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Barefoot In The Sand: Remembering the Waning Days of the Hopewell Community (1998) Bruce C. Gragg 44/123

could still thread a needle, without glasses. We usually had an old
upright piano at home, and her favorite relaxation was to sit and
play for a while. She could read music however, she mostly played by
ear. After hearing a tune on the radio a couple of time she would sit
and after a bit of picking her way through it she would play it. In
the late forties two of her favorite tunes to play was, "Mocking Bird
Hill" and "On Top of Old Smokey." Seldom would she play them the same
way twice, she would change key or her style of playing.

Papa was in a more modern term somewhat "laid back." He had worked
hard in his time and did until just a few years before his passing.
He was accident prone however, getting himself hurt in a variety of
freak accidents. Some of them should never have happened, like he was
climbing a tree with a loaded shotgun once when hunting. The gun was
one of the type with the "mule ears" to cock it, it hit a limb, fired
and he lost his right thumb. He would constantly remind me when I had
an occasion to use a gun to be careful and not load it until I was
ready to use it. When weather permitted he would saddle up the horse,
put some corn in the saddle bag and ride to the river swamp to call
up his hogs and feed them some corn to keep them from going
completely wild. He would do this about once a week, and it would
give him an excuse to get away from home for a while and enjoy peace
and quiet. His favorite way of relaxation was to sit on the back
porch steps and enjoy an evening chew of tobacco after supper. His
favorite chew was "Beechnut" it is a soft leaf package, he would take
his teeth out, put in a chew and "gum" it for a while. Before he had
his teeth pulled his favorite was "Brown's Mule." Uncle Curtis would
often bring him a big carton he would get in the Army PX. In the
summer he would make a smoke to help chase mosquitoes by burning
"buffalo chips" in a bucket. A buffalo chip in reality is a "cow
patty" that has dried, however "Buffalo Chip" sounded a little more
dignified. Regardless what they are called, they create a big smoke
when burning or smoldering, and it did help make the "skeeters" stay
away. Of course we called our mother "Mama.” I can still see the look
on Burnette's face when she received the letter telling of Curtis's
going overseas to war, we didn't know where. Later we learned it was
to North Africa, then up into Europe with Patton's army.

Before entering the army, he and Carroll were home and they painted
the front porch ceiling of the new house, an awful color of mint
green, which was supposed to deter dirt daubers building nests on it.
Vera and I were kept busy picking up things, combs and pencils, as
they fell to the ground. It was a two story house so the scaffold was
a bit high. There was a balcony on the second floor, with flower
boxes built in. While supervising the painting

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