My Family: Chapter 33

 Sharon lived at the end of our camp, her parent’s are the same ones who got into a fight with my parents at the picnic. We were in the same grade. She may have lived with her sister in Logan when we started high school because I don't remember her riding the school bus with me. Anyway, I remember she once took me to her sister’s apartment and that’s where I saw an electric clothes dryer and washer for the first time. I can recall she got into a big fight in Junior High which started a small war where it was hollow versus hollow. See, someone had made Sharon mad (I don't recall how it started) and she wrecked the classroom - threw books and paper all over the room. The whole class joined the fight with kids from other classrooms joining as well. Maybe it was just an excuse to cut up. I had already heard about the fight as my class was two doors down from her classroom. Principle came into our homeroom and talked to all of us. He said kids from the hollows weren’t raised right, we were “savages.” And he would jerk us up by the hair of our heads.

Poodie age 16

I went to Junior High everyday without a lunch. Because of this I would walk to Aunt Belvia’s house every day for lunch since she lived around the mountain from the school. Aunt Belvia’s husband, Noah, was a miner at the Orville coal mine and he drove by our house every day to and from work, so if I wanted a ride to Aunt Wanda’s or just to go to visit Aunt Belvia, all I had to do was stand in front of my house and flag him down as he drove by. He would always stop and give me a ride into Logan. 

This one time I spent the night with them. I slept in a small bedroom next to the bathroom, close to the mountainside. I had a bad dream that night and, while I was still asleep, I tried to open the window.  I was just getting ready to scream out the window when Uncle Noah woke me up. He said I woke him up when I opened the window. He thought I was going to climb out.  I told him I had a dream and was going to holler for my Mom.  I walked in my sleep quite a lot when I was little, Mom was forever waking me up and telling me to go back to bed. One time, I woke up on my own with my hand on the back doorknob. I had been trying to get out the door, but I think the doorknob was cold which is what woke me.  I know I’m very thankful that I didn’t make it outside that door - I’m scared of the dark.