UNCLE CHARLIE: POST #28

One of the people that I loved and respected at Herman Junction was my Dad's older brother, Charlie Knight. He and Aunt Agnes were great people and I loved it when we visited them or they visited us. They had four children: Vera, Billie Jean, Leonard, and Helen. Helen passed away many years ago.

There was a time when Uncle Charlie and Aunt Agnes lived out close to the Gum Slough ditch near the old swimming hole that we called, "The Forks". I have spent many hours in that place and cannot imagine now how I brought myself to do it. I am so afraid of snakes that nowadays I don't want to walk through a puddle of water in the street for fear of a snake being in it. That swimming hole was full of kids a lot of the time in those days. It was also used as a bapistry quite a bit and maybe that's why the Lord kept the snakes away.

I went with Uncle Charlie one time to Jonesboro to trade trucks. I asked him what kind of truck he wanted. I will never forget his answer: "I will not have a Dodge and I don't want a red truck!" You know what happened before I tell you. We came home in a Dodge truck that was red with a black top and to my knowledge he never drove another truck except a Dodge. He was always full of fun, like calling me 'Teddy Martin, goin' down the road and kickin' and a.....laughing'. Yeah, laughing. He worked in the stock yards in St. Louis for many years and finally came back and settled in Bay. I have a billy club that he used to nudge the cattle around and I don't have a clue why he gave it to me. I carry it in van but have never had the ocassion to whop anyone on the head with it.

Dad had three brothers and one sister and I loved them all. One time Linda and Larry, my sister and brother-in-law took Dad and Mom to Hot Springs to visit Uncle Everett and Aunt Clara. When it got dinner time they decided to go to the world famous "McLard's Bar-B-Que" place and get food to take home. When Linda and Larry got in the place they looked around and Dad and Uncle Everett were not behind them. They waited a few minutes and out of the KITCHEN came those two brothers, dressed up in overalls, and acting they were one of the McClard's! They each had a $100 bill, probably the only one that either one of them ever had, and were fussing about who was going to buy the dinner. The whole restaurant full of people stopped eating and watched the show until they got what they wanted and left. Dad's sister Evelyn Church was one of the finest human beings to ever live and had TEN kids! Uncle Louis and Aunt Ruby live at Elm Grove and they had Kathryn, Wanda, Tom, Pat, Shelby, Zelna Rose, and Sharon. I don't remember all the names of Uncle Everett and Aunt Clara's kids and regret that I never got to know them very well. They all lived at Hot Springs I think, except Jim.

It was people like them that made Herman Junction such a swell place to live.