| The year was about 1952. I was nine years
old and my brother Dub was not quite eight. We lived in a little house next
to CJ Squires grocery store in Stallings, NC. We quite often would go to the
store for various items. CJ had an interesting meat counter, I loved to look
at all that meat because we didn't get to buy much of it. I remember the
hoop cheese on the top end of the meat counter, my daddy loved cheese and to
see CJ open that hoop up, cut off a pie shape wedge of cheese and weigh it
out was exciting to me. My mother would save her pennies and nickels, then
one day when she thought we needed a treat she would get the change and
count out enough for us to go to the store and buy a candy bar for each one
of us. Those times were not often but very special. CJ would sometimes have
little rubber balls usually 5 cents each, Dub and me would go in and look to
see what might be new but we were usually just dreaming. I guess CJ and
Virginia ( CJ's wife) had just about anything you needed in that store,
including all of the latest news of what was going on in the country side.
On Saturdays Moma and Daddy would go to town for groceries. The best place
for prices was the A & P in Dilworth (Charlotte, NC). Me and Dub were always
left at home. They would be gone a long time, I think they would go other
places before they came back home. I guess they felt the freedom since they
were without the kids and all. We usually had to cut grass or something
while they were gone. My brother Dub didn't like to cut grass. I guess I
didn't either, that was hard work because all we had was a sling blade. My
daddy knew how Dub was and so before he left he would tell him "Boy you
better cut grass until you get tard". Daddy and moma would barely get out of
sight when Dub would throw the sling blade down and say "I'm tard".
 Well
on one of those Saturdays Dub and me took a stroll up to CJ's store to have
a look around. As we strolled around the store just lookin CJ came out from
behind the meat counter, he knew we didn't have any money to buy anything.
He said boys I got a problem and y'all can help me out. I'll give each one
of you a drink (Coke) and a pack of crackers if you'll do something for me.
It was a hot summer day and we were bored, that drink and pack of crackers
shore did sound good. Well he didn't even have to tell us what he wanted us
to do before we said Yessir. What is it you want us to do? I can still see
that cunning expression on his face now. You see, said CJ, this ole
moma dog went up under the store and had a litter of pups and I can't get'em
out. I think two boys about your size could crawl up under there and drag'em
out. CJ, I said you think that ole moma dog will bite us? Naw he said she
won't bother you. What you think Dub? I said, we could do it I guess. To
seal the deal and I believe so we couldn't back out CJ went ahead and gave
us that drink and pack of crackers ahead of time. We were over whelmed with
the attention he was givin us and we took our time with that Drink and Pack
of Crackers. The time came when we had to crawl up under that store. It was
dark, low, dirty and I guessed there were no snakes up under there because
of the ole moma dog. We found them way up under there, the ole mama dog was
long legged and skinny with slick black hair. She was nervous and fidgety,
we talked to her as we got close. I reached for one of the pups
keeping one eye on her, but she didn't do anything so we each (Dub and me)
took two puppies each and began to work our way back to the little door on
the other side of the store. We made several trips back and forth and
finally got all those pups out. There were ten of them. We were bushing the
dirt off our clothes and glad to be finished when CJ came out. You did good
boys, I know y'all like dogs so you can just take'em home with you, I don't
have a place here for them. I looked at Dub and I could see he had that same
worried look on his face that I did, knowing we'd be in trouble if we
took'em home with us. But being young and feeling the pressure that CJ put
on us to take'em with us we reluctantly obliged.
This was not all of the story because you see we already had a
Cocker Spaniel named Snaffue at home and she just had a litter of four
puppies. That meant that now we had fourteen puppies and two ole moma dogs.
We dreaded seein daddy and moma come back home because there was no way we
could hide that many dogs. We had'em out back next to the out house and
after lookin up the highway all afternoon finally we saw our car coming. It
seemed like it was flyin to get to us as fast as it could to find out what
we had done, and yet at the same time it was moving in slow motion. I got to
tell you I don't remember all that happened that afternoon but it was one of
the worst days of our lives. We couldn't take the dogs back to CJ so daddy
made us carry those pups around the countryside trying to give them away. We
were kinda shy but we had to walk up to a lot of doors and say "Y'all like
to have a puppy" . I think we finally got rid of all of them, I don't
remember how long it took. I know that daddy was plenty mad at CJ and I'm
sure he must have said something to him about it but I never knew.
You probably heard that song "A country boy can survive" well I
guess it's true. If we went three days without gettin a whooping we started
to worry cause we knew it was about time. Do you think those were the good
ole days?
Gary B. Killough
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