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My Mom was a simple woman. Her love for her family and friends always came first. Now as I look back on all the things she did to keep our family's necessities in check. It was amazing at how much she did for the family that I didn't realize at the time. We were raise to help with the chores as we became of age. Mother loved to cook. She could have a big meal prepare in about an hour from scratch. Dad loved meat so there was always meat on the table. Mom would cook what Dad liked most of the time. What's that old saying?? The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Well, it was working for my Dad.
Not only doing her duties with the task of running a household; Mom sewed baseballs and softballs to help out with the family income. Worth, a local company made baseballs and softball. Mom was a home sewer of these products. A sack of balls consisted of 144 balls. The company furnished all the goods to complete the process of finishing the balls except the actual sewing the covers on. This was done by hand. Mom was good at finishing the balls. When all were finished Dad would take Mom and the balls to Worth to be graded. Mom was always very nervous on that day. If the inspector, who graded each ball culled one Mom would have to sew another to replace it. Mom usually had an extra one already made just in case. Once the entire 144 balls passed inspection the company would cut Mom a check. Back them they paid twenty cents a ball so Mom got a check for $ 28.80 and another sack of balls to take home and begin the whole process again.
Saturday nights at our house Mom and Dad would listen to the radio. A popular country music program called The Grand Ole Opera was broadcast over a famous radio station out of Nashville, Tn. with the call letters WSM. The station was owned by an Insurance Company, National Life. Their call letters WSM....WE SERVE MILLIONS. Listening to her favorite music late into the night Mom was an authority on who was singing a song when it came on the radio. Stars like Kitty Wells, Ray Price, Faron Young, Carl Smith, Jim Reeves, Hank Snow, The Browns and a little fellow named Little Jimmy Dickens. There was ONE SINGER that MOM admired more than any other. He was a new face on the Opera named Marty Robbins. Through the years MOM bought all of Marty's records and albums. The early ones were on the 78's and later ones on the 45's. Back then record players were all we had to play our records on.
MOM, always talked about someday going to Nashville and to the Grand Ole Opera. Dad, was always willing to please MOM. She only bought one kind of pinto beans and there wasn't any store locally that sold them. Dad would drive Mom on a 60 mile round trip to buy pinto beans at a Piggy Wigglys store in Fayeteville. I guess it also helped that this was MOM'S home town.
One week MOM was very excited......we were finally going to the Grand Ole Opera. I think I was about 14 years old, my sister 12 and brother about 7. What a trip we had and MOM talked about till her death in 1993. She had such a good time with what she enjoyed; her country music. As we stood in line to get our tickets MOM saw Marty Robbins get out of a car and enter a door on the side of the building where the performer's entered. Man, was she excited!! That sure made her day. That night at the opera and what an event it was for MOM still lingers in my memory.
In all the years I've visited Uncle Ted and Aunt Mae I've never seen a cat or kitten around their place. A while back I decided to pay them a surprise visit as I haven't been by their place in a long time. Uncle Ted was sitting in his favorite chair out on the front porch. My, that's strange!! There is a yellow kitten curl up in the other chair on the porch. Uncle Ted has always been a dog lover. Through the years I've seen bird dogs and coon dogs greet me when I arrive. Uncle Ted is a avid hunter.
Greeting were exchanged and my curiosity
got the better of me. What it the world is up with that kitten?? " That ain't my kitten that belongs to Mae." I guess that's the first kitten I've ever seen at your place. " You would be right on that." I'll tell you a story about how Mae got that kitten.
I don't know if the story is true or not but it came from a preacher who heard it from another preacher. You know some of those preachers tell some tall stories. Well, the preacher and his wife had this small kitten and the darn thing climbed up this small popular tree in his front yard. He tried every thing he could think of to get the kitten down put to no avail. The tree was too small for him to climb . After a lot of thought he decided to tie a rope around the tree up as far as he could reach. He backed his truck up to the tree and tied the rope to his trailer hitch. He pulled the truck up till the tree came down close to the ground. As he got out of the truck the rotten rope broke and the kitten was airborne off into the wild blue yonder. He couldn't find the darn kitten. The next day as the preacher was shopping at the grocery store he noticed a lady member of his church buying cat food. He asked, " I see y'all must have a cat." The lady begin to laugh and told the preacher the strangest thing happen yesterday. My daughter has been after me to get a kitten for the last several months. I told her to go out in the yard and pray for a kitten. As she was praying I looked out the window and a kitten came flying through the air and dropped near the child's feet. "Strangest thing I ever saw!"
I was hooked on every word of Uncle Ted's kitten story. I guess stranger things have happened. Well, Nick I decided after hearing about the preacher's story to get Mae a kitten after all these years. And I'll tell you.... I kind of like the little bugger.
