More Tales of Bernard

Daddy was a practical joker. He would show off for our slumber party guests by swallowing raw eggs. Once for a Halloween party in the community he cut bars of soap in tiny cubes and dipped them in chocolate. The game was to see who could eat their chocolate first. At the same party he dressed as a mummy. He had on briefs and Tshirt and totally wrapped himself in toilet paper. Mother didn`t dress up she spent the evening reinforcing his toilet paper. On the other hand he was shy when dates came to pick us up, he suddenly had to go to the bathroom just before they came and didn`t come out until we were gone.
During the Great Depression he told stories of riding in train boxcars. One trip took him to Missouri to find a wife. He headed straight home when he found out the girls washed the potatoes in the same pan as they did their feet. Another trip the train stopped for the night. It was pitch black and he thought of jumping out but decided against it. The next morning when he looked out he would have jumped into the Arkansas River. Being a nonswimmer he would have drowned or died of fright.
His family had trouble feeding their brood during the thirties even tho they were farmers. Mother laughingly said they sold their eggs to buy coffee. Their farmhouse built by Joseph is still standing but I think he was either a procrastinator or didn`t have money to finish the upstairs well. In the winter snow would settle on the kids beds upstairs.
His dream-in the early years it was to make enough crop in the strange soil of the Freedom farm to feed and care for his family. In later years it was to accumulate enough property to make a living for he and his 2 sons. His fears were of the dark and water. His mother used to tell them there were alligators under the bed to keep them in bed. When he was grown and farmed land over by Douglas by himself he had to go to bed before dark because of this fear. The fear of water was probably something similar.
More next time.