The Life of Me: An Autobiography

, Papa bought the Exum farm, just east of us. It was much larger and it fitted

alf-mile, I had to stay at our old home. I was allowed to help load the wagons at our old farm, but they w

e running back to the house to get a gun to kill a skunk

ou can't go. You

en in my size. I was as big as most of the othe

eded to suit our wants. There was already a house and a good size barn. And when Papa fi

aving to go to the cellar because of a storm, but it was there just in

s and the freezing nights. Papa explained to us that we should eat the ripest bananas first before they got too ripe and had to be thro

e average family in our community. Papa was a carpenter, a blacksmith

ly by the time we finished building sheds and stalls on both sides of it. Later on, we got a car and built a shed for it. We didn

er the tank was boarded up on all four sides to form a room that was used for keeping milk, butter, watermelons, an

om the well. Every summer we had roasting ears, popcorn, cantaloupes, watermelons,

nd for feeding. There was room in the barn and adjoining sheds for horses, cow

ew peanuts anyway. When neighbors asked Papa how he managed to grow so many good peanuts, he told them he just planted enough for the rabbits and the youngsters too. I can't rememb

was nailed to the underside of the ceiling joists. Well, the nails pulled out of the board and I fell to the ground and hit my head on a wooden block. T

head, and that boy was never quite normal after that. But then, as we grew older, we all got

g me a homemade haircut one Sunday afternoon and, when he discovered the s

seven. In fact, most kids started at seven in those days. And since I was seven when school started

t three miles northeast of our home. In winter we faced cold northers many morning

time we arrived at school, there might be as many as 20 of us in one bunch. One of the families

Did we walk that th

e two or three times a year whe

trail. It involved one of the Bruner boys. And what happened to that boy should never happen to anyone.

ars, but He did. In the third place, if school kids are going to use the trails which wind in and out among the thorny bushes and cactus plants, they should never sc

and many of the small ones. Then they took him to Mama because, they said, her eyes were better. She

rs started in the Primer, and the Primer was not a grade in school-it was a bo

, write, spell, and work arithmeti

lar curriculum and which were not necessarily sanctioned by those

rade. I was almost ready for the third grade at the beginning of my second year. Accord

with her. My love and admiration for all teachers, especially women teachers, went w

I was an ugly sight, especially when I laughed or smiled. Half of my f

and poured some down me ever-so-often. It tasted awful. I was glad it was a b

sure it was hard for my family to get rid of the horri

lump about the size of the end of my thumb-that of course, depending on what age I was when you measured the end of my thumb, a

m beautiful, even before t

stately, superior in quality, as generous

ust have looked to Will Johnson 15 years earlier. When I was very young, I liked to watch her do her long ha

of almost any group of kids. And Joel was downright pretty, that is, for a boy. Although Albert and William Robert were younger than I, and at times little more than pesky little brothers, still I could easil

he looks of me in the mirror as I shaved. So, one afternoon I drove over to the Stamford Sanitarium and asked

nt to watch what you

r the place, and told me to let someone else drive me back to Hamlin. But since it was only 22 miles, and since I had driven

two years old and she had two or three brothers who were not much older. One of those brothers noticed, as

he smokehouse, let it flow and watch it fall. Or he might play fireman up the side of the

rdonable sin. And it would have caused extreme pain in the region of the lower hind part of that small boy if his mother had learned of what he had done. What she would have done to him would have been a big price for a little boy to h

, Ollie Mae was getting big enough to want to go with us when we went to play. Her presence crea

the smaller boys had to drain his water and he solved his problem in his own way. He simply said,

some of the families around us. Many a time we would eat an early breakfast, go to the cotton patch and pick for an hour or two and then go direct

rd. Cotton picking often went on until spring and sometimes we'd have to lose a few days of scho

ore pleasant work to be done, like going with Papa in the wagon to

en too many small boys went along. So some of u

e purpose of bribing us smaller ones on those occasions. I really shouldn't call it

ing on a mission where little boys were not supposed to go, and we would accept it gracefully, since we all h

ce and a fair amount of dignity. And as they would drive away, it seems I can still hear Mama saying to us, "Come on, c

pasture. However, wading in water in our own pasture after summer rain showers usually included all of us, the youngest and all. It was

ily. And it was not the only ironclad ruling in the Johnson family-rulings wh

s of not hitting in the face nor below the belt. Another strict rule was, "Don't get mad at your opponent when he is giving you a beating. I

ted to be left out of the action. And the only way to stay in the ac

re was another rule, "Don't hurt the little ones. Don't hold the little on

ys with smiles on our faces. And the rule

otch. Papa brought him to us kids at the Exum place when he was a wee, little woolly ball of bouncing, playful puppy. Papa had

o us Johnson kids, he was just all dog- a gentleman canine of the highest order, a

