With Mom and Aunt Emma living in our house it was like having two mothers. They each treated us just like Connie and I were both their own children. That meant that Connie and I were raised like brother and sister and we became very close to one another, too.
We both went to the same school and I always looked out for her and protected her as best I could. Connie always looked after me as much as she could, too.
Neither Mom nor Aunt Emma ever remarried as back then most men did not want to take on the responsibility for a woman with one or more children because of the added expense that they would have to bear.
Not only that, there were not that many men with good paying jobs in the area that we grew up in. Most men had their own problems supporting themselves let alone supporting a ready made family and one or two or more young kids. Besides that Mom and Aunt Emma’s opportunity to meet eligible men was very small anyway.
Connie always liked to do things with me and she would tag along with me whenever she could and if I would let her, which was a lot of the time. Even though Aunt Emma and Connie were living with us, times were still tough and money was still very tight. Mom and Aunt Emma both got some help from the state with AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. In some places it was called relief. (I think that it is now called welfare.)
We never had money for much more than just living expenses. I always tried to help out my Mom and Aunt Emma by doing odd jobs. I did jobs like chopping wood, mowing lawns, raking leaves, washing windows, hoeing gardens and anything else that would bring in a few dollars for us.
I even went wild berry picking during the season and I sold the berries door to door. Of course, I had to chop wood for us, too, for cooking and for our pot belly stove in the cold weather.
Connie many times would tag along with me and help me when I mowed lawns and raked leaves. Connie didn’t like to pick blackberries because she got scratched by the briers.
Every time I would get ready to go mow a lawn or rake leaves Connie would wrap her arms around my waist and lay her head against me. Then she would look at me with those big, pretty “cow” eyes of hers and ask in her tiny little voice. “Can I come with you, Kenny? I want to help you.” How could I deny such a request from such a sweet little Girl?
I would always tell her, “I’m just going to go mow a lawn or rake leaves, Connie.”
She would just reply, “I’ll sweep the sidewalk for you or I’ll help you rake the leaves. I can rake leaves with you, Kenny.” Just how could I tell her that I didn’t want her help? I wouldn’t do that, to such a sweet lovable little Girl, surely not in this life time.
Most of the time I’d tell her “OK, Honey you can come with me. You can come along if you do everything that I tell you to do, Ok?”
Her face and eyes would really light up with happiness, she would grab my hand and squeal to me with her cute innocent exuberance, “Yea! Come on, Kenny, let’s go. I’m ready to go.”
Then I always had to tell her, “Woah, wait a minute, Connie. Make sure that you go pee pee before we leave. There won’t be anywhere for you to do that when we are working. You know.” She raked the lawn and even swept the sidewalk for me even though the rake and the broom were just about as big as she was.
Connie always replied, “Oh, Kenny, I have already done that. I know that there isn’t any place for me to do that when we leave the house.” But, sometimes she really had to hurry home because she had to go pee. Just like grown women I think she had a bladder the size of a thimble.
Connie was always so proud that she helped earn the money we were paid for our work. I always gave her a little of the money for her to give to Mom or Aunt Emma. She just beamed to give her portion to her Mom or to my Mom. Mom or Aunt Emma always hugged her kissed her and told her she did a good job.
Whatever money we earned doing those jobs, I always turned that money over to my Mom. She put it into a jar that could be used for any of the four of us for something we really needed like clothes, shoes or school supplies and sometimes even groceries.
Over time the money in that jar began to grow pretty large. Many times we were really glad that we had that little stash to fall back on to help us out in a pinch when money was tighter than it normally was.
Mom and Aunt Emma would hug me and Connie and tell us how proud they were of us for helping us all out with the money we had earned. Connie was always so proud that she helped bring that money into the house. She always had to tell both of our Moms how she helped bring home the money we had earned.
Mom kept the money jar hidden from us kids but, Aunt Emma knew where Mom kept it if she really needed it for something for the family. Those were the times when Mom and Aunt Emma would hug and kiss both me and Connie for us helping the “family” out the way we did. I was always proud to help support our family and Connie was proud that she had helped me when she could.
We walked almost everywhere we went and when I got the time I liked to go hiking and exploring in the woods and around the swamp that was close to our little town. Connie really liked to tag along with me and to do the same things that I did. She really liked to go hiking in the woods with me. However, she did not really like to go into the swamp because she was always afraid of some of the wildlife that we both knew lived in the swamp.
When I saw an opossum or a snake or a snapping turtle I would always point it out and tell her, “Connie you stay clear of it now, ya hear.” so, she would not get startled or scared of it or hurt by it.
I was always on the lookout for cottonmouths and I made damn sure that neither one of us got crosswise with a cottonmouth. I knew damn sure that a cotton mouth bite would kill Connie as little as she was and it would very likely kill me as well. Copperheads weren’t much better either.
Mom and Aunt Emma said that they always worried about us when we went out hiking as they were afraid that we would get lost or get hurt. I told them that I would never let anything like that happen to Connie or to me either. I don’t know that it ever made either one of them feel any better but, that didn’t dissuade me very much. We still went hiking and into the swamp and I think that Connie kind of liked it and we both learned a lot.
There were times that we would go fishing with a line and a pole and Connie wanted to have her own fishing pole, too. But, she always wanted me to put the worm on her hook for her. She wanted me to take the fish off the hook and put them on the stringer for her. It was kind of like I was fishing with two poles with Connie just holding one of the poles for me. She was just holding the fishing pole and watching the bobber for me. Of course, I think we might have caught a little more fish that way.
She was a little bit of a “fraidy cat” in some ways as most little Girls are. But, she always liked to tell my Mom and her Mom that she caught some of the fish we brought home on the stringer. Usually the fish on the stringer were enough for us to make a mess for our supper for all of us.