The reverend’s wife divided everyone up by teams and half of the folks stayed and worked and the other half went home and got some sleep. Halfway through the night, the two teams changed places. Someone sat with the dead all night and candles were lit so the dead could make their way into the afterlife. Right about dawn the keening started (this is wailing and crying that takes place before the wake). After everybody was about all cried out, the reverend started folks singin’ hymns. “Shall we gather at the river, and Just as I am and I walk in the garden alone “ were the first songs they sung and as the songs changed so did the rhythm of the hammers change as they pounded out the pine coffins.
When the young uns weren’t helping their mamas mix up cornbread or chop up a pretty salad, they would gather a ways off and play ‘hide n seek’ or ‘ollie, ollie, oxen free’.The teenage girls stayed busy haulin spring water and takin it round to the diggers, builders, little children and anyone else who was thirsty.
Lucy Mae couldn’t help thinkin about all those folks who lost their lives and how their community would be changed. There were 6 widows and 5 young girls who lost their beaus. That would make for rough livin for the widows, one of which was Donna Ann who was in the family way (pregnant) and due in 3 weeks. The young girls whose beaus died wouldn’t have many prospects of getting married now unless they went outside the holler because there weren’t many more eligible young men around. Her mind went to five years ago when little Wendy Sue, her two year old got sick with scarlet fever. Lucy Mae had tried everything she could, but little Wendy Sue just couldn’t get better. She died and a part of Lucy Mae died with her.
After the funeral and after putting the men in the ground, there was a big meal, which was customary at a burying. Then the womenfolk began cleaning up and havin the young uns carrying things home while the older boys and men filled the graves with dirt. The mine operators would have to get the mines cleaned up and safe again before the men could go back to work.
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Walking home, everyone’s children walking in front of them with the little ones scampering care-free, Lucy and Earl had a chance to talk. “Earl, I am just about fed up with you working in the dangerous mine. Some of these men, our friends, lost their lives and it could’ve been you! I know we ain’t got much of a choice for work up here in these mountains, but that ain’t stoppin me from wantin’ you to do somethin’ safer.
Earl, leanin’ on his crutches, said, “Lucy, I’ve been a thinkin’ on this here thang fer a spell and I agree with you.. It’s time fer a change. The way I see it, there are a few choices, own a country store, grow and sell tobacco, work in the mines, grow and sell crops and moonshinin’. We don’t have enough land usable to grow extra crops, as we eat mostly all we grow and I don’t have a store or the money to make one. I need to get out of the mines so I will be here to help you and not kick the bucket afore time. So that leaves moonshinin’. I did it with my daddy many a year afore workin in the mines and have been makin’ some every year fur my own use and its in my blood, makin’ it, sellin’ it and drinkin’ it. We have room to grow some more corn, along with our eatin’ crops and I don’t want moonshinin’ to become a lost art. It’s part of our heritage. I grew some extra corn this year, thinkin to sell it, but ther’s no time like the present. I think we will start out small this year.”
“ Well Earl, I see you have been ponderin’ this fur a while and you have yore family’s best interests at heart. As long as you can keep out of sight of the law, I’m fer it,” his wife said.
Timmy John met them at the front door with two buckets of fresh milk and his Mama said, “Let’s have milksop(a glass of milk with bread torn up in it) fer dinner, since we all had a huge meal earlier.”
Timmy John said, “I done skimmed the cream off the top and put it in the springhouse, so it’s ready fer usin’. Daddy, we need to get Rosie bred again cuz she’s startin’ to dry up (her milk is going away) and it’s gettin along about fall, so we can have a spring calf if we time it right.”
“Good thinkin’ son,” his father praised him. “I don’t know what we would do without you boys. You all have a good head on yore shoulders and I’m goin’ to need to count on yore help while I’m healin’”