Ouija board and stick frog

Uncle Aubrey was divorced and had two children who came to visit us every other weekend. When they came, Momma would pick me up at school on Friday and we would drive about twenty miles to the little town where they lived with their mother and pick them up. We would always stop

at the service station on the way out of town to get an ice cream sandwich to eat on the way. That was a real treat in my day!

Tommie Faye was the oldest. She was a year older than I and Buddy was about four years younger. The sleeping arrangements were slightly crowded when they came since Tommie Faye, and I slept

in one bed (in the room with Momma and Daddy) and Buddy slept in the bed with Uncle Aubrey. There was one bathroom. But we had such fun! Tommie was the sister that I never had. We giggled and snuggled down under the cover and told ghost stories. We played jackstones, paper dolls, and when we got older, went to the movies and went roller skating. She was to later be Maid of Honor in my wedding. We did everything together when she came to visit for the weekend or sometimes longer in the summers. Uncle Aubrey had a real little playhouse built in the back yard for Tommie and me. Momma made little curtains and fixed it up so cute. We had such fun playing in it! When the weather was hot, we’d fill up a big old galvanized #3 wash tub full of water and put on our bathing suits and get in it cooling ourselves under the big pecan trees. There was also a concrete goldfish pond next to the playhouse full of goldfish. We weren’t supposed to get in the fishpond. But we’d try to catch the goldfish. Uncle Aubrey was a real gardener. He had azaleas, camellias, roses, gardenias, and always cut the grass himself. I can’t remember ever seeing him wear anything but dress clothes. I mean this man always cut the grass in his white shirt and tie! He was a curiosity,

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this man! The lawn mower was a push mower. Not electric, not gas, just push. He also went fishing in the white shirt and tie! Wherever he went, he would have on a white shirt with a tie. The sleeves may be rolled up and the tie may be tucked in between the buttons, but he had it on with dress slacks. In the winter, of course, it was a full suit. He worked in a department store and sold menswear. Obviously. Once, he bought a couple of horses and put them in a barn out back for Tommie, Buddy and me. She was braver than me, but I did get on the horse with her, and we rode them together. Man, I remember how sore my behind was after riding that horse. I never would have made it as a cowgirl. I think we decided that wasn’t as much fun as we thought it would be. Uncle Aubrey sold the horses.

There was a small coal fireplace in our bedroom. Messy thing, but it was nice to have a place to play jackstones on the hearth in the winter. Tommie and I would get down on the floor and play jacks on a cold Saturday afternoon. We had a Ouija board too. It ruled our lives for a while. It told us what was going to happen to us and who we were going to marry and everything everybody else was

going to do and marry! I can’t believe we actually played with what would probably be considered witchcraft today! It was a child’s board game back then. Kay and I spent many an hour in the floor at my house or on her bed at her house playing paper dolls with her always dressing them in beautiful clothes. She had a flair for design and also story writing. We’d swoon over the magazines with the current fashions, boys, and pick out those we wished we could meet. Sometimes we would join a “fan club” of one of them hoping to get to hear directly from a star. Kay was my very best friend most of the time. We would get mad and pout with each other but always ended up friends. We still are. Summertime we would be found in the front yard late in the afternoon playing “Ain’t No Booger’s Out Tonight”. Now if you’re from South Georgia, you know what that game is. If you’re not, you’ll just have to use your imagination. Of course, Simon Says, Mother May I, Hopscotch and marbles were big favorites. Tommie could play a mean game of marbles. She could whip me every time. It was no wonder, she had such great big “box car” marbles and a real nice bunch of beautiful colored glass balls of all sizes which she kept in a paper sack with her at all times. She never left them at Uncle Aubrey’s house. Guess she didn’t trust me with her prize collection.

Sometimes, all the neighborhood kids got together for a game of baseball. There would be Donnie and Pat, Kay and me, Gail and Tommie if she was there. Now there’s an art to how you decide who was going to bat first. You had to hold the bat a certain way on the end, swing it around your head three or four times by your fingertips without dropping it, or some such nonsense, etc. But it was serious business and those were the rules and that’s the way the game was begun. We’d play until dark, and our Momma’s would be yelling for us to come inside. The bathtubs would have a black ring around them that night! Of course, Tommie and I could get in the bathtub together as long as it would hold us but that couldn’t have been too many years since we both were rather leggy girls and bathtubs of that era were the clawfoot size.

I remember one time, sneaking the ice pick from the kitchen so we could play “stick frog”. It was usually played by the boys with their pocketknives, but an ice pick was my weapon of choice That’s another South Georgia game of skill. I wasn’t too skilled at it because the ice pick landed straight up in my upper leg. Not a pretty sight, but I suffered through it and put the ice pick back before I got caught. Then there was the time I swung on the limb of the tree my dad had told me not to swing on and broke the limb. That one got me the only actual spanking I ever remember getting from my dad. It was just a stupid little pecan tree! Of course, my Momma never heard of the word child abuse. She knew how to use a hairbrush and I’m not talking about brushing her hair. Her hand was her weapon of choice, but her hairbrush made its way to my rear end a few times and I don’t even remember what for. I probably deserved it. I had a right sassy mouth. A big sassy mouth. Tommie and Buddy were safe. They were never sassy to Momma. Comments can be made to LaRose at [email protected].