Cornbread

Now, I been eating cornbread all my life. I reckon it may have been the first solid food I ever put in my mouth. But I don't never order cornbread if I eat out (which ain't very often.) Eating at Dorothy's Cafe ain't eating out 'cause it's the same food Dorothy fixes up at the big house when the cafe are closed. What I'm trying to say is I know good cornbread when I eats it. Back when I were just a little snapper my grandma and my mama used to take a glass and fill it half-full with either milk, butter milk, or clabber. Then they would break up cornbread left over from dinner (noon meal) and eat it with a ice tea spoon. They called it "crumble-in". I likes mine straight with lots of butter. And I mean real butter. I asked Dorothy if she would let me put her recipe on this blog and she said she didn't reckon she would. However, she has a backup recipe what she uses ever now and then just to be different. She said I could tell y'all that one.

1 cup of white self rising corn meal

1 tablespoon of self rising flour

1 small can cream style corn

three tablespoons mayonaise

one baseball size onion chopped fine

Jalapeno peppers to taste ( I use 15 to 20 slices and chop them up)

two or 3 eggs (I use the third egg if is not soupy enough)

Pre-heat pam or greased iron skillet and add cornbread

cook at 350 for thirty minutes.

depending on the size of your skillet, you may have to cook it a little longer

Enjoy with butter OR blackburn syurp

Harper Taxi and Ambulance Service

Hedgewood Littlewood have been running Harper Taxi and Ambulance Service since I were a little boy. He claims he's taken people home from the hospital on the day they was borned and taken the same peoples to the undertaker on the day they died. He has Polaroid pictures on the wall of his office of all the peoples he's hauled. In fact, he won't even let you into his cab until you let him take your picture. Some of the famous peoples he's hauled over the years is: Dizzy Dean, Gov. Ross Barnett, Doggett Giles (the human canonball,) Roy Acuff's granddaughter, a man what looked just like Winston Churchill, a woman he swears were Vanna White, and Dr. Claude Whitlow (the man what invented the see through oxygen tent.)
All them pictures is on his wall. Mine ain't there cause I ain't never rode in a cab in my life. I reckon I'll be up there one day, but it'll be when I can't grab his camera away from him and throw it into Harper Lake.

Overalls

When I were growing up in Harper we had a overall factory right outside the town limits. They made stuff for one of the big catalog companies. But we didn't have to order our overalls from off in Chicago. We was allowed to go down to the factory and order right off the line. And for a cheaper price too. Now one of the womens what worked at the plant were named Ophelia Alvin. She wore overalls ever day and looked and acted as much like a man as anybody I ever knew. When I passed her on the street she would slug me in the arm like a school bully and then she would laugh like it were funny. I reckon if I looked real close in the mirror I could still see marks where she hit me. As you might have figured Ophelia never married. I reckon she didn't need to cause she roofed her own house, worked her own garden, tuned and repaired her car, and were also a real good cook. She were so strong they let her play on one of the men's softball teams. We used to like to watch her play 'cause she were catcher and when mens was coming into home she would not just tag 'em but make 'em sorry they didn't hold on to third base. I figured she would live to be a hundred, but she died at age thirty-eight. Nobody ever knew why exactly. The doctor said she burned her candle from both ends, whatever that means.

First Television

Hollis been after me for a while now to get a new TV set for the den at the big house. He got me a flat screen for Christmas last year, but I put it down at the cabin when Dorothy moved in the big house to keep it up for me. I been staying down by the lake 'cause we ain't married or nothing. It put me in mind of when we got our first television set back around 1950. My daddy were off at the mental hospital where they shocked him to death about a year later. Mama and me was lonely and I taken some of my money from working at the grocery store and bought a brand new Muntz television set from this place in New Orleans.
We had to put up a aerial and it had to go about a quarter mile in the sky (not really) to get the signal from the only TV station we could get. It were channel 6 out of New Orleans. The signal come in real good about two or three nights a week. We always was trying to figure how why the picture were good or not.
Sometime when it were just as clear when the weather were cold and clear, but sometime it were good when it were hot and cloudy. I never did figure that out. You could walk down a Harper street at night and tell what houses had TVs because the whole room, where the set were, were bathed in blue light. Ain't that funny 'cause the picture were black and white?

