The first thing in that I can remember is sitting on a stool in my grandfather's house. We were gathered around the fireplace. The stool was a homemade affair, built square and a bout 24 inches tall. Which was about the same height as I was. The room was lit with kerosene lamps whose soft glow competed with the fireplace to light the room. It was about an even match. I was playing with a piece of kindleing about two feet long and about a half inch square. It had been split from a fat pine stump and was hard as iron. For what ever reason I decided to hit him on the head and action followed impulse. He was bald and the stick of kindleing left a 2 inch cut. He yelled at me and I fell off the stool and started crying.My grandfather was a man of few words and his word was law. But in this case my grandmother was the law. She chastised him severely and gathered me up in her lap.In later years I came to realize that his law had limits and when my grandmother that I called big grandma and others called her big Momma put that limit on him. Normally she would go along with whatever he said but where I was concerned no chastising was allowed.
