Root Jumper

by Justine Felix Rutherford

  People live in a community for years, but we never think about all the good things they do. Willa Mae was always a kind, giving person. She was the only person living in her community who had a car and so she got the job of taxi driver for all the people who needed to go to the doctor. If people had business to do at Milton or Huntington, they just went to see Willa Mae, and she dropped whatever she was doing and took them.

  Willa Mae had an old flat- bed truck (she could drive anything). She would pick-up all the kids in the area and take them to ball games or to see the Christmas lights. Today this would not seem like much, but to kids back then it was a treat. Willa Mae and her husband Orval owned a small grocery store on Barker Ridge. Willa Mae always fixed a lunch for the kids going to school. It was a nice big slice of bologna placed between two slices of white bread. Oh, how good a bologna sandwich tasted to them! She charged only five cents for the sandwich. There was always a gang of kids with their faces pressed up to the candy case. Everyone got a treat. If you had a penny, you could get several pieces of candy. This reminds me of a story a fellow told me about my husband Doyle. He said Doyle stopped at the store when they were kids and got candy. Doyle’s Dad had a job so he was more fortunate about money. He told me that Doyle always had a sack full of candy, but he always shared with everyone until it was gone. My husband was always a kind man. Willa Mae’s store was a meeting place for everyone—they just seemed to gather in the store to visit. I don’t know how Willa Mae ever got her work done.

  While we were visiting with Willa Mae and talking about everything, we spotted a blue bird nest in the tree just outside the window. We were watching the bird, Leoris, Willa Mae’s daughter, began talking about her father Orval’s pet crows. Orval is now deceased. Leoris said her dad had raised those crows and that they were very smart. He had first made them a bed in the barn in some boxes. He would always go in the morning to let them out. He was afraid that something might happen to them. They followed him wherever he went around the barn and in the fields. She said her dad would talk to them, and they would make their noises back to him.

  Leoris said that after her dad had a heart attack, he couldn’t do much for a while. He would tell the crows to go to the barn when it got dark, and they would obey him. Sometimes he would tell them to get in the tree in the front yard, and they would obey him. She said they would sit around his chair as he talked to them, and they would make their noises back to him.

  We had a lovely visit together that day with Willa Mae and her daughter Leoris. Willa Mae is truly a kind, loving person who always has a friendly word for anyone she meets.

  The Rooster Mutt

  Another friend and sweet lady was Aline Meadows. She lived on Barker Ridge. I would see her out occasionally at the fair and at other different places. She would say that she had to get home to take care of Mutt. I asked her who Mutt was. She said, “Oh, that’s my chicken.” I asked her to tell me about her chicken. I told her I would like to come and see her chicken. She told me to come anytime. Even her neighbors talked about Aline’s chicken. I really planned to go see her, but I didn’t make it. She passed away, but I never forgot about her pet chicken.

  Aline’s chicken Mutt was a rooster. There had been two or three other chickens to start with, but something caught them or they got killed by a car. There was just the rooster left. Mutt was quite a character. He and Aline became inseparable. She was a widow, and you could see Mutt sitting with Aline anytime she was sitting on the porch.

  Mutt roosted on the air conditioner every night. When he got up and had finished his crowing, he and Aline had breakfast. She fixed him toast, butter, and jelly. She spoiled this rooster like you wouldn’t believe. She also got fine cracked corn for him to eat, and every summer she grew a tomato plant that produced small tomatoes. Aline would split these small tomatoes for him to eat. When it was hot, she would crush ice cubes for him to have cold water. Mutt lived many years. When he got too old to fly up to roost on the air conditioner, Aline would lift him up and put him on the top.

  The neighbors said that any time you went to visit Aline, Mutt didn’t want you coming into the yard. Aline had to tell him it was alright or he would fight the visitor. I believe Mutt is with his friend Aline today.

