The Last Weekend of Freedom

The last weekend before school started was always one of the lowest points in the year for me when I was a kid. Nate got a letter in the mail from his new teacher, Mrs. Hooper. This is the same teacher Ben had in fourth grade. Nate wasn’t upset about his teacher, but he didn’t like the fact that the letter marked the end of summer break. I sure can sympathize with how Nate feels. So ends an all too short summer.

BEN’S BIRTHDAY. It’s so hard to believe that another birthday has rolled around for Ben. He celebrated twelve years on Friday. This year middle school. Teenager next year. He is becoming an extraordinary young man, but where has the time gone?

Ben really didn’t want to do anything big for his birthday this year. All he wanted was to have his friends, Jake and Luke, over to spend the night and all four boys (don’t forget Nate) had a wonderful time together. I think what’s so special about Jake and Luke for Ben is that they share his geeky side. They love to play Pokemon and that’s an interest a lot of boys at church and school don’t share with Ben.

Ben was moping a bit after his friends went home Saturday. I knew something was wrong, but the boy is so darn hard to read we had to work to get enough out of him to figure out what he really wanted. My first offer was to take him to Game Stop in White House so he could spend his gift card. Then we asked if he wanted the rest of the family to tag along and us go out to supper. Well, he did, but getting him to decide on a restaurant was like pulling teeth. I think he has taken lessons from Mom. We wound up going to Cracker Barrel which was a good choice because the serving staff will come to your table and sing Happy Birthday upon request and surprisingly he was all for it.

We celebrated as a family again over at Aunt Mar’s last night. It was a simple meal of hamburgers, but this meal featured an actual cake. (Ben had requested peach cobbler for when his friends were over on Friday.) I think he went to bed a happy twelve-year-old.

CATS. I have mentioned the cats over at Aunt Mar’s a few times over the last year. You may recall that we lost a kitten but then gained a stray so the cat count has stayed the same. It has been an ongoing debate with me about what to do with the cats. They all get under Mom’s feet and become a trip hazard for her when she goes outside which tips the scales toward getting rid of the cats, but then I drive up and Aunt Mar is sitting at the window thoroughly enjoying their antics as they play on the patio. To hear Mom and Aunt Mar talk about them the cats are better than anything on TV. What to do?

I’ve always thought that when the time comes to remove the cats I have plenty of barns around my house that would be a great place for a good mouser. That is, until we had a momma cat and two kittens show up at our house. One of these kittens has disappeared, but momma and the remaining kitten seem to be here to stay. Momma cat has even gotten over her shyness and let’s us play with her.

If anyone needs a cat we have a few to spare. Best we can tell they’re all girls.

THE START OF SCHOOL. We went to both schools this evening for open house. It’s very odd to walk through the high school wing with our new freshmen, strange to be back in the sixth grade wing with our new middle schooler, and that leaves our youngest at the elementary school by himself now.

I’ve already mentioned who Nate’s teacher is. Ben has many of the same teachers Jenna did three years ago. Jenna, on the other hand, has a whole new experience. She has four classes this semester: Family and Consumer Science (Home Ec), Lifetime Wellness, Health Science Ed, and Algebra I Honors. Unless things change she'll have the following classes after Christmas break: English I Honors, World Geography, Computer Applications, and Physical Science.

So, I’ll put the kids on the bus tomorrow for an abbreviated day (reminding Ben to get off at the right school) and classes start Thursday.

SCHOOL IN MY GRANDMOTHER’S DAY. The start of school is a good place to come back to my grandmother's recording as she talks about school some. The part where she begins to talk about school is very garbled, but clears up. She starts off telling about cleaning her slate. I'm guessing her school, which would have been a one- or two-room schoolhouse, did not have any plumbing at all because she mentions a hole in the floor where they poured the waste water. Something about her washing her slate must have been very funny because she laughs a lot during the retelling of it and she quotes the teacher, Miss Jesse, telling her, "Joella, I believe you're going to have to quit washing your slate. You're just tickling these little boys to death."

Mrs. Joella would be overwhelmed if she could walk into a classroom today. I do see some teachers use the slate idea, though with handheld dry erase boards, when they have their classes work math problems as a group. It amazes me how much paper we use in our school system each year. Here's what my grandmother said about slates and paper in her day.

Slates was so grand for those children learning to write. We didn't have tablets too much then. [Unclear] ... couldn't keep no way ... couldn't keep you in tablets. [You buy] a little old tablet and it wouldn't be as thick as your finger and the old, coarse paper, you know, [by the] time you tear out two or three leaves wasn't no room for anything. But they finally got where they made nice thick [or slick] tablets. Everybody could have good paper. But at first they didn't. It was old coarse paper.

