Page 80 - Reason To Sing by Kelita Haverland
P. 80
Reason To Sing
After coming home from his first year of university in
Montana, Jimmy kept receiving letters addressed to “Hoss”.
My mother found it strange at first until the large white Stetson
and cowboy boots suddenly made perfect sense. Hoss. From
the TV show Bonanza. Yup, that was Jimmy, pretending to be
just like the TV star. University? Short lived. Never passed a
course. Partied his face off. Shortly after, he signed up for the
military and was soon creating his next persona - the man in
uniform.
One time, after being away in the Army, Jimmy snuck into
the house while everyone was out except Vian and me. We
were just turning out the lights (still afraid of the dark) when
Jimmy jumped into our room and scared us half to death. We
had not heard him coming at all and there he was, looking all
dignified in his fancy military uniform. We were freaking out!
I swear I just about peed my pajamas. Oh, that guy! He didn’t
give us any time to calm down at all. He just grabbed us and
started hugging and kissing us like he hadn’t seen us in years.
He was so happy and kept telling us how much he’d missed us.
I don’t ever remember anyone in our family greeting us quite
like that. But that was Jimmy. He always had a way of making
you feel special.
Vian and I were often left without parental supervision and
Jimmy was our favourite babysitter. I’ll never forget the time
he put green food colouring in the creamed corn. Served it to
us like nothing was unusual. Fried potatoes and burnt bologna
with Ketchup and a side of green creamed corn. When Jimmy
was in charge, he made everything fun.
He was also our protector. Frankie and Billy? They were
just mean. Mean bullies. When we were very young those two
would trap us in the dungeon and gross us out with their old
crusty socks. They’d shove them right in our faces until we
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