GREAT AUNT ADA2

 

This is a true story shared at "Tell Me a True Story,"

My continued story will resume very soon !

 

 

Aunt Ada

 

I suppose it is fair to say people are people and when they are integrated from birth into a culture and belief system there will be a similar response from them with a few variables due to personality.

 

Aunt Ada along with her siblings was raised in what would be called backwoods surroundings, where little demand was made upon them for education.  How to survive on little else but hard labor was the order of the day.

 

While it wasn't unique to Aunt Ada, braggadocio was one of her character traits.  Her husband, Brown was likewise inclined except he toned it down somewhat.  One of the most notable things about their home was the huge fireplace. You could put a six foot long log into it. The opening was over five foot tall and when properly fueled it put out many BTUs.

 

On occasion my mother and I would visit them and Aunt Ada would spread a delicious table full of food, which my feet felt very comfortable under.

 

Her kids were all good on a descending scale. The oldest was the best and youngest possessed less goodness is one way to put it.  I liked all of them.

 

Since I was a second cousin the older ones didn't interact with me much but the youngest was about my age although I wasn't as fond of him. Two of her boys were killed in the service one in WW2 and one in Korea.

 

Grady was drafted into the army and sent to Europe.  He had a farm deferment but he got to messing around with the wife of the guy that ran the draft board and he lost his deferment and was drafted.  Aunt Ada was very proud and said Grady was doing very well he had already made KP.

 

I knew that being on KP meant you had messed up and was on kitchen detail taking out the garbage and doing the dirty jobs. I didn't try to explain what that meant because she was a proud woman and would thought I was just being jealous.   In Europe Brady stepped on a land mine and was killed.  Aunt Ada received ten thousand dollars from his Army insurance and was rich.  Farm hands were only getting three dollars a day so that was a lot of money.

 

Her youngest son Paul helped her spend it, by buying himself a 1936 Ford Roaster and a lot of other goodies. He looked really good in his new wardrobe and always had spending money in his pockets.  He became popular and made the mistake of seeing a married woman and was caught by her husband who threaten to kill him. He had to jump out a window without his clothes to keep from being shot. In fact the husband spent days looking for Paul who was hid out.

 

He (Paul) decided to  join the army to get away from the husband and he died in Korea. Aunt Ada received another ten thousand dollars from the army and lived out her life well cared for financially. Knowing her was a good experience and I was glad, I was her great nephew.

This post is shared at “Tell Me a True Story.”