Prequel to ''A House, A Home'' by Jonathan Bryant Dean by his proud father naedknarf

Jonboy wrote the story of the house in which I was born. I will now attempt to explain why it was built.

Imagine if you can a three room green tar paper shack perched on a kentucky hillside. Now imagine one of those rooms at most ten feet by fifteen feet. Now that was the easy part. Imagine a man, his pregnant wife, three daughters, and two sons living there. In the summer they spilled out onto the porch. In the winter it got a little crowded. A stove for heat and a few articles of furniture Paw had drug home. Other people's cast offs but prized possessions to Maw and Paw. No beds only quilts rolled out at night for sleeping on the hard floor. No need for a table everyone shared Grandmaw's. The shack belonged to my Grandmaw and the family was the one I was about to join. Maw had a sorry old cow no one else would waste feed on and a few scraggly chickens. Every morning rain or shine paw would find the cow, cows roamed free back then, and coax what milk he could from her. A task that would be repeated at the end of the day. Maw in turn would work her magic. I don't know if you ever heard the term ''butter and egg money.'' That's what Maw saved when she could. I guess to day you could call it ''I can't believe its not butter and egg money''. She would buy oleomargarine and put it in the churn with the cream. What came out was butter, or at ieast was sold as butter. In the bottoms were truck patches where produce was raised. A source of income for the owners and their neighbors. They were referred to as baby farms. Some of them were broken up into lots and sold. Maw had bought three of the lots (the ones on the hillside) they were cheaper, and was waiting for a house Paw had promised to be built. That promise was overdue and she demanded payment. ''Not one more christmas in this little room'', she said. The lawyer, my Maw cleaned house for had a house owned by a client. The client wanted it gone. Maw worked her magic some house cleaning for the house, only problem was it had to be moved. Maw saw no problem Paw was strong and so were his good for nothing drinking buddies. She later begrudgingly said she was wrong, worthless as they seemed they were good for something, though not much. This is the end of the prequel. Of you want to read Jonboy's story you can search for ''A House, A Home'' on this site. He tried to tell me how to link to it. However each craftsman must use the tools he has and that is beyond mine.

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Reviews

[Jonathan Bryant Dean]

Thanks for this prequel Dad, I like it, and appreciate the fact that you are sharing these stories. I have written some of them down, but it is always better to get it from the horse's mouth, as opposed to me, the horse's a*s! haha

I am always tempted to edit your stories for you, but I feel that the lack of grammar is part of the story. It may be a little more difficult to read, but it is like panning for gold, it is worth it, to read the story in it's raw form.

I think that people will catch on to your style, as I have, and overlook the grammar, for the story that is within.

By the way, here is the link to my story, A House, A Home

JBD

[J. Elsie]

I too like the raw form... The lack of capitals makes each consecutive word just as important as the last. The lack of perfection seems to portray the lack of perfection of the times lived in. My mother tells me stories of her childhood all the time. A tiny house in old country Tennessee. She went out on a visit and brought back pictures of the shack that is falling over. Three rooms. One room with two beds for six children. The beds were half the size of the one I sleep alone in now. And I wonder how people ever survived back then. Of course if you have never had the idea of something better then I wouldn't bother you as much. And thats what my mom always tells me. She didn't know there was better, to her what she had was what there was.

So I love your stories, mostly for their truthfulness. You are kind to give us snippets into your life.
While most people make interesting stories of characters and created action, you give us interesting stories that happened to actually take place. I have to say I like them much better than most fictional pieces I read.

Thank you again,
jenn