Things Remembered

by Chanel Cordell

My parents were divorced and in the summer I would go to my mema's house, on my father's side. They lived 5 hours away and I only got to see them 1 time a year. My mema was very southern country. I slept on an old iron headboard bed in her room and to this day can remember how safe I felt. I would go barefoot everywhere, shoes were not a requirement. They worked chicken houses for Mr. Boney so we would go gather eggs 2 times a day. I remember playing in the cow's water trough. Mema always said if I came up missing just look for the nearest pond of water.

With mema I could never do no wrong. She always made chicken and dumplins when I would go visit, that was my favorite, even cold. When I was older my uncle said I had to visit more because "That's the only time mama makes dumplins is for you". I never appreciated just sitting on the porch with nothing to do but swing, until I got older. Some times mema had to work to help pay bills so I would go to the fields with my papa. We would ride the tractor and cut hay. I can very plainly remember that at lunchtime we would go back to the house and he would get out a pot and put some water in it, open a can of Campbell's soup, peel the label off and set the can down in the pot and heat the soup that way. Then we could just put the pot in the dish rack when we were done. He drove an old, green, International truck and had the most cluttered dashboard I had ever seen. But, he always had a bottle of Listerine for cuts and sores and a roll of toilet paper.

I could go on for hours, but that's the best memories ever.