by Jeannie Travis
My Daddy was a handsome blue eyed man who delighted in his growing family, and loved being a farmer. He always planted a big old vegetable garden for Mama to can hundreds of jars of food for the winter…but put off ‘working it out’ just a long as he could. That ornery old mule delighted in stepping on the largest tomato plant…the finest green cabbage. Yep, my Pop lost his religion on garden tilling days!
Daddy met Mama when his cousin Raymond brought him along on a blind date for my Aunt Zula. My parents took one look at each other and fell in love for the rest of their lives…making Raymond and Aunt Zula very unhappy, I was told. Mom was separated from her first husband…Drinking and womanizing seemed like good enough excuses to her for a divorce, but the Baptist church didn’t, and ‘Churched ‘ her…I am sure Daddy thought it was a big joke, and I know Mama didn’t let it bother her. She was saving money to pay for her divorce, Daddy didn’t want to wait, so helped pay the $15.00 legal fees…
We were tenant farmers/share croppers, and Dad worked his way up from farm to farm, always bettering himself. Meanwhile he and Mom were saving money to buy their own place. Little kids went to the field to pick and hoe cotton and gather corn when they were 5 or 6, doing what we could..Our cotton sack wasn’t the long heavy canvas ones our parents used, but a tow sack with a strap made of an old belt or rag. Child welfare workers never came around. Guess everyone was in the same boat back in the early 40’s. I don’t think it hurt us to work hard. Good bone and muscle builders.
I can assure you they didn’t have to beg us to eat like parents do now…just put the delicious home grown food on the table and we ate it..fast but mannerly. I never heard a single child complain because they didn’t like the food.. Mama was a good cook, and we made a habit of eating whatever she felt like cooking. Custard pies for dessert made everyone happy, or a blackberry cobbler made from those berries Mama and I picked down in the edge of the new ground.
The life of my fun loving Daddy was cut short by Leukemia, just days before my 10th birthday. He was only 34 years old, and most of his siblings lived on into their 80’s. We all know theres no justice in this….Mama kept him very much alive in our minds and I think that was a wonderful thing for her to do. It may have helped her bear the terrible loss. She lived on for many years, but seemed to be just marking time until she could once again be with her Douglas. She always said his name in such a loving way….Jeannie T