Ralph Sorensby, Batchelor

I were in the Harper Drug and Feed Store today and they had this man to come in what goes around to doctor's offices and talks them into using the drugs what his company makes. Wilmer Jr., the druggist, told me who he were after he left. While I were looking for a pair of glass to read with, I overheard Wilmer Jr.'s wife, Flomae, question him on why he were never married. He told her he would be more than happy to get married if he ever come up against a girl what were both a good cook and could do all the bookkeeping what his job required. He said he met this young woman over in Tilson what could cook about as good as his mamma, but she messed up his papers so bad he were getting calls from the home office. Then he were dating this girl from Mendersville who were a whiz at office work but she couldn't cook biscuits and grits worth a flip. Then he met a young lady from Holybrook what were excellent at both cooking and in the office. Flomae asked him why she wouldn't do and he said 'cause ever time he were around he just got so nervous.

Next I promise to get back to the four sisters.

Willis Wardfagen and the Barbed Wire Fence

I ain't finished telling y'all about them four sisters and the boy what come to stay with them for a year or so back in the fifties. But today I run into Willis Wardfagen down at the barbershop. And he commenced to telling us about how he had moved into the guest bedroom in his house last night. He said he were happy to be sleeping there. Somebody asked if his wife run him off because of his snoring or something. He said it warn't nothing like that. He said it were his idea to move out of his wife's bed.  Willis claimed that last night he rolled over right into the barbed wire fence his wife had erected in the bed. It seems like she hadn't put it down the middle, which seems like the right thing for her to do, but it were closer to his side of the bed since she needed more room for a good night's sleep. We was all laughing thinking it were one of Willis's jokes, but then I noticed three or four little red spots on the back of his shirt were the blood had come seeping through.

Next time I'll get back to the four sisters. 

Charles Chandler II, Grandpa and Brother

The brother of the sisters what lived in Harper were Charles Chandler II. After he finished up at Ole Miss he settled in Memphis. Some folks say Memphis are the largest city in Mississippi. Of course Memphis are in Tennessee and they is just funning around. Chandler II got to be real successful in the printing business. His company made class annuals and football programs as well as all the stuff for weddings and parties. They also published books, mostly Christian and political. And Charles Chandler II become a very rich man. His son Charles Chandler III ain't of much importance to this tale except he were a no good drunk and womanizer what run off with a low-moraled woman and left his family with nothing. Grandpa Chandler couldn't sit by and let that happen so he give his son's wife a easy job in his office and paid all expenses for his grandson, Charles Chandler IV. So as you can see he had some pull when it come to telling Charles IV what he could or couldn't do. When Charles IV knocked down that confederate statue, grandpa got real hot and shipped him off to Harper, Mississippi (where he had growed up, where his sisters lived at, and what are my town too.) This all happened around 1956 or so.
Memphis are known for its bbq. I am adding on a picture of some ribs like what they serve up there.

House Guest for a Year

The four sisters was all settled in and things was working good, when they had a unsuspected house guest. Their brother what lived a successful life in Memphis had this grandson what were always getting into trouble. That boy got hisself kicked out of college, Ole Miss,  for getting drunk and driving around the town square real fast. That warn't too bad but he run into a statue of a confederate soldier and knocked it down. That were too bad and he were sent home to figure things out. His grandfather, the brother of our sisters, come up with this idea that a year in Harper might be just the thing to clear out the mind of this young man. So he was sent kicking and screaming down to the old home place where the widowed sisters was living. And he was to stay until his grandpa figured he was cured of his wayward ways. So he were a Harper resident for just over a year. I reckon, if y'all can stand it, I'll tell a little about that year over the next few posts.

The Fourth Sister

Sister number four warn't no real sister a'tall. She started out as a maid. Her momma were the housekeeper for the local sheriff and the sheriff's wife talked Mrs. Chandler into taking in the young girl, Mattie Mae. I reckon so Mrs. Sheriff could keep from paying the girl's momma any more money. Any ways Mattie Mae come to live in the house with the Chandler girls. From the first they say Agnes taken on to her. They was real close in age, doncha know? When Agnes and Walter was married the two girls stayed close and when Walter didn't make it home from WWI and Agnes moved back home, they was even closer. All through school Agnes shared her learning with Mattie Mae and what she give her more than anything was a yearning for learning. Mattie Mae got real smart, mostly on books and writing. In fact she got so smart there just warn't no man what she could talk to; at least about things she wanted to talk about. So she never married. Today peoples ask how a black woman could live with a white family and become almost a member of that family. I reckon it were a gradual thing, but one thing I know from what I heard about them Chandlers, it didn't matter what nobody thought. They always done just what they wanted to.

