by Tony Nalley
“That’s why I never did like to gamble.” My dad interjected.
“Yes sir. That’s …ah …another thing about gamblin’ by god when you sit down there at a game you’re takin’ a chance on loosin’.” Grandpa stated. “Because you never know by god when their aint somebody else in there that’s as good as you are or better! That’s all the chance that you have to take, especially when you go to them gamblin’ places.”
Just then, someone spoke up, but it wasn’t quite clear what was said.
“What?” Grandpa asked. “That bird’s been watchin’ his shows and had been quiet. That’s the craziest bird there ever was. Mama will feed that, go in there and feed that bird, and he’ll take all them seeds and pick em’ out and put em’ down at the bottom of that cage and then he’ll get down there with his wings and he’ll whoop every one of em’ out there on the floor!”
“Won’t he Toby?” Grandpa smiled and asked me.
“Yes sir.” I answered matter of factly.
“And then he’ll rise up and down and I’ll get em up off the ground and he’ll do it again!” My grandma said.
“I was watchin’ him there a while ago and he would get up on one and comes down and runs across and…” Mama said, “…and goes back over there again.”
“Goes up underneath …yea!” Grandpa said kinda laughing. “And boy he gets mad! He’ll get up there on that wire and he’ll bite that bell! He tries his damndest to tear it off’n there!”
“If you let him get away with it you’ll spoil him.” Mama said smiling and then motioned to my grandma. “Mama, get over there and fuss at him!”
“It won’t do any good to fuss at him.” Grandpa said shaking his head.
“I bet you’ get him!” Mama said.
“He’s yea …He’s mean!” Grandpa said. “Boy when he gets mad that summbitch he’s gotta temper! Now boy when he gets mad and he’ll get a hold of that there water dish and that bird dish in there …that T …,” he said holding up his fingers once again in the sign of a cross, “ …and he won’t quit till he tears it outta there! You’d just think somebody was just tearin’ that cage plum up!”
“That one there carries on alot more than that other one did, don’t he?” My dad asked.
“Now that other one wouldn’t carry on and things unless you talked to him.” Grandpa answered. “I could talk to him and he’d sit there and whistle and just carry on. But you go over there and go to talkin’ to him and he won’t do a damned thing …that one won’t!”
“Back there when you got married there weren’t any cars or anything was there?” Mama asked.
“Mighty scarce!” Grandpa answered. “There was a few Model A’s and Model T’s, and there was a few of them old Chevrolets and a few of the Dodges but they were scarce.”
“Well I worked a many a damn week for three dollars and a half. I aint a lyin’ to ye!” Grandpa stated. “And I’ll tell ya the garshed damned truth! And before I left home I worked for many a week by god for less than that! By god …right at the Sawmill!”
“When did you leave?” Mama asked him.
“When I was seventeen …that’s when I left for good. But people now are not like they were then. By god I worked for Miles pert near a year by god down there at Pascal’s Sawmill and all I got was a dollar and a half a week!” My grandpa answered. “Dad would go get my check and by god he’d give me what he wanted me to have!”
“I tell you, his daddy and daddy’s daddy, they must have been kin to one another.” My dad said. “Mama says that grand pap was the meanest old man that ever lived!”
“Did you know though? That’s what I never could understand.” Grandpa continued. “Now there were two of us boys. And any goddamned thing in the world that Percy wanted or anything, by god Dad would give it to him. And Percy never had to give the old man a dime or nothin’! No! And by god he’d take my check! He always did.”
“Your Daddy’s daddy remarried, or he remarried?” Mama asked.
“He remarried and had Virginia and Becky and Sham. He had five.” Grandpa answered. “You were talkin’ about them bein’ kin? Now you see my daddy’s daddy I don’t know too much about him. And not anybody else knows too much about him, because he came from Arkansas up in there. And Dad told me who he was but he died and things before, you know …I never did see him. And dad had two brothers and two sisters besides him; there were five of them in the family.”