Decisions

Me and Hollis been talking. Y'all know he tries to type out these daily things using my own words. He's done pretty good I reckon. I don't read all of 'em, but I do read comments and I reckon ever thing worked out okay. But Hollis is going off to school. He's been going to that community college down the road but now he's going to Ole Miss. He wants to be a writer. I asked him if he were gonna write for a newspaper or what and he said he wanted to write stories. I reckon he's got a lot to write about since he grew up around here. We got more'n our share of characters. Anyway Hollis is leaving in a few days and I reckon we'll just shut down this operation. He has promised to work on it until we reach number 365 (one for ever day of a whole year.) But I warn't gonna ask him to write one ever day after that since he's gonna be near bout three hundred miles away. He says he will keep the blog up so peoples what want to can go back and read the old ones. So, we got a few over thirty to go. Hope I can keep ever body interested until then.

Me and the Little Theater

A bunch of years ago the local Little Theater were putting on a play called Tobacco Road. They wanted me to play the part of the old father. Even though I warn't all that old they insisted and spent about two hours ever night dressing me up with white hair and whiskers. I got to wear my own clothes, but they had to be the ones I fished in or plowed in. Ever body said I were a natural. But they never called me to play no part in no other plays. And they done a whole lot of 'em too. One thing I never figured out is why they wanted me for Tobacco Road since I don't smoke or chew.

Sad Epilogue

How Emma Jean turned out warn't good. Back then we didn't know nothing about co-dependent peoples. All we had for medical information were the Reader's Digest and they mostly just had stories about the latest cure for cancer. Now when I look back on it, that's what Emma Jean's mama were. She were co-dependent. She needed to be needed and what made Emma Jean need her mama were food; lots of food. It warn't too long till Emma Jean were getting big again. Her mama went a whole lot better than that Bible story, she killed the fatted calf ever day. Emma Jean come back to the church choir and she were something else. Peoples would actually come from miles around to hear her. Her style of singing had changed a lot because of her Blue Room days in New Orleans. All this went on for about five years until one day when they was having a all-day singing at the church. I reckon it were too much on poor Emma Jean's body. She keeled over right in the middle of singing a song named "Jerusalem" and were pronounced dead right in the choir loft. If there ever were a story of what-might-have-been this were that story. Her mama lived another twenty-five years. She warn't never known to overeat.

What Emma Jean Really Done

Emma Jean did go back to her room at the Roosevelt Hotel and she did do her show that night. A report in the paper said it was soulful and poignant (quote from paper.) But the next morning she boarded a north bound train and a couple of hours later she were standing on the platform in front of the Harper depot. Nobody were there to meet her 'cause nobody knowed she were coming. Besides nobody would be able to tell who she were 'cause she looked so different than when she had pulled out all those years before. She got a cab right to her front door and when she knocked on the door and said, "Hello, mama," when her mama come to see who it were, her mama let out a scream and all the neighbors come running. Y'all know the story about the prodigal son and the fatted calf, well that's what her mama done. The first thing she done were run down to Milligan's Drug Store and where she bought five gallons of Brown's Velvet ice cream. Then she set about grocery shopping for all the things she remembered Emma Jean liking.
Tomorrow: Sad Epilogue

Living Well

I'd like to tell you the story about how Emma Jean come home from her run in with that fake Charles Boyer. Her performance that night were the best of her singing career and as luck would have it in the audience were a guy from Hollywood, California. He were smitten with Emma Jean's talent and good looks and within a few days she were on a Southern Pacific train on her way to California. Emma Jean taken Hollywood by storm and were a instant movie star singing in musicals. Then she were picked out to play the role of a war widow what put her head down and started a jewelry business and made a fortune for herself and her two kids. She were nominated for a academy award and won it. The crowd at the ceremony went wild, just like the crowd what met her at the depot in Harper when she made her triumphant trip home. I would like to tell you that story, but I can't 'cause that ain't what happened. That ain't what happened at all.
Tomorrow: Emma Jean Comes Home

