Random memories

I was always so bashful as a kid, and would hardly look at anybody unless they were part of the family. I think that one reason for it was because back during the time that the road ended at our house, every old man that came along and stopped, the whole bunch would go out on the porch to meet them if it was warm weather. We didn't get to see too many people and when somebody did stop, everybody wanted to know what he had to say. Well, I would get behind my momma, hang on to her dress tail, and just peek around at them. Then, that old man would say "give me that boy and I will cut his ears off." He would bring out a big old knife and that would nearly scare me to death. So, I went through my early years so bashful that I hardly ever said anything. Remembering my first school pictures, I had my head down and looked up at the photographer (you know - similar to having on a pair of glasses reading something that was laying in your lap, and looking up over the glasses talking to somebody). That was how the picture looked, minus the glasses of course. I finally got over that when I reached about 16 years old - except toward the girls, of course. I still didn't talk too much to the girls.

There were some other people that people would speak to, but I think that some of them were scared of them just like I was. There was a man named Emmet King, and I reckon he was alright - but he had a brother whose name was Junie. Junie walked around with a double-bladed axe across his shoulder, and we didn't know if he was all there or not. So, if I ever saw him, I would go somewhere else. Me and my much older brother Cecil (88) were talking about Junie here awhile back, and I brought up the axe. He said that Junie carried it because people would often hire him to clean up a place that had become grown up. No matter - I stayed away from him.

Then, there was an old woman that would roam around all over the country. She lived somewhere around Wolf Springs (a community about 6 miles ENE of Old Bethel), and her name was Dilcy Dawson. She carried a tow sack (also called a croaker sack, if you don't know what a tow sack is), and I don't know what she had in the sack, but she jabbered about something all the time. She would pass the house every once in a while and stop, and my daddy would go on at her. Also, there were two other women that lived together down the road toward Leighton, which were sisters. They were commonly referred to as "old maids."

Of course we had a mail man, and he lived at Leighton. People would say that the two old maids were struck on him, and would bake a cake, then leave some in the mailbox for him. Sometimes he would come by our house an hour or so late, and somebody would say "Yeah he's been down at those old women's house." I don't know where he actually was (and didn't really care), but people had to talk about something.

Sometimes, we would get up in the morning and around 8 O'clock they would start ringing the bell in the steeple of Old Bethel Baptist Church. Everybody knew what this meant, as the signal was used to indicate that someone had died. They would ring the bell, and some of the men would gather and dig the grave. I remember making the statement one time to somebody, that "old so-and-so was so sorry - they would have to hire somebody to dig his grave." Of course now you have to hire them all dug....