|
The Brown family were neighbors of ours when
we kids were growing up in Southern WV. They had more than we did, daddy
being a coal miner and the dad of the Brown family was a sickly sort of
man and had some kind of disability check coming in every month so they
were the first to have a TV in our community. All the kids would gather at their house on Sat. night and watch the
wrestling matches. We loved going to the Brown's house.
Mr. Brown was a sweet man that loved kids
but he always seemed to be preoccupied and sort of sad. We never
understood why at the time. We seldom saw Mrs. Brown. The kids
always told us we could come and watch TV with them but we'd have to be
quiet and not disturb their mom. Seems she was always in the bed
room with a bad headache. I felt so sorry for her. Maybe
that's why Mr. Brown always had that sad look about him.
Like our family, they had a lot of
kids. There was the oldest, a daughter named Samantha, the age of my
older sister. Then her brother David who was my age and in the same class
with me, he was a little nerdy and had a crush on me but I didn't want much to do with
him. I knew he was a good kid but how would it look? You just
didn't pal around with a boy that wore his pants 4 inches above his
waist line. Then there was Gloria and
Nellie, Kenny and Tommy, all younger than the rest. Sweet,
pretty little kids but with not much teaching at home. Their mom
always in the bed room in the dark with a headache and Mr. Brown trying
his best to keep them clean and fed and in school. It was a hard for
him, being sick himself but we all loved him.
The
sweetest and cutest of all was little Darlene, we all called her Little Doll. And
she was a doll. She seemed to have a love in her heart like no other
child I'd ever seen. Those laughing blue eyes were a sight to
behold. She was only two years old and when I'd go in the house,
she's start reaching for me and I'd hold her in my lap the whole time I
was there. She would laugh and pat my face. She must of sensed
the love I felt for her and maybe she didn't have that love from her
mother like she needed at such a young age. How could she with her
mother always in that dark bed room with a bad headache. Her older
sisters just did as they pleased and baby sitting wasn't one of the things
they pleased. So when I'd pay attention to her, she would cling to me.
Our
family always went to the little white church by the side of the
road. It was just an unspoken rule at our house, on Sunday mornings
we had to all get up and get cleaned up and dressed in our Sunday best,
which wasn't really very nice, but all we had. We'd wait for the old church
bus to come rattling down the road to pick us up and take us to church.
What a sight for that bus driver. All the Cline kids in a line
waiting to get on that old bus. He'd smile and say howdy to each of
us. Usually we got on the youngest first so the older ones could
lift up the little ones. First we'd hear, "Well howdy
little Annie" as my brother Tom lifted her up to the bus. Then
so on and on until each of us had heard a Howdy from our driver
Harvey. He was a deacon at the church and loved his bus ministry. He
treated us all like we were his own kids. Kept us safe and told us
little bible stories on the way, or sometimes we'd just sing, anything to
keep us all in line so he could safely drive us all to church then back
home. By the time he had made his rounds, that old bus was bustin' at the
seams with kids. Often Harvey would
ask us why the Brown kids didn't come with us. We'd asked over and
over again but they just wouldn't come and Mr. Brown was just so tired out
all the time he probably didn't feel up to getting them all ready and of
course Mrs. Brown was never feeling well. I'd never seen anyone else
that had a headache all the time. But as the old church bus
would drive away, we could always see little Doll in the yard
waving. Sometime I could swear there was a tear in her little
eyes. I just knew she wanted to go. I would tell her stories
I'd learned in Sunday School about Jesus and her eyes would light up as
she listened. She came to love this man named Jesus but that name
was never mentioned in her family, only when I'd be playing with Doll and
her mother or dad wasn't listening and I would tell her how much Jesus
loved her and would always protect her. I taught her to sing, Oh How
I Love Jesus, and when she sang it, you could just tell she knew
what she was singing about. She called me Aunt Callie and loved me
with all her little heart. Oh how I loved being around that sweet
little Doll.
|
