Tom Walkers And Seesaws

When you grow up poor in the South, toys are things you make
yourself. We made a seesaw out of a stump and a piece of lumber. Only
problem was that going up and down makes me throw up. Which meant my
Sister couldn't use it either.

Some people moved in next door, they had kids but they were all boys
who thought seesaws were just for girls, and wouldn't be caught dead on
one. So they decided to teach us how to use, it to fly frogs.

The older boy placed a frog on the down end of the board, took off
running and jumped on the up end, and sent the frog flying through the
air to see how far it would go. When we protested he promised us that
it couldn't possibly hurt them, they were dead before they hit the
ground. Oh well thats different then.

We made tom walkers out of oil cans, you pulled a wire through the
holes and wound it together so that you could hold it with your hands.
You put your feet on top of the cans and held on to the wire and walked
around that way. If they got bent up they were easily replaced.

Christmas was almost just another day to us, except that we always
feasted on cakes and pies that my Mama made, until well after the new
year. We never had a Christmas tree Dad wouldn't allow it. He said he
was afraid of fire.

Presents were always stuff that you needed, notebooks, pencils, pencil
boxes, socks. And we always got firecrackers and sparklers. We had to
go out into the middle of the rock road to lite them. I remember I got
a sock doll once looked like a Monkey with a red mouth.

When my Sister got married she bought me a bride doll in a box with her
dress spread out around her. Mama said it wasn't to play with it went
on your bed to make it pretty. So thats where it went. All this stuff
never mattered until you went back to School after Christmas
vacation.

The first thing we did in class was write a story about what we got for
Christmas, places we went, things we saw. This is where my imagination
kicked in and I lied like a dog. I'm guessing a lot of the havenots did
the same thing. I just couldn't stand the thought that someone might
feel sorry for me.

Whatever the popular toy was that year that's what I got, and anything
else I could think of. Well we wern't allowed to have any visitors
over, so no one would ever know. It was bad enough having to wear hand
me downs from my cousins. Even that would have been okay if they didn't
follow you around, and tell everybody the dress you had on used to be
theirs.

When their Mom told them not to do that anymore, they would pass notes
to their friends who would look at you knowingly. Lord I hated them
kids. I still don't have much use for them. They still have their noses
up in the air after forty years.