The Life of Me: An AutobiographyJohnson, Clarence Edgar
History
The Life of Me: An Autobiography
Johnson, Clarence Edgar
Fisher County (Tex.) -- Biography; Fisher County (Tex.) -- History; Johnson family; Johnson, Clarence Edgar, 1906-1994
I was in the front seat with Papa and some of the other kids. I
was probably in Papa's lap, I don't remember. Mama was in the
back seat with some of the others. In fact, Mama always rode in
the back seat. There is no picture in my memory of Mama ever
riding in the front seat of our hack. I don't really know why
she chose the back seat. Fact is, it never occurred to me until
now that she may not have chosen the back seat; she may not have
had a choice. While she was with us, it never entered my mind to
ask her why. But now as I ponder these things, I wish I had. If
she were sitting here in the room with me now, I would stop
writing long enough to look up and ask, "Mama, why did you always
sit in the back seat of our hack?"
And I haven't the slightest doubt that she would answer, "Why,
Willie and you children always rode in the front seat. There
wasn't room for me."
Anyway, I was less than five years old, probably less than four.
And I don't remember what else Mama was doing, but I'll bet a
dollar she was holding Albert in her lap. And I'll bet another
dollar I can guess what Albert was doing. Since baby bottles
were almost unheard of in those days, and were not needed in our
family, he was probably getting his milk from some other source,
as mother nature meant for him to.
Be that as it may, Old Keno was eating at the feed stack and he
seemed to be much happier than Papa was to see him there. I
don't remember what Papa said, if anything, but I do remember
that Mama expressed her disapproval of Old Keno's bad manners by
calling him a scoundrel. That was the name Mama gave to
troublesome animals and mean people.
There was plenty of work to be done on the farm, and we kids
learned to work early in life. Joel was just 16 months older
than I was, and one spring, when he was too young to go to
school, Papa had him planting in the field with a two-row
planter. In the afternoons, when Earl got home from school, he
would relieve Joel, so Joel could go home and play the rest of
the day.
Then one day Joel got a foot hurt and couldn't run the planter.
So I had to take his place on the planter for a few days.
Planting had to go on. I don't remember how old I was at that
time. I do know for sure I was planting at the Flint place. And
we moved from that place in January--the same January in which I
became five years old. So, I must have been planting when I was
a little over four years old or when I was just past three, I'm
not sure which. I am sure, however, I was older than two,
because, when I was only two, Earl was too young to go to school.
If it were not for skeptics, I could go ahead with my memoirs.
But I feel I should detour here and explain a thing or two, or
some folks will think I am lying. One man has already questioned
my story about the two-row planter. He thought they hadn't made
a two-row planter as early as 1910. This one happened to be a
special type planter. I have never seen but two of them in my
lifetime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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