THIS HERE MAN

I have to go back to a time just before I was born, to a time when this feller came to town and started to court this woman. She was about 16, and was the second child of eleven in the family.

This man would talk for hours with out stopping, and could talk you out of your shoes for he was very likeable. One time he asked his brother-in-law to borrow his car to go to the store, and nobody saw him for several days. They finally found out he had sold the car and had drank, and gambled the money away. This didn't set very with the brother, but for the sister’s sake he let it slide.

At the square dance he would play either the fiddle or the guitar depending which was needed. He was a good mechanic and also a blacksmith. This man could do about anything in those days. A year after he and the woman were married the woman had a baby girl which she loved dearly but shortly thereafter the baby died.

As time went by she had two more children both of which were boys. The first boy was kinda sickly but grew out of it after a few years. The second was also sickly and when he was about 4 he got worse to the point he was gravely ill. This particular night was hot and humid, the doors and windows were open, and all the lamps were lit. Most of the family was gathered at Seaton Moser’s house where the man and woman were staying. The doctor came and said there was nothing he could do for the boy and he left.

Sometime about midnight as people sat around, a large owl flew into and out of the house. That was like a foreboding omen. I had crawled into the front seat of a car and went to sleep. I was awakened by someone sobbing in the back seat and as the husband tried to comfort the woman I realized the boy had died.

They moved around from place to place for awhile and finally settled in a little town where he worked as a blacksmith. A short time later he passed on with tuberculosis, and it was unusual for someone to go so fast.

The woman moved to California, and during WW2 she got a job working in the shipyard as a welder. There she met a good man, and they were married when the war was over. The boy didn't take to the new daddy very well and hung out at his Aunt Minnie’s place most of the time. The woman had two more children, a girl and a boy.

Though the earlier part of her life was turbulent, but she always kept a calm and pleasant demeanor. She faced every issue with a minimum of distress and the most outward expression of being upset was. ”I swan,” meaning “I declare.”

My Aunt Lucille had more than her share of hard times and disappointments, but of all the people who were in their right mind she was the coolest of them all.