It Was Hot

It was my first full time job, working in a woolen mill. As a new employee and only seventeen years old, I had to work the night shift. For some reason it was called the”graveyard shift”. As I remember, it was In the month of August. It gets pretty hot in South Carolina in the summer. I guess the temperature was about 100 degrees in midday. We lived in an old farm house without air conditioning. Course I didn't know anybody that had air conditioning then. ‘Bout the closest I had ever come to it was walking in front of Smith's Five & Dime on main street in McCormick when they had their doors open, and that cool air would come out.  A passerby would feel that cool air and go inside. It always got me to go in. But then my first true love, Charlene, worked there. She'd flash those big brown eyes at me, and I'd be useless the rest of the day. Five days a week I did not see her, but this was Friday and I would see her when she got off work today. But first I had to get some sleep.

I got home about a quarter 'til nine.  Mama had breakfast for me, and I was in bed by ten. About two o’clock I heard this terrible racket. It sounded like somebody was hammering on the house. I had every window open, of course, since the summer temperature was reaching 100 degrees. I was lying on the bed in my boxer shorts but still hot, sweating. I stuck my head under my pillow to cut out the noise. It didn’t work. I jumped out of bed.  I had to find out what was making that noise. I didn’t stop to put on my pants.  Hey, we lived in the country, the closest house was a mile away. The door to my room opened onto the back porch. I bounded out the door and down the back porch steps. Then I brought my body to a screeching halt!  

Coming around the corner of the house were two women! One was my mother (That was alright, Mamma had seen me in my underwear many times.), and the other was Mrs. Crosby, Charlene’s mama. I turned, made it to the top of the steps in two giant steps, and was back in my room in a fraction of a second.  I was starting to put my pants on when I realized the the hammering sound had stopped. I didn’t finish putting on my pants and instead dove back into bed. In minutes I was sound asleep again. But, it was for naught. The noise woke me

again. This time I put on my pants before investigating.  I went around the house to where my room was.  There, up above my window was a woodpecker. I don’t know why he decided to look for bugs there, and I didn’t care. I did know that he was keeping me awake. He saw me and quickly took refuge in a chinaberry tree close by.  I turned to go back into the house, but I had just gone around the corner of the house when he started hammering again. I had to find a way to stop this bird.  I turned around slowly, thinking. I felt something underfoot. Looking down, I saw a rock about the size of a baseball. If I could clobber that woodpecker with that rock I would no longer be sleep deprived. I crept along the side of the house getting closer to the bird. My granddaddy could drop a running rabbit at 100 feet, but I wasn’t granddaddy. I got as close as I could without spooking him. He stopped hammering for an instant, and I threw that rock with all I had. I didn’t hit him, but I did hit a window. The bird flew away. I’d tell Mama what happened and I would fix the window tomorrow, but now I needed sleep.

Back to bed I went and was soon sound asleep and dreaming of me and Charlene walking hand in hand down a country road.  I was about to say something to her when...Rat-tat-tat-tat.. Yep, the woodpecker again! I slowly got out of the bed and realized this would require some extreme action. From the corner of the room I pulled out my old Iver-Johnson 16 gauge single shot shotgun I had gotten for my eighth birthday.  From the top drawer of my chest of drawers I found a shotgun shell with #8 birdshot. I knew that would do the trick. I got back in my jeans and loaded the gun when I got into the backyard. (Never have a loaded gun in the house--Daddy’s rule.)  Once again I slowly crept around the corner of the house. I was fairly close and had a bead on him. As I squeezed the trigger the family cat, Whiskers, ran between my legs. The cat caused me to jump and that spoiled my perfect shot. It also saved Mr. Woodpecker’s life, but I winged him.  I was gonna finish him off when my little brother came at me screaming, “Don’t kill him! Don’t kill him!”

I finally did get four hours of sleep that day. But had to put the woodpecker in a cage for rehab, and that’s another story.