Time for Revenge

The next morning Emma Jean taken a taxi and had the driver make his way over the Huey P Long Bridge. Back in those days there warn't near as much stuff over there as there is today. The driver knew where most of the pawn shops was located at. He stopped at each one and let Emma Jean go inside and look for Charles Boyer. It didn't take too long to find the right shop. The sign on the outside said Over the River Pawn Shop, proprietor Wilmer Wallace. Emma Jean walked in and stood at the counter in front of the man she had known as Charles Boyer. "Are you Wilmer Wallace?" she asked. "Sure am, what can I do for you, pretty lady?" "You don't even know who I am," said Emma Jean. Wilmer admitted that he did not. She told him who she was and he almost fell over. Then she told him all she wanted from him were to promise never to come back to Harper no more. He agreed. "And if I ever see you there again I'll call the sheriff." Wilmer assured he would never come back and she believed him, mostly 'cause he were white-as-a-sheet scared.
On her ride back to the Roosevelt, Emma Jean smiled and remembered something she had heard as a small girl:

The Best Revenge is Living Well !!!

Singing and Searching

Emma Jean got quite a following when she were singing at the Roosevelt. It were war time like I said a lot of the audience was soldiers. During her songs she would wander through the crowd looking for Charles Boyer. The hotel give her a nice room and her meals, what wadn't a big deal since she warn't eating much them days. Later after all this ended I seen a poster of her what hung outside the hotel. She were down right beautiful. Nobody from Harper could possibly have figured out who she were.
One night while she were walking around singing Blue Moon, she spotted a ring on one of the ladies' fingers. She stayed at that table until her song were over and made a big to do with the woman about how pretty it were. The woman laughed and laughed. She said she had picked it up in a pawn shop across the river. Emma Jean were sure it were the ring she had talked her mama into giving to Charles Boyer when he
were conning the peoples in Harper. Of course Emma Jean didn't know he were a crook. She found this out later on. Spotting this ring were her first clue about where Charles had run off to.

Wilmer Wallace: Alias Charles Boyer

Emma Jean had figured she'd just look up Charles Boyer when she got to New Orleans. She looked for a long time, over a year, 'cause he warn't really named Charles Boyer. He were named Wilmer Wallace. And he warn't cripple neither. Or a soldier. He were just conning stuff off poor folks in the name of the boys overseas. And he didn't live right in New Orleans neither. He were across the river.
One thing I hadn't told about Emma Jean. That girl could sing. She were in the church choir, but nobody around Harper had figured out how good she were. I had some idea 'cause like I told y'all a while ago my daddy played opera music in our house and I got to like it. Emma Jean sung like them viking womens in Wagner's stuff. She were big like most of the ones I seen in pictures. What we didn't know were Emma Jean had another voice. She could sing like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. That's how she were able to stay around New Orleans and look for Charles Boyer for all that time. Over that year or more, even though peoples from Harper went down to the Crescent City, nobody recognized it were her singing in the lounge of the Roosevelt Hotel. She had lost so much weight, don't you know.

Looking For Charles Boyer

The first we knew Emma Jean were missing, were when her mama, a mean old biddy, come running out into the street in front of their house screaming bloody murder. It were around 9 PM and she had just called The Beanery and found out Emma Jean had left at around 7:30. She just knew something were wrong. The sheriff looked all over town, behind buildings and even in ditches, but her car were nowhere to be seen. The next day the bank called Emma Jean's mama and told her they made a mistake. Emma Jean had meant to draw out all her money but they had forgot her Christmas savings account. Her mama went wild again. She said she had much rather Emma Jean have been in a accident or stabbed, shot, or strangled than to have her run away from home.
Emma Jean warn't no detective, not by a long shot, but Harper is a little place and information are as plentiful as leaves in Autumn. She were told by a conductor what come into The Beanery that a soldier on crutches had rode the train to New Orleans all those weeks ago. So she struck out after her love boat. It took her a while to find him 'cause he warn't really in New Orleans. She had to figure out that he were across the Hoopey Long Bridge (that what her mama called it.) Of course we found all this out later.
Tomorrow: Wilmer Wallace: Alias Charles Boyer

Where's Emma Jean?

