After the house burned, and when we were living in a one-room tar paper shack, Papa had a part-time job with the city working on road construction; he ran an overhead crane and dug ditches for sewer pipes. It was a good job. But then he got an offer to transport house trailers between FloridaContinue reading “Eight Hens Roosting”
Category Archives: Excerpts from the memoir Nettles and Roses
Home Birth
RUTH WOULD ATTEST to the fact that nursing does not prevent pregnancy, since she conceived the couple’s second child while nursing, a year and a half after Elizabeth’s birth. And so, it was that on a hot summer day nineteen-year-old Ruth called from the cabin door, “Charlie, I think it’s time! You better get DocContinue reading “Home Birth”
Compassionate Service
Throughout my childhood and teen years, I remember my mother helping people who were poor. It wasn’t because she was wealthy, it was because she understood what it was to be poor. This photo reminds me of the old men she helped. They lived on what we called Bachelor Avenue, a country road that hadContinue reading “Compassionate Service”
Mama’s Goat Barn
(Excerpt from the memoir Nettles and Roses) Mama’s goat barn before it was condemned. Oil painting by the author. In the summer of 1965 Mama placed a two-hundred-dollar silent bid on an abandoned house and the three acres on which it sat; the property abutted her land. Actually, the house had been a cozy cottageContinue reading “Mama’s Goat Barn”
Outhouse Spelunking
Excerpt from the memoir titled Nettles and Roses Papa, with Charles’ help, dug a new hole for the outhouse when the contents of the previous hole had almost reached ground level. One day shortly before a new hole was dug, Ted and I found ourselves examining Mama’s new refillable ink pen. Ted was nine years oldContinue reading “Outhouse Spelunking”
As the Crow Flies 