Memory Lane (part 2)

Once darkness came we would go inside and since we did not have a television,we would sit and listen as daddy and what other relative might be visiting talked.We would hear stories of the big fish that got away,the eight point deer,the ole hound baying at a coon during a hunt or maybe one of daddy's stories of his childhood.Some nights while listening to the stories we would get to watch as daddy stretched coon hides.He would take sticks he had stripped the bark from and sharpened the ends and he would weave the sticks through the holes in the hide making the hide square.Once he was done he would stand the stretched hides in a corner of the room and leave them until they dried.Later he would load them up and take them to sell to be able to pay the rent,electric bill,buy grocery or whatever was needed at the time.Since daddy worked in the log woods and work was slow in the winter months,the hides were sometimes his only income.Though things were tough at times, we never went to bed hungry or without the necessities of life.