“I was born,” Miss Gilly said, reaching for a tin of snuff. She took a pinch between her forefinger and thumb and placed it between her bottom lip and gums. She had no teeth that I could see.
“I know that probably sounds kind a silly to you,” she said. “But I remember hearing that at the beginning of the story Melanie Wilkes was reading aloud on that picture show, Gone with the Wind. I felt that I was born was as good a beginning as any to tell the story of my life, especially when the story begins on the day I was born.”
“Yes, Ma’am, it will be fine.”
“I was born a sharecroppers daughter. Of course, I don’t actually remember the day I was born. I reckon there aren’t many that can. Mama said I was born on the thirteenth day of September and it was still hot as Hades. From my figuring, the year was 1936.
The first real remembrance I …show more content…
There was dozens of streets. The houses ranged from small shotgun houses on the outskirts of town, to great big houses the closer we got to the center of town. After a while, we came to the main part of town.
I remember looking atop a hill and seeing for the first time, railroad tracks. Papa stopped the mule in front of a big platform near the tracks. After he was finished unloading the wagon, he stood talking to a fat-bellied, baldheaded man. Once we pulled away from the platform, he stopped in front of the mercantile store.
I knew better than to say anything or get off the wagon. Before we left home, he told me I had better be seen and not heard. He said he would take his strap to me if I got off the wagon without him telling me to. You know, we made that entire trip without saying a single word to one another… but that was Papa; he never spoke much at all, at least not to me. He did buy me a licorice whip though. He handed to me when he got back onto the wagon after loading supplies from the mercantile. It was the second time I ever remembered eating
“I know that probably sounds kind a silly to you,” she said. “But I remember hearing that at the beginning of the story Melanie Wilkes was reading aloud on that picture show, Gone with the Wind. I felt that I was born was as good a beginning as any to tell the story of my life, especially when the story begins on the day I was born.”
“Yes, Ma’am, it will be fine.”
“I was born a sharecroppers daughter. Of course, I don’t actually remember the day I was born. I reckon there aren’t many that can. Mama said I was born on the thirteenth day of September and it was still hot as Hades. From my figuring, the year was 1936.
The first real remembrance I …show more content…
There was dozens of streets. The houses ranged from small shotgun houses on the outskirts of town, to great big houses the closer we got to the center of town. After a while, we came to the main part of town.
I remember looking atop a hill and seeing for the first time, railroad tracks. Papa stopped the mule in front of a big platform near the tracks. After he was finished unloading the wagon, he stood talking to a fat-bellied, baldheaded man. Once we pulled away from the platform, he stopped in front of the mercantile store.
I knew better than to say anything or get off the wagon. Before we left home, he told me I had better be seen and not heard. He said he would take his strap to me if I got off the wagon without him telling me to. You know, we made that entire trip without saying a single word to one another… but that was Papa; he never spoke much at all, at least not to me. He did buy me a licorice whip though. He handed to me when he got back onto the wagon after loading supplies from the mercantile. It was the second time I ever remembered eating