Before I ever went to Elkhart

Before I ever went to Elkhart.... Before I knew there was anything outside of McCreary County Kentucky.. I lived in small trailer situated directly behind my grandparents trailer on Slaughter House Road. I lived there with my parents, a younger brother and a younger sister. My mother was not yet twenty and my father wasn't much older. My brother was born with a rare genetic disorder affecting his large intestine and spent the first year of his life in the hospital. My mother spent most of her time at his side and my father worked nights in the coal mines so I suppose that accounts for the lack of memories of them together. I do have very few but distinct memories of this time in my life. I can remember crouching in freshly worked soil eating green onion tops. I remember low flying fighter jets rattling the windows and scaring the animals. I remember watching my father shave and trying it myself later. I remember holding my baby sister and I remember that she was gone one day and mother was never the same and I can't remember my father leaving I just remember he wasn't there.

I remember Grandpa retired from the coal mines while Grandma stayed on at the slaughter. I'd walk down there with Grandpa and we'd eat the cracklins that were cooking on the cast iron stove. With my father gone and my mother going through so much I spent a lot of time with Grandpa. Its strange how when you are young like that you think that what is will always be.

Several of my uncles had gone north in search of work and so my mother went too. I can only imagine how much she needed to change her environment. I remember walking barefoot in the dew covered grass to touch the side of a Uhaul truck hidden in the fog. It was dark when we left and I remember feeling very small as we passed all of those towns that weren’t home.

When we got to Elkhart we stayed with my aunt and uncle in a small white house at the end of Dotson street, on the corner of Bristol. I played with cars and trucks in the phone company parking lot across the street. And there was a little boy on the other side of Bristol that would play ball with me when no cars were coming. He would stand in his yard and I would stand in mine. We would wait for traffic to clear and throw the ball. We never talked, I didn't even know his name but if he saw me outside he would just hold up the ball to see if I wanted to play. I remember the sheer panic and mad scramble to find fifty cents when I heard the distant sound of an ice cream truck and running outside and trying to figure out which direction the sound was coming from. In the fall my brother and I attended Beardsley and walking to school was the greatest thing I had ever done. For the first few days I insisted I had to leave my room and check on my little brother who was of course doing just fine. It was a strange new place but we had adjusted well. The following winter was something unlike anything I had ever seen. The snow covered windows and doors. My uncle shoveled forever just to clear a path in the driveway. Mother wrapped us up in extra clothes and garbage bags to let us play outside. We dug tunnels in the snow and our uncle tossed us into it. It was the most incredible thing I had ever seen.