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he was in his 50ties that used to travel with a horse and buggy going from house to house selling singer sewing machines and about twice a month he made our place his stopping quarters. He was a nice looking man and had a real pretty wife if she had weighed a hundred pounds less, also two fine looking teenagers. But I didn't care about any of them. In fact, I resented Mr. Boulamet staying at the house so much. He was blind in one eye. So I decided I'd play a trick on him, and we had an old chair on the back porch that one leg was off so I took he chair and put it at his place at the table and propped the leg under it so where he sat down it would fall but Stella came in just in time to spy it so of course that tore all of my plans up. Then there was another machine agent came through later and as always my daddy took them all in, fed them and their team and wouldn't charge a penny. Stella did all the cooking and every body loved her buttermilk biscuits because she made them homemade butter and fresh buttermilk and I'll have to admit, they were good. We had our own bacon smoked and some pickled. My father used to make his own vinegar, and pickled cucumbers by the gallon. He had a big wooden barrel with hoops or maybe they were called bands, any way that's what he pickled his meat and so fourth in. I've seen folks coming through wanting a place to stay over night one night right after another and who do you think had to do all the washing of those bedclothes? Every time anyone slept on them, they were to be changed. And then we had it the hard way. No electric washing machines and dryers like we have today.
Speaking of the machine agent his name was Norris. My daddy said he was highly educated and of course that was right up my daddy's alley, he loved to have some one like that to talk too. He had been stopping in quite a few times when I asked him if he had any girls and he said yes! I have one the same age of you, so I told him to bring her the next time he came. So sure enough he did and I just shouldn't have done it because she had head lice and Stella said Pearl; I just feel like killing you. But anyway we never got them so I escaped getting killed. I had boogers twice when I was small going to school and Stella put so much coal oil in my head until I guess that's why I don't have any more brain than I do. Oh, how she hated those boogers. Hazel was a pretty girl and real sweet but I can understand how some one can get them but I can't understand how they can keep them.
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