A Special Day With Ma

I have never been a fisherman.  There was a time when I wanted to be, but it never happened.  My Uncle Alvin was a fisherman.  He always caught fish; bass, bream, crappie or catfish. He caught ‘em all. He would tell me tales of waterhorses.  Those were big largemouth bass, big enough to put both your fists into their mouths. He would tell what it was like to watch them come up and strike a topwater lure. The still water would erupt as the fish would begin to fight. He would pull hard, taking yard after yard of fishing line off the reel. He would leave the water in great leaps.  But the most spectacular thing he would do was to leap to the surface of the water and then sort of  walk across the water on his tail. Sometimes with a violent jerk of his head the lure would fly right out of his mouth. My uncle had named some of these fish. But these really big fish, he never brought them home.  They lived only in his stories.

I well remember my first fishing trip.  It was the summer of my sixth year. I was to start to school in the fall. At that time my dad was a tenant farmer in the Piedmont area of South Carolina. We lived in a small three room house on a red dirt road. Summers were full of fun for a six-year-old boy. (I was too young to work in the fields.)There were butterflies to catch and maypops to pop. In the late evenings there were lightning bugs to catch, too. It was on one of these warm summer days that I had my first fishing adventure. My grandmother, Ma, lived about two miles away. She did not drive or have an automobile and would walk to our house.  Sometimes she would appear unannounced at our front door.  Of course she always appeared unannounced since it was before we got a telephone. I can see  her now with a kerchief on her head and wearing an old feed sack dress. She would have one of Pa’s old chambray shirts on and an apron tied around her waist.  I don’t ever remember seeing her without her eyeglasses. She spoke to Mama a few minutes. I heard Mama say, “That boy has been drivin’ me crazy to take him fishing. Jack doesn’t have time and I don’t know anything about fishing!”

“Well, I don’t know…,” Ma said.

“I sure would appreciate it if you could,” Mama pleaded.

“Awe right.  But  I didn’t bring no fishing stuff.”

“I don’t have anything and Jack doesn’t fish. But I’ll help if I can,”

Ma scratched her chin and said, “Maybe you could get me a couple of straight pins and a spool of heavy thread from your sewing basket…”

“Okay. Let me dry this last dish and I’ll get those things for you.”

Mama finished drying the plate and disappeared for a few minutes. She returned a few minutes later with the things Ma wanted.

“Got pliers?” Ma wanted to know.

“I think you’ll find a pair in that toolbox on the back porch by the kitchen door,” Mama said.  

I followed Ma to the back porch where she found the pliers. She used the pliers to shape the straight pins into two fish hooks. She then attached a length of heavy thread to each hook. I used my Hopalong Cassidy pocket knife to cut the thread.

Ma said, “Now you need to go and get us some fishing poles. Making ‘em about  this long.”

She held her hands about three feet apart.  I ran out the back of the house and found what I needed beside the barn. I was so excited that I ran back to the house where Ma quickly tied the fishing line to the poles.

“Don’t we need some bait, Ma?”

“We sure do.  Why don’t you go down by the barn and see if you can find some worms?”

I ran to the barn and got a garden trowel of Mama’s  from where the garden tools were kept.  I dug and dug and dug some more. But I did not find any worms. Frustrated I walked back to the house with my head hung low.

“I couldn’t find no worms!”

“Looks like you couldn’t wipe your feet either!” Mama scolded.

Still with my head hung low I went back out and wiped my feet. I heard Ma say, “Gimme a

li’l bit o’ flour amd I’ll make us some doughballs.”

When I got back inside, Ma said,  “Let’s go. I got  a li’l bit o’ flour from your mama. We can make doughballs for bait.”

We said goodbye to Mama. She wished us luck. We started walking down the dirt road toward the

branch.  I was feeling great. The warm sun was beaming down and the sky was that brilliant blue. There was a slight breeze. I could smell the pine trees that were on the right hand side of the road. We crossed the fence of rusty barbed wire into the pasture. “You ain’t seen that old male cow in here, have you?” Ma wanted to know.

