Going back....

My brother Neal has wanted me to try to write this for a long time...it is hard to do and do it right but here goes. This is the house of our nearest neighbor when I grew up. It is as it was when I grew up....this is not a good picture of it. I don't have one...this is just a cropped portion of another one. It was the home of V and V....both their names did begin with V. What are the chances of that?

I don't quite know where to begin...maybe I will say that every now and then, mom and I would walk out there to visit. I know we sometimes stopped to visit in the summer, usually just for a few minutes then. I think we were more apt to go visit in the cooler months. Maybe because mom did not have quite the work to do in the winter.

Going there was like stepping back in time. You just cannot imagine...my words are inadequate. The first thing that always hit me was just how gray the atmosphere was...and I actually think a lot of things were gray. You walked into the what would normally be the living room, and there was the gray floor....I don't know if it was a gray linoleum or if it was actually gray floorboards. The room had little in it...I don't think it had a couch....but I am not positive. It seems there was something to sit on, just not a sofa as we think of them. What was in there was the horses bridle...I don't remember if the rest of the harness was there, but that always struck me odd for the bridle to be there.

We would go through another room, at one time I am sure it was meant for a dining room, but we just passed through it and I know on the one side of the room was a bed. Now, what is funny, we would close the door between that room and the living room...and we would pass through it into the kitchen...again the door closed behind us.

The kitchen is where they lived...they had an a-m radio and a single light bulb hanging down in the middle of the room. I know the table was set in front of the window that faced our house...and I know there was a cook stove in there. The wood burning kind. But I don't remember much else about it other than the walls were covered with newspapers and cardboard, and a calender of course. I would set listening to the talk...talk about crops, gardening, etc.

They did not have running water...they had a well outside where they got their water--the kind you lower a bucket down and bring it up one bucket at a time. She did have a wringer washer...considering everything, I think she must have been lucky to have it. And they had an outhouse...which some college kids stole one weekend. I am sure they probably did not even realize anyone actually lived in the house....my brothers had to go find it and retrieve it....and no, they were not involved in taking it.

Another thing, they didn't drive, didn't have a car. The post office and store were about a mile away. I honestly don't know if this part is true, or if it just seemed to me that Mr. V walked down to the store and post office every weekday...at the least every other day. But he would try to time it to catch rides from neighbors...going or coming. And though he did go most days, Mrs. V very seldom left the home. At the most they might come out to our house and visit. If they had to go to an actual town they would find someone to give them a ride. It goes without saying that they did not have a phone...if they needed to make a phone call, they came and used ours.

Neal and I were talking earlier, as long as we knew him he never worked a regular job. He was in the army at one time, but probably only for a short period...he did not retire from it. They had a small garden, and raised a patch of tobacco. His dad had a tractor and would do the initial plowing...you know where you plow deep and turn the ground over after it has gone through the winter. He had a horse to do the rest of the plowing with...

They were strange...even for down there at that time and place. Their doors were always locked...unless they were sitting on their front porch. They were locked if they were in the house...night and day. If they were out in the garden at the side of the house, the doors were locked. Mrs. V's dad had to stay with them for a while, and they would lock the doors on him and leave him locked in. My dad would go out to visit him and they would have to yell through the door. Then dad remember we had an old skeleton key and took it, and could unlock the door. I don't remember their reaction to that. Her dad was not strange...and neither was his dad....so don't know why they were so strange.

She would see some of us kids out, and hide behind the chimney or an outbuilding...and would peek around the corner at us. At other times, she would go on about her business, and would speak if we were close enough.

Everyone was always good to them...there was always someone to help him load his tobacco and take it to market...even though he always found an excuse not to help anyone. He would condemn television, but yet when they came to our house to visit, if it was on he could not take his eyes off it.

Even though we lived by them all those years, there were things about them that will always puzzle me.

I am leaving out somethings...maybe my brother will comment and tell about them...like Roxie their horse. Right now I am running out of steam and need to close and post this.