Things are NOT Falling Apart, They are Falling Into Place!

This trip to Louisiana turned out to be one of the most eventful of my life with many firsts and some lasts.  It was the first time that I had ridden on a bus.  Mother and I went through Memphis, Tennessee and then on to West Monroe.  In the Memphis bus station, Mother bought me a gold horse figurine.

I was knocked unconscious twice on this trip and picked up by the police three times.  Since that trip, I have been able to remain conscious and on the right side of the law.  As it turned out, I was to get in more trouble in the next month than I have been in in the entirety of my life since. 

My brother-in-law Bill picked us up in the wee hours of the morning at the bus station and took us to the duplex where they lived.  When we woke up the next morning, I ventured out into the front yard to check everything out in the daylight.  When I walked back in the front door, sitting at the kitchen counter in her bathrobe was a woman that I had never seen before.  I wondered what she was doing in my sister’s kitchen.

We did not have duplex farms in Alabama.  Therefore, I was completely unaware that two different families could live in the same house and have two different front doors.  The strange women politely steered me next door.

As it turned out, my sister lived in an exciting little spot in the world.  Just behind her duplex was a large grassy area ideal for ball games, playing chase, etc.  To the left of the grassy area was a large playground with lots of equipment.  Right in the middle of the playground was a large slide with a couple of humps on the way down.

Across the grassy area was a row of apartments of at least two stories, maybe more.  There were staircases going up the outside of the buildings leading to the apartments on the upper floors.

In one of these upstairs apartments lived the meanest boy that God ever growed.  He was a friend of my nephew Danny and he took an immediate dislike to the intruder from Alabama.

On the other side of the apartments was a highway with several lanes filled with cars zooming by at great speeds.  On the other side of the highway was a large bayou filled with snakes, gators and all kinds of fun stuff.

Peggy’s next-door neighbor loved that bayou and the things in it.  In his garage were several televisions with all the innards torn out, leaving just the case, the screen and the back.  In these televisions were the spoils from his nightly excursions to the bayou.  In other words, his garage was full of snakes.

This information almost caused my mother to tell Peggy that she was on her own as far as this baby business was concerned.  The neighbor had these long broomsticks with a noose fashioned at the end that he used to snare these creatures.  He also captured rats to feed to the snakes.

While we were there, there was a rumor that one of the snakes had escaped.  But before we could get a ride to the bus station, the snake was captured.