Driving the Chickens

Most housing on PZ Ridge was crude. Our house had many open cracks. We used heavy blue paper to cover the walls and ceilings. If we could not afford blue paper, we used newspaper. Then we would lay in bed at night and play games from the ads in the paper.

One game was called "I see." One gave clues, and the others tried to find the item. We also played what we called "coffee pot." One found and described an item in the house and the others guessed what it was. This was always fun and relaxed us for sleep.

My mamma had a game she called "rabbit." It was to see who could hide and stay quiet the longest. It was a long time before we found out that her secret was to keep us still for as long as she could so she could read True Stories. She loved to read.

While my pappa was hunting, she read and we studied by kerosene lamps. We called them coal-oil lamps. They provided inexpensive lighting. A daily chore was to clean the lamp chimneys, fill the lamps with oil and trim the wicks for the next night.

When I was a child, there was another game I played with my little black-haired brother, Charles Finis. We would open the corncrib door facing away from the house. When the chickens went in, we would slam the door, go in a catch a chicken. Then we would tie a string around one the chicken's legs and take the chicken into the barnyard that was grown thick with small persimmon trees.

We had made paths through the thicket that could not be seen from the house. We would get a little limb or switch and drive the chicken all day, holding on to the string. Well, my mamma began to wonder why the hens had stopped laying eggs. Then we were in big trouble and had to find new things to do.