Seventeen
____________
The
Summer of ‘39
I have fond memories of the summer of 1939. We saw
our first movies. On Saturday nights in Anadarko they would show movies
outdoors in the park. We would go to town by horse and wagon sometimes instead
of usin’ our automobile… just like we used to do when all of us youngins were
little, but that took quite a spell since it was more than a stone’s throw
away; it took most of the day, in fact. We usually took along a picnic supper
and would spread a quilt out on the grass and lay back to watch the movie. My
memories are of Rin-Tin-Tin movies, although I’m sure there were many others.
We dreamt of seeing The Wizard of Oz when it started showing at the movies at
the end of that summer, but it didn’t show anywhere nearby for us to go and see
it. We heard it was showin’ somewhere up in Wisconsin, but that was much too
far for us to go, of course.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The morning brought with it an unusual covering
of fog thicker than the area had experienced in years. One could barely see
their hand in front of their eyes, but by 10:00 am most of it had dissipated,
leaving only a hazy mist.
“Anyone seen Lucky?” Hilda Charlton asked her
children at breakfast. “Ain’t heard hide nor hair—”
“Lucky!” Rae Ann jumped up and ran to open the
door calling her pet’s name loudly.
The other three Charlton siblings soon joined
Rae Ann outside to search.
“I should have waited until after breakfast was
finished,” lamented Mrs. Charlton.
Mr. Charlton confirmed his wife’s lament, “I
told you. When a youngin loses a pet… well, there just ain’t nothin’ like that
feelin’ of emptiness.”
“Lucky ain’t lost for sure,” Hilda replied, “her
name is Lucky, after all.”
John Charlton rose and stood in the door and
hailed his children, “Get a move on, we got some chores to finish up if we be
goin’ to the movies later.”
“But, we got to find Lucky, Pa,” Mary pleaded,
“Please?”
“Ok, I guess we have plenty of time.”
“Thanks, Pa.” Rae Ann shouted as she entered the
barn.
Richard and Mary continued searching around the
outside of the barn, henhouse, and outer areas while Teddy joined Rae Ann
inside of the barn.
“Ya think she could have got up in the loft?”
Teddy asked.
“Naw… how? Maybe?” Rae Ann replied.
Teddy went toward the ladder to climb up and
search through the hay in the loft, but Rae Ann raced ahead of him and
scampered up the ladder faster than a squirrel scampers up a tree trunk.
“You want me to come up?” Teddy inquired.
“Not yet, I think I heard somethin’.”
“What?” Teddy yelled back.
“Quit hollerin’, Teddy, let’s be quiet for a
moment.”
The two remained silent for what felt
like ages. Rae Ann thought she heard a sound in the far corner of the barn’s
loft, so she quietly made her way over toward the corner.
“I hear you movin’ up there, sis. Everythin’
ok?”
There was no response so Teddy chose to remain
silent.
Kneeling down in the deep hay, Rae Ann began to
dig. The smell of fresh cut hay permeated the loft, it was a smell that Rae Ann
loved.
Teddy decided to shout his question one more
time. This time Rae Ann hollered back that he should join her. He quickly
climbed the ladder and crawled over to where his sister was digging.
Whimpers resounded from under the hay as the two
siblings removed the final straws to reveal their little pet, tangled up in
baler twine.
“How’d you get up here and all caught up like
this?” Rae Ann asked her pet.
“Ya don’t think she got baled up and all, do
ya?” questioned Teddy.
“I don’t know. I don’t see how.”
Teddy continued, “Then got spread all out with
the rest of this hay up here?”
“Could be, but….”
Rae Ann removed the tangles using Teddy’s knife
to cut the parts of the twine she had difficulty with. “There you go, Lucky.”
Lucky started to lick all over Rae Ann’s face
and wag her tail vigorously.
“Lucky!” Rae Ann laughed.
Teddy returned his knife to his pocket and
asked, “You want me to carry her down, or—”
“No, I’ll do it,” Rae Ann insisted. “You go and
tell Richard and Mary we found her.”
“Ok.”
