Life Happens

Life Happens Chapter 1

By Lisa Noe                         



As I look back over the days of my life, I should never forget the most blessed gift in creation my childhood, which was made so extraordinary by my parents.

I was the type of child who would never sit still, if my legs and arms weren't running, then my mouth surely was. I had boundless energy and craved everyone's attention. I however was a good child, always trying to please those around me, be they adult or child.

I remember one of my most favorite things to do in the whole world was to listen to the stories from my parents, about when they were young. My father would recant his tales, and we usually got plenty of good laughs. My mother's tales were also cute and showed her to be quit sneaking.



Daddy's tale began October 19, 1941 on a mountain-top in Eastern Kentucky. He was the oldest child, who came about quit by surprise to Harold and Nanny. These were hard times for mountain-folks jobs, money, housing, etc. were hard to come by. They lived in a log cabin, and Harold found work as a coal-miner. Charlie had a new sister within a year and the family continued to grow, Harold and Nanny had 7 children over the years.



Like most boys, Charlie was always up to something, usually no good. One time he wanted to go to a baseball game, but his father told him he couldn't go anywhere until he fertilized the potatoes. He began throwing a little fertilizer around the potatoes finishing a row or two, as he got more anxious to go to the game. He then took the whole bag of fertilizer and dumped it over the next few rows of plants. He grabbed his empty bag and ran it down the hill to the barn and took off to the ball game. Later in the day when his dad asked him if he had done the task he replied yes. When it was time to harvest the potatoes, however; there were two normal rows of potatoes followed by several rows of burned up plants followed by a few rows of bite size potatoes. This kept Charlie running around the garden and into the mountains to get away from his father who had 9 mouths to feed and only bite size potatoes to fill them with. My father always had a prank or some foolish childhood behavior that my sister and I got a kick out of listening to him recall. Once he and his brother Olan took berries and smashed them all over the front of Olan's shirt and he laid down on the porch like he was injured, the two brothers began screaming for their mother to come see what had happened to Olan. Of course it like to scared poor Nanny to death, she thought the child had been shot or something, she yelled out and fainted, which in turn scared the boys. The troubles they saw when she came to. The most dangerous stunt my father use to do during his youth was, with out words the dumbest. He liked to fancy himself a good shot with a rifle, so he had his younger sister to hold light bulbs in her hands and he would shoot them out. Thankfully he was a crack shot, my Aunt Brenda had tremendous faith in her older brother, she even held them between her teeth.



Life Happens Chapter 2

                                                                 



Now mom's tale is funny and makes me always ask her why? She never has an answer, she only shakes her head and smiles. She was born in Mary Helen on January 22, 1942 to George and Victoria Stewart, she was the fourth born of 6 children, of which the two boys died in infancy. Moma was a skinny and sickly child, but she sure had a spirit all of her own. She was full of life and determined to get to California. She loved movies it was her whole life, this would be a theme throughout her life-time. Every movie that came out, she would see it well all most.



George was a coal miner at the Mary Helen Mines and in those days every part of a miners life was connected to the company for which he worked, he was paid in what was known as script and had to shop at the company store. Thus begins mother’s amusing drama. Victoria, Wanda's mother was hanging her laundry on the clothes-line to dry, when Wanda came sauntering over to her mom and leaned against a tree. With a smug look on her face, she began telling her mother how she had taken a dollar in script and was going to run to the store and spend it on junk food and pop. "You better not take any script or you'll get it", replied Victoria. Wanda, who had taken the script and buried it under a rock, went back towards the house. Victoria was waiting for her with a switch, asking were was the script, but Wanda wouldn't tell, and she ran from her mother as to not be struck by the switch, but Victoria was very upset with her and chased after her. Wanda thought if she ran to the top of the mountain that Tori would not follow her, but she was wrong and Tori told her, she'd get her when she least expected it. Later that day Wanda went to retrieve her script, which she had buried, but she forgot which rock she buried it under and she never found it. Mean while, Tori kept her promise and gave little Wanda what for.



Another amusing tale my mom told me about, was the time she and a friend decided to skip school. The two girls were walking down the street when the principal drove by and instead of hiding in the woods, the girls smiled and waved at him, not thinking, they would get in trouble. Another time my mom was in class and she began patting her hands on the table like a galloping sound a horse would make. The teacher ask her , "what are you doing"? To which she replied just horsing around. Every one in her class cracked up laughing except the teacher who sent her to the office.



Yes I must face it I come from a witty pair. Life has been swell with them, they’re loving , caring people. I have my own tales of youth, but we'll save them for another time and place.



Word count:  1,100   



Note:  this is written using the language of the mountains as is only befitting this piece, so if you are reading to review keep this in mind. It is set in the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky, so don’t think proper grammar will be spoken.