|
|
“Shinny on your own side!” | ||
| Some times of a morning, when my mom and dad got up, I would be gone. It seems that I would get out of bed at night and go get in bed with Mama and Papa Joney. I was too small to remember this, but they told me later when I was older. | |||
|
Nobody locked their doors at that time. My parents fought all the time, and would
run around gambling and drinking. In those days,
I didn’t like my mother at all! I was civil to her, but she slapped me around anyway.
I was also told that when my brother Donald Roderick Hemphill was born on December 8, 1918 (I am 3 years older), I was standing at Mama Joney’s kitchen window on a tin of honey, looking at our house. The lid caved in and I fell into the honey. What a mess! | |||
| One of my first memories was then my mother left my brother and me alone one day, when she ran next door for something. My brother must have been about 6 months old. He crawled out on the porch where we lived, and I went to sit and play with him -- but I was playing with matches! I caught his little dress on fire. I blew at it, but that didn’t work. So I spit on it! I left a small hole. My mother never knew how Donald’s dress was burned until I told her years later. My brother was a sickly child, and I usually took care of him. | 
| ||
I don’t remember having toys when I was very young. I played with a doll that belonged to an aunt who died when she was twelve. My brother and I played with things we made. A shoe box with windows cut out and a lit candle inside and a string on one end was a pull toy, like a train. We made swords out of cardboard and hats from newspapers, and would have duels. One time we made a sled out of an old ironing board. And we made kites from newspapers. | |||
Rita and Joe Collins |
I did get a doll when I was about nine, and Donald got a car that you pushed to wind up.
The car was the most fun!
My Dad was very young and would play with us a lot. When I was about 10 and my brother 7, my father would gather up kids and friends in our neighborhood every summer evening, and organize a game called “Shinny on your Own Side”. The best time was between supper and bedtime. We would play until it was too dark to see. Our street hadn’t been paved at that time, and the dust swirled around us as we played in our bare feet. It was a team game. We each needed a long stout stick and one empty tin can. We would choose up sides, put the can in the middle of the road. We would hit the can down the line with our sticks, to see how far we could make it travel. If anyone got on your side of the road, they would be hit on their shins, and we would yell “Shinny on your own side!” | ||
| I also remember playing croquet with my cousins. We didn’t have any friends nearby. I know now that I was an introvert and didn’t make friends easily. We would play tag, hide and seek, and climb trees and hang by our knees. The most fun was when we could play in the woods and do this. Also, we would “ride” saplings down, and swing from them. If we could find grape vines I think we would have swung from the trees like Tarzan. We would play until dark, and then go home. | |||
| ← On The Run | A little old brown dog → | ||