Now this wounded soldier with the crutches what collected stuff to send to the boys overseas kept coming back to Harper for about a year. And Emma Jean tried real hard to get skinny just for him. I reckon she got down to just over 200 hundred pounds. Her mama kept wanting to take her to Jackson to see a specialist 'cause she figured Emma Jean had some mystery disease what was eating the pounds off her. But Emma Jean just told her mama she were trying to get healthy so she could take better care of the old lady. That satisfied her mama for a while. Now it turned out the soldier were named Charles Boyer, like the movie star, and Emma Jean were ready to do pretty much what ever he wanted. She worked real hard to get him clothes and stuff to send to Europe and the Pacific. He told her he could get promoted to captain and it would make his life a lot easier if he could beat the other soldier collectors accumulating stuff. Emma Jean talked people out of things like watches and rings and even family Bibles, all to give to her hero, Charles Boyer. Then all of a sudden the soldier stopped coming to Harper. After about a month or so Emma Jean just flat out disappeared. She must have run off in her car 'cause it were missing too.

A Stranger in Town

Like I was saying Emma Jean were working behind the counter down at The Beanery. All this were happening during WWII and one day this soldier come into the cafe. He just got off the train and he were walking with the aid of crutches. Well, he come in and sat down at the counter right in front of Emma Jean who were slicing up a cherry pie. He must have made a big todo over her 'cause she were smitten. He told her he were on a special assignment since he got wounded in Italy. He were collecting clothes and other stuff to send to the boys overseas. After he had a coffee he left and Emma Jean thought she would never see him again, but he come back to town ever couple of weeks. Emma Jean told Myrtle Burns what worked with her at the cafe that she ain't never felt that way about a man before. She said she were gonna slim down and try to get him.
Tomorrow: Where's Emma Jean

Emma Jean

Back during WWII there were a girl living in Harper what were real big. I reckon she weighed over five
hundred pounds 'cause they claimed she had to go to the cotton exchange to get weighed on their big scales. She worked at this place called The Beanery which were right next door to the depot. Probably warn't a good idea for her around all that food. My daddy never would let us eat there, before he went off to war, 'cause he said the food were bad and unhealthy 'cause of all the grease in it. Emma Jean lived at home with her mama and I reckon around the time I'm telling about she were around twenty-five year old. She had a old Ford automobile what she drove to work and when she were in it the side she were sitting on come close to dragging on the ground. Sometime at night us young folks would wait in the bushes across the street from her house 'cause when she hit her drive way sparks would fly up from the car bottom hitting the concrete. What I'm gonna tell about is how Emma Jean disappeared one day and sent Harper into a tail spin.
Tomorrow: A Stranger in Town

Marcus McGillis, Senator

Marcus turned out to be a real good lawyer and a better politician. He run for Harper council member and won early on around 1956. Then he run for state senator and he's been there ever since. I reckon he's represented Harper pretty good 'cause he ain't done much. That's what we need, peoples staying out of our business and Marcus done that real good. I think the only bill he ever brought up were one to make sure all horses was shoed. Ole Lem Wethersby used to tease him a lot. He asked Marcus if he ever considered bringing up a law to have flies shooed too. Marcus didn't laugh; at least while we was looking his way.

