Elder 6

us. They lost their farm to “Mr. Hoover’s depression” and had no
place to stay neither. Daddy was so mad when he came home
and found out Pop was living with us, he vowed to leave and
never come back.
Mama says the Depression didn’t make much difference to
folks like us. We never had nothing anyway, but I remember
when she used to get all dressed up in her suede high heels
and dangling ear bobs to go dancing with Daddy. We seemed
like we had a lot back in them days. I’m the oldest and I can
remember more than either of my brothers about the good old
days before we lived with Pop and Grandma. Willy, my oldest
brother, is just barely eleven and Bud, the baby, is near about
eight years old now. Boys don’t seem to pay near as much
attention to stuff as girls do. I asked Willy one time if he thought
Mama was pretty and he said he didn’t know; she was just
Mama. But I think about stuff like that.
Mama is prettier than anybody in the movies. Her hair is
long and wavy when she takes it down out of them rag rollers
and it’s the exact same color as sorghum molasses in the
sunshine. I want to look just like her and some folks say I do, but
I can’t see it. She named me after her own self. Her full name is
Elizabeth Abigail Fox but everybody calls her Queenie. I don’t
know why. She says she always wanted a baby girl so when I
was born, she just decided to name me Elizabeth Abigail, too.