With the coming month of October we think of Halloween. Now Halloween or should I say the scare factor of Halloween could be found around my home on any given day and just not on Halloween. My oldest brother was the biggest prankster I've ever known and he could scare the screech out of me anytime day or night. He loved to scare me to get my funny sounding scream and dance out of me. Whether it was in the fields or around the house or outbuildings. He could sneak up on me with the agility and quiet of an Indian scout. Perhaps the Indian in us came out in him that way. He could hide behind the smokehouse, tobacco barn, pack house, corn crib, or outhouse and when I would come around the corner he would jump out and throw his hands up and make a scarey sound and I would go into action with that funny sounding scream and dance. My feet would be moving 90 mph but I covered no ground. It was as if I was glued to the spot with feet having the action of jumping beans and a track star all rolled into one.
He could scare the daylights out of me when it was getting dark and I was washing dishes. How I kept from breaking dishes I'll never know. Well we didn't have much glass dishware as we ate out of tin plates and tin cups. The serving bowls were made of glass or heavy plastic. We did have a few glass glasses and plates for company and we weren't allowed to use them. Any way back to scary stuff. My brother would know just the right moment to strike with his next scare. I would be standing there washing dishes and looking out the window hoping I didn't drop anything into the dishpan and make Mama come in and whip me for breaking anything, when he would come around the corner of the house with a mop turned upside down and a bonnet on top of the mop strings. Sometimes he would sneak Pa's hat and use it for his scare of the day deed. He would let out a ghostly sound and say I'm coming to get you hahahaha. I would, with the grace of a new born colt, start my dance and song for his listening pleasure. Yes it was a pleasure for him I'm sure as he never failed to give me my daily dose of excitement. When I would come to my senses, no matter how many times he did it I would still react the same, he would be doubled over with laughter and I would get mad as a wet setting hen and throw some dishwater out the window at him. No, I never got him, I always missed with an accuracy unseen before. There were times when it seemed that wasn't enough and he would hide behind the kitchen door and wait for me to come to the eating table and reach up to pull the string to turn the light bulb on. When I went back to pull the string overhead to the bulb dangling over the work table, he would reach up and pull the string over the eating table. I would move and I mean move those two little feet of mine faster than any track star of the day. It was a race to get through the kitchen door to the safety of the living room. One time he almost didn't make it in time getting to safety and I slammed into the door and nearly broke his nose. He had the audacity to complain and whine about his nose. I quietly told him if he ever did that to me again he would get worse than that for his trouble. He must have believed me as he never did it after that time. But he put all his thinking into how to scare the daylights out of me in other ways.
Buddy I think of you always but will especially be thinking of you on the first anniversary of your death soon. In spite of all your night frights and schemes to scare me I still love you and would let you scare me a hundred times a day just to have you here again. I know You're in a much better place than I am and one day I will be arriving to see you, Joyce, Mama, and Daddy. On Halloween, if there is a little jokester running around here. I'll know it's you giving me a fright just for ole times sakes.
Until next time I leave you with just this....Alice