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MR. G?S LEGACY by DON BRISTER
THE EARLY YEARS
Hello, my name is Johnny and this is the story of my life in the south. My earliest recollection is when I was about four years old. I lived in a wooden shack with Uncle Willie, out behind the main house. It was just a one room shack but was really quite comfortable. In the middle was a black pot bellied stove and there was a cot on either side where we slept. There was a shelf near the door where our few belongings were kept beside a coal oil lantern.
Mr. G. had inherited the farm from an uncle, and had slowly brought it back to life after years of lying idle. The main house was built high off the ground and had a long porch across the front and back. On one end of the back porch he had built a room for Aunt Minnie. The front door opened into a wide hall that ran all the way to the back porch. On the right was a large living room with a huge fireplace. French doors opened into the dining room and then into the kitchen. There were two bedrooms to the left, separated by a small utility room.
I didn?t realize until much later aunt and uncle had nothing to do with relations but was used as a matter of respect for many older blacks. Uncle Willie was tall and gaunt with slightly graying hair. Aunt Minnie was fatter and she had the demeanor of a grandmother.
The farm was not large by today?s standards, maybe 30 cultivated acres at most. Farther back near the fields was another larger shack where Zack, Betty, and their two children, Roy and Rosa lived. Roy was quite a bit older and worked in the fields. Rosa was about two years older.
Mr. G. was a school teacher but that left plenty of time to run the farm. He was a firm believer in education and saw to it Roy and Rosa were in school every day. He had a large collection of books and many a warm summer afternoon we would gather on the back steps while Aunt Minnie read aloud. Occasionally she would read from the Bible and then sometimes it would be something simple like Peter Rabbit or the Three Bears.
Uncle Willie didn?t go the fields most days. He would get up just before daylight and go to the main house and start a fire in the cook stove, and if it was cold outside he would light one or two of the fireplaces at either end of the house. Then he would come back to our shack and light a fire in the pot bellied stove and climb back into bed until Aunt Minnie rang the dinner bell signaling that breakfast was ready. Most of the time it was warm enough to eat on the back steps but when it wasn?t we would bring it back and sit on our cot. Food was plentiful and very good. My favorite thing in the whole world was sausage with biscuits and cane syrup. There were always lots of pork and vegetables that were raised on the farm.
After making the fires, Uncle Willie would always draw fresh water from the well, fill the oak bucket on the back porch and an old tub next to the well where the dogs could drink. I tried to pull the bucket from the well but it was heavier than I was. Sometimes when it was extra cold the well would freeze.
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