1951 Hanging Out with Earl

My grandfather Earl and I would sit and watch Westerns on TV at night, me sitting in my little rocking chair that had a dark green leather seat.  We would sit and eat ice cream from the carton, which drove my grandmother Mary crazy.  "Earl, for heaven’s sake, get the child a bowl!" she would say.  

One of my favorite horses, Trigger

I would go with Earl to feed the cows in the pastures by our tank stocked with catfish.  

He was very very tight with a penny.  I remember Mary would have to give him every cent of change whenever she did errands.  We would get cards from them for birthdays and Christmas with a $5 bill inside, with the notation always, “Enclosed from Grandma King”.  I’m sure he never knew. 

He was an old codger, a curmudgeon, but I worshipped him my Grandpa King.  He was tall and thin, and he always wore overalls, usually the striped ones.  When he had to wear a suit you could tell how much he hated it.  His hands were knobby and always covered in dirt and grease.  He would sill in his recliner and smoke away.  

That farmhouse in Vernon (actually on FM 1763 on the way to Oklaunion) was something I always kept in the back of my mind during our worldly travels.  I knew it was the one place where I would always return, and that it would always be mine.  It was our land forever.  Unfortunately, that did not turn out to be the case.