Books are a great start to our day. They motivate us and inspire to do better and be better. We are now on Telegram! My Early Morning Reading. He never had the wherewithal to learn to drive, but someone from the appliance store where he worked was picking him up. He asked if I wanted a ride, too. When I got back home later in the afternoon, the house was empty except for Erma, who never set foot outside.
She stood in the kitchen, stirring a pot of green beans and taking swigs from the bottle of hooch in her pocket. Erma was always going on about. It galled her when they started moving into that section of town, and she always said it was their fault that Welch had gone downhill. When you were sitting in the living room, where Erma always kept the shades drawn, you could hear groups of black people walking into town, talking and laughing.
It was much worse than any curse word, they told us. But since Erma was my grandmother, I never said anything when she used it. Erma kept stirring the beans. She gave me a serious look, as if imparting a meaningful life lesson I should ponder and absorb. She unscrewed the cap from her bottle of hooch and took a long, contemplative swallow. As I watched her drinking, I felt this pressure building in my chest and I had to let it out.
Get your worthless ass down to the basement. Mom was upset, though. She and Dad happily railed against anyone they disliked or disrespected: Standard Oil executives, J. Edgar Hoover, and especially snobs and racists. Now we were supposed to bite our tongues. But she was right; Erma would boot us. Situations like these, I realized, were what turned people into hypocrites.
(mh=oH9CCLK1P6wivAvh)10.jpg "Babes in Sorgues")
The best thing Grandpa did for her when they got married was buy her an electric washing machine, but whatever joy it had once given her was long gone. What was his redeeming quality? We kids were to remain in Welch. Since Lori was the oldest, Mom and Dad said she was in charge. Of course, we were all answerable to Erma.
