Memories of Cope, South Carolina

1. Cannery

1. 1. The high school across the road had a cannery for community use.
2. 2. Some actually canned but most used Mason jars.

1. 2. Snakes

1. 1. Cars would routinely try to lock brakes on snakes crossing road, would back up to finish them off

1. 3. Roads

1. 1. Many not paved
2. 2. Washboard roads would shake car violently at any speed at all

1. 4. Swamp

1. 1. Recall fishing from pier and boat in swamp
2. 2. Snapping turtles were a threat
3. 3. Lots of Spanish moss

1. 5. Chick

1. 1. Pet chicken that imprinted on me
2. 2. Only word I spoke for extended time, some concern about development deficit
3. 3. Finally began talking in complete sentences

1. 6. Time Magazine in Spanish

1. 1. I had begun to read and could not understand why the magazine made no sense
2. 2. Must have been around 5 years old. We were in Columbia when I started school at 6.

1. 7. Cod liver oil

1. 1. By the spoon

1. 8. Hawk

1. 1. We had a few chickens in the back yard
2. 2. One day my father killed a hawk that was planning to feast on one of our chickens
3. 3. I remember the hawk being thrown into the air for me to pretend to shoot it with my BB gun.

1. 9. Naps

1. 1. Had to take a nap in the afternoon

1. 10. My grandfather W stayed with us recovering from surgery to remove part of stomach incident to ulcer.

1. 1. A mocking bird attacked him pulling out his hair when he was taking me to see the bird’s nest in a bush beside the house.

1. 11. My grandmother W stayed with me while Jody was being born.

1. 1. We drank coffee together. Mine was mostly milk.

1. 12. Door clipped Peggy’s tail

1. 1. Learned to walk holding on to Peggy, Irish setter
2. 2. After door clipped end of her tail she would lie down in front of me and trip me

1. 13. Jody Rabbit

1. 1. Tuna gambit
2. 2. When wind blew wheat he would say the Jody Rabbit was coming to get Jody

1. 14. Knife Tree

1. 1. Tuna again
2. 2. Talked Jody into getting a pocket knife for him to plant so a knife tree would grow
3. 3. Tuna buried knife in our presence and came back at night to dig it up. End of knife

1. 15. Wheels

1. 1. Johnny Young
2. 2. Told me if I would give him the wheels/axles off one of my toys he would make a truck for me and leave it in the ditch by the driveway.
3. 3. Never delivered. Used to have a recurring dream about finding the truck he promised in the ditch.

1. 16. BB Gun

1. 1. Daisy pump model
2. 2. Taller than I was and too strong a spring for me to cock it even with all my weight pulling down on it.

1. 17. Family

1. 1. Sun Raisin
2. 2. Monkey
3. 3. Tuna
4. 4. Fixed a very sweet corn bread like cake
5. 5. Let me drive the wagon with two mules

1. 18. LSU Football Games

1. 1. I would listen to LSU games on car radio from WWL with my father. The radio in the house would not pick up WWL.
2. 2. Ran the motor in the car to keep of warm.

1. 19. Basketball Games at Cope High School

1. 1. Recall going onto the court to shoot basketball after games were over2. Could not get ball to the rim

1. 20. My father was Superintendent of Schools and Principal/Head Coach at Cope

1. 1. Hunted with local game warden, Hammond Sandifer

1. 21. Henry Harrison was janitor at Cope HS and helped us at the house as well.

1. 1. We would include him in visits to Cope for years after we moved.

1. 22. Malaria

1. 1. No doctor could diagnose as none had seen it. Nearly fatal. Dr. Abigotti, an older doctor who had seen malaria cases, diagnosed me as I was carried into the room.
2. 2. in those days, you had to turn a crank on the phone to ring the operator. The operator would pick up and ask you who you wanted to reach. You would then be connected. Operators were frequently accused on listening in on conversations. My parents tried to call a doctor for me during my malaria period and the operator refused to complete the call saying “Got to go to church right now.” This quote was repeated over the years without explanation.
3. 3. Can still remember drinking water and eating some rice and immediately throwing it up.
4. 4. Became dehydrated and was too thin for IV in arms so used my thighs. Still have depressions in the muscle from the IVs.

1. 23. SugarCane

1. 1. Can recall eating the sweet gum out of pieces of split sugar cane,
2. 2. Also recall watching mule walking round and round turning a press that squeezed liquid out of sugar cane into a bucket.

1. 24. Uncle Ted’s Wedding

1. 1. Would have been about 5 years old
2. 2, Was the ring bearer
3. 3. Can recall hearing an airplane fly over as we drove through thick canopy of trees on the way to the church for the wedding.

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