Once her brother was down the ladder Rae Ann
tucked Lucky under one arm and proceeded to climb, rung after run, down the old
wooden ladder that creaked with every step. Lucky was still a small dog, but
Rae Ann found it quite a challenge to get her pet down the ladder as easily as
she had imagined it would be.
“Hey, girl,” Richard greeted their dog as he
entered the barn and ran up where his sister now stood.
Lucky spent the next few minutes licking
Richard’s face. The same warm greeting awaited the others as they took turns
carrying Lucky back to the house.
Rae Ann surmised, “She must be a very hungry
little lady after that ordeal,”
“I can fill her food bowl and get her some fresh
water,” Mary offered.
“Ok,” Rae Ann said happily.
“Well, well,” Mr. Charlton said as he entered
the kitchen where his four children were assembled treating the family dog like
the Queen of Sheba.
“Rae Ann found her, Pa,” Teddy proclaimed with
great excitement, “up in the barn loft… all caught up in baler twine and under
a bunch of hay.”
“She looks ok now,” Mr. Charlton observed. “None
the worse for wear.”
“She really is Lucky, Pa.”
“She sure is, Rae Ann.”
Once the family completed the day’s chores, they
loaded the car with blankets, a couple of milking stools tied to the top, and a
picnic basket with enough fixins to feed an army, then it was off to Anadarko
for the movie show in the park.
The drive took longer than expected. Mary felt
slightly sick and the family made a few stops along the way. Once they reached
the park and the movie began, Mary was feeling fine.
“Must have been the travelin’ sickness,” Mrs.
Charlton concluded.
“I’m fine now, Ma,” Mary responded.
A large crowd turned out. The Charlton family
enjoyed seeing many of the people they knew only from coming to see the moving
pictures in this park.
“Run, run,” Rae Ann forgot herself and shouted
to the dog in the movie.
“Where’s the water jug?” Richard inquired.
“I got it, here,” Teddy passed the jug to his
brother who took a large drink.
“It’s really warm tonight,” Richard commented.
Teddy agreed, “And humid.”
“What’s humid?” Richard asked.
“Shhh…,” Rae Ann hushed her brothers.
“You boys hold it down,” their father commanded.
The boys replied quickly, “Ok, Pa.”
The ride home after the movie provided time for
the children to sleep, except Rae Ann who stared out of the window into the
night sky gazing at the stars. While her parents conversed in the front seat,
she dreamt of the future and the days when she would grow up and have a family
of her own. Eventually, she also drifted off into sleep.
“Looks like all the youngins are sleepin’,”
Hilda informed her husband.
“Good, they need the rest.”
I got a letter from Gertie the other day,” Mrs.
Charlton announced.
“Oh, yeah,” Mr. Charlton replied, “what about?”
Hilda looked out of her window at the dark sky
full of summer stars before replying, “Her and Elvin are still hopin’ we might
consider movin’ out California way someday. She said it’s real pretty out
there.”
Expecting nothing positive in response from her
husband, Hilda was surprised to hear, “California, imagine that. Somethin’ to
ponder I guess.”
Hilda reached down to scratch her ankle, and
then said, “We’ll see. It takes a lot to make a new start in a whole new
place.”
“That it does,” John replied. “One has to plan a
bit on how to go about such a thing as that, movin’ and all.”
Hilda confirmed her feelings, “I like it just
fine here in Oklahoma. In fact, I just love it. I only wish times were better.”
Her husband agreed.
“And to root up the youngins, losin’ their friends
and all, I just don’t know.”
“If times continue on the downhill roadway as
they have been, losin’ friends will be the least of their problems.”
Hilda turned to stare into the starry sky and
contemplate life as it was when rain fell in abundance and cotton, corn, and
other crops sold for a good price.
A shooting star crossed the horizon as
gracefully as a swan crosses a pond.
“You see that, dear?” Hilda asked John.
“Yep, mighty peaceful lookin’. I just can’t
imagine how peaceful it is out in space. Must be pert near the best example I
can think of on havin’ the peace of God in one’s heart and soul. That feelin’
of restful solitude so deep, so wonderful.”
Hilda smiled at her husband and then turned to stare back into the
heavens.
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