One horse

HE ONE HORSE WALKING PLOW
The one horse walking plow like I have on the old cistern behind my house on Plum street. Was used when I was young to plow the garden because you had to get in around the peach trees. And we just used one horse, and maybe the guy in this picture doesn’t know that? Dad would put me on top the horse and I would have to duck under the trees. I expect he put me up there to keep me out of the way.














A SHIVAREE
A shivaree was always the mostest fun! It would usually be on someone’s birthday or an anniversary, or someone new who moved into the neighbor hood. It was a group of families from the same neighborhood and church, who would quietly gather after dark along a road, and when everyone got there, they would then go on to the appointed house in the dark, No lights on the cars. Great excitement for us kids! Hoping to catch the people in their nightclothes, everyone would gather outside the door while someone knocked urgently. Then when they come to the door you would shout Shivaree and go inside. Everyone took food with them and things the couple could use and things to eat. Us kids would just play and have a great time. There was always a crowd. The tradition must have faded out after World War II . I don’t remember any more.

A Wake
I also remember going to Sherman Carey’s wake. He was an old man sitting up in a chair behind the old base burner. He was pretty much in a coma, Big swollen legs. Friends from church and community came and just sat around and talked. There was lots of food brought in and spread over the kitchen tables and you could go eat anytime you wanted. They would make beds of coats in the bedroom and let us kids go to sleep. I remember getting up in the night and everyone was still sitting talking and he had not died yet.
It is a comfort to have someone with you when you are waiting for someone to die. I don’t know why, it just is. I remember staying alone with my mom when she died. Oh yes, there was a Respite girl who was there, but I told her she could go get some sleep which she did. So I just watched mom breath until she quit. It is a lonely time.