My Family: Chapter 19

While living in Rum Creek Hollow, I saw lot a  of trouble.  Some of it was my doing and some of it was by others. I told you before I wasn’t a model child, and I disobeyed my parents many times. I remember one time my disobedience nearly caused me my life.

I would play “house” underneath our house right by my parent’s bedroom window. I used the window to climb in and out of the house instead of going around to the front door. One time, Dad caught me as I climbed in the window. He told me to stop as I could get hurt. He also said the next time he caught me he would give me a whipping. Of course, I didn’t listen because it seemed an awful long way round to the front door. You may recall that our house was on stilts and, in order to reach the window, I had to drag some old rusted pieces of tin to step up on which enabled me to climb through. The next time i was playing “house”, i didn't hesitate to go through the window. I had one leg in and one leg out when Dad caught me for the second time. He hollered at me which scared me so bad that I fell out of the window and cut my leg on one piece of rusted tin.  The wound bled terribly (I really needed stitches) and I went into the house where Mom put some “cure all” black salve on it and then wrapped my leg in a cloth. Dad didn’t whip me but I had to sit and listen to him lecture and ’I-told-you-so’ me to death. Weeks later, I could barely walk and developed such a high fever Dad got scared. I heard him tell Mom he was afraid that I was seriously sick and he should take me to the hospital. Dad went and got our neighbor to drive us to Logan General Hospital where the doctor explained that if Dad had waited another day, I would have been dead from blood poison.

I wasn’t the only troublemaker in Rum Creek, the neighbors caused enough trouble for everybody.  For example, every weekend (like clockwork) everyone would have to get their little kids in the house because my girlfriend’s father would come home drunk. He had been in World War II and had taken a gun from a German soldier which he had killed, and buy shells for it. The neighbor’s tip off would be when he threw all the furniture out of the house and his wife and children would run out. That’s when he would get the gun and walk up and down the alley shooting in the air until he ran out of bullets. When he did run out, he would go back into the house and passed out. His family would then pick up all the furniture and put it back in the house again. That was signal for all the kids to come out of their homes and play again. He eventfully did kill his wife and baby before she could make it to a neighbor’s house.

Every Friday, my other friend’s mother would wait until their father would leave and go to Logan, she would then call a cab go right behind him and swear out a warrant for his arrest. When he came home late, the deputy would be there to arrest him and take him back to Logan where he spent the weekend in jail. This happen every weekend.

Sometimes it wasn’t only the people who caused trouble instead it was the livestock. My parents raised chickens and every Sunday for dinner we would have one for dinner. It was the only meat we ever ate. My parents kept the chickens over at my grandmother’s house because she had a chicken coop and Mom would go over there to butcher one. She would wring the chicken’s neck until she felt it break then she would drop it on the ground and let it flop around until it stopped. One time, she did this to a chicken and when she dropped the chicken on the ground it flopped for awhile then got up and ran under the house where we couldn't get to it. Mom said to leave it alone  she was sure it would die under the house because she felt the neck break. About three or four weeks later, or at least long enough for us all to forget about it,  the chicken came out from under the house with its neck all crooked and hanging to one side! Mom never bothered to try to kill it again. The same thing almost happened to my Grandma Francis. I was helping her hoe her garden which was by the chicken coop and when Grandma straighten up a chicken flew out the window (it looked like it was going to attack Grandma's head.) She told that chicken if it jumped on her head, she was going to have him for supper. As the chicken came flying at her, she took her hoe and hit it. She knocked it clear across the yard. We thought for sure she had killed it so I went into the house to boil some water. After the water was boiled, I went back out to get the chicken. There it was lying on the ground still, so I picked it up by its feet and dropped it in the boiled water. Amazingly enough the water must have revived the chicken because it flew out of the pot squawking. Grandma told it she get him next time.