The family home I’m now living in used to have a white, 6-foot-high picket fence behind the backyard to enclose the chicken yard and trash-burning pile.
I was drawn to the trash burning as if it were a city ice cream truck. I’d go poke sticks and watch the turkeys gather before the burning began or afterward. I’d run in circles around the pile, deliberately taunting the turkeys to make them spread their wings in all their glory. I can still remember the smell of burning trash; it’s different than campfires.
The trash and weeds were high back there. I don’t know my grasses, but I remember the name Johnson grass being used. Whatever the name, when tall, the leaves were stout and would slice my legs along with cockleburs sticking to my clothes or hair. My favorite was what I guess was milkweed, with large drying pods curved like a stubby banana. Once broken open, the white fluffy helicopter of seedlings flew to here and beyond.
The youngest and often only child around, I was good at finding simple pleasures in rusty cans and colored bottles. Behind that white fence was a magical playground.
The other day behind my house, I found a small, unbroken bottle. It proudly sits on my dresser as a family heirloom. I have stuff that means something to me. Aside from my gallery wall of art, my kids will be able to comfortably gather trash bins and rid themselves of items quickly.
Someday, without the need to identify worth, seashells may return to the sea, bottles may return to the burn pile and maybe milkweeds will fly to celebrate. If I wore a hat, I’d put a turkey feather in the band.
Tutwiler is supposed to be getting a sandwich shop over where the Jennings have the package store.
The new clinic is looking more and more finished daily. There are big celebration plans for the clinic opening that will also be announced here.
Our Sumner Baptist Church has a new side entrance off the parking that connects the sanctuary with the fellowship hall featuring a lift chair that replaces the elevator.
Lastly, take it from me, pull out those masks you used to wear. COVID is back and going around. I’ve seen lots of nonbelievers and critics on social media. I’ve also witnessed a family member die. As this is written, Chester and I both have COVID, and his is with pneumonia. Be safe for yourself and others.
