finally got old enough to go to School, and I remember my first Day very well, it was all I could do to keep from Crying, some of the Kids did but I was determined that I wasn't going to Cry, my First Grade Teacher was Mrs Neal, I liked her alright, I had a Second Cousin that was in the same Grade with me, he was nearly a year older than I was and his Name was Edward Oneal Vandiver and when I was born my Mama said nothing would do but I was going to be named Edward Keith Vandiver, this was my daddy's Idea.

well when I was two Weeks old all the Clan went to La Grange School to a Play and there was a Character in that Play named Punkie Dunk, well my sister Ruby got to calling me that, and it finally boiled down to Punk and when I got Married and moved to Russellville I got away from that terrible Name almost, nobody around where I was raised even knew what my real name was, and the other Edward Oneal Vandiver, somebody hung Fluke on Him and he was Kin to the Harrisons and they had a boy older than us two and somebody had hung Flop on him, so it was Fluke, Punk and Flop,

I live in Russellville now and every once in a while I will hear somevbody say "Hey Punk"! and I know without looking that it is somebody from down at Old Bethel, Flop and Fluke are both Dead and I know Punk will pop up every once in awhile till I die, I know how that boy felt in the song Johny Cash wrote "Boy named Sue".

in the 3rd or 4th Grade I had a Teacher named Gussie Keenum, and she was an Artist with a Paddle, Boy when she Whipped you, you knew that you had been Whipped, having no Kids of her own I believe she enjoyed it, one Day it had Rained and there were some Big Puddles of Water, so I caught Maxine Hall and Edith Waldrep passing one of them Mud Holes and I ran and jumped in it with Both Feet, this got muddy Water on their Dresses and they made a B-line to Gussie Keenum, and she had me to go in the Cloak Room and I had to get up in an old Desk to see out the Window and she made me show her the Puddle I jumped in and then she Lit up my Life, Man that hurt, I can still remember how it hurt, A Teacher Whip a Kid Today like that and they would go to Jail, I'm not saying I didn't need it but not that Hard.

I was in the Army and Home on Furlough, and one Evening I was Passing her House and Her andCheck (that was her Husbands Name) were sitting out on the Front Porch , and I just Wheeled my Car in the Driveway and spoke to them and told her "well I have come to get even with you for all them Whippings that you used to give me". I had her worried too, then I laughed and She knew I was Kidding.



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