“And his two sisters died and they never got married?” Mama asked.
“And Uncle Wes, that’s dad’s brother, you’ve heard me and Mama and them talkin’ about Tommy, by god that did all that singin’ and yodelin’.” Grandpa said. “That was dad’s brother. Well he married, that’s the one by god that old Miss, uh …round here’s the witch Dickerson. Old Ms Dickerson’s a witch.” My grandpa continued. “And he was workin’ for her, he was. And he wanted to take off one Friday evening and she wouldn’t let him! And he took off anyhow. She told him then by god he’d regret it. And by god he was about sick before he got home!”
“Was that your daddy’s brother?” Mama asked him.
“Yes. Wes.” Grandpa answered. “Yeah that was his name, Wes. And he had one child. And daddy’s other brother Uncle Rusty, he never did marry. He stayed with Dad all of his life. He died at Dad’s house. And on my dad’s side, the only kin folk that I know of that’s livin’ is uh …Tommy. And I don’t know if he’s livin’ now or not. I aint heard from him for seven, eight years. Last time I heard from him he was up there in HenryCounty.” Grandpa continued. “He lived up above Campbellsville. He was, last time he was down in here Maria was a baby. He and his wife come down here when we lived over there on the hill and when she was a baby. He stayed one weekend. He came in on a Friday and stayed till Monday. And then I got a couple of letters from him after he went back and I never did hear nothin’ from him no more until, except once in a while I’d hear of him through these Frasier’s down here.”
“You see, Uncle Wes’s wife, after he died she married a Walter Frasier.” Grandpa related. “And he was the brother of Uncle Doc Frasier. Oh yea, I know all of her people and things I just don’t know Dad’s side.”
“What was your mama’s first name?” Mama asked. “Imina or Almina?”
“It starts with an ‘A’, its Almina.” Grandpa answered. “See Aunt Mertle and Aunt Nellie and Aunt Claire and all them are my Mother’s sisters.”
“Aunt Nellie was your mama’s sister?” Mama clarified.
“Yes.” Grandpa said.
“And they all come from Michigan?” Mama asked again.
“They all come from Michigan, yeah. Battle CreekMichigan.” Grandpa answered.
“Well I just never could figure out how Aunt Nellie was kin.” Mama said and smiled.
“That’s where they were all raised at and come down here.” Grandpa said. “And how come em’ to come down here, Dad worked for old man Azel Brittle when he was a boy. And Azel Brittle was a Sawmill man. He dealed in lumber and things all the time, and Dad was his sawer. He sawed for him: oak and things, those trees; you know hell they used to be five and six foot posts! And Dad, he run the Sawmill.” Grandpa continued. “And he had one saw right over top of the other one. Where they rigged two? And he’d take them big red oak …what they call flair oak and Dad would saw em’.”
“Now there’s certain ways you got to do that you know?” Grandpa related. “You’ve got to lift with a crane and then when he’d take a board off each one of them boards would have flowers on em’. You’d just run it through the cleaner and smooth it out and make it smooth and it had the prettiest flowers you’ve ever seen.”
“And …huh?” Grandpa asked and then continued. “Naw, it’s a certain way you cut it. You see that red oak, if you know how to cut it the way that grain runs will make flowers. You know if you know how to cut it off in boards. And old man Azel …he was tryin’ to get a big contract from a man in Michigan you know …one of these here big places? Well …where they have a
factory you know where they make beds …where they make everything you know? And he took Dad up there with him.”
“Well …they studied at that factory on how he could cut that oak and ship it in there to him. And while he was up there …Dad met Mama.” Grandpa said. “See then … by god everywhere you went was by horse and buggy. And they’d go through what they call a set up you know two of em’? And, and that’s how come …them to come down here.”
