While Daddy Were Away

My daddy left for the war in Europe in late 1942. I were ten year old. When me and my mama come home from seeing him off on the train to New Orleans, we had our bags ready and moved out to live with mama's folks out in the country. Mama could have stayed at the big house, but she wanted to be close to her mama and daddy since her husband and two of her brothers was off afighting. We didn't know it then but daddy were sent to Italy. He wrote home about all the wonders of that land, but not right away cause they was just in Scilly at first, you know that island that the boot of Italy looks like it kicking on the map. He liked the food and he could say some Italian since he had lived with that Italian family in New Orleans when he were not married and were working on that oil rig out in the gulf. He already knew a lot of the songs they was singing there since he had a lot of them on records. Me and mama did not want for much during the war cause we had eggs and milk and meat from her daddy's farm. They even churned their own butter and could make more than one kind of cheese. They let me help and I learned a lot of good stuff about farming. Ever Sunday we would come in and go with daddy's folks to the Harper Lake Baptist Church. We kept in touch that way.
Tomorrow: How I Met Bethel