Agnes, Sweet and Learned

The youngest Chandler girl were Agnes. From the very start she were a reader. She read ever thing she could get her hands on. And when she went off to the university she took up learning more about books and them what wrote 'em. She even went over to London in England to learn about them what was writing over there. She married a local boy named Walter and they was deep in love when he were called up and sent to WW I. He went to Europe too. But he didn't come back. He were buried somewheres in France. Agnes seemed to stand up pretty well to all this and went on with her reading and started teaching local Harper kids to read. Ever thing went good with her till way in the late 50's. That's when Walter come back to be with her--in her mind don't you know? It may have been 'cause she were real sick with cancer, but anyway as far as Agnes were concerned he were back. They even went on trips together, back to place they went before he were taken away. I reckon they's worst ways to spend your last year on earth.

Marguerite a.k.a. Margaret

Now Marguerite warn't knowed by that name a'tall when she were growing up in Harper. They all called her Margaret, 'cause that were her real name. She were a kinda a dark skin girl, more'n her sisters and brother. And I reckon that were why she got real close to this little Spanish girl what lived on her daddy's place for a year or so when Margaret and the little girl--I forget her name--was about five year old. And Margaret leaned to speak good Spanish. That may be what got her sent to Spain to study at their university. This were around 1920 or so. Well she fell for this fella she met there what were from Argentina and they was married. He were a agriculture guy and this led them to live in the Canary Islands where he helped to grow bananas there. Banana didn't grow good in the high parts of the islands and the soil down below needed more water than nature provided so this Argentine fella figured out how to use spring water to flood the lands what was used for bananas. They lived there until he died in the 50's and Marguerite (what she were called by them folks over yonder) come home to live with her sisters in Harper. And they called her Marguerite, for the most part.  Next: Agnes, Sweet and Learned.

Clara the Tzarina

Now Clara, the oldest sister, warn't born the way she ended up. She were a sweet young'n but as with a lot of peoples, love-unfulfilled caused a bump in her life what ended up causing her to leave the road and crash against the sidewalls of the ditches. Her fella what caused all this were from out of town, a traveling salesman, what they called back then, a drummer. Clara were a pretty young thing and this drummer fella swept her off her feet and she married him. And they was happy, for about a year. Then he got the wandering feets and next thing the townsfolk knowed he were gone--never to be heard from again. That done Clara in. She warn't never the same. It turned her in to what they call a tyrant, in fact, some folks said she were a regular Catherine the Great, who were one of them queens of Russia. But them Russians didn't call her queen; they called her a tzarina. Next: Marguerite a.k.a Margaret.

Four Sisters

I been thinking about them Chandler girls. They was from a different kind of family; different for Harper anyway. Their mamma and daddy were from one of the first families to settle in Harper and--for the most part--they lived their life the way they wanted to. That may not sound like much but in Harper that ain't easy to do. The girls was Clara, Margaret, and Agnes. I know that's only three 'cause there was only three natural born Chandler girls. The number four sister warn't really no kin to them at all. She were the daughter of their old-time maid and she came to be a sister by what I call a gradual process. Now that's a pretty good story, but it ain't the main thing I want to tell about. Each one of the sisters had her own story to tell and since they're all dead and gone now, I reckon I am gonna be the one to tell all about it. Next time I'll tell about Clara.

Cataracts

Well, I done it. I went and got the cataracts removed from my left eye. I know I called 'em cadillacs before, but Dorothy straightened me out on that. I went to Atlanta and stayed with this cousin I got there and used a doctor he recommended. And he were a good one too. It were easier than going to the dentist. Didn't hurt none neither. You do have to put on this little gown and lay yourself down on one of them hospital cots. They come in and the putting to sleep doctor comes in and asks a bunch of questions. In fact ever body asks a bunch of questions, pretty much the same questions over and over. They want to be careful to get ever thing just right. When they ready they takes your little cot and rolls it into another room what has a lot of big machines hanging from the ceiling and I think the putting to sleep doctor knocks you out for just about two minutes--a time you don't even remember about, except they said it were gonna happen in the little sheet they handed out when you first come in--and then the eye doctor takes care of the cataract and slips in a little lens so you can see real good when he's through. Today, one day after the surgery, I went in for a checkup and they said ever thing were real good and I was seeing what they calls 20:20. And that's about as good as we 'sposed to see. Thank you doctor.