  The Donkey Sadie

  Another interesting pet that I remember belonged to my friend Matt Hanna. This pet’s name was Sadie, and she was a donkey. My father-in-law, Chet Rutherford, originally owned this donkey. I don’t remember how he got her or where she had come from. There isn’t anyone to ask. This happens when you become the oldest person around.

  The donkey had become a pest, and Chet wanted to get rid of her. He said if he could find someone who would give her a good home, he would get rid of her. Matt Hanna, a neighbor who lived on Barker Ridge, came by. Knowing Chet, I’m sure he told Matt the donkey was a saint! Anyway, Matt wound up with the donkey which he later named Sadie after a friend of his wife. Sadie lived in the Ozarks of Missouri and was probably stubborn just like a donkey is supposed to be.

  In earlier years, Matt had been the principal of our school here on the ridge, and he had a farm on Barker Ridge. Who knows what he was thinking when he adopted Sadie. Matt’s daughter Elizabeth said that she was five years old when Sadie moved in I think Sadie sort of pushed Elizabeth aside and got most of the attention.

  Sadie was a cross between a goat, a donkey, and a human. She didn’t stay fenced in—she just wandered around doing as she pleased. Occasionally she did wander onto the hard road. One of the neighbors said that she had her head stuck in their open window.

  Sadie enjoyed a strange diet. She ate coal, plastic, paper, wood, or anything she could get ahold of. Sadie loved chewing tobacco, and she chewed all the tobacco she could find or was given. She tore clothes from the clothes line. Sometimes she was selective and just pulled out the clothes pins.

  Sadie was a great watch dog. No one came around that she didn’t let the family know with a great bray. It took Sadie a long time to shed her coat of shaggy hair. In the fall she might still have this shaggy coat. Elizabeth said her mother Opal would take two slices of bread and put coarse salt in between, making Sadie a coarse salt sandwich. She said that this would help her shed her coat.

  One day Sadie really got in trouble. She drank some diesel fuel from a container that contained fuel for a bull dozer. Her people smelled this on her breath, and really thought she might die. But she didn’t!

  Elizabeth said that when she started dating her husband Danny, he had a nice, shiny car. Sadie didn’t like the car and would back up against it and try to kick it. Danny got her to lay off by giving her a cigarette.

  There was a cemetery out the road from where Matt lived called the Webb Cemetery. This was in the 1960s and very seldom did a car go by to the cemetery. On this particular day there was a funeral, and several cars went by the house. Sadie didn’t know what to think. Elizabeth said that Sadie just went wild. She went around and around the house braying at the cars. What a character she was!

  Elizabeth said that she, her brother John, and some nephews tried to ride Sadie. There were two pine trees a short distance apart. When they tried to ride Sadie, she would head for those trees, knocking off the rider in the small space between the trees.

  As Sadie aged, she decided to sleep on the ground outside the back door under a pear tree. Matt’s wife Opal always got up very early. She often stepped outside the back door to look at the pre-dawn sky. One morning as she stepped out the back door, she fell over Sadie who was sleeping there. She wasn’t hurt but was quite startled. This incident gave Matt “fodder” for one of his speeches. He was a great speaker and often spoke to different groups including churches. He was always on call somewhere. At this particular time he was speaking at a restaurant to a men’s group from a Pea Ridge church. To capture his audience’s attention, he used the story of Opal’s falling over Sadie. Pretending to be a seller of newspape
rs he said, “Extra, extra, read all about it. Woman falls over her ass!”

  Sadie lived to be twenty-nine years old. Chet, Matt, and Sadie are all gone now. They say authors are weird, but I can just see Sadie on her rear end sitting between Chet and Matt.

  The Dog Rover

  Dale Rollyson, who lived across the road from me and who was a great friend and neighbor, used to tell me about this dog he had when he was a kid. The dog’s name was Rover. The family had just moved from Huntington, West Virginia, to Big Seven Mile at Lesage, West Virginia. This community was about twelve miles from Huntington.

