Mt. Harmony, North Carolina
My Pretty Shoes
| The year was 1948 and I was six years old. We
were living near the Mt. Harmony Baptist Church with my daddy's sister
Maxine and her husband Howard Short. Howard and Maxine had two children,
Elaine was seven and Johnny was just a baby. Including my parents and my
brother Dub there were four of us living in one room in the back of the
house. My mother was ready to have another child at any time. We didn't
have much and at that time I didn't realize that we should have had more
than we did. As a child I just accepted the way that we lived. I remember
that we didn't have a regular kitchen table, just a small table with no
chairs. My father got some orange crates from the grocery store for us to
sit on. There were several significant things that happened while we lived
here and I would like to share them with you today.
I rode my first bike when we lived here. I remember
several attempts at the balancing act and finally staying up as I rolled
down the slight grade of uneven rocky ground. My adrenalin was pumping,
scared but excited to no end. I would visit this My daddy's brother, my uncle Hurley Killough lived with
his family just down the road in a log house. We would later live in that
same house with no electricity, plumbing or heat, well there was a
fireplace like all houses had. That'll be another story. Anyway for supper
almost every night mama would cook a cake of cornbread and we would have
that with milk. We would My mother (Evelyn Lorraine Williams Killough) was pregnant when we lived here. Her time was near and she told my daddy she thought is was about time. My daddy told my grandmother Carrie and she told him no she's not ready the times not right yet. She was an mother and so he believed she knew what she was talking about. So my mother knowing it was time but kept on doing her chores as usual. She had no washing machine so she drew water from the well and did her washing on a scrub board as usual. That night she told my father that she really had to go to the hospital. He said no it's not time yet. My mother said will you at least take me to my mother's house he said he would and he did. When my mother got to her mother's house, my grandmother told her yea, you're ready to go and convinced my father that he should take her to the hospital. My father still not believing it was time reluctantly took mom to the hospital and told her that he was going home and would come back later and pick her up. Well when he came back to pick her up in the morning he found that he had a son. Sidney S. Killough, born on January 1st, 1949. It was the Fall of the year, the weather was turning cool
and I had no shoes. My cousin Elaine gave me a pair of hers to wear. I
thought they were very pretty and was glad to get them. One day as I
waited for Elaine to come home from school Our maturity and wisdom grows as we experience life over the span of time that we are given We must never take anything for granted and never ridicule those that have less than they need. Be thankful for what you have and help others when you can. Gary Burnett Killough |
emotion again in the
future. I must have stayed up for about seventy-five feet before crashing
into bushes. I didn't know how to apply the brakes and come to a balanced
stop. The bike belonged to my cousin Elaine and with her encouragement I conquered
that green monster with no cross bar. That was a milestone for
sure. 
get the milk from my Uncle Hurley who had
cows. Most of the time the milk was good but every once in a while the
cows would get into the bitter weed and the milk would have a strange
taste. You had to drink it just the same but boy you didn't want to. Hot
cornbread and cold milk, the grownups would sometimes have an onion with
theirs, now that's good eaten. 
my anticipation of her arrival
was high. Finally I saw the school bus round the bend at the
foot of the hill. She was coming, I really liked Elaine, she was pretty
and always very nice to me. As the bus came to a stop in front of the
house I was standing just beside the road. The bus was filled with kids
and I was excited to see them all. I knew that next year I would be able
to ride the bus and join those kids in their adventures. I imagined them
thinking that I would be with them soon. Just about that time a boy raised
up out of his seat, stuck his head out of the window while looking
straight at me and shouted "Look at that boy wearing girl
shoes!" My heart sunk as I too looked down at those pretty
black Patten leather shoes with a shiny strap and buckle on top. I think
that's the first time I realized a gender difference in clothing and my
first taste of humility. I still remember that boy's name after 54
years, he was Harold Stilwell and I'm sure he is a fine man now.