GRANPA'S MULES

by bartermn

"Bein' the baby of the family, I got to ride with my daddy whereever he went. Him and another guy, by the name of Pierce, and me sittin' between them in Pierce's stock truck went to the Unadilla auction and bought two mules and a pair of horses. Daddy and Mr. Pierce liked to drink whiskey, they always wore denim barn coats with a flask in the inside pocket. I guess Daddy was driving because Mr. Pierce was too loaded already. Well, they finished one bottle just as we crossed the Athens bridge and Mr. Pierce tossed the empty out the window. It hit the mirror and cracked it, he hollered at Daddy, saying he had just hit the bridge railing and broke the mirror. I don't think Daddy believed him but said he'd fix it when they got home.

We stopped at the Nichols Hotel before finishing the trip, I was too young to go to school yet, back then kids weren't supposed to sit at the bar, but I did, with Daddy on one side and Mr. Pierce on the other. Daddy bought me an orange soda pop. All of a sudden, Mr.Pierce, a big man, grabbed the bartender and flug him right over our side of the bar, screaming that he had short-changed him. That started a big fight, with everybody in there swinging at each other. I was told to guard the door and not to let anyone in. I did open it to let a few people out though.

When we finally made it to the farm, we unloaded the animals and then went to the milkhouse to finish the whiskey and share a few laughs about the fight. I was almost asleep in a corner when Daddy and Mr. Pierce started fighting. Daddy was on his back holding both of Mr. Pierces wrists and looked over at me and said,"Well, don't just sit there, hit him!" I grabbed the top of a milk can and swung it as hard as I could, knocked Mr. Pierce out cold, I did. Me and Daddy drug Mr. Pierce out to his stock truck and dumped him in the driver's seat then went to bed.

Anyways, about the mules, They weren't a good match, Daddy ended up swapping one of them with a neighbor for a different one and then swapping that pair to your Great-Grandpa for some cattle.

I asked LeRoy if Great-Grandpa used them for farming and he said, "Yep, your Great-Grandpa was a farmer all his life. That's all he done for a living, that and horse trading."

We talked a bit more about his younger days and how he came to meet the Whalens. He said he lived just up the road and the first time he ever saw any of my family they were coming down the hill in an old truck, Grandma and Grandpa in the front and a mess of young kids riding in the back. The thing he remembered most was that three of my uncles, all just kids, had the cleanest white tee- shirts on with the sleeves rolled up around packs of Camel cigarettes.