027
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027
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Transcription
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RED SHIRT
It was not always easy to communicate with our neighbors before 1914, we had a telephone before that date, but some of the neighbors did not. One of them was a bachelor who lived in a sod house that was only a little more than a mile from where we lived. I never heard him called anything but "Squeaky Johnson." Squeaky got his name from his high pitched voice. He always made me feel as if he were yelling at me. He was a good neighbor, and could always be depended upon to help us when we needed him.
One of my mother's complaints, was, when some one wanted to get in touch with Squeaky, they would call her. It was not uncommon for her to stop her work, and walk more than a mile to get the message to him. When I became old enough, I must have been 5 or 6, she would write out the message on a piece of paper and I would deliver it.
The little sod house where Squeaky lived was not one of my favorite spots. During the summer he kept a large bull snake around to keep the mice and rats from invading the sod house. The bull snake was a welcome visitor; it also kept the rattlesnakes away. I hated to go near when the snake was around.
One July morning, Mumsie received a message to deliver. She was making shirts for my brother Lawrence and me. She had completed a bright red one for Lawrence, and I was to get the next one. She didn't want to stop her work, so she asked me to deliver the message, and to take Lawrence with me. I was busy pounding nails in a box, trying to make a house for our dog. I was unhappy and didn't want to take Lawrence with me, he was not able to go as fast as I wanted to go, so I went off and left him. As soon as I had delivered the message I hurried home to get back to my work.
We had taken a short cut thru a wheat field, the wheat was as high as my head, and it wasn't long before I lost sight of Lawrence. I was mad, and didn't care that I had lost him.
As soon as I returned, I got back to my task of building the dog house. Noon arrived, Dad came from the field, and Mumsie called us to dinner. The first comment from Dad was, "Where is Lawrence?" I said I didn't know. The next question was directed to me. "James, didn't he go with you to deliver the message to Squeaky?" It had been three hours since I got back home. I didn't know where he was.
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Rights
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Metzger Memories
