Читать книгу Live Forever - Mylon Le Fevre - Страница 21

I didn’t mean to do it. But every monster that ever chased a 6-year-old in the dark was after me that night! My

only goal was to make it to the light on Aunt Maude’s back porch alive.

The next day my blunder became blatantly obvious. It looked like a tornado had beelined from the outhouse to

the back door. I’d torn up Aunt Maude’s precious tomato plants and she threatened to tear up my behind if I ever

did it again!

BREAKFASTS, BUCKSHOT, AND BANANA PUDDING

But not even booger bears or Aunt Maude’s wrath could dampen the excitement of days on the farm. As I

awakened in the mornings, the first breath of that brisk air would jerk me into consciousness just in time to see

the sunrise. The only heat in the house radiated from the fireplaces in the downstairs living room and dining

room, or from the kitchen where Aunt Maude was cooking on her old, wood-burning stove. Since I was the

smallest, survival for me meant getting warm first before my bigger cousins, brothers, and uncles got there and

pushed me out of the way. So, as soon as I opened my eyes, the race was on.

Making my way to the kitchen fire, I was greeted by the delicious aroma of sizzling country ham and eggs, and

giant biscuits rising in the oven. My momma, grandmother, and aunts had already been awake for hours cooking

up a big spread for breakfast. Everything in the meal came straight from Aunt Maude’s farm. We devoured fresh

eggs from their chickens, country ham from their hogs, and butter they had churned the night before. With ice

cold milk from their cows, we washed down homemade biscuits topped with red-eye gravy or sorghum syrup

made from their sugar-cane crop.

Then all the men went hunting for the day. I carried my BB gun until I was 12. After that I went to work mowing

lawns at 25 cents apiece. That doesn’t sound like much now but in 1957 it was enough to help me earn the $16 I

needed to buy a 20-gauge shotgun. I never really shot any game but I did enjoy the special camaraderie and

bonding time with my dad, brothers, uncles, and cousins. As I grew older, my family endlessly teased me because

I never fired my shotgun. I put up with it for years. Then, one unforgettable day when I was about 20, I put a stop

to it. I decided while under the influence of some serious “herbs” that I’d had enough of their making fun of me.

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