Burr Rabbit
Burr Rabbit
When I was little we didn’t have all this material stuff like kids do today. There was no computer games, Ipods and cell phones, etc. Instead of ten or twenty gifts at Christmas we always got just one each and nothing expensive at that.
Mom went out to town about once a month for sewing supplies and such. She would go to Keen’s Dime Store. They had small toys for 10 cents each. She would bring me and Shirley back just one! It would be either a set of bobby jacks, a bag of marbles or a little bitty china cupie doll that had arms and legs held on by a rubber band. We were more tickled with these toys than kids are today with everything they have. We appreciated what we got! And birthdays, just another day.
We didn’t have television. We didn’t even have electricity! All we had was a battery radio that only got two or three stations: WKIC at Hazard and The Grand Ole Opery on Saturday night and maybe Whitesburg and that was with fuzzy reception.
When WKIC decided to put Uncle Remus Tales on every evening at three, that was equivalent to having Cartoon Network!
Now, I loved Burr Rabbit! Every evening I watched the clock. At three, everything else was put on hold because I had to listen to Uncle Remus. That went just fine until Elvis came along!
Now, Shirley is almost five years older than me so when I was seven or eight and loved good stories, she was becoming a teenager. All the bigger girls at the Big Branch school loved Elvis and the Jitterbug. Opal Baker and Jewel Callahan was always singing Elvis songs and trying to do the jitterbug when we had recess. Shirley wasn’t ever great friends with them because they were always kind of uppity to everyone else but she was just as bad over Elvis.
This is when the ghost of Cain and Able raised it’s ugly head; sibling rivalry. I would turn the dial to WKIC, Shirley would turn it to Whitesburg. We would fuss and carry on like all kids do. Mom was usually back in the kitchen getting ready to cook supper and didn’t know what was going on. She never would allow us to fuss and fight if she knew about it. Shirley was the biggest tattle tale! If she couldn’t convince me to let her listen to music, she would run to Mommy. I guess mom was diplomatic and would let me listen one evening to Uncle Remus and Shirley to music the next, I don’t remember that specifically but mom was always fair. All I remember was the consequences of Shirley’s tattling; Mom went back to the kitchen, I hit Shirley in the belly with my fist and knocked the breath out of her, she cried, mom whipped me with a little keen switch and I got sent to bed.
I have always been hard headed so I never gave up. Every day that was Shirley’s, I tool a whipping before I would let her get away with it. This trait got me in trouble many times. However, not being a quitter has been a blessing to me after I got grown. It has helped me be successful in everything I have tried to do.
If you would like to read these stories or introduce them to your children here is a web site dedicated to Uncle Remus Takes: http://www.uncleremus.com/
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May 4th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
It has been a long time since I thought about the Dime Store. My first job was in one at the age of 16. My parents listened to the Grand Old Opry every Saturday night on radio. Children today have no idea what it is like to make up your own games, be outside playing all the time, and not have every toy on the market. I think we were happier with out childhood. We used to play games like Red Rover, and Jump the Stick, and Hop Scotch. Thanks for bringing back the memories of those times.
September 4th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Have you punched Shirley Gail lately lol.