Sadly my grandmother's educational experience was typical of many elder daughters of large families in her day. She missed a lot of school because she was needed at home to help with her younger siblings. She was supposed to share this responsibility with her younger sister, Mamie, but Mamie didn't seem to keen on staying home from school to cook and do laundry. My grandmother also didn't have the heart to leave her mother to do it all by herself, and, as she explained, "Mammy had a breaking out on her hands plum to her elbows. Had to wear rubber gloves to make up biscuits and to work with [unclear], such as that. She didn't use her hands without 'em ... biscuit dough and cutting meat. She had [unclear] on her hands. And that [unclear] would have to be tied down. She wore rubber gloves up to her elbows."

WALKING TO CHURCH. The last story that's intact on my grandmother's tape is about walking to church. She had been talking about her older brother, Frank, and some of the things he did, though the recording is hard to hear for that. One tale I could make out is that Frank loved to play ball, baseball in particular. A lot of the balls were homemade. On one occasion he wanted a rubber ball and made it by cutting out the tops from his father's rubber boots. He told their father a squirrel had gnawed off the tops of the boots. This story segued into a tale about going to church which was easier to understand.

Frank sure was a mess. But he was the best thing that ever was. Yeah. I know one time the [unclear] meeting was going on. And Mammy would go. And when Pappy could go he'd carry us all on his two horse wagon but he couldn't go all the time. And we'd all walk ... had us a little path ... and the path was so much better than the road was that the wagon had to go over.

So, one day, one morning, Frank says he wanted to go to church that morning. And Mammy said it was alright. We all got ready to go to church  ... he got Mamie going ... Frank [unclear] out. I don't know whether [unclear] John went or not.

And it had been a raining, but it wasn't raining that morning. So we went on the church. We had to go it was about a mile and a half or two miles from home. And so we went on to church and after dinner at church it come up this here cloud. Oh, it just rained, it poured. And then Mamie and I didn't have nothing but our little old parasols to keep the rain off of us. And so, when the rain was over with and it was after dinner Frank says, "Well now, you and Mamie get ready now we've got to go."

I said, "We can't go. We'll get our shoes muddy."

Frank said, "Pull 'em off and go barefooted." He said, "I'm going to pull my shoes off. I'm going barefooted. I ain't going to wear my shoes out in that slop."

So we pulled them off and went barefooted. He said, "Keep your socks on if you want to." I told him I thought as much of my socks as I did my shoes. I pulled them off.

So we went barefooted and [unclear] in the road just like a [unclear]. We walked all the way home. Awfullest time it ever was and I thought we was going to have to stay all night over there at the Presbyterian church. Frank said, "No. We ain't going to stay all night no where. We're going home. Naw, and we wasn't going to [unclear] stop on the road either to [unclear]. We was going straight on home."

He didn't stop for nothing. He said, "If we stopped we never would get started." And we went on home.

They must have had to cross a creek to get home and were concerned that the creek would be flooded.

He said, "[Unclear] Well, if it get's up I'll pack you and Mamie across the creek." [Laughs] He said he could pack us across the creek. You know, Frank wasn't no bigger than me. But it wasn't no [unclear] swim the creek. It hadn't rained that much.

We got home. Frank had on his new suit Mammy had made and pressed [unclear].

I said, "What in the world are you going to do with your suit?"

He said, "Well, I don't know. It's just as well to throw it out there on the fence and let it dry and Mammy can fix it."

[The] sun come right out right quick and so I had [unclear]. Well, mine and Mamie's clothes was just so wet -- ruined -- awful. I had on a white looking dress which was ruined. And Mammy had to stick all that into soap and wash it.

And, so the next day we kind of wanted to go back, but Pappy told us we better not go -- it might rain again. Well, we decided we'd better not go either.

So we finally got to going back to church. Oh, we thought it was the biggest thing that ever was to [get in the path and keep walking -- unclear -- go to church]. It was [unclear] the biggest crowd you ever seen. We had more dinners over there. I guess that’s what made us go over. You could eat all you wanted. Mammy would send dinner too.

But Pappy and them, Uncle [Thomas'?] folks, they always get up the two horse wagon to carry all of us. [unclear] But the road was so awful, almost turned the wagon over trying to get on the road. And you'd rather walk than to be in the wagon when the wagon would [turn]. We all went. We'd go on anyhow just to sing.

As I’ve said before, I don't remember much about my grandmother, but one thing that many people have said they remember about her is that she would not tolerate gossip and that she would never say anything bad about anyone. I admire that about her and hope I hit close to that mark.

Joe