WHO DO YOU TRUST ?

A TIME OF AWAKENING…..

I was 6 years old, a little young for such an awakening, but a lesson well learned.

It was May, the weather was just beginning to feel like spring. We were out of school for the summer now, and we could stay outside longer and stay up later, even until after the street lights come on and it’s getting dark. A great life, right? Did you ever play “Kick the can or “Hide and seek”, “Cowboys and Indians”, and stuff that kids do when the days are longer and the nights are getting warmer. It was going to be a great summer. All the kids on my block, and there were seven of us, would be resuming our springtime rituals, going to the creek, fishing, swimming, playing in the dirt. It was just then when I was feeling like it’s never going to get any better, when mom woke me up.

This was my first Monday morning after school. “Guess what” she said, "we're going to see dad"! I was still trying to come awake, "What, when" ? I gasped. "Next Monday", she said. "Why"? I asked. To spend the summer with him", she said. "Me and you and sister and baby brother, we're all going on the train to West Virginia next Monday".

So it was, that this woman had just ruined my summer plans, We lived at Grandma’s house on Douglass Ave. In Memphis TN. But we visited my dad from time to time during the summer. Dad was a dragline operator who worked at various very large projects throughout the country, even some top secret government projects, but this trip would take us to West Virginia, a small town, I don’t even remember the name of the place.

But enough, this trip will not be a good thing, I will have to search out new friends and play with people I do not know, and besides, we cant carry my horse, (an old mop which Grandma had discarded, on which I had put a bridle and saddle). It was my favorite thing to do in the mornings, get the horse out after breakfast and go for a short ride in the neighborhood to see who was up. This trip would interrupt all of my plans for the summer. So I began to reject the idea that my summer would be ruined by this trip. I was perfectly happy at Mammaw’s house and I was not going to West Virginia, and that set my mood for the next couple of days.

Mom knew that I was a cowboy at heart and was always playing the scenes from cowboy movies I had seen, and she knew that I was a big “Red Ryder” fan, You know the red headed cowboy hero of the Red Ryder comic books and the Red Ryder BB gun. Wool worth’s department store had a “Red Ryder outfit for sale at the time, a red felt hat, a red vest, red chaps, red cow boy boots and a two gun red holster gun belt set, with shiny chrome cap pistols. And to top it off, a red bandanna which all cowboys wear around their neck. So it was that to abate my anger at the thought of this trip my mom and mammaw went shopping on the Friday before the trip and bought the whole outfit as a bribe to placate my anger....And it worked, I was ecstatic. This was it, we will go on this trip, and we will find new friends. I can always find a stick and make a new horse. Hurry up with the train I am ready to go try out my new “Red Ryder” outfit with some new friends.

So we arrived in West Virginia late in the evening on a Monday, dad was there to pick us up and we went directly to supper at a cafe near the apartment house, then off to the apartment and a bath and then to bed. I slept with the “Red Ryder” outfit under the bed. The morning found me groggy from the trip and the new living quarters, but I went awake pretty quickly, ate breakfast , the put on the whole “Red Ryder” outfit. Then out the door to the playyard. This was a big place, it had many apartment houses and all stacked together, An “Apartment complex” would be the proper name for this strange place. I had never before in my life seen so many places to live all bunched together. And kids, there were surely some kids here to play with, but I was early, Maybe they will come out later.

Sure enough, in about thirty minutes the kids were outside and ready to go. I went over to where they were, they seemed to have a leader by the name of “Chuckie”. He was about an inch or two taller than me and talked sort of fast and rough. There were five of them, I spoke to Chuckie first. “What are ya’ll playin” I asked. Chuckie replied, “Who are you? I said “I’m Earl” “What do you want”? Chuckie asked. “Do ya’ll know how to play Cowboys, n, Indins” I asked, “Naw we play cops and robbers” he replied. “Well can I play”, I asked timidly. Chuckie replied “Naw we already chose sides”, “Well could I be the sheriff I asked”? “Sure”, he said, We need a jail keeper, you just sit here and we’ll bring the crooks to jail, and you can lock’em up”, OK, but where is the jail”, I asked. “That hockey box over there , thats the jail, you just gotta keep’em in it. He said. “OK, so where are your guns”? I asked, we got some an we make some out of sticks. 

That was it, I was to be the sheriff. Boring, just sitting there watching as they went about running hiding and shooting at each other. “cops and robbers” was a boring game.Soon all the robbers had been caught and we re assembled for a new start, I suggested that we change to “cowboys n’ indins” and Chuckie said O.K. who are the cowboys and who are the indians? I made some choices and soon we had three apiece, three cowboys and 3 indians. Everybody was taking part. The indians went to hide and the cowboys would go and hunt them down, an shoot e’m. This went on for about an hour, we were having fun, and I was the focal point of the game because I had the “Red Ryder” outfit on. That made me the hero. 

After another round, of about fifteen minutes, Chuckie made a good suggestion, the cowboys should now switch to indians and the indians would now be the cowboys. Sounded right to me so that was how it came about that Chuckie asked to borrow the “Red Ryder” outfit. That seemed right to me so I let him have the boots, the chaps, the vest and the two guns and red holsters, and the hat. But I kept the red bandana. Chuckie was O.K. with that. So the next thing was we “indins”went to hide. Little did I know what was about to happen, in fact when I went to hide, I wanted to be well hidden, so they would not find me, so I went off the playground to go behind some fifty gallon drumb garbage cans, just off the property, in a field across the railroad tracks. Ha! This was a good hiding place, and of course my accolmplices found good spots too. This was too easy, I could see the other side looking everywhere for us. They found two of us, and I was all that was left. Looks like I was gonna be the best hidden indin ever. 

Then about ten minutes passed, and I could tell, there was no activity. So I came out of hiding and decided to give up. But where was everybody? They were gone! “Chuckie”! I called out, “Chuckie”, where are y’all at ?” I hollered. There was no answer...after about thirty minutes of looking and calling out, I decided that they had given up trying to find me, so I went home. Mom asked me where I had been and I told her all about my new friends and the game we played. Then she asked about the “Red Ryder” outfit. 

There I was standing there in fron of my mother,  barefoot with a red bandana around my neck, a white undershirt and my short pants on, crying now because I just realized that now “Chuckie” was “Red Ryder” he had my new “Red Ryder" outfit, boots, guns, chaps, and all , and I had nothing. So we scoured the neighborhood me crying and Mom hollering “Chuckie”. Had I done too good a job of hiding? Or had the “new friends” been clever in the stealing of my clothes. Which is it you may ask? I prefer to think of it as a good job of hiding that I did. Mom thinkds otherwise. What do you think? Well it took a couple of days but I never again saw even one of those kids. And after speaking with other residents in the complex, we were informed by a woman who lived beside the play yard, that they were from the other side of the tracks, a perfect theft it was, And I had difficulty believing it. And I got a whipping.The lesson? Accept that everyone has good intentions, but trust no one to have them. Everyone has an agenda....believe it because it is true. END