Barefoot Memories of a Hillbilly - Prince Albert Can Road Grader

Somebody needs a belt, and someone needs a pair of tennis shoes, and someone needs a white shirt. Mom’s gonna go to the Cheap Store today to see if she can find those and maybe a few other things. The Cheap Store is on the campus of the church school, and stuff is donated to them and they resell them to earn a little money for the school. The stuff is usually decent stuff at a price that doesn't break the bank. We will babysit Pap while she's gone. She had to leave pretty early so she could get good stuff before it's all gone. Me and Brother are supposed to help Pap watch the two Baby Sisters, cause they are getting pretty good about wandering around. They are what folks call Irish twins, meaning that they are close in age.

Me and Brother are playing trucks and cars in the dirt. Brother took a Prince Albert can and used it like a road grader to build us some roads in the dirt. We don't have enough play cars, so we made some with scraps of wood Pap sawed for us. We can draw wheels and doors on them with ink pens. You can use the ink pins if you remember to put them back where you got them. Brother taught me how to build cars using sticks and apples too. You can put an apple on both ends of a stick for wheels, and keep adding little green apples and sticks till you got it built.

We gave the Baby Sisters wood pieces with wheels drawn on, and they can drive in the dirt too, but Brother made them different roads, cause they keep sitting in the roads and messing the farms up, so he gave them some roads they could sit on and drive thru too. Pap is fixing us some dinner, he can cook sort of. He knows how to bake cornbread and open the pork and bean can. He also can fry taters really well. He told us we will eat when the bread is done. I told him he needs to change the babies' diddies, cause I think they maybe need that before we eat. He knows how to change the babies, he says he's had a lot of practice. I remind him turn the pins away from the babies like Mom says so he don't gouge them and make them cry. Babies can cry really loud, and when one baby cries, the other baby gets sad and cries too. That's a lot of sound to listen to.

Finally, all the babies are dry, me and Brother washed our hands, and nobody had to remind us to do it. We even got most of the dirt off. Pap said we'd do, so we ate. Pap's cornbread doesn't taste like Mom's; his tastes more like cake, but we eat our dinner, cause Mom said we had to mind. The Baby Sisters are getting fussy, Pap said he'd put them down to nap in a bit. Brother and me will go back and play cars some more. When we get outside, we see Mom walking over the hill. She is carrying her package. We told Pap we're gonna go meet her. We walked thru the field and Brother carried her bundle back to the house. She asks if we was good. I tell her yep, but Pap had to change the baby diddies and they were getting fussy. She says she will put them down for their naps and then eat her some dinner. Then she will show me what she bought.

I will enjoy seeing what she got. In a big family, even if you didn't get anything it's always exciting to see other peoples new stuff. Maybe, just maybe she got me and Brother something too. Brother would like a new belt, and I would like a new outfit to play in. Maybe she found us some play shoes so we don't bang our toes on the rocks.

I wear shoes now, but sometimes I have barefoot memories.