“No, ma’am. I think he’s in one of the other pastures,” I said.

“That’s good. He might’ve chased you with that red shirt on.”

Soon we had crossed the pasture and were in a wooded area. After walking down a slight grade we were beside the branch in a grove of hardwood trees.  The branch to me was a place of adventure and mystery.   Who could tell what was under the water? What was hidden under the quartz bearing rocks?  Although it was only about three feet wide, it was a wild river to me.

“Gimme my fishin’ pole! I’m ready to fish!” I was excited.

“ Didn’t yo mama teach you how to say ‘please’?” said Ma.

“Yes, ma’am...please,” I answered.

“Here’s yo pole.”

“Where’s the bait?” I demanded.

“You just hold you hosses, young man! Come over here an’ I’ll show you how to make a doughball,” Ma said.

I walked over to where she was and watched as she spit in her hand. She added a Iittle bit of flour from a match box she had in her apron. Ma’s apron held many things. I once saw her pull a pair of scissors from her apron and stab a snapping turtle through the neck. But today she made  a small ball of dough with her thumb and pointer finger. She then put the tiny doughball on her fish hook.

“That’s how you do it,” she said.

I tried but couldn’t quite get it.  Ma made me a doughball from the last little bit of flour and put it on my hook.

Soon we both had our hooks in the water. I was disappointed. I did not catch a fish. I did not understand why not. I asked Ma.  She said that maybe it was because I did not spit on the bait once it was on the hook. I quickly pulled my hook from the water and spit on it twice. That did not seem to work either. I asked Ma what to do next. I simply had to catch a fish. She said,”You gotta hold your mouth right.”

I asked her to show me but she said it was different for everybody. I tried a frown. Then a scowl. I smiled. I tried facial expressions that don’t have a name. But nothing seemed to work. I was disheartened.  I believed I would never catch a fish. And then, after seemingly a millennium had passed, I felt a slight tug on my line. I had caught a fish!   It was the most beautiful fish I had ever seen. It had a brown back and a silver belly and all three inches were magnificent. I could not wait to get home and show it to Mama. Ma showed me how to make a stringer out of a small--very small stick.

When we got back to the house I told Mama we could have my fish for supper. She stared at Ma. I don’t know why.  Mama fried my fish for me. It was delicious. But I’m not sure whether I was tasting fish or just cornmeal breading.

And that was my first fishing adventure.

I would go fishing many more times with very little luck. In later years I have been invited to go fishing with friends. But they only invited me once. After careful analysis of the situation I found that when I went fishing with someone they would catch few fish if any. Yes I believe that I am bad luck for fishermen. I don’t just have bad luck, I share it!

Afterthought

My grandmother who was born in 1898 had a long life and happy life. At her funeral I mentioned to a cousin how she had made the fishing tackle and bait for my first fishing trip and how special it was to me. He said, “ Yeah, she did the same for me!”

Another Ride

Not so long ago I wrote in this blog about driving a NASCAR race car and about what an exciting ride it was. That was an exciting ride, but perhaps a more excitng ride was the one I took in the 1950s. Of course then I was a farm boy living on a two mule farm. It was a small farm. My father told me stories of working on 12 mule farms when he was young.  The house we were living in was built by my great grandfather on my mother's side of the family.  He descended  from German immigrants who settled in South Carolina in 1762.

It was the summer of my twelveth year when I took my ride. My grandmother and grandfather
lived about a mile away down the red dirt road. They were old. Grandma was born in 1898 and grandpa was older, so I had volunteered to plow up their garden spot. It wasn't a big deal; I could handle driving or plowing one mule and could handle a team hooked up to a wagon. Sometimes I would get in trouble when I would get the mules to run. I reckon I was a pretty good plowboy.  I could handle a mule better than a tractor. At 4-H Club camp we would get a chance to drive the newest tractors. The 4-H was operated under the U. S.  Departmemt of Agriculture to help rural youth. But, I would not be driving a tractor on that day.  No, indeed.  That day I would be plowing a mule; a gray mule.