                                                     Mississippi State Capitol Building

A Brand New Lawyer

I told y'all Willie's boy, Charles, are a Lawyer in New Orleans. I ain't figured out how good he is at lawyering 'cause he has took out newspaper and television ads. Our lawyers around here don't have to do that and they do pretty good. Just look at their houses. Charles got it in his head to be a lawyer when he seen how good Jethro McGillis' boy, Marcus, were doing. He lives in a great big house and has horses--the kind you ride, not the kind you work. I remember when Marcus were starting out he kept begging his daddy, Jethro, who were a established lawyer here in Harper, for a case to work on. Jethro had him just running to the court house for papers and such. Finally, Marcus were give a case. It were Maybelle and Haskill Varner who worked on Jethro's farm. They was getting divorced. Marcus worked with them for days trying to get them to settle there assets out of court. They come close but couldn't quite get over the finish line. Marcus told 'em he were running to the court house and give 'em a yellow legal pad what he had drawed a line right down the middle. He told Maybelle to list what she were gonna get on the left and Haskill were to do the same on the right. When he come back from the court house and asked if they was settled up 'cause he were gonna leave them to a court lawyer if they didn't; Maybelle said, "Okay, Haskill, you can have the reclining chair what MY mama give us, but I'm getting the Conway Twiddy album.

More About Me and the Catholics

Like I told y'all back in September, I started going to the Catholic church when I married Mary Kate. Just seemed like the thing to do. It's a long story but I don't go regular any more, just now and then when the good father pushes me a little bit. One of the things I noticed was how it warn't as different as I had been led to believe. We worship the same God and both go to church on Sunday. The Baptists pass around grape juice and little crackers and call it The Lord's Supper. The Catholics make you walk down front and call it communion, but it's pretty much the same thing. They both believe you should live a life away from sin. The main difference is the Baptists don't have no statues or robes (except for choir robes.) Some peoples around here was all over me when I switched over, but they was still my friends. After Mary Kate were hit by that streetcar I kept on going to her church for a while, but I kinda drifted away as time wore on. Dorothy are a Methodist. I may start going to that church one day.

Me and Mary Kate

I told all this back in September, but I wanted to say more about my second wife, Mary Kate. I were having a hard time with the kids after I lost Bethel. I ain't too proud to tell you I warn't the best daddy in the world, but I did try real hard. Doreen were just in grade school and I noticed a woman who worked at the cafeteria in her school (when they had father/daughter day.) Her name were Mary Kate. I kinda made a habit of dropping by the school to bring Doreen things I claimed she forgot, like a banana out of her lunch and such. But it were really to get a look at Mary Kate. She warn't as pretty as Bethel and were really a little on the large side. I reckon from working around all that food. I were surprised I never knew much about her and her family since Harper is such a small town. Before you knowed it we was going to the picture show together and even out for hamburgers and stuff. Then I found out she were a Catholic.

Losing Bethel

After I got home from Korea and my frostbit feets got better and after I give up on drinking, me and Bethel had a pretty good life. We raised our three children (Bill, Jack, and Doreen) in what I figured were a good way. Ever thing were okay until Bethel come down with cancer. She fought real hard and we thought she were gonna be all right. But we didn't have the modern cancer drugs back then and the disease won out after all. She stayed with me for over a year after we got the bad news from that doctor up in Jackson and I thank God for ever one of them days. After she went to heaven me and the kids done good for a while, but ain't no daddy as good as a mama in keeping things going straight. Y'all can go back to September of 2010 to read about how each of 'em caused me pain and trouble. Jack and Doreen still check in on me from time to time. But I ain't heard from Bill in years. Jack tells me he's a big lawyer in Hollywood. He takes care of movie stars and such. God bless 'em all.

Sent Off to Korea

It warn't too long after me and Bethel was married that I got sent to Korea. I can't exactly remember why we was there. I know them communists was trying to take over the south part of the country, but I never were real sure why we was involved. One of the worst parts of fighting in Korea were the cold weather. Me and some other boys from the South just warn't use to it. After less than a year I were sent home. Not from a bullet or mine injury, but from frostbite. One of my feets is still a little black and blue looking and for a while they way talking about cutting it off. I did a lot of praying and I reckon a lot of other peoples did too 'cause it got to getting better when I were in that San Francisco hospital. Now here's something real important to my life. About eight months after I left Harper, Bethel gave me a baby boy. His name were William, but we called him Bill. I talked more about Bill and my other kids back in September if you want to look it up. So my homecoming were a real special event; getting back to Bethel and also a new son.

