Page 168 - some-stuff-i-wrote-and-some-stuff-i-didn't-(2011)-h-morris-williams

Some Stuff I Wrote (2001) H. Morris Williams

MY MAMA . . . Mama barely finished third grade in a tiny one-room school house near
Fargo, GA. That was the only formal schooling she ever got. Yet, she honored education and made

sure all of her children graduated from high school. Mama used to help with my homework after
school when I was little. She especially enjoyed calling out my spelling words so I could practice.

I didn’t know at the time that she didn’t know how to spell some of the words she was calling out
to me. In a way, we were learning to spell together. All that practice paid off for me and made me

a good speller and I proved it one day at school. With Mama sitting quietly and proudly in the
audience, I won the class spelling bee. My winning word was ‘pneumonia,’ which Mama had

always jokingly pronounced ‘p-monia’ so I knew it started with a “p.” Years later Mama was there
when I received a master’s degree from the University of Florida at age 23. We both knew the

degree was as much hers as mine and she held the diploma in her lap all the way home.
MY BROTHER JIMMY . . . My older brother Jimmy English was a natural athlete. He

excelled at every sport he played, especially football. He played center and linebacker for the CHS
Tigers. He was also the team punter and he could boom a football. One game he punted three times,
all very long kicks, then raced down field each time and made the tackle on the punt returner. Three

punts, three down field tackles. Ask any football player how rare that is. When the game was over,
everybody gathered around him telling him he had played a good game. Jimmy saw me standing in

the crowd, picked me way up high and said, “This is my brother. He can kick just like I can.”
Everybody cheered and I felt like a hero. Jimmy went on to become a successful college player but

I was never prouder of him than that day he shared his moment of glory with me.
Daddy, Mama and Jimmy have all long since departed this earth but clearly a big part of them

lives on within me to this day.

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