Part XIII

Not everything was scary and sad during that time. Sometimes, when Daddy was home for a few days, he was acting like himself. (Not exactly like he used to, but still the same Daddy.) He didn't seem as happy, but he had his moments.

He was acting more like himself and funny again. Daddy got very involved in the "playhouse project," and when it was finished, he seemed as excited as we were. He played with us and Gretchen in the back yard and fed Billy (the goat) everything he could think of.

One day, we were all in the front yard enjoying the sunshine. Mama and Daddy seemed happier and we were running around playing. Tara had just started to walk. She was barefoot in the grass, and Daddy was trying to coax her to come to him with his arms out.

Quiet play soon turned to a loud yelp from Daddy, and as I turned to look he had scooped Tara up and quickly ran backwards.

Mama saw whatever it was and ran to the garage. In a split second she was running out with a shovel, holding it like a spear. Rosanne, Cindy and I ran towards them wondering what the emergency was. Daddy was holding Tara tightly and Mama was stabbing the grass over and over. Daddy stopped us in our tracks and looked terrified. Mama was white as she stared at the grass with shovel in hand ready to attack again.

It took a few minutes before we realized what had happened. Tara with her bare little feet had stepped right down on a baby rattlesnake's head!

The snake had no chance against Mama's shovel, but Daddy had one fear in the world, and here it was laying dead in our front yard. Tara was all smiles as usual and completely oblivious to the danger she had been in.

It would be the start of many close encounters to come.

Daddy lectured us on exactly how dangerous rattlesnakes could be and the close encounter caused Mama to be very worried. They limited our outside play time with supervision from an adult, so we came up with new things to do indoors. Being inside most of the time gave me all sorts of ideas I had been wanting to explore.

I was determined to try out that cabinet in the corner of the kitchen that Mama called the "big lazy susan." I thought that was a funny name, but it intrigued me. I waited for the kitchen to be empty, which was a long and restless wait. I took all the pots and pans out, hid the 'evidence" in the laundry room and crawled in, pulling the door shut. The adventure started. I was going around in circles as fast as I could, wondering how I missed trying out this tiny merry go round when it was right here all this time.

I pushed myself around long enough to feel a bit sick, and decided I would have to take a break. When I started to push the door open, I discovered I was trapped inside with no way to escape. Pushing from the inside was only making the doors fit tighter. Not only was the door impossible, but when I changed my position, I realized I was stuck. Panic set in quickly.

"MAMA!! DADDY!! EULA! I'm stuck!! Mama, I'm STUCK. HELP!" I was crying by now, but only one voice responded. Someone who couldn't help one bit. Jethro. Jethro started mimicking me, crying and calling for all the adults. At first I told him to be quiet, and then I realized that he could scream and cry louder than I could, especially now, muffled by heavy cabinet doors. The louder I got, the louder he got.

It wasn't long before Daddy, Mama and Eula all came to the rescue to see what the racket was about. I was wedged in the dark, worried, but more concerned about getting out instead of getting into trouble. After a few minutes, I was free. Surprisingly, I didn't get in trouble.

All three adults started laughing and instead of being relieved, now I was embarrassed. Well, that didn't go well and wasn't near as exciting as I had pictured it. I was, however, requested not to get in there again, which I was happy to oblige.

During all this time, my parents had made a lot of friends. Aunt Reba, (Daddy's sister) and her family had moved to California, and so had my Aunt Sylvia, (Mama's sister) with her three little girls. This was great for us. We were surrounded by cousins again, and we loved it. Aunt Sylvia's girls were close to our ages, but at the time Aunt Reba moved, she had her two oldest boys, Donnie and Ricky. They were a few years older than us. Donnie was almost a teenager, so he wasn't really interested in playing with us, but Ricky did.

Ricky liked to ride bikes with us, and draw stupid things in our chalk houses like a motorcycle in the living room, or a dog pooping in the kitchen. That didn't go over well with Rosanne at all. Some of the things he drew made me mad after I had gone to the trouble to decorate so beautifully. Other times, he made me laugh so hard. He'd take real things like rocks and coke bottles and set them on our "tables". I thought it was funny but Rosanne let him know real quickly that "boys don't belong in our chalk houses." Ricky and I got to be good friends because we laughed at most of the same things and had quite a bit in common. He loved being at Grandma and Grandpa's too, and we both loved to listen to Elvis records. He had a leather jacket and would pretend to be Elvis, while I was a go-go dancer. I'd get on Daddy's pool table in the gold room and dance while Ricky sang along to Presley.

Aunt Sylvia's girls were fun too. All three of them were younger than me, but that was nice for a change. I liked to play "babysitter" with them. Yes, I would pretend to be a babysitter and tell them what to do. It was great. I told them when to color, when to lay down and take a nap, we had snack time, television time, play time, and yes, I was in charge. I even took them on field trips to the cactus garden, the barbeque pit and the backyard. I pretended that the back yard was a zoo. Gretchen was an elephant or a zebra, and Billy was a talking goat or some other bizarre thing. Jethro was the most famous of all though. He was a magic bird that could read minds and because he had such a great vocabulary, I even had Cindy believing it. I felt empowered. I had always been younger than Rosanne, and felt I had too many bosses, but now I was actually the boss of three little girls. Jennifer is Aunt Sylvia's youngest and Tara was little too, so I didn't try to play much with them for a while. They just were too small to "discipline". They were more interested in their baby toys and being around their mothers. That was fine, because I had my hands full anyway.

After a while, I'd get bored and tell them I didn't want to play anymore, so I'd go looking for Rosanne, or hang around with the adults in the kitchen while they played cards or visited.

Now when Daddy was gone, Mama wasn't near as lonely. She had her sister, her sister-in-law and her Mother-in-law. If something small around the house was in need of repair or if Mama needed a piece of furniture moved, Grandpa or Aunt Reba's husband, Don, helped her out.

Our house had gone from a somewhat lonesome place to a meeting place for card games, picnics and big Southern dinners. Of course Grandma and Grandpa were less than ten minutes from us, so they were also frequent visitors. It was a lot of fun having people over and hearing Mama and Daddy laughing more than they did a short time ago. Daddy was on the road a lot, but he wasn't acting weird as often and things seemed to be better. There were still some bad nights, but there didn't seem to be as many as before Tara was born.

Daddy made many friends working in Hollywood and being on the road, so we were always surrounded by family and friends. Sheb Woolley and his wife Bev had become good friends with my parents. Merle Travis would visit occasionally as did Merle Kilgore and his wife, Carl and Pearl Butler, Joe and Rose Lee Maphis and their children, and many more. Curly and Carol Lewis and their family were good friends too. They lived about fifteen minutes from us, and came often. Curley was the contractor that built our house, and Carol was a real estate agent. They had two boys and a daughter around our ages, so we had a lot of children to play with regularly. The Lewis family had a mini ranch with horses, and competed in rodeos regularly. Tracy was their only daughter and very young at the time. I was amazed at how many ribbons and trophies she had won. Their home was filled with ribbons and trophies earned from all five family members. Horses were a huge part of their lives. I was instantly attracted to the beauty of these muscular animals and intrigued with the capacity, intelligence and abilities they possessed. It fascinated me that they could be trained by the nudge of a knee, a click of the tongue or a slight jab from a western boot. I immediately knew that I would become a part of that world.

It wasn't just a hope or a wish, it was a necessity. I was hooked. Observing wasn't an option. I would find a way to not only learn to ride a horse, but I HAD to have one of my own. That would be my next project.

It may take some doing with Mama and Daddy, but I felt confident I could talk them into it.

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