, he wouldn't allow it. And we were told never to call him without a good reason, such as to feed him, pla

nds better and more promptly than any other dog I have ever seen, either in o

let him grow up with us and by the time he was a year old

ld hold still while we placed a small stick on top of his nose, and remain still until we counted to three. Then at the count of three, he

h and out of the yard. That was an easy job. He

ing the same thing. Sometimes when we kids opened the car door, we would have to hurry or Old Scotch would b

ake the stick. He also liked to play catch-but only with a rubber ball. We would pitch the ball to him and he would catch it and return it to us. Howev

sometimes threw him a hard ball. They didn't "Do unto

he might reject it. But he seemed to have enough faith in us boys to think that, if he could see us eat some of it, th

short and heavy, more like the wool of a sheep before shearing. His color was a deep reddish brown, with just the right touches of white about th

e only time we ever let him in the house. The noise must have hurt his ears. Firecrackers affected him the same way. He would to

to Old Scotch. When we aimed something at him, he wouldn't bite us to really tear us apart, but he would certainly bite hard enough to make us

he day. Then we kept our milk cows in the lot at night and let the calves run out to graze. Next morning we would tel

we would send Old Scotch after the horses and he would get only the horses, no cows nor calves. In

s "how." And no matter how far away he was, he would come immediately when he heard us call. He only paused lo

way nor lower his head and ears, nor did he approach with his tail down. He bounced right up beside us, f

Reo and Papa bought a Big Six seven-passenger Buick touring car. Old Scotch knew that Buick by sound. Uncle Robert had a

him not to chase cars. But when either of those Buicks came along, he would run out to greet it a

e had gone nor why. Of course, we kept hoping that some day he would return. But days became weeks and weeks

y could cut a slot in the side of a pumpkin leaf stem and make us a horn to blow. They showed us how to put a chicken's head under his wing, swing him a few times and lay him down on the gr

ith business or big government, nor in local clubs, but they were upstanding church-goers with high standards of moral character and integrity. As in play, so in life, they wanted thei

sure they did what they thought was right, and they did it with c

milies, it seemed odd to me to hear them call their babies by their given names. We always called our youngest one "Baby

xteen months old when I came along, and he was just three when the new one came. Another custom not common to all families was, we smaller ones wore dresses around home for the first three or four years of our lives. It made diapering much easier an

ife. I wasn't any poorer than the rest o

ement of competition and hurry. Our parents had a way of causing us kids to apply pressure to ea

ngs as, "I picked more cotton than you did." Or if we were

y a little brother. And if a little brother could outshine a big brother,

le today. We had no psychologists in those days to tell us that pressures would warp a kid's brain. We

o go to bed and sleep hard. Never in my life did I ever hear Mama or Papa

into trouble. We didn't have to leave home to get into trouble. We kids made our own trouble right at home. We had a lot o

one would steal from us because no one wanted what we had. So, whatever pressure

rst. The first one to pick his 100 bolls would call out, "hundred." Then each of t

shorter period of time. But, as in all activities where

that the mental work I was doing was relaxing and it allowed my hands to do their work faster. A

than I was. Now, I didn't necessarily use my system in order to get more of the family cotton picked

ecause he knew I couldn't count bolls while I sang a song. But he was wrong. I could. Anyway, nothing I could say would make him believe me. I began to become an out

ey understood that I could do a thing or two that some of the ot

f an unconscious rift between some of my brothers and me, and at th

why I was the only one there a lot of times. Maybe I just wanted to be in good company. I loved and admired Papa and I thought he w

you shoe

ighten a loos

hat you want it to do when the man

gs and many more. And many of t

much the same be

hurn milk and

up' the butter aft

ose beautiful decor

ve a carpet on

oing whatever they liked to do. And Mama and Papa were never too busy to answer my questions. I re

lt sorry for their little ugly duckling. And maybe I only imagined they were especially nice to me. Maybe they were that ni

ment, after considering some of my stupid exploi

ese factors coupled with the fact that within the last four years along about the time I was born, they had suff

their newborn child for the first time, anxious to know wh

ust wonder how his condition will affect his relationship with others, how it will