Page 15 - Been There… Done That!

Been There... Done That!
We cooked everything using a wood stove that sat in the middle of the house. It was also the only means of heating a home that knew nothing of the concept of insulation. The problem with that stove was finding the right place to be because I would scorch on one side and freeze my ass on the other. During times it was freezing those stoves had a place to put an iron that Grandma would run over the bed before I got in to warm it up for me. The featherbeds we had kept me nice and warm until I had to get out and make the five-yard dash to the stove.
It was only later that I realized how poor we were. The only thing I ever resented was wearing patched clothing, but that was what we had to do. When the knees went out, Grandmother sewed a patch on and that was what we wore to school. Other kids would make fun of us, saying things like, “Oh, you live on Bear Creek.” Experiences like that in life made me truly appreciative of the things I have, but it would be hard to imagine passing the 75 years of my life in those conditions. But while our situation may not have been ideal, what I received regarding love and trust between us as a family was very positive. We were very tight and basically anyone who screwed with one of us, screwed with all of us. We really didn’t have anything but us. At the time being poor really didn’t make a difference in my life. The thing that did make a difference was getting a taste of the other side of life. When that happened, I knew for sure I was never going back.
One story of my childhood that stands out is an exciting encounter one night between me, my uncle Leon and a Jersey bull named Silver Joe that grazed on land owned by a gentleman we
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