Working the Farm

We all knew the good ax was not a toy. We learned to use and care for tools of all kinds, to file the hoe, to sharpen the ax on a grindstone - a large round one turned by hand, to sharpen the tobacco knives.

We even had our own special tobacco pegs to set plants with. You were counted an expert tobacco setter if you could keep up with Hester, the husband of my eldest sister, Christine. We called Christine "Sissy," and still do.

In addition to working in the tobacco fields, we forked hay like men, drove the team of mules, pulled corn, cut sprouts, and picked up rocks. My pappa believed busy kids stayed out of trouble. I never minded any of this. It was a way of survival. All worked, all shared, all ate, all enjoyed family fun and games.

We always had lots of friends that we could spend nights or even weekends with, but I liked to be at home nights. I was so afraid I would miss out on something. At night my mamma would play games with us while my pappa hunted opossum, raccoons, and sometimes skunk.

We always knew when he got a skunk. The dogs smelled to high heaven. You should be so lucky as to a wake to the smell of skunk through the knotholes in the floor, when the dogs are trying to rest under the house after a hard night of hunting, and the roosters are crowing their lungs out.

To me this was a normal life.