If you enjoyed the last story, I thought you would like to meet some of the others in the family. The father, the mother, a brother and old Beau the dog. It is a large family and not all of them live at the same cabin in the hills. Of course,this is not about my family, though it is questionable. But about the family of the girl I married. One only gets to live one life, and mine may end at any time.
When a new baby is about to be born in a hill family, they have a system of letting Other families know. A volley of three shots are fired into the air and a few minutes later, a second volley of three shots are fired. This tells everyone that a New Baby is about to arrive,
Older women will come to assist with the birth. Some women will bring their young daughters to watch the birthing. The louder the cry’s are, and the more pain that is showed, the better the lesson is for them young girls. The gun shots also bring another person called a Pain Eater, He or she will hold the hand of the mother to be or touch her, and the pain will be transferred to the Pain Eater and he or she will be paid for that service later. A pain eater is someone like a Witch doctor or a Medicine Man.
When the birth is over and the baby is held up-side down and it’s little rear end is spanked, it will cry, the old hound laying on the porch will howl and the old Man, the father with his corn liquor jug in hand and hat down over his face will say, What Is It ? But no word came. They weren’t sure what they had when she was born. everyone had their own opinion.
It had two legs, two arms, it cried like a baby. But it’s face looked more like a prune or a puppy. Regardless of this, they decided to keep it. They fed this young one, using the same bottle that was used for the corn medicine they made. It was hard to tell the difference between the medicine and those other sprits. But the baby thrived on it.
As the months went by, the wrinkles on the baby’s face were smoothing out and better features were appearing, She had beautiful eyes and full soft lips. Her nose was cute, but her ears were as big as cabbage leaves and they wiggled, one at a time or both together. Her teeth went this way and that way. By the time she became fourteen, she had a figure that one couldn’t take their eyes off of her, from the neck down. But when she spoke, she spoke in a language not known to man or beast. It was the way that she could lick her eye brows that got me! Her tongue was just like old Beau’s.
Maw was a little person’ just over four foot tall, maybe ninety pounds, she had aged fast, living up in them hills She chewed tobacco and spit farther than most, but no one was as accurate as she was and she never missed the can. She couldn’t take to smoking a pipe, as she kept biting the end off of it.
Maw came from some mountains a long way off, a long time ago. She really doesn’t know her age, but thinks she is around forty five. She had so many brothers and sisters, no one really knew the count. She ran away with a fast talking guy that passed through the area. She could out shoot most people. She could almost do anything that she sat her mind to, The garden that she grew was full of good things to eat and she could have won a lot of prizes for the things she grew. She made all her clothing out of pieces of this and that. Each night, you could find her setting in the old rocking chair, mending things with needle and thread. Her day always ended with reading something in the good book. She was never to see her father or mother again, and know nothing about her brothers and sisters.
Paw hadn’t been on his feet since he went coon hunting last Friday, Old Beau didn’t go with him, he just laid there on the porch of the cabin. Paw always plowed his field and planted corn, He had the largest big toes that one ever seen. They say he got them from kicking stones out of the way when he was plowing. When he was younger, he would hunt Bears. But Dave Crocket was there one year, and when he left, the bears were all gone. There were till some turkeys and deer left in the hills, but everyone was getting tired of eating that. One had to travel a long way to find good fishing. So we ate a lot of Vegetables with possum and coon. We had chicken once in a while, when we could sneak in to someone’s chicken coop. Maw had to pick out a lot of buck shot and salt from Paw’s behind.
This brings us to my youngest brother, He was so pretty, but his head was as empty as some of them old jugs. We had girls from all around the hills coming to visit. Some times they had big fights over who would get the closest to him. He never did understand what people were saying. Maw would throw a rock at him to get his attention and then use a hand signal to tell him what to do. “Man”, was he ever pretty.
One time a preacher from a town came by, and he wanted to take the boy with him when he left. He offered Paw. the use of two mules for plowing, if the boy could just spend a summer in the city with him. Paw thought that was really funny and he ran the preacher off, twice. We never got to go many places and when we did, we had to keep the boy hid. We even had people wanting to rent him for a day or more. Paw had to put up signs, telling people to keep out and they would be shot if caught on the property. The sheriff told Paw, that he couldn’t do that and made Paw take down the signs.
