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Motherhubbard and I decided that we would take her four children and my second daughter’s son and drive four hours to the reunion of my Dad’s family in a small Delta cotton town. We must have lost our minds, but if we hadn’t, we have now. Being in a car with 2 eight year olds isn’t the most pleasant thing to do. All in all, they are very good children, just very loud, and they never sleep, never. I don't know how they do it.
My family is a mix of somewhat urban people and small town cotton folks. My brother and several cousins work for the local John Deer dealership. Some work on farms that grow mostly cotton, feed corn, and soy beans. The rest are either drawing disability or trying to draw disability.
The land is flat, so flat you can see the curve of the earth. The highest point I know of is the levy of the St. Francis River. The flat sandy loam is what makes the farms successful. Stagnant water that has no place to flow is what grows the biggest crop of mosquitoes in the country,
We gathered open and unopened cotton boles along with some ears of feed corn, which MH will feed her remaining hens. We visited the various graveyards to see some of the family that couldn’t make it to the reunion and cleaned the headstones.
The heat was an uninvited guest. Thank goodness there was a cold front that came through Friday evening, the high was 104 with the humidity about 89 per cent. If it hadn’t cooled off as it did, it would have been unbearable.
Now, I know every family has it oddballs, but I believe mine has some that I just can’t get my head around. One is a constant smoker. Now lots of us smoke, but this one stays outside except for the 15 or so minutes it takes him to eat so that he can keep up his quota on unfiltered cigarettes rolled with copy paper he received as a gift. Since smoking has robbed his arteries of function, he is not able to stand for very long and can hardly walk. So he sits out in the heat smoking cigarettes, one after the other. He was in a wheel chair this year because he took the battery off his scooter chair to put on his van so he could make the 25 mile trip to the reunion. I know some of you will think that I have made this up and maybe I should say I have, but unfortunately this is the truth. The doctors could fix his arteries, but they tell him there is really no point if he won’t stop smoking.
One of the most unpleasant parts of the trip was learning that a cousin I used to babysit has turned 50 this year. I don’t know what my Aunt and Uncle were thinking letting someone his own age babysit!! I have to blame it on my superior maturity when we were young or on their lack of good judgment. Now that cousin swears that I’m older, but when he asked me how old I was, I answered 50 and I really consider myself an honest person so I must be.
We have family that come from as far north as Rockford, Il and from as far West as California. We all travel for hours and brave the heat to sing the stupidest song ever written. It’s a very long song that doesn’t rhyme or make any sense at all…but boy do we sing. A cousin, Jimmy, always leads the song. This year he added several dance moves that the kids really enjoyed. (the females stand up straight as the males bend their knees, then the males stand up straight and the females bend their knees) Maybe next year he’ll add breakdancing. I think my 87 year old Aunt would enjoy that.

To be continued........