My parents had only girls which is why Dad took in both Sonny and Ronnie. When my youngest sister, Bonnie Sue, was born in 1953; Shirley was fifteen, I was twelve, and Lucille had just turned ten. Bonnie was the most beautiful baby we every saw. Mom said she always had beautiful babies, people came from miles to see them. Well, I do know that Dad's niece, who was the same age as Mom, came every day to the house to see Bonnie. She would make a fuss over the baby always telling us she hoped her baby (she was pregnant at the time) looked just like Bonnie. My cousin already had six children; five boys and one girl. Two of the boys were older than us and the girl was in between Lucille and me, her last three babies had all been boys. She got her wish and delivered a little girl who looked enough like Bonnie to be twins. My father always said he would rather have had ten boys then three girls - he didn't count the baby; he only counted the ones who were interested in boys. Shirley was the quiet one and didn't go out of the house much, so Dad trusted her not to mess around with boys. He also trusted her to watch me and make sure I didn’t get in trouble.
Everyone who saw Bonnie loved her. I was doing some odd household jobs for a lady (I'll call her Anne) in the holler and wanted to show her how pretty Bonnie Sue was. So one day, without Mom knowing it, I took Bonnie to her house. While Anne played with the baby on the porch, I did her dishes. Bonnie was about seven months old and can sit by herself. Everything was fine until I tried to leave. See, I stayed for a little while after I finished the dishes to give Anne more time to play with Bonnie, but when I told her to give me the baby we had to leave, Anne refused and told me I couldn’t have her baby. I told her it wasn't her baby and she had to give me the baby back. Of course, now I’m scared. Mom was going to kill me if I came home without her baby.
I did the only thing I could, I grabbed Bonnie and ran as fast as I could for home. Anne was right behind me yelling for me to give back her baby. I skidded into our yard and slammed the fence gate closed. Anne stopped at the fence and never came into the yard. She just stood out there screaming and cussing. Finally, Mom went outside and told her to go home. But Anne just stood outside the fence raving we had her baby and she wanted her back. Mom came back into the house and told me to go out there and tell that crazy woman to home before somebody got hurt. I liked Anne and this wasn't the first time I had problems with her. So, I went outside and gently told her again that the baby wasn't hers and to go before her husband came home. She left but not without some cussing. Later the same day, Mom had to walk past Anne's house to go to the company store. Mom told me later Anne had followed her all way to the store cussing. Mom threatened me that if I ever take her baby down to Anne's house again, she would beat me.
We found out Anne's husband had to send her to the hospital. Apparently, he sent her away because she had become dangerous.
No comments:
Post a Comment