Life was hard then. Winters came just after Halloween and stayed until almost Easter. Summertime there was more work than ten men could do, but winters were filled with nothing but empty hours. The men could get away to the woodshed where they kept their whiskey, but a woman was just plain stuck. Nothing to eat but root vegetables and salt meat, children always on your nerves.

It’s no wonder she went crazy, you ask me. They came and locked her up in the county farm for the rest of her life.  After the funerals, they tore the house down.

 

 

As deserve all such who dare flaunt their personal evils in the sight of God, this Woman was brought before us to give account for herself. The charge is Witchcraft, and other Consortations with Devils and Sprits Most Foul. This Woman has been thrice witnessed by Neighbours of the Community thus engaging in these Acts with no Regard for Propriety or Decency, bringing to all of us in Selim Township the Danger of Divine Retribution. It is the Demand of this Court, then,  to administer to the Woman a just Punishment that will Please God and set an Example both.

 

Them TVA men did their best, I will grant them that, but old Cranks wasn’t having none of it. He chased them off with a scatter gun, and I don’t mean just pointed it neither. Word was one of them had to see a doctor in Charles City to get the pellets  plucked from his hindquarters with a tweezer. See, Cranks was doing just fine without any ‘lectricity power. He had his stove and his still. Down at the general store,  Hall would trade him cornmeal, coffee, and bacon for mason jars of his whisky.

Lectricity was just a bother.

 

I get them cats locked in a room. Some people think it’s hard to tell males from females, but you do something long enough you get good at it.

I try for one female and three males, all toms. There’s a window so I can watch em go at it. That part used to make me feel sort of warm, but it don’t do nothing for me now. The next part’s my second favorite, taking care of the pregnant female. Bringing her milk and meat.

The best part comes after. The kittens. The pond. I never get tired of it.