Milking in the Afternoon · Moore Family Stories

Milking in the afternoon

Granmama washed the dinner dishes and swept the kitchen floor.
She always let the oven door down, so that the stove and the kitchen could cool off.
After she rested a while, it was soon milking time.
She closed the oven door and built a big fire in the stove.
The oven would be good and hot---to bake bread for supper.

She went to the barn, and put feed in the trough, for the milk cow.
The cow was in a rush to get into her regular stall to eat.
She stood still while her calf sucked, then Granmama tied off the calf and milked her.
She switched her tail, into Granmama's eyes a couple of times.

She was carrying the milk back from the barn and --- Something was wrong!!
That strange smell, it was strong, bad--- She knew she hadn't left anything on the stove.
Smoke was pouring out of the kitchen--- the oven!
She opened the door and looked, and looked again. What was that?--- What?---

It was Mary!! her big pretty cat that liked to lay in her lap and purr.
She must have got in the oven, because it was warm, when the door was open.

Oh, that was the most awful mess to clean up--- and the burned hair smell!
She couldn't cook bread in that oven for over a week. It was hard to sleep in the house.
And her poor Mary was gone, she missed her purring and holding and rocking her
(She said it real slow, "May--ree", real Southern. We said "Mary.")

Uncle George's Birthday
Mote, Sudie and Jennie went to Arkadelphia for their Uncle George's 80th birthday
That was real old then. It was about dark when they got into the depot.

Jennie called and said, "We're here, somebody come and get us." They said they would
come, but they had a terrible tragedy that day. Stella, their daughter, her husband had died
that day. They had his body in their home, every body did that then.

Jennie turned around and told Mote and Sudie what they told her.
Sudie was hard of hearing, and she didn't understand a word.

Sudie's own words, "We got to their house and were real jolly, glad to see them.
A few minutes and Stella asked if I wanted to see her 'old man'. She led me into the living
room and up to a coffin. There lay a dead man---looking up at me! I didn't know there
was a dead man in the house! I asked who it was. Stella told me that it was her husband.

Oh, I was so mad at Mote and Jennie. Why didn't they tell me there was a dead man in the
house. I got to Jennie and pinched her leg. She said she thought I understood, when she told
me. I tried to think if I said awful, wrong things, when we had come in. I was so mad."

She got so excited when she told it. We asked her over and over for years.