Telling Stories

When I was a little girl we used to go to my Granny and Papo Crowder's house in Langdale, Alabama to spend week-ends and summer time with them.

Lottie Belle Weldon Crowder

My granny and Papo slept in separate double beds on either side of the bathroom door.  She had had a stroke in her 40's and was paralyzed on her left side and needed to get up frequently at night to use the rest room.  When we came for a visit, I usually slept with Granny.

  Her bed was always loaded with blankets...lots of them.  I loved getting down in under them, but like a lot of kids, my metabolism  ran high and I would start sweating in the middle of the night. 

 I'd start flailing around, telling her, "I'm about to sweat to death, Granny!" until I got the covers off me.  After I cooled off I'd fall back  to sleep and Granny would do her best to cover me back up.

  Over and over until I kicked them off.  She patiently tried to put them back on, even though she had a crippled hand and leg.  I'm sure she grew impatient with me but she never fussed at me.

Another thing she did is tell me stories.  She made them come alive!  She'd tell me the story of "Chicken Little", Little Red Riding Hood"," the Little Red Hen.",  and many of  Uncle Remus's stories .

She was a southern lady so she did it in her slow southern Alabama drawl.  If she missed a step I would remind her. 

Turkey Lurkey, and Henny Penny, and Goosey Loosey and all the others running to the King to let him know ,"the sky was falling!"  And for some reason I loved to hear her say, "Well, then I'll do it Myself,"when she mimicked the little Red Hen. 

 Sometimes she got so tickled when she was telling me about Brer Bear, and Brer Fox, and Brer Rabbit getting into it.  She'd get to hollering and squealing like Brer Rabbit was caught in the brier patch and I would start giggling.

 I felt like I was in the briar patch too. She'd laugh so hard she'd  wet her pants and that would make me laugh harder and giggle louder.
We'd lay there in her bed under the covers while  she  spun out those yarns hoping that I would fall asleep soon. 

Sometimes it worked, but there were those times when I was so wound up that I could not go to sleep and she would start complaining of her jaw aching. 

 Funny how I didn't catch on until I was much older that she was trying to tell me she was too tired to tell me another story.

Donald Crowder,my dad, and his brother Danny

Those are good memories to me and it gave me an appreciation for fairy tales, fiction and story telling and it made me want to be a story teller too.

It also bonded me to her.  I knew I was her favorite.  It wasn't just the story telling, it was the warm cozy feeling of being loved and knowing I was special to her.