“And then uh …” Grandpa continued. “They all didn’t come then, just Dad and Mama. You see, old man Jasper at that time run what they call these tug boats. Jasper that was Mama’s daddy, he was runnin’ them across Lake Michigan. You see what he done …he hauled groceries …he hauled everything backwards and forwards you know from one side to the other. And Dad met Mama up there and then he come down here.” Grandpa stated. “Dad come back down here and he worked for about three or four months and by god he took off and went back to Michigan. He quit old man Azel’s. He was goin’ back there to where Mama was at! And he went up there and then him and Mama got married.”
“And he got to talkin’ to Grandpa …that’s Jasper, you know about the lumber business and things. And by god he talked Grandpa and all of them into sellin’ out up there you know …and comin’ down here!” My grandpa said. “And then they all come through here in a covered wagon. And then Jasper bought a Sawmill and dad went to runnin’ the Sawmill for him. And he run that Sawmill for him for years, well up until oh uh, Mama’s brothers and them you know got big enough to learn how to do it.”
“Dad learned Uncle Eddy and them all of them how, and Uncle Willie and them and all of them how to run a Sawmill and how to saw.” Grandpa said.
“Uncle Eddie was her brother and Jasper was her daddy?” Mama asked to clarify.
“Yea, Jasper was her daddy.” Grandpa answered. “Uncle Eddie and Uncle Johnny and …Uncle Johnny and Uncle Eddie and Uncle Willie and Uncle Owen, and let’s see. What the hell was the other one?” My grandpa said. “Wait a minute I’ll think of it in a minute. It’s been so damned long. Well anyhow there’s five of the boys I think it was and seven of the girls. I think it was. And uh …there was mama, and Aunt Nellie, and Aunt May, and Aunt Clairie, let me go over this again. There was mama, and Aunt Nellie, and Aunt Mertle, and Aunt Clairie, and Aunt May, and let see what was what one was it? There was… what the hell was her name? Aunt Minnie, she married Johnny.”
“Well anyhow, two of the girls and three of the boys went back to Michigan.” Grandpa continued. “And Uncle Johnny and Uncle Eddie and Uncle Willie they stayed down here. After they got up and married and things they went back to Michigan.” Grandpa said. “They didn’t care too much about the farm kinda work; they were used to workin’ doin factory work and things. It was where they were raised and things too.” Grandpa continued further. “And then Uncle Willie and Uncle Johnny and Uncle Eddie, they stayed down here. They were the boys that stayed down here and all of the girls got married and things they stayed down here.”
“You see uh, Aunt Nellie and Aunt Mertle, and Aunt Clairie, and all them; they married guys you know from down here.” Grandpa said.
“Who’d Aunt Nellie marry?” Mama asked.
“She married Will. You never did see him.” Grandpa answered. “He got killed when CL was about I don’t know, about six months old. He was cutting.”
“Who was uh, who was Raymond?” Mama asked.
“Yea, Raymond. CL’s Raymond’s brother.” Grandpa replied. “You see uh, Aunt Nellie had two girls and two boys. Margie and Ethel, they’ve been gone from here for hell …thirty years or longer.”
“You see Margie and Ethel well she never married till hell …she was, hell I don’t know …I reckon she up she was thirty years old and everything before she was married.” Grandpa said. “But Margie, she married uh …Earnest. I don’t know she was about seventeen or somethin’ like that.”
“You know Matt?” Grandpa asked my mom. “You ever see him us talkin much about Matt’s boy that Aunt Nellie raised. Yea, anyhow that’s Margie’s son. And then, yeah Matt, that’s Margie’s, that’s her daughter’s boy. He stayed down to Aunt Nellie’s.”
“What, what did that uncle of yours do?” I asked my grandpa the first moment I had the chance. “What, what did that uncle of yours do? You know that uncle you know that died? And that cat?” I continued.
“Uncle Wes?” Grandpa questioned me.
“What did he do, to make her mad?” I asked more clearly.
