(Joseph Macrae, August 25, 2021)
Not In the History Books
(but they should be)
1. Miss Essie Heals the Feud
Miss Essie was mean as a messy drunk
personality like a copper head snake,
the matriarch of the Sumners clan in Appalachia.
Uneducated, self righteous, thieving mountain folk.
Always tryin’ to start trouble with me and mine.
92 & hard as nails,
in her broad brim straw hat
and floppy loose clothes
she looked just like a scarecrow.
Tried to run me off the mountain she did.
Mean as the hills was Miss Essie.
Put a hit on me.
"Now don't come home", she told boy Daryl
“till you've blown him off the mountain",
They were kinda scared of me though, they knew I could shoot good.
One fine night she hiked herself up on the hood of my car,
In her nineties she was. Didn't have any hips.
On this fine night she twanged,
“Y'all drink a beer with me Jo, I got something to tell youins.
We can’t be fuedin’ no more cause weze kin folk.
You and Daryl is re-lat-ed.”
The trouble ended right here.
Who would have guessed the
peacemaker, lurking there.
No more need to pray.
No more fuedin still, come what may.
Now we call on Miss Essie when peace looks to flee.
Old timers that you won’t find in the history books but they should be,
Capture the colours that might get washed out by the rain, carry them on again.
2. Good Golly Miss Molly
Learned when you’re young, you like to make fun of eccentric people.
But when you get to my age you understand.
As a girl she had long brown hair down to her waist.
In a Halloween photo she was cute, it softened me to her.
Big fur coat, bright red hair, loner, paranoid, frugal – burned 25 watt light bulbs.
She had money but you’d never know by her clothes.
Oregon her home,
An ordeal to leave the house,
“What if there’s a nuclear explosion,
We have to leave prepared.”
Took so long getting ready to see
Baby elephant at the zoo – pakky,
by the time they got there it was closed
Now, I know people making fun of me
For eccentricities in my age.
But it don’t bother me – it did – working on boats with younger kids at 70,
I got teased some,
Sometimes I had to grab some of em by the shirt and shake em a little.
But Molly, I’d give her a hug.
Old timers that you won’t find in the history books but they should be,
Capture the colours that might get washed out by the rain, carry them on again.
3. Chris, LC and Moments Seized
Chris was something else,
You should watch him drink a beer.
I’ve never seen somebody enjoy something so much as he did.
South Carolina,
Elderly black man 100 years old.
My work partner LC came up to me and said,
“Shall we go and get some sweet butter?”
A southern expression
For unsalted butter.
Milked cows and made butter,
Chris is 100.
He’s still farming
And he makes butter.
We drove up his driveway
Chris was runnin a tractor.
LC said, “You’re limpin Chris
You hurt your leg?”
“Nah, I reckon I’m getting old.”
“How old are you?”
“Mrs is younger, around 78.
I reckon I’m about…”
And he turned around,
Never did get around to saying it
“You got any sweet butter?”
“Yeah yeah! How much you want?”
We sat round the kitchen table,
“LC, will you drink a beer with us?”
Chris looks at that beer, puts both hands around that can,
He rolls his eyes up and say oooooo
He pops it and it goes shhhhh
He looks up and goes ooooooo
He lifts up the can slowly
Takes a drink
Leans back in his chair and says
Ahhhhhhh
His eyes were big,
LC was getting a kick out of this.
He said “Miss Ellie gon come back
And catch you drinkin’, she gon whoop your butt.”
“Nah, I wears the pants in this family.”
LC was not one to hug.
If you tried, he’d try and punch you.
Well, at 40 he was almost gone,
I went back to see him, I walked in.
And he jumped up, believe it or not,
And threw his arms around me.
And he said “Jo you are the last person I expected to see.”
We sat and talked for an hour or two
Until he was about ready to give out.
The echoes won’t give out though, so seize the moment as they say.
Old timers that you won’t find in the history books but they should be,
Capture the colours that might get washed out by the rain, carry them on again.
