LONG MEMORY

LONG MEMORY Mine is a long memory; a back to when I was two memory. I recall my first friend was my first cousin. "Bro Larry " was I to him. "Bro Howard" was he to me. Born but ten days apart, me, January 3, and Bro Howard, January 13, we two little boys were energetic bundles of joy to our Aunts and Uncles who yet lived on our grandparents' farm land near Canton, Mississippi, to hear them tell it, and to tearfully laugh, about it. Our Uncle Ezell, in particular, shed tears laughing, recalling, how he took a tiny switch to our legs to discipline us. I don't recall that ! Bro Howard might . I remember a loud explosion when a jar of molasses on our hot, wood-burning iron stove blew up! Literally it scared the mess out of me! Ka-Boom! I was two. I was standing in my crib at the time. We lived then on the family's farm; our home stood behind the main house. There, I remember eating, running, playing, discovering, all kinds of fun, all kinds of new things! Ha! "getting into all kinds of devilment", with Bro Howard! That included riding atop a cotton wagon laden with cotton; included riding atop a tethered mule that was grinding sugar cane into green pulp, spewing green liquid into a silver bucket. I remember eating raw sugar cane, busting and eating watermelons; and digging into the ground for buried sweet potatoes with our grandmother Atlas, inside a cornstalk teepee. I remember laying on the earth, playing dead , watching the birds circle on high. Mine is a very long joyful delightful memory of love, family, faith, fun.