  Dale got Rover in the 1930s when a neighbor gave him a puppy. He dog became known as Dale’s dog because he was always with Dale. As the puppy grew, he became very protective of the family. Rover was a mixture of Airedale and German Shepard. He grew to weigh about forty or forty-five pounds. Rover became an expert at sniffing out copperhead snakes. He would grab a snake and shake it until it died. Copperheads were so sneaky. Dale and his friends that he played with always felt safe as long as Rover was with them. When Rover started barking, they always knew something wasn’t right. One day as all boys do, they went swimming in Seven Mile Creek. They had dammed up the creek to make themselves a swimming hole. They were having a great time in the water when Rover started barking. When they first heard him barking, they ignored him. As he kept on barking, they decided to get out of the water to see what Rover was barking about. Just as they got out of the water and were on the creek bank, a six or eight foot wall of water came down the creek. There had been a cloud burst of rain at the head of the creek, and if they had stayed in the water, they would have drowned. Once again Rover had saved them.

  Rover watched out for the chicken house so that nothing got in. He also watched out for the barn and the house. Dale said that Rover just guarded everything and did whatever needed to be done. You could tell Rover to go get the cattle, and he would go and do.

  Back during this period, farmers always had to clear what they called “new ground.” Dale said that his dad was clearing land above a rock house on Big Seven Mile behind his grandfather’s farm. Rock houses are rocks formed into the hillside that have space in them like a house. His dad had set a small fire to burn the underbrush behind him. He ran into a nest of copperheads. His dad didn’t know what to do. He had fire behind him and snakes and a huge rock cliff in front of him. He called for Rover. Rover made short work of the snakes—five copperheads in all. Once again Rover had saved a life.

  Dale said that when Rover was about seven or eight years old, he began to get ornery. If people came around he didn’t like, he would bite them. His dad had started a small store on Seven Mile. His dad told Dale they had to get rid of Rover.

  Dale said that there was a man who came through trading horses and cattle. This man told Dale’s dad that he would take Rover and find a good home for him. They blindfolded Rover and put him in the truck. He was taken to Pt. Pleasant which was about fifty miles from where they lived. Dale said that they all cried because Rover was like family.

  Summer came and then the following winter. They were in the house, and it was cold and snowing. They heard a sound at the door. It was Rover. He had made it home. It was also Christmas Eve. Dale said they were so happy to have him back home.

  Dale said a winter and a summer went by, and Rover began to get irritable. His dad told them that Rover just had to go. They all cried again. The same fellow took him again and found a home for him outside of Lexington, Kentucky. Another summer and winter passed by, but again on a cold, snowy night they heard a scratching at the door. It was Christmas Eve, and there stood Rover. Dale said it was a happy family that welcomed Rover back home.

  This went on for a year or so and Rover began to get irritable again. Dale’s dad once again said that Rover had to go. This time the same trader took him to Washington Courthouse, Ohio, and found a home for him. They all cried again knowing that they would never see Rover again. Rover was gone a couple of years, and they all thought for sure that he was really gone. Dale said that on a snowy evening they were all sitting around the stove in the store when they heard the first scratch on the door. At first they thought it was a tree limb or something, but they heard it again. They opened the door, and Rover fell inside. It was Christmas Eve! Dale said that Rover was in a bad shape. His dad picked up Rover in his arms and carried him over to the stove. His dad was crying as he laid him on his overall jacket. He cut some bologna off to feed him, but Rover was just too tired to eat. His dad said, “Rover, you will never leave again.” Rover got better. Dale said that was the first time he had ever seen his dad cry.

  Dale lost his dad in a few years. His dad was only forty-nine years old. Dale said Rover lived to be old, and when he died, Rover got the royal treatment. They didn’t just put him in the dirt. They made a box, lined the box, and gently put Rover in it. He was buried beside the garden, and they made him a headstone for his grave.

  Dale said that people had asked him if he thought there would be animals in heaven. He said that he told them if there weren’t any animals in heaven, there wouldn’t be any people there either. He said, “If anybody went to heaven, Rover was there. How did Rover know it was Christmas Eve?” Dale then said that a dog truly was man’s best friend.

