A Whole Lot Of "Banging" Going On!

Fulton, if you blink your eyes you have already passed through it. It still remains small to this very day, but even this little town has changed some. The church where I used to attend is gone. The two story, two room school house where I went to school is gone. I am not sure, but I believe the only bar where a great tragedy occurred is also gone. I go through Fulton quite often and do not recall seeing it. A very beautiful woman, (and she knew she was) married to a small man who was called “Shorty," became flirtatious with a very large man who was called, "Bones." Some say they were having an affair. A lot of men hung out at this bar and one night as Bones was sitting in the bar, Shorty walked in and "bang, bang" he shot him. Killed him! It was big news back then as everyone practically knew everyone else. The local paper had it's headline! I went to school with their two daughters. It was so very hard on those poor girls. I don't want to dwell on that so on to the wonderful old two-story farm house where I lived on Barnes Road. It still stands today and has been restored. We had a couple of cows and pigs and dad grew a vegetable garden. Well, I had to go to work again. When my dad watered his garden he would put the hose on the ground, squat and watch the water flow until each plant had sufficient water. I was placed some feet back and at his command I had to pull the hose backward to the next plant. He would stand, then squat again, watch the water flow, holler at me to pull, and so on and so on until the whole garden was watered. I could never figure out why this was necessary as I felt he could have done both jobs himself with no effort. I am guessing now that it must have been some kind of lesson for me to learn. Whatever! I wanted more exciting work though and begged to lead the cows to pasture where they could get more greenery. I was told I could do it if I would promise not to let the one cow walk under any of the trees as she would buck and run if branches touched her. Well, I proudly marched her across the street and into the orchard. I tried my darndest to keep her away from the trees, but gee, she was bigger and stronger than me. I was just a little kid! Sure enough, she bolted, bucked, scared me to death, and I released the rope. Away she went. Dad was pretty upset with me but found her and took her back to the barn. Another memorable incident was when my dad had made homemade beer and also homemade root beer. He had stored it in the attic where it was quite warm. One day we heard this bang, bang, and my mom raced up to the attic to find bottles exploding. Now the attic did not have flooring. It just had rafters going across. Mom in her haste, missed one of the rafters and all of us kids standing in the living room below, saw this leg come shooting through the ceiling. We screamed, ran up the stairs hollering, "mama, mama," opened the attic door to find my mom sitting on one of the rafters in a fit of laughter. What a relief, and how great to see she had such a sense of humor. All of us kids began to laugh also. Mom was O.K. Dad had to repair the ceiling fast as company was coming that night. It was our turn to host the weekly dance for all the surrounding neighbors. That's another story for tomorrow.