The New Baptist

I growed up a Methodist, but I warn't very good at it. Bethel growed up Baptist and she were a excellent member of that church. When we got married I figured I might as well be what she were. So I joined up and were baptized and ever thing. I mean all the way under the water. Me and Bethel went to church and Sunday School ever Sunday, prayer meeting on Wednesday, and Bible study twice a week. She got me being a real active member until I started in to drinking. I did some other bad stuff what were caused by the beer and whiskey but I don't want to talk about it here. I already told y'all about my life boozing it up last September. It were called: Korea and What It Done to Me. Y'all can look back and read that if you want to.
Any way I reformed and got pretty good again. Like I said back in September I would be real happy if me and Bethel was standing in the Harper Baptist Church sharing a hymn book and singing one of them Baptist songs. The Methodist songs all sound alike to me. I'm just saying....

Hollis' book last read: Paradise Dogs by Man Martin - There was a Fantasyland in Florida before Disney World.

How I Run Into Bethel

It are hard to believe, when I look back on it, how me and Bethel never come across one another until I got that job at Harper Food Store. She lived way out in the county and back then it warn't real unusual not to know somebody if they warn't living right in town. But her daddy's mama did live in town and one summer Bethel come in to stay with her. Her grandma were having some kind of stomach problem and needed somebody to cook for her. Bethel always were a good cook. Part of my job at the grocery store were to bring food to customers what couldn't come in to get it. Since Bethel were all tied up cooking I taken her phone-in order to the back door of where she were staying. Was I struck by lightning? Not real lightning but love lightning. And I ain't never got over it. Bethel warn't too sure. I reckon she wanted somebody more than a bag boy at a grocery store. But peoples say I got a special charm and I reckon they right 'cause I sweet talked her into marrying me and we was a real happy couple for several years. Makes me sad in one way to think of my Bethel, but in another way it gives me a special joy.

Bag Boy

After my daddy wandered off in the woods and never come home, I decided to quit school and go to work.
I really didn't have to. My grandpa had enough money to keep my mama and little brother and me up, but
mama wanted to live with her mama and daddy they didn't have much money. So when I were in grade seven and 1/2 , I give up on schooling and went out into the world of making my own way. Mr. Ledbedder down at the Harper Food Store taken me on as a bagboy. Back when I were in school I were learning to talk good and talked better'n I do today. My mama and daddy talked better'n I do. And my first two wives talked good English too. I reckon after my second wife got hit by that streetcar in New Orleans is when I sneaked into the way I talks now. My fishing buddies and peoples I whittle with talk bad English like I do, so I reckon that's what happened. Hollis and Dorothy don't care. They like me like I is, so what do I worry?
Tomorrow: How I Run Into Bethel

Fourth of July at Harper Lake

We had a wonderful Fourth here in Harper. Dorothy didn't open her cafe except to me and Willie and some of our close friends. We had a real good breakfast there and sat around and talked for most of the morning.
We didn't need dinner until around 2 PM and that give us time to get the grills fired up and all the fixings ready for a good holiday meal. Dorothy made her famous fat burgers. They is called that because of all the stuff she mixes in with the meat. She chips up onions real fine and, you might not believe this, but she puts a few corn flakes into the mix. I don't know what the rest of the items is but what ever they is they make one real good hamburger. We had all the usual: dill cole slaw, red potato salad, deviled eggs, chips, etc.

There was four or five kinds of pie, my favorite is buttermilk/lemon pie. After the sun went down we churned ice cream using the old fashioned churns what you has to crank with a handle. I made peach in mine. Then somebody across the lake set off fireworks. I turned the record player up loud playing All American Music. It were more fun than we deserved.