When a new baby is about to be born in a hill family, they have a system of letting Other families know. A volley of three shots are fired into the air and a few minutes later, a second volley of three shots are fired. This tells everyone that a New Baby is about to arrive,
Older women will come to assist with the birth. Some women will bring their young daughters to watch the birthing. The louder the cry’s are, and the more pain that is showed, the better the lesson is for them young girls. The gun shots also bring another person called a Pain Eater, He or she will hold the hand of the mother to be or touch her, and the pain will be transferred to the Pain Eater and he or she will be paid for that service later. A pain eater is someone like a Witch doctor or a Medicine Man.
When the birth is over and the baby is held up-side down and it’s little rear end is spanked, it will cry, the old hound laying on the porch will howl and the old Man, the father with his corn liquor jug in hand and hat down over his face will say, What Is It ? But no word came. They weren’t sure what they had when she was born. everyone had their own opinion.
It had two legs, two arms, it cried like a baby. But it’s face looked more like a prune or a puppy. Regardless of this, they decided to keep it. They fed this young one, using the same bottle that was used for the corn medicine they made. It was hard to tell the difference between the medicine and those other sprits. But the baby thrived on it.
As the months went by, the wrinkles on the baby’s face were smoothing out and better features were appearing, She had beautiful eyes and full soft lips. Her nose was cute, but her ears were as big as cabbage leaves and they wiggled, one at a time or both together. Her teeth went this way and that way. By the time she became fourteen, she had a figure that one couldn’t take their eyes off of her, from the neck down. But when she spoke, she spoke in a language not known to man or beast. It was the way that she could lick her eye brows that got me! Her tongue was just like old Beau’s.
Maw was a little person’ just over four foot tall, maybe ninety pounds, she had aged fast, living up in them hills She chewed tobacco and spit farther than most, but no one was as accurate as she was and she never missed the can. She couldn’t take to smoking a pipe, as she kept biting the end off of it.
Maw came from some mountains a long way off, a long time ago. She really doesn’t know her age, but thinks she is around forty five. She had so many brothers and sisters, no one really knew the count. She ran away with a fast talking guy that passed through the area. She could out shoot most people. She could almost do anything that she sat her mind to, The garden that she grew was full of good things to eat and she could have won a lot of prizes for the things she grew. She made all her clothing out of pieces of this and that. Each night, you could find her setting in the old rocking chair, mending things with needle and thread. Her day always ended with reading something in the good book. She was never to see her father or mother again, and know nothing about her brothers and sisters.
Paw hadn’t been on his feet since he went coon hunting last Friday, Old Beau didn’t go with him, he just laid there on the porch of the cabin. Paw always plowed his field and planted corn, He had the largest big toes that one ever seen. They say he got them from kicking stones out of the way when he was plowing. When he was younger, he would hunt Bears. But Dave Crocket was there one year, and when he left, the bears were all gone. There were till some turkeys and deer left in the hills, but everyone was getting tired of eating that. One had to travel a long way to find good fishing. So we ate a lot of Vegetables with possum and coon. We had chicken once in a while, when we could sneak in to someone’s chicken coop. Maw had to pick out a lot of buck shot and salt from Paw’s behind.
This brings us to my youngest brother, He was so pretty, but his head was as empty as some of them old jugs. We had girls from all around the hills coming to visit. Some times they had big fights over who would get the closest to him. He never did understand what people were saying. Maw would throw a rock at him to get his attention and then use a hand signal to tell him what to do. “Man”, was he ever pretty.
One time a preacher from a town came by, and he wanted to take the boy with him when he left. He offered Paw. the use of two mules for plowing, if the boy could just spend a summer in the city with him. Paw thought that was really funny and he ran the preacher off, twice. We never got to go many places and when we did, we had to keep the boy hid. We even had people wanting to rent him for a day or more. Paw had to put up signs, telling people to keep out and they would be shot if caught on the property. The sheriff told Paw, that he couldn’t do that and made Paw take down the signs.
There was this girl, she was a third or fourth cousin and she and the boy married and had a bunch of little ones, The cousin kept the boy in bed most of the time, saying he was sick. What she said, was half true, he was so weak he could hardly walk.
It looks like the only one with any brains at all, was old Beau. He lived to be really old. He was a full and pure blood hound. He could smell something twenty miles away and he could hear a bird flying in the air. There is a bronze statue of old Beau, down there in Tennessee, but I can’t remember where.
By: Ben R.
Jan. 26, 2011
It looks like the only one with any brains at all, was old Beau. He lived to be really old. He was a full and pure blood hound. He could smell something twenty miles away and he could hear a bird flying in the air. There is a bronze statue of old Beau, down there in Tennessee, but I can’t remember where.
By: Ben R.
Jan. 26, 2011
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