It was early morning, about half past daybreak, when I slipped into the mule's stable with the bridle in my hand. The air was cool on this April morning, and I had had a breakfast of biscuits and white sop and salt cured ham (I was a growing boy!) and I was ready to work. I was always a little skittish when putting the bit in the mule's mouth. They had big teeth. I could imagine losing a finger.  Because of my height I had to wait until the mule lowered his head. Then I would slip the bit in the mule's mouth while putting the bridle over his ears and head, all in one smooth motion. I would lead the animal from the barn lot to a small building right outside the gate to the lot. That was the gear house. We called harness for the draft animals gears.  I don't know why, and I never knew it was harness until reading Zane Grey novels. The collar was the first thing that was put on the mule, followed by the gears. Later in life I found out that the proper name for the gears were hames. The last thing added were the plow lines, ropes attached to each side of the bridle at the bit. With voice commands and the plow lines you controlled the mule.

The sun was making an appearance when we began walking to my grandma's house. I looked for maypops on the edges of the road to pop, but it would be later in the summer before they appeared. I'm pretty sure that was not the correct botanical name. They looked like a small  elongated lime and grew on a ground hugging vine. The flower was kinda purple and sorta pretty.
Sure wished there had''ve been some to pop.

The old gray mule and I got grandma's garden plowed, and it was time to go home. Gramdma gave me a tall glass of sweet milk and two big warm sugar cookies before I left.  I was tired. I was sun burned. I didn't want to walk home. Why should I have to walk home when the mule could carry me?  That's when I got the idea. I could ride back!  Yep, I could ride that gray mule back!  But I was too short to jump up on its back. I  tried three times and gave up. I was always big for my age. I wore Red Camel jeans, husky size.  There had to be another way to get on that mule's back.  I was thinking on it as I started walking down the road leading the mule. It was an old road and the border between Greenwood and McCormick counties. Only a few yards down the road I heard a car coming. The mule did not want to get out of the road, but with some persuasion it did get into the deep ditch.  Mules are strong and withstand the scorching summer heat well, but they are very stubborn. I think they get that from their daddies, the jackass. 

We, the mule and me, were covered with red dust after the car went by. It was the rural mail carrier. His nickname was Bones.  They say he was in a Japamese prison camp during WWII. I just wished he had slowed down a bit when passing us. My spit was red, and it took a few minutes to clean the dirt out of my mouth.  I got over it, and started to climb out of the ditch and back into the road, when an idea hit me. I could  let the mule stand in the ditch while I mounted it from the high ditch bank. Riding would sure beat walking all the way home!

With the mule in the ditch, I climbed the embankment. I grabbed the reins and jumped astride the mule.   My knuckles were white as I held on when the mule jumped up out of the ditch. Once the gray one was in the middle of the road it reared up on its hind legs. I tightened my grip and held on. Next the mule kicked its hind legs high and launched me. Yep, over the mule's head. For a few microseconds I was airborne.  And then I wasn't. I remember nothing of my slide on my side down the middle of the road. The sandy surface ripped the skin from my semi-naked body.  I felt nothing and had a vague memory of celestial constellationa floating through my mind upon awakening.  Struggling to my feet  and brushing myself off I noticed that the mule was nowhere to be seen. I was a wee bit stiff from the sudden impact with the earth and had stopped bleeding when I continued my journey home.

Upon my arrival home the mule was waiting for me at the gear house making that "hee-haw" sound that mules make.  As I removed the gears from the mule I mumbled some things under my breath, that if my mama had heard, would have surely resulted im punishment. I knew that I was already going to get a tongue lashing for being all bloody and all.  Later in life I did drive a NASCAR racecar  at over 130 mph and that was exciting. But that wasn't the same being launched from the rear end of a mule on a country road.That was  my first exciting ride.