It's amazing sometimes, how a very little thing can stick in the memory of a little boy, and that's the way it was this time, just a simple little statement made by an older brother one morning—a couple of mornings after we had buried Grandpa. Four of us boys slept in the west room of our home, the room usually referred to as "the boys room." We boys were getting out of bed and getting dressed when Frank said, "Well, Grandpa's in heaven by now." That was all he said. That was enough. After that, an air of reverence filled the room. And as we finished dressing, we left the room one by one, in complete silence. Frank had no way of knowing how much I honored and respected him for that little statement and the thought that went with it. I was too young and timid to know how to tell him.
That's about all of my childhood memories concerning the Gaddies. In later years I had a desire to learn more about my mother's people. But as I began digging into census records, I soon found that Grandma Gaddie had a first cousin by the name of Jesse James- -yes, that's right—"The" Jesse James. So my desire suddenly changed to fear and I gave up digging into records.
CHAPTER 2
EARLY CHILDHOOD AT THE FLINT FARM
The first farm we owned, the one where I was born, is still spoken of as the Flint place, because we sold it to a family named Flint. So at times I may refer back to it as the Flint place.
Since I was only five when we moved away from the Flint place, I remember only a few things which took place while we lived there.
I remember we had old hens that laid eggs for us to go gather up and take to the house in a bucket. Sometimes the bucket would get so heavy I couldn't carry it. And sometimes we had to get eggs out from under old setting hens that wouldn't get off their nests. They would peck me to keep me away. I was too little to get those eggs. Mama or some of the bigger kids would have to get them.
But if the old setting hen was off the nest, I knew which eggs to get and which ones to leave in the nest. The ones she was setting on to hatch out little chickens were marked all over with a lead pencil. The ones that didn't have marks on them were fresh eggs that had been laid that day.
Some city folks are confused at times about some of the words we farmers use. For instance, take the words sitting and setting. The truth is, if an old hen is on an egg that she has just laid, and if she is planning to go away in a minute or two, she is just sitting on the egg. But if she is on the egg or eggs with the intention of hatching out little chickens, then she is not sitting, she is setting.
Even some people who are supposed to be smart don't know farm words. In college English, the teacher had us making sentences using certain double words like, "Look up a word in the dictionary." And "Hand over your gun."