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| A Bag of Hickory Nuts | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Dec 23 2006, 02:51 PM (292 Views) | |
| Jolly | Dec 23 2006, 02:51 PM Post #1 |
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Geaux Tigers!
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They didn't call the Great Depression "great" for nothing. It was tough to find a job, especially one that paid a decent wage, no matter where you traveled in the U.S. People told stories of how the unemployed men would gather at the construction site of the Golden Gate Bridge, redripping their thin coffee and steaming their beans in open kettles, waiting for a man to fall. If a man fell, there was a job opening. Opportunity was named Death. Some laws were re-wrote, some ignored, and some were broken in the government's quest to try to make things better for its citizens. In Arkansas, FDR had established a small farming experiment, the Dyess Colony, where you got 20 acres to try to plow a living from the ground. Hard to make a living on 20 acres, but maybe you wouldn't starve. Some folks share-cropped on other ground, and barely managed to make ends meet on what was left after the owner's share came out and expenses were paid. They lived in weathered old board and batten houses, often on the end of a big field close to the turning row, or maybe by the side of a dusty country gravel road. John and Jack were two young boys that lived in just such a house, without as much as some, better off than others. Still, Christmas for the boys was awfully meager , the crops hadn't been good that year. Mama's singing still filled the house, and maybe things would get better in the new year. But they had a light after dark. The house down the road was dark, which meant they didn't even have enough money for coal oil. If you'd run through your coal oil money, things were lookining mighty grim, as that was high on the list of store bought necessities a family needed...folks used coal oil for more than just a lantern. Coal oil was light, it was used as medicine, sometimes it was even used out in the garden. A common saying in the South went, "We was so poor mama had to tie coal oil rags around our ankles to keep the cut worms from gettin' us", has it's basis in the fact of high vegetable diets because people couldn't afford meat...at least they could scrape together enough to buy coal oil. Mama put her guitar down, and looked through the frosted window at the house down the road, and then looked back at the little red cedar Christmas tree in the corner with its homemade decorations. And then the boys mama shook her head a mite, and came to a decison. "Jack, go get a gallon jar and pour it full of coal oil. John, take this paper sack, and fill it up with some of them hickory nuts your daddy's got in that tote-sack on the backporch." "Y'all pack that on over to the neighbor's down the road, and tell 'em, Merry Christmas." Well, you didn't back talk mama, so the boys got up and did as they were told. It was dark, but the moon was shining enough to make walking easy enough. Two country boys walking down a dark dirt road, one carrying a jug of coal oil, one carrying a papersack full of hickory nuts. They placed both items on the front porch, and hollered "Merry Christmas!". An old woman opened the squeeky front door, and stepped from the dark house onto the porch. She looked at the two objects on the porch, and at the two boys still standing in the dirt road. "Merry Christmas, boys, and thank you. Thank you much!" And she turned and walked back into the house, carrying her unusual presents. As the boys walked back to their own little house, John turned back around and stared at the house from where they'd just left. He punched Jack, and told him to turn around...a new light was a shinin' in the window, and the old house was dark no more. For some reason, things just seemed better. It was several years before John really understood what happened that night. Mama hadn't just sent them down there with a bag of hickory nuts and a jug of coal oil, she'd sent them down there with a bit of food and a light. If you've got food, if you've got light, you've got hope. If somebody cares, you've got hope. Sometimes hope is all we've got to give. What happened to the boys? Well...Jack was killed in an accident not too many years past that Christmas night. John had a hard time getting past that, but eventually became a pretty decent singer and may have written a few songs you might recognize. He did well enough you can see John's plaque in the Country Music Hall of Fame. Of course, only the family called him "John". Most of the world knows John R. Cash as Johnny. He had many low points and high points in his life at Christmas, but the one he said he'd never forget, was as a little boy he walked down an old, dark, dirt road, packing a sack of hickory nuts. And it made him feel good... |
| The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros | |
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| Mikhailoh | Dec 23 2006, 03:02 PM Post #2 |
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
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Great story, Jolly. Thanks. I always like to see things like this when I hear of the younger set complaining of tough times due to student debt and a lower standard of living. Pshaw. |
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Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball | |
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| Jolly | Dec 23 2006, 04:37 PM Post #3 |
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Geaux Tigers!
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The story is true, most good ones are. Cash wrote a song about the experience, and it was on one of his albums long ago... |
| The main obstacle to a stable and just world order is the United States.- George Soros | |
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| JBryan | Dec 23 2006, 05:27 PM Post #4 |
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I am the grey one
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That just made it Christmas for me. |
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"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it". Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody. Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore. From The Lion in Winter. | |
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| Mikhailoh | Dec 23 2006, 06:03 PM Post #5 |
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
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*snort* |
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Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball | |
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