  Dale is in heaven now. I’m sure his questions have been answered as he roams heaven reunited with his dog Rover.

  The New Suit

  During the lean years of the depression, everyone wanted nice things and pretty things, but only a few could afford that luxury. A person had to be very resourceful to obtain them. There was a young man on the Ohio River Road who always wanted a suit of clothes. At the time most young men wanted a “blue serge suit” and” patent leather slippers.” His family couldn’t afford to buy him a suit. He thought and thought about how he might obtain himself a new suit of clothes. The longing for this suit was almost more than he could bear.

  He knew where all the men in the neighborhood kept their moonshine whiskey. His mind was working like a “mouse trap.” He slipped around and stole moonshine from all their bottles. He then bottled it into little medicine bottles that his mother had collected. He then walked down to the Dutch Inn on Route 2 and sold the bottles of whiskey for one dollar each. He then walked down to Twentieth Street to Dudley’s Department Store and bought himself a suit for nineteen dollars.

  He said his mother kept asking him where he got the money for the suit. He said I finally told her to check her little medicine bottles.

  Happy Moments

  I am a senior. What does senior mean? Let’s see. The dictionary says “older,” “higher in rank,” “a person who is older than another,” and “doublet of sire,” –whatever that means.

  When did “rank” tell us to spend for entertainment two hours in the doctor’s office just to receive another pill? Does “older” make it smart to sit in a chair watching television for three or four hours? Does “senior” tell us not to move to help someone in need? Does “higher in rank” tell us not to dance in the grass?

  One of my friends talks about her pills as if they are personal friends. I wonder if she has tea with Mr. Altace, lunch with Mrs. Lovaza, or dinner with Mr. Glucophage.

  Do you ever wonder where these pills go? Do fifteen pills have a special route they travel to help us? Suppose we trace the pills. Does one go to the brain that tells us to sleep till noon? One pill is for blood pressure, one for diabetes, one for arthritis, one to make us happy, one to increase appetite, one to decrease appetite, one to calm us down, and one to rev us up. And there is the little white pill to make us pain free. That’s eleven pills. Where do the other four go? Maybe they just lie there ready to pounce where needed! I’m not being sarcastic. I’m a “senior” and an old retired nurse. I know all about the problems. I would just like to know the destination of those four pills.

  Suppose I take a walk, maybe lose a few pounds, ea
t my vegetables, drink more water, do a little volunteering, try getting up at eight o’clock, or trying a little yoga. Maybe my feet will not be so numb. Perhaps I will not need those pills. Since I have “rank” I want to get everything that’s coming to me.

  I think I shall go dance in the woods. My friends ask me why I dance in the woods. I explain it’s like this. No one can see me, and I can hug a tree or two.

  Decoration Day

  Decoration Day was a day to show respect for the old ones of the family. The dead ones knew and waited for their flowers. If there were no flowers, the neighbors might tell of the disgrace.

  My mother always walked to Union Ridge Cemetery carrying a gallon jug of water and fresh flowers. The flowers always had to be fresh. No artificial flowers went on my family’s graves! Only poor people put artificial flowers on graves. Some people made their flowers out of crepe paper coated with wax with wire covered with crepe paper for stems. These were usually white roses. I thought they were pretty. These were punched down into the dirt and scattered over the graves like “guardian angels.”

  I don’t know how anyone could be poorer than we were! We usually had roses, and irises to decorate with. These plants had been growing in our yard for fifty years. Their cut blooms were put in a quart jar with fresh water and placed on graves. They were probably dead the next day.

  Woe to your family if you had a sunken grave! Didn’t people realize that the dead knew they were being neglected? That was so disgraceful! People hurried to fill their graves with anything they could find.

  People came from miles away to decorate their graves. They usually brought food with them. This was a time of visitation. They usually spent most of the day eating, visiting, and catching up on all the news since grave decoration only happened once a year.