Peewee

Peewee

I was the runt of our bunch, weighing in
at almost five pounds at birth. My Dad called me Peewee all my life. He
had a nick name for all of us. If there had been a prize for getting it
right, I don't think he could have told you what my real name was.


I was his right hand girl. We did everything
together. He had me convinced that he didn't know how to get anywhere
unless I went with him and read all the road signs and billboards. It
didn't matter that I couldn't read, I would stand in the floorboard of
the truck with my hands on the dashboard, and read all the signs out
loud to him, so we didn't get lost and we never did.


I grew up a real tom boy. When it was time to plant
cotton it was just me and Dad working together. We worked from daylight
until almost dark, day after day in the hot sun. We had a four row
planter that attached to the back of the tractor. Daddy drove the
tractor and I handled the planter.

It was my job to
run back and fourth the length of the planter on a platform, making
sure that the hoppers that held cotton seed were full and dropping seed
the way they were supposed to. This was a very important job. If the
seeds got stuck and didn't drop there would be a lot of bare places
with no cotton growing, and that wasn't about to happen on my watch.


The seeds came in hundred pound bags and were kept
in a warehouse about five miles from our house. We took the truck and
went to get more seeds. There are several kinds of cotton seed, the
kind that we needed was about halfway up the stack. We pulled at one of
the sacks and caused an avalanche of bags that knocked us down and
covered us.

I was under a lot of weight and
couldn't get my breath, I just knew that Dad was dead. Then I heard him
calling my name, then screaming my name. Finally he heard me answer him
and pulled the sacks off me. I couldn't believe that we were alive, and
not even hurt.

We got our seeds and went back to
work. The sun was very hot on that platform, so hot that my bare feet
almost couldn't stand it. I went barefoot all the time. wore cut off
shorts, tee shirts, and my cowboy hat. I bet I walked a hundred miles
back and fourth on that planter, checking hoppers and telling Dad when
we needed to fill up on seed.

I was really proud
when the cotton plants broke through the ground, green and thick and
not a bare spot anywhere. Well we did it Dad, look it all came up nice
and even. And then the payment I was waiting for was paid in full when
he said---Yep we done a real good job.