The Very Special Red Dress

For some reason , I don't remember why...I was chosen with three other young 2nd graders to sing at a program the Haven High School was having.  They made us some very pretty red crepe paper dresses with little ruffles.

Mama kept it hanging in her closet for me.  Every once in  a while I would go and admire it.  This day when I went to admire it, the hanger was empty.

I ran to the kitchen to find mama. Instead there was Eudora with red drops of water running down over her hair.  Her hands and face were red and she was crying.  There were strips of red paper on the floor and table.  I started yelling, mama came in.  Yes, that was the end of my red paper dress. Eudora decided she didn't want to be a red head. 

Well, I forgave her eventually, and we laughed about it, that was around 20 years later.

Country Living

After Billie Ruth was born, I can't  remember life changing very much, if any for me.  I walked to school with LaVerne and Wiley.  I think we all liked school.  Our friends were the dear Amish children.

On our walks home, Wiley and I walked with Ida Mae Yoder (a chubby little girl with sun tanned skin, long braids and a happy smile.)  And a boy named Kenneth Baitman, another name for trouble.  Sometimes, Wiley and Kenneth would throw their lunch pails over the fence into the pasture and then they would say "Ida Mae, you go get them".  And she would.  So one afternoon we were walking along alone, Ida Mae and I.  Suddenly I threw my lunch pail over the fence, "Ida Mae, go get that."  She looked at this stupid little girl beside her and said,  "Go get it yourself."  Which I did.
    
Our teacher's name was Miss Lewis, she lived with her parents on a little farm about 10 or 12 miles  from us.  She was a friend of my sister, Eudora. One night Laverne and Eudora wanted to go to a dance. They got permission by saying she was going with them.  They drove dad's little old car.  It looked a green box and our goat use to run and climb clear on top of it. Well, after the ball was over and they were driving home they let Miss Lewis out, then about 4 or 5 miles from home, it stopped and they had to walk home.

Next morning, LaVerne, Wiley and I started to  school.  About a mile down the road, I decided it was Miss Lewis's fault and I wasn't going to walk to school.  So, I walked back home just as daddy was coming out of the door to go after the car.  He turned me around and marched me right back down the road.  When he got the car started he dropped  me off at school.  Now you would have thought Miss Lewis would have taken part responsibility for my tardiness.  No, no way, imagine this...she kept me after school for one half of an hour because I was tardy, for no reason, she said.

A couple of weeks later, maybe her conscience was hurting her, whatever, she invited me to go home with her and spend the night.  As I said before, she lived with her old parents.  They were so happy to have me.  It seems they had another daughter, she had died when she was about my age.  Well, much to my horror, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis spent the evening showing me pictures of the daughter.  From her baby pictures to school, to the pictures of her lying in her coffin.  All of her keepsakes, her dolls, and dresses...more pictures.

I do remember before the ghoulish stuff started, we had a delicious meal.  And to this day, I remember  the dessert.  It was barlett pears from a can.  Now at my young age, I had never had fruit from a can. Only what mama had canned and (God Bless, Mama) it wasn't fancy.  But those pears seemed so fancy, so I don't know why, they just made such an impression on my young mind.  Now, I know them for what they are.....bland, slick and tasteless.