I WAS A KID, TOO.
To back up such a statement I have before me the original handwritten copy of a letter I wrote to my Grandmother in Salem, Virginia where she and my uncle had moved from South Norfolk, Va. I was nine years
old. After establishing my location in “Radford, Va” and the date: “June 18, 1925” , I greeted her and launched into a single ,two-page paragraph.
“Dear Gammy, “I wrote.
“We are all getting along all right and I hope you are to. We had a bad storm yesterday and Jr. said it hailed Mama and I were asleep all during the storm. It was a very bad storm at Christriansburg. It is still windy
in Radford today and I am feeling better. The doctor said I can sit up half an hour and last night I sat at the foot end of the bed and watched the K.K.K.’s go by because they were having a speech up at the band stand and then
they burned a cross . The doctor is making me take codliveroil because I am so weak. Sister can play with my little toy now. Jr. learned her how to play it and she runs the hammer across the iron pieces and then looks at you and
laughs. Mama gave me some cream of wheat and she gave sister a taste and she cryed until mamma gave her some more and sister had to take a bath because she was cream of wheat from head to toe. Please take a picture of
your house and send it here so I can I can see what the house looks like and how do you like Salem, Va? I hope you like it maybe we’ll be down in a week or 2 how does Dolly like the neaborhood is there many dogs up there if there is
there will be some dog fighting some time so keep Dolly in the yard I’m on the bed writing this letter now which is why the lions are so crookedy, I am trying to get them straight but I cannot.
I hope to come to see you soon. Write to me soon.
rotten pudding
Your Grandson
Andrew-L McC.”
My mother wrote four lines at the bottom of the page saying my brother would write next time. She mentioned I was better but don’t know from what. We went by “train time” in Radford in those days so she detailed which train
would take the letter to her mother who was every bit of fifty miles away from us.
Being a kid builds memories and I remember the Klu Klux Klan marching to their meetings and in every parade the town had for whatever occasion. They marched in single file on each side of the street... silently
with just the scrape of their shoes and the swish of their sheets and spooky hat-masks. My brother and I had it all figured out. We could tell who belonged to the klan at the carnival grounds after the parade having memorized their
shoes, socks and the cuffs on some trousers - narrow or wide, or sloppy-saggy , neat or none at all on others.
In a small town you also noticed who was obviously missing in the passing parade units.
Memories..and all that was seventy-seven years ago! Only Grandmothers save such letters. It proves one more thing, too... my handwriting was easier to read then than it is now!
A.L.M. September 21, 2002 [c587wds]
