The Goat Man and Stock Market Day in Wise Va

THE GOAT MAN, AND STOCK MARKET DAY IN WISE COUNTY. In our town’s we all knew that Wednesday was stock market day and that meant a lot of action would be going on for the lucky one’s who got to attend or in a child’s eyes it did because back then it was not just yard sale items to be found no sir they had live stock and you never knew what kind unless you went.Some people would buy with cash, others traded around and got what they wanted. and so was the case of my neighbor, Bill who was a kind and always happy man some what older than my parents and he had a very jolly wife Rosie. who just happened to be a MAIL ORDER bride from some big city and together they made a very happy couple ,except on Wednesday’s .You see Bill was said to catch trading fever on those days and on top of that he always walked the rail road tracks about six miles to get there and as a child it was great fun during the summer months to set out side and watch for his return now my brother who is three years older than I assured me he knew when to get off the tracks when the train came .And it was so much fun to see him come up those tracks just a singing a good old mountain song like old Susanna and leading a string of goats well most time he led or maybe they were leading him it all depended on how high he was stepping or how loud his songs were . Now just as he would pass in front of the house we could see he most times had found another banjo and it would be hanging from his back and he sure could play any one he had and if he was really happy why I bet you could have heard him over that old coal train. Now my mother could be strict at times and she often did not find his ways funny but my daddy sure did and he would just laugh at mom and say
where could you find a "Happier" neighbor, than Bill at and mom would reply not to say things like that in front of us children .I Did not see why because everyone should be happy, but Rosie agreed with her at least on Wednesdays because you sure could here her yelling real LOUD!!!!....

Chicken Look Behind You !!

One spring day I went to check on a setting hen who had about 6 eggs it was a big event to see baby Diddle's and each day I was checking to see if they had hatched ,Now the chicken lot was up on a hill side and there was all so a hog lot next to the chickens and I knew to leave them alone because hog's will eat people they are very scary to a little five year old girl as they grunt and groan,But my curiosity about the diddles helped me get past that hog lot,Now my daddy was a very devoted Bee Keeper and he often went out and went what he called Bee hunting and would rise early before I got up,Now the coal camp house had no running water so my parents washed our cloths in a ringer washer machine and Mom would hang them out on a cloths line and that was what she was doing as, she no doubt was keeping a sharp eye on me at the same time.Now all at once she hollered out loud for me to look behind myself.Well THAT WAS ALL IT Took For me to take off like my life was about to end I think the wind must have helped me get down that hill Because I don't recall how I lost a shoe but ,mom said as she laughed until tears rolled down her check's that when I hit the white sheet she had just hung out she caught me and untangled me from the cloths line,And as I was crying and out of breath she turned me around and said look up the hill, Well with tears still in my eyes I , Looked up and there was my daddy bringing in a Bee hive stump and he had his bee keepers stuff on,He to thought what he had just seen his little girl flying down that hill was very funny as he recalled it my feet were not touching the ground, NOW I KNOW THEY ARE DIFFERENT KINDS OF CHICKENS AS MY NICK NAME BECAME "LITTLE CHICKEN",REAL FUNNY --HA, HA. you might like to know that old chicken was right behind me...... by Oaneatta Stanley Smith, aka "little chicken"