Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

This picture deserves a story.



This is what remains of the house where my great-grand maw Allison lived. It's slap in the middle of a pasture now, but when my Dad was a little boy he would wake up early on Christmas morning and go here for biscuits and honey.

From what I hear, most of my character flaws (i.e., my temper) came from the woman who lived in this house. One evening, about this time of year-60 years ago, my dad was sitting with his grandmother by the fire (notice the chimney in the middle of the house). They were playing a game called fox and geese, a home-made board game played with dried beans, buttons, or whatever you might find lying about in great quantities. The way he tells it, he had her cornered and was just about to beat her when she took the board and all the pieces and threw them into the fire.

One evening, about this time of year-4 years ago, I was sitting at a table with my cousin's children. We were playing Monopoly-the kind with real fake money. The way I've heard it retold at every family get-together since then, I was about to get wiped out after landing on somebody's Boardwalk with 2 hotels on it and I took the board and all the money and threw them on the floor. Had there been a fire around I might have directed some more kindling its way.