Chiggers and Honeysuckle: Growin’ up in the Arkansas Delta During the Great Depression

By Janie Wilson Spence

"The Brackets, like many other families in the Arkansas Delta, faced hard times during the Great Depression. Their three youngest children, however, knew how to turn every day into a new adventure! Young Henry Brackets mischief will stir memories in all readers who struggled through one of the most talked about times of our American History. Lottie, the youngest, and Leah, the oldest of the three, kept Henry in line as their adventures carried them from a cotton patch in Lee County, Arkansas to the Peabody Hotel and back! Yes, if you are a true Southerner of that era or just a listener of your grandpas tall tales, youll feel right at home in the pages of Chiggers and Honeysuckle."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 7, 2011
• ISBN: 9781469117898

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Copyright © 2011 by Janie Wilson Spence.

Library of Congress Control Number:          2011903147

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Contents

The Secret of the Corn Crib

Madeline

Trouble in the Willow Tree

Mr. Jefferson’s Great Adventure

Main Street Saturday Night

Terror in the Outhouse

A Christmas Tale

Miss Corrie’s Best Lesson

The Fuzz

A Favor for the Deacon

Spring Cleanin’

A Note From The Author…

I guess the Depression was much like a chigger. It bore a hole and sucked the blood right out of you till it could suck no more. You scratched and scratched, tryin’ to do anything you could to make things better, but in the end, you just had to wait till the ole chigger died.

The Secret of the Corn Crib

Little Lottie Bracket knew her Papa must have the biggest hogs around. She just couldn’t understand why he made them eat that awful stuff he called slop! Papa grew most of the family’s food and raised his own feed. He worked from sun up till sun down… Why, Lottie never saw Papa take a break. He was proud of his farm and his family… and he was particularly proud of his corn crib and that’s just where it all happened.

It was one of the Arkansas Delta’s hot, summer Sunday afternoons and all the family’s aunts and uncles, cousins, and even a few neighbors had appeared for their usual visit. The cousins were entertaining themselves while the grown-ups sat on the front porch and made big decisions, mostly about the crops and the weather. Grown-ups did that a lot… sittin’ and talkin’ and rockin’ and fannin’ . . . . didn’t look like much fun to Lottie.

Since toys were scarce during the depression, young people had to be creative to pass the time. It was Lottie’s eleven year old sister, Leah, who decided that they should play church. This was one of Leah’s favorite things to do since she always appointed herself to be preacher. Papa kept his barn locked, but all the children knew just the crack to crawl through to get to the hayloft. They would climb to the top of the barn and divide up into choir and congregation and of course, they would be led by Leah, the only woman preacher for miles around. Lottie figured she might even be the only woman preacher in the whole world!

Papa%20and%20His%20Hogs.jpg

Papa, circa 1957

Leah lined up her spectators there in the loft. The girls held their rag dolls and shushed them during the sermon. She placed the choir to her right and of course, SHE occupied the seat of honor, right over the corn crib. The choir sang, the ladies fanned themselves, and Leah preached on and on. That Leah could sure fire off a good sermon for an eleven year old girl! Finally, she ended her Sunday service with orders that everyone should come by and shake hands with the preacher before departing the imaginary church and heading to the big dinner on the ground, complete with mud pies right over there under Papa’s big oak tree.

Pat held her babydoll close as she made her way to the front. She smiled and shook hands with Leah, the preacher. Then came Don and Mary Jo and Billy and Fred. Henry was next in line as Leah continued to bless them all. Finally, it was Lottie’s turn to shake hands with the preacher. Lottie hated being the youngest. They always made her go last. Leah extended her hand and was just about to give her last amen, brother when Lottie stepped up to the makeshift pulpit.

Not one of the children ever forgot what happened next. A loud crack was followed by a high-pitched squeal and little Lottie disappeared instantly from the imaginary church, just as if the devil himself had reached through the floor and grabbed her!

Make believe babies were thrown wildly from the hayloft… make believe deacons ran for the ladder to see who could get out of the barn first, and the make believe preacher… well, she did what any respectable preacher would have done… she jumped through the big hole in the floor into the corn crib to save little Lottie.

It was dark in the corncrib, but there was no doubt that she had found Lottie’s limp body when she landed right straddle her back.

What