“She wanted him to work one Saturday evenin’, and he wanted to go to town and he wouldn’t do it.” Grandpa answered me back.
“And she killed him?” I questioned.
“You know people back there in them times well they was mean as hell, because time and things was hard!” My grandpa stated. “And goddamned boy you had to! If they wanted you to work you pert near had to work or if you didn’t you didn’t have no job! They sure wasn’t gonna let ya work the next day, or next week or somethin’. And it made her mad because he wouldn’t work. And when he left …when he started out of the yard she run out there to the gate and commenced to doin’ that way at him.” he said as he flung his arms with his pointer finger out. “At least that’s what Dad and them said.” Grandpa stated further.
“And she said, “by god.” she said, “You’ll be sorry of this!” she said, “I’ll guarantee you that’!” “And according to Dad and all of them, because I don’t remember.” they said, “By god, he got sick before he got home!” And he never did get well.” Grandpa stated.
“But then she sent that cat down there?” I asked.
“Well they claimed she had sent him I reckon. They heard down there at Parker’s.” Grandpa said. Parker’s was a little eating place and bar where they all gathered on weekends and after a hard day’s work.
“They said afterwards that she had thought she had punished him enough.” Grandpa continued. “Well I know that uh …Uncle Willie and Daddy and Uncle Les, Jerry and Raymond’s dad and …ole’ goddamn it …Uncle Martin and they all told the same thing.” They said, “Uncle Wes was layin’ there in bed.” and they said, “It was on a Sunday.” Of course back at that time they didn’t have screen doors and things like they got now. Hell! I never even had seen a screen door until I was twelve years old!” Grandpa stated. “And that cat come up there at that house; and he come in the house and went to goin’ around underneath of his bed. Walkin’ around you know and slippin’ underneath there? And they said he’d go “Meow” You know how those cats go? They said, “He’d do that five or six times!” And they said that “Right down below the house there underneath the bank there. There was a stream down there.” And they said, “The stream would come out here and they had a hole dug out there for the cows and things to drink out of; a little place by the spring.”
“They said, “That cat would go down there and jump backwards and forth across that there hole and holler!” Grandpa continued. “And they said, “That every once in a while he’d jump up in there and just roll over then jump out!” And I believe they said that “That cat started doing that on a Friday evening. And he did that all Friday evening, and on Saturday.”
“But anyhow when that cat started doin’ that, that Uncle Wes he had done got so weak that dang you know …he couldn’t even feed himself.” My grandpa said. “He couldn’t rise up or nothin’! They had to feed him. They had to prop him up in bed and feed him, you know so he could eat? And the doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with him!” Grandpa continued. And they said, “Uncle Will and Uncle Martin, and Uncle Willie, and well they didn’t know.”
“I tell you the truth that they didn’t know what that damned cat was doin’.” My grandpa went on to say. “And that damned cat was makin’ that racket and things! And by god he said, “I’m gonna kill that goddamned thing. We’ll stop it! They’d get after it ya know and run it out of the house you know and it’d come right back.” My grandpa said. “So they come in there and it started out down there over
the hill down there to that spring and …Willie, he always carried a .38 pistol. And he went down there and said by god he’d kill it!”
“And daddy and all of them and Uncle Willie told me himself, said he pulled that .38 down on him and he said he pulled the trigger and it snapped.” Grandpa said. “He snapped it six times, and it wouldn’t go off!”
“But Uncle Willie was about eighteen or nineteen, I don’t know or somethin’ like that. And that cat was jumpin’ back and forth across there, and there was a club layin’ there, you know a stick?” Grandpa said. “Uncle Willie picked that stick up and when that cat jumped over there he hit him across the head and knocked its brains out! And Daddy and Mama and all of them, they was up there at the house.” said, “When he hit that cat,” said, “Uncle Wes sat back like that and hollered!” And he said, “Just like somebody by god had hit him!” And they said, “He was dead in less than five minutes!”