From the fictional series Uprooted
Rebecca stayed angry as long as she could, but as
soon as they left Rutherfordton, North Carolina the scenery started changing so
she just had to look. There were no more
mountains and soon they entered South Carolina a whole other state. Not that Rebecca found much to recommend
South Carolina. There were still woods,
but they started giving away to pine woods.
Miles and miles of just pine woods with what her daddy said were palmettos
growing underneath the trees.
Along about noon they stopped at some roadside
tables to have the picnic lunch that Rebecca’s grandmother had packed. Her grandmother was a wonderful cook and they
had fried chicken, potato salad and fried apple pies. Grandma had also sent a mayonnaise jar of
lemonade for Rebecca and Robert. Her mama
and daddy drank black coffee from a thermos bottle.
The roadside picnic area was nice and no one else
was there so they were able to walk a ways into the woods to go to the
bathroom. Mica carried a washrag in a
jug of water for hand washing.
After they passed what seemed like every pine tree
in the world they came to Georgia and at least there they got to go through
many little towns. They stopped for ice
cream in one of them. Long about
suppertime they came to Jacksonville, Florida and found a motel for the night
right after passing the giant peanut man who was the same one who advertised on T.V.
Now, that was impressive.
The next day, they went through miles of flat
nothingness in Florida. Rebecca’s father
told them that they were traveling on U.S. Highway Number One and that it went
along the entire length of the United States from Maine to Key West,
Florida. Mica was impressed by that so
Robert was too. Rebecca only knew that it
must be a really long road.
Late that June afternoon, Rebecca’s daddy pulled the
car over when they were close to Fort Lauderdale. They all went to the passenger side of the
vehicle and opened both doors to provide some privacy. Rebecca’s mother got out the washrag jar and
washed both Rebecca and Robert and got fresh clothes out of the suitcase in the
trunk and made both of them change their clothes. She threatened them to be still and not
wrinkle up for they were going to be at Aunt Lou and Uncle John’s house soon.
After piling back into the car it wasn’t long until
there started being stores on both sides of the road. On every block there was a sign that said
“bar.” Rebecca couldn’t believe her ears
when her daddy told her that was where people went to drink spirits. These places weren’t hid at all! They had flashing neon lights inviting people
to come right on in!
Back home all the roadhouses and honkey-tonks were
hid out as much as they could be, because everybody knew they were sinful
places. The men always snuck out to some
uncle’s car to take a snort during family gatherings. Drinking any form of alcohol was something to
be hidden.
In a few short miles, Mica turned the car to the
right off of what was now called “Federal Highway,” then he made another right
in front of a pink building. The
building was called a duplex meaning that there were two houses hooked
together. Rebecca’s Aunt Lou and Uncle
John lived in the rear portion of the building and that was where they were also
going to live until they could get their own place.
They knocked on the door and Aunt Lou flung it open
and just started hugging and kissing on all of them. Aunt Lou seemed so happy to see them and they
were happy to see her too. She showed them
their bedroom. The parents had a double
bed and Robert and Rebecca had what was called a three-quarter bed. The newly arrived family had their own
bathroom and Aunt Lou and Uncle John had a bedroom and a bathroom. There was also a living room and what was
called a combination kitchen dining room.
Aunt Lou had a big meal prepared; although, up until
that time Rebecca had never had what was served. It was a salad with oil and vinegar dressing,
Italian spaghetti and meatballs and Italian bread. They all had water to drink. Rebecca realized that people sure ate crazy
in Fort Lauderdale or maybe it was because of Uncle John. He was from New York City. All the family said that was a really big
place. He and Aunt Lou hadn’t been
married that long so maybe she was still trying to impress him.
Anyway, except for eating a salad and being supposed
to think it was good and drinking water for a meal the spaghetti and meatballs
and bread was good. It was just all so
different and that stupid Robert embarrassed all of them when he asked what all
that silverware was for, anyway. He also
wanted to know what that handkerchief was doing on the table beside of
everybody’s plates. Aunt Lou said that
was a napkin and people were supposed to wipe their mouths on them. Then she took the napkin and laid it on her
lap. Rebecca did the same. She tried to not get hers dirty but that
spaghetti was just so messy.
To be continued ….
©Patty F.
Cooper
Elizabethton, Tennessee
June 21st, 2014
No comments:
Post a Comment