TUESDAY'S WITH PAPPO.....brought the two of us some mighty sweet together-time this week.
Pappo and I had our heads meshed together for two hours, comparing stories and laughing over the past. And he handed me his latest Senior Center Writing Class article. The latest from his memory bank. Hope you enjoy!!
"The Family Partnership"
This is a family story as told to me by my late Uncle Bill Calloway. As near as I can tell, it happened after the Civil War and somewhere around 1870.
My Uncle Bill lost all of his livestock and his three teams of horses. He was left with just four hogs and his faithful hunting dogs.
His home place was in Alabama. He had 11 acres with 2 of those acres fronting Highway 31, the main road between Birmingham and Montgomery. Times were hard. Uncle Bill and his wife Aunt Essie started a small leather goods store making and selling horse harnesses and work shoes, as well as other leather goods.
Soon after, Aunt Essie suffered a disabling stroke and was unable to assist Uncle Bill at the store, where he continued to work daily alone. Each day when he would arrive home from work, Essie would ask how the store was doing and he would discuss the happenings of the day.
This went on for several years until one day, Essie couldn't stand not seeing the store and doing her part. She took the dog and her cane and slowly made her way up the road to the store. As she got close enough to see it, to her surprise, the store was dark inside and Uncle Bill, with a tray hanging from around his neck, was selling shoelaces and buttons and other small items from the tray.
Aunt Essie then realized the hospital and doctor bills had used up all their money and Uncle Bill had to sell the store and its contents to pay the medical bills. She went to her grave never telling him she knew what he had to do and is now resting beside him and my mother in a small country church cemetery in Verbena, Alabama.
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