Keep Your Pets In The Barn!

The Family Farm
By Mary

Thomas Edwin and Ruby Anna lived on the family farm property. Each of the five boys had a house on the land. They all worked together growing corn, cotton, peanuts, and a three acre peach orchard. So we had lots of peaches.

On Friday October xx, 19xx Mother and Daddy held a 6 lb 2 oz baby girl. Daddy was excited because all his brother had boys. I was the first granddaughter on both sides of the family. Doctor Terry asked, What’s her name? I was named Mary after both of my grandmothers. Mother had just finished a novel with a beautiful heroine named Evelyn; thereafter I was known as Mary Evelyn.

As I grew hair mother always said it looked like tiny beads strung on silk threads; it would shine like diamonds in the light.

As I remember the house, there was a room on each side of a hall with a kitchen at the back, and a front porch all the way across. A fireplace was in one room. We lived in that room; it was a sitting /bedroom. A wood stove kept the kitchen warm, somewhat.

There were times when Mother entertained me by giving me a pan of shelled corn. I would poke the corn through cracks in the floor and watch the chickens eat. Great fun!!

Mother had a cousin who loved me. One day he came to visit. I was dirty! I hated being dirty. When Mother said Uncle Clyde was here, I ran and hid under the house, in the chimney corner. If he saw me dirty, he wouldn't love me any more. He left me a gift and went home. He would not look at me; he knew it would upset me for him to see me dirty.

One day mother went across the hall to get something she needed. When she opened the door and walked into the room, I heard her scream, A SNAKE! She ran out of the house to the barn and got a hoe and chopped the snake into many pieces. When Daddy came in for lunch she told him about the snake in the house.

Daddy laughed and said, Well, Ruby dear, that was a special snake. He wouldn’t hurt you or anyone; it was a family pet!

Mother screamed, A SNAKE FOR A PET! Hereafter, keep your pets in the barn!


Mary gave us a snapshot of several childhood memories instead of one. She could take each of these, I bet, and make individual stories. In her spare time, of course. Regardless, all of these warm the heart and leave us with smiles on our faces. Keep up the good work, Mary Evelyn.

Copyright © 2008 by The Write Workshop. All rights reserved.