Viewers from Countries Other Than the USA

Uncle Harvey Lee's blog has had viewers from the following countries:

1.     USA

2.     Canada

3.     Australia

4.     Denmark

5.     Norway

6.     UK

7.     France

8.     Germany

9.     Slovenia

10.  Croatia

11.  Japan

12.  Philippines

13. UAE

14. Malaysia

15. Brazil

16. Russia

17. China

18. Hong Kong

19. Spain

20. Pakistan

21. Sri Lanka

22. Mexico

23. Saudi Arabia

24. South Korea

25. Macedonia

26. Argentina

27. Ukraine

28. Indonesia

29. Taiwan

30. Greece

31. Egypt

32. Netherlands

33. New Zealand            

34. India

U

My Daddy Comes Home in Bad Shape

We was all so happy to see my daddy when his train pulled in to the depot. He got off smiling and looked like he were his same old self. Mama were as happy as we ever could remember. But it didn't last long. Daddy got his old job back and had some trouble getting along with the fellows he worked with. He would come come at night, eat his supper without saying a word, and go sit on the front porch and smoke cigarettes. One day he stayed in bed and wouldn't get up and go to work. Before long we would catch him crying, something we ain't never saw before. Then he were crying most all the time. I don't mean a little sniffling cry, but hard, shoulder shaking weeping. Mama would ask him what were wrong and he would say it warn't nothing and he were gonna be alright. Well he warn't. He had to go stay at the state hospital for the insane where they give him what they called shock treatments. He stopped crying, but he stopped showing any feeling at all. He would just stare at you and smile. The doctors let him come home on what they called a trial visit. While we thought he were sitting on the porch smoking, he were really walking off into the woods behind the house. We never seen him again.

The War Gets Over

We knowed it were close to the end, but the day they announced it still came on us with a Bam. Me and my cousin was in the movie theatre. I got off from work after school to take him 'cause his mama were a little sick and they wanted to keep him away from home. I reckon she were having another baby or something, I forget. Anyway we was sitting in the Palace Theater and heard this loud noise outside. They turned the lights on and the manager come out in front of the screen and told us the good news. He said the movie were over for the day but on the way out we could get a ticket for another day. We was so excited I reckon we forgot to get a ticket. The first thing I remember when I got on the street were a car with a washtub hanging out the window. A fellow I knew from out in the county were beating on it with a great big spoon. I don't think I has ever seen a spoon that big since then. One man stuck a trumpet out the window of his car and blew like he were Gabriel. Peoples were yelling and screaming and a bunch of guys used the excitement to plant kisses on some of the girls. I don't reckon any come home from a war ever got so much attention. We was all real happy.

The Radio and World War II

I reckon the radio helped us get through the war better'n most anything I can think of. I were not even a teenager and would come in ever night from working in the garden after school and listen to Baby Snooks, Amos and Andy, Bob Hope, or Gang Busters. And we got reports about the war from a man named Edward R Monroe, or something like that. He always started off, "Hello from London," told about what was going on, and signed off with, "Good night, and good luck." Grandpa always said, "Good luck to you, Eddie." Like the radio could hear what he was saying. Later on Edward R. were on the television and he were always smoking a cigarette (later on I learned it were a Camel.) And he died from lung cancer when he were pretty young too. It may've been him what kept me from smoking. You know what, I still got that old radio and ever now and then I tune in to WWL in New Orleans just to hear it talking to me.

Tomorrow: The War Gets Over

World War II Drives

One of the things school children got mixed up with was called scrap drives. Things like silk, aluminum, scrap metal, paper, and rubber was needed for the war effort. Even things like toothpaste tubes what was make out of metal (they had lead in 'em at the first of the war) was needed. We squeezed out ever last dot of Pepsodent and taken the tube to school with us where we dropped it in a barrel what was labeled toothpaste tubes. They had barrels labeled paper, rubber, and silk too. The silk barrel didn't never fill up, but the other'ns did. Sometime we would have a big drive for something like paper and we would take our little red wagons and go all over the neighborhood and gather up old newspapers and magazines. We got encouragement from peoples on the radio, like Bob Hope and President Frankie Roosevelt.

Tomorrow: The Radio and World War II