Uncle Charlie's Beard

Charlie used to brag about how he was getting a beard when he was a teenager. He had about 3 hairs growing from his chin, and he would keep rubbing his hand along his chin and grin. One day when their family was visiting with my family, Wilson, your dad and I decided to do something about it. Wilson and Johnnie held Charlie down on the couch and I got a pair of tweasers and pulled his "beard"(3 hairs) out. If you listen hard you can probably still hear him howling. We thought it was funny at the time but now I can see that was a little cruel. I guess he has forgiven us but it probably took a good while.

When I was 2 years old my mother started cooking lunch for the little school in our community. Sometimes I stayed home with my grandmother but most of the time I think I went to school with her. I would wander into the classrooms but probably stayed in the lower grades as Cecil was in the first grade and Wilson and I would listen in. After 3 years of doing this the first grade teacher told my mother if she would get the books and teach me at home she would test me and put me in the appropriate grade. When I turned 6 they closed our school and we were bused to the next school over (Carlowville,12 miles away). I stayed in the first grade 2 weeks and was moved to the 2nd grade and I knew most of that grade also. This is how I graduated from high school at the age of 16.

Carlowville is where my mother and father both went to high school and maybe junior high also. Anyway that is where they met but is a story for another day.
One of the things I remember about being at the Pleasant Hill School was the music class. One of the ladies in the community came a few days a week and taught us how to sing. It was lots of fun.

One thing I liked to eat during that time was peanut butter rolled in sugar. It would come out long like an earth worm and I called it a worm. I walked into the classroom one day eating one and the teacher asked me what I was eating and I told her it was a worm. She got all excited and went to my mother and told her I was eating a worm. Mama laughed and told her it was only peanut butter, the teacher joined in the laughter. This teacher,Mrs. Eunice Simmons, was always one of my favorite teachers, she later taught as an English teacher in the high school.
My mother worked in the lunchroom at the new school also and after a few years became the manager of the lunchroom as well as the bus driver for our community. So I never missed the bus and always had good things to eat for lunch.

OK kids, here it is. You want some memories of my childhood.Since I have to think about the first time I remember your father, I'll have to tell about that later, but I can start with our first date. It was February 4, 1961. We to the drive-in in Selma but I do not remember what the movie was and yes ,we really did watch the movie, but you know how bad my memory is on some things. I do remember that was't the first time he had asked me on a date. The first time he asked me I turned him down because he asked me to go to his school's homecoming dance. I did not know anyone from his school besides your dad and his brothers so I was scared to go and therefore turned him down. Aren't you glad he didn't give up? Anyway this is enough for now.