An Old Home Place Of
MineThis picture was graciously taken and sent to me by Bennie
Brown. This is part of a house where I used to live. It stands on Hwy. 330, or
Morgan-Cordova Road near Morgan, Kentucky. I lived here (I am not certain of the
exact time) from age 6 to about the age of 8. Many things happened while I lived
here. Some of my memories are these:
The house used to be
much larger. The house extended in the back in an "L" shape toward the right of
the picture toward a small underground cellar on the right.
There was a
barn out to the left of the house at a distance. The part of the house showing
in the picture has only two rooms. The room on the right front was occupied by
my grandfather, Francis Blackburn, until his death in February of 1952. The
outhouse was down a small hill in the back of the house.
Dog In Ice
Box The part of the house that extended to the right in an "L"
shape was the kitchen. In that kitchen at one time we had an ice box. We never
used ice much, but we stored items in this ice box. Once I put our little dog
inside one of the bins in the ice box and closed the door. When the dog finally
began to cry, I had forgotten that I had put him in there. We looked everywhere
for that little dog until I finally remembered what I had done and went and got
him out. I don't remember getting a spanking for that, but I certainly deserved
one.
Manure In The FaceOnce my cousin, a girl a little
younger than myself, had come out from town to stay a few days with us
.
We country children were always playing tricks on the "city children." My
brothers took her into the cow pasture in the back of the house, and they
pretended to be eating cow manure. She knew they were only pretending, so she
got down and pretended that she was eating it, also. When she did this, my
brother (not telling which one) pushed her face down into the freshly made pile
of manure. Boy, you talk about causing problems, that was one confusing bunch
of people for a while.
My Precious 50-Cent PieceI do not
remember where I would ever get a 50-cent piece, but I did (probably from my
father). I was lying on the floor in the warm weather and noticed a small
knothole in the floor near the front door of this house. I played with that
knothole for a few minutes with my 50-cent piece. It seemed that the hole was
too small to swallow up my 50-cent piece, but I was very wrong. All at a sudden
the coin disappeared and has not been recovered (to my knowledge) to this
day.
Nearly Broken NoseMy father worked in
Covington, Kentucky, at this time; and he stayed in town all week and came home
on the weekends. Once when he came home, he went straight to the barn. I wanted
to see him, so I was hurrying to the barn to see him. I tripped on the front
porch of this house and fell face first down upon a large rock beside the front
porch. I nearly broke my nose. I so remember my father's running to the house
and picking me up while I cried for several minutes. We did not go to the
doctor, because Mom and Dad could tell my nose was not broken. We did not go
the doctor in those days unless death was near.
Falling From Bicycle
BasketMy brother, Eddie, was going to Earl Wallace's house, our
landlord, to do some work for him. He wanted me to go with him, so he put me in
his bicycle basket and pumped the bicycle up the small grade toward the
next-door house. When we got to the house, Eddie said, "How am I going to get
you out of this basket?" Of course, I did not know how he would do that. Then,
without any explanation or warning, he ran the bicycle into the fence and threw
me from the basket. I fell onto some very soft, green grass, and everything was
just fine. However, I really don't ever want to do that again.
My
Body CastDoctors decided they wanted to do some very extensive
surgery on my legs due to my having Polio when I was two years old, so that was
scheduled while we lived in this house. As a result of the two surgeries, I had
on a body cast that extended from my toes on my right leg all the way up under
my arms. I could not sit up but had to lie down all the time. I remember my
father's carrying me into church and laying me down on the front seat of the
church. I spent nearly the whole summer in this cast, and I was often taken
outside at home. I have a picture of my lying down on a blanket in the front
yard of this place.
Chewing TobaccoI remember once
walking along the front porch and seeing my grandfather's plug tobacco lying in
the open window. I knew that he and my father used this tobacco to chew, so I
decided to steal a little taste of it. I picked up the small plug and took a
small bite, as I had seen my elders do, and I began to chew this little bite of
plug tobacco. At first it tasted sweet, and I enjoyed it; but about three
second later, I received my first shock of nicotine flowing through my body. I
almost immediately got dizzy and sick. I have never tried chewing tobacco since
that time, and I was only about seven years old.
Many More
Memories Could I could continue to cite many more memories
from my living in this place, including the eating of green apples in the apple
orchard that was behind the house, the old man and woman (Maggie and George) who
used to ride in a horse a buggy up and down the road, etc.
I hope you
enjoy these memories.
