Mississippi Moon

Uncle Arthur and Dad

The above picture was taken when my dad was a ten year old boy on his family's farm in Mississippi.  That's where he was born and grew up until age 15 when he left home and headed north.  He said he left because... "I didn't want to pick cotton the rest of my life."  I picked cotton half a day one time, so I can totally relate to my dad's reason for leaving and looking for greener pastures.  Picking cotton was the hardest work I've ever done.  It was cotton pickin', back breakin' work.  None of it was for me either!

This picture gives me a happy feeling, because it shows my dad as a little boy with his family and his dogs, Mattie, Mutt and Jeff, doing what boys do, hunting being one of them.  That's his older brother, Arthur beside him and his older sister, Miffie is standing on the porch holding her baby girl, Martha.  This photo brings back fond memories of visiting his family in Mississippi.

We would leave home in Indiana as soon as dad got off from work at the plant.  We'd load our clothes,snacks, pillows, and blankets into the old family Chevrolet and head south.  It was at the end of summer, extremely hot and humid and we had no air conditioning in cars back then. It was in the 1950's.  Dad liked to drive at night because it was cooler and all of us children would sleep.  Except for me.  I was the oldest of 7 children and I could never sleep.  It was too hot and too crowded in that car.  However, I'd pretend to be asleep.  I still remember the hum of the car engine, fumes burning my eyeballs because we drove with the windows down, and the whir of passing cars.  Other than that, it was dark and quiet except for the country songs playing on the radio. Dad liked country music, especially the Grand Ole Opry. He was wearing his white cowboy hat.  My dad was tan, with curly black hair and green eyes and his first name was Kelley.  That was his mother's maiden name and her family was of Irish descent.

We'd drive for hours until dad would turn right and start down a long, dirt road passing through cotton fields on both sides.  Then he'd pull the car to a stop and get out.  I peeked over the front seat to see what he was doing.  In the still darkness of the night I could see him by way of the car headlights opening a metal gate and swinging it back.  He then got back in the car and pulled it through the opening.  He got back out of the car.  I peeked out the back window and saw him shut that metal gate and walk back to the car and drive on down that country road.  It all seemed surreal.  A huge white moon hung above the white cotton fields on both sides, illuminating them in such beautiful simplicity.  It's kind of ironic that I still find cotton fields so beautiful to this day after the fact that dad left his home state because he didn't want to pick cotton. I call cotton, "southern snow".

Soon we pulled up in front of a small, country farmhouse and dad honked the horn.  I can still hear the creaking of that old screen door as it swung open and pa and ma came out to greet us with smiling faces. Soon children were wiping their sleepy eyes, laughter and warmth was spreading around like warm butter dripping off a hot biscuit as we entered that little abode and laid our tired bodies down on those huge feather beds.

I looked out through the window after everyone was asleep and again I think I was the only one awake, but I felt that peaceful feeling covering me like a warm cloak.  In the sky I saw that big, happy, Mississippi moon and a million twinkling little stars in the sky smiling and I smiled right back!