THERE I WAS AGAIN
THE CONTINUING SAGA OF THE KILLEEN HILLBILLIES
“Grandpa,” excitedly shouted young Junior Jethro (Jared), as he came running into the parlor, “we got our tractor back and it’s in the trailer on the back of my momma’s truck!” So Grandpa Jedidiah (Frank) got up out of his chair with the dog, Ol’ Buff, jumping down to follow, and went to the door with Junior Jethro to admire the shiny green tractor with the yellow seat, in the trailer. “Mighty fine tractor, Grandson, are you going to drive it with your Daddy?” Grandpa Jedidiah asked.
“I am going to drive it, Grandpa. And when we’re done, we park it in the shed me and my daddy built in the backyard today” He was so proud.
“Pops”, Jethro (Scott) asked, “want to go with me to take the mower over to the other house?” I think I may need to mow there and also take that fridge out of the house and move it over to the big house and put it in the garage”.
“Son”, Grandpa Jedidiah, responded, “I will go with you. I went to the dump without you today, by the way. I had a truck load to get rid of”.
“Pops”, you could take a truck load to the dump every Saturday. I just don’t know where you get the stuff to take. Anyway, I’ll have a load next Saturday, so if you have anything, you can put it in my truck”. “I’m sure that by next Saturday I will have stuff to add to your load. I know I have that big tree branch that fell out of the pecan tree last week”, Grandpa replied.
We loaded up the truck with the young’ens and headed over to the other house to drop off the mower and load up the fridge. Everything went well, until we tried to load the fridge. We were using the hand dolly to load the fridge and as we pulled back on the dolly, the fridge tilted to the right and the doors flew open. The tire on the dolly was flat and needed to be aired up (what is it with me and flat tires) – and the fridge needed to be loaded from the opposite side so the doors would stay closed. About that time, the 4 young’ens came in and announced that they had to use the bathroom. Jethro explained that the water was still off and that they needed to wait until we got back to Mimi’s house… or the boys could go pee in the back yard. Junior Jethro was all for that until the other young’ens said they could wait. So back to Mimi’s house we went.
Meanwhile, back at Mimi’s house, Grandpa got the air compressor and we headed back over to the other house, this time with no young’ens. Jethro and I got the tires aired up on the dolly – the first dolly we had ever seen that weren’t hard rubber and actually needed airing up. But we got the fridge onto the dolly, with the doors staying shut, and we went out the door and to the trailer. The neighbors watched us loading the fridge and then after a few minutes called us over. Seems Gertrude, Gigi’s old friend (now at least 114 years old) was out watering her lawn and noticed two men stealing the fridge from nice Lil’ Valerie’s house, so she got together with the other neighbor and called Lil’ Val and told her some men were taking the fridge from her house. Lil’ Val assured them that it was Jethro and Jedidiah and all was okay. So the four of us stood on the neighbors porch laughing a bit while Gertrude told the story.
Fridge loaded, we headed back over to the big house to put the fridge in the garage. Jedidiah told Jethro he was now officially a growed up Pritchard because he now had a fridge in his garage, too. Jethro wondered why it had taken us over an hour just to move the fridge from one house to the other, and mused that we still had to load the mower back onto the trailer and take to back over to the big house and park it in the shed. So back over to the other house we went.
We parked the truck in the street by the curb and put the ramps down for the mower and Jethro was ready to load. This is a maneuver he has done countless times. Just before he started to move to the trailer, I saw in my mind’s eye the pending disaster that was about to take place. It all played out in slow motion. About three fourths the way up the ramp, front wheels on the trailer, the left ramp fell from its perch and Jethro was sitting on the mower, eyes as big as half dollars. Jedidiah was right behind the mower and was trying to keep the momentum going so the mower would get up onto the trailer. But the mower deck caught on the trailer and the mower stopped, and Jethro stood up and the motor stopped. The mower started tilting to the left and the other ramp then fell out from under the mower and there was only one place for it to go – DOWN – with Jethro riding in the saddle. There was nothing Jedidiah could do but jump back out of the way. BAM! The mower somehow landed on all four wheels and then a loud banging pop as the engine backfired as it shut down. Poor Gertrude – she watched the whole thing, mouth gaping open and eyes wide. “I’m good”, Jethro assured everyone. After a few “WHEW’s” we decided this time we were going to push the mower up the ramp and onto the trailer. And without further incident, we were on our way to the big house, by the way of Mimi’s. Jethro had to use the bathroom. Jedidiah was surprised that he still had to!
When we left for the big house, Junior Jethro wanted to go with us, so the three of us rode over. We unloaded the mower the same way we loaded it, pushing. Then Jethro and Junior Jethro took the mower to the backyard and parked it in the shed. Then Junior Jethro said, “Grandpa, you need to get a green tractor like mine.” I said that I did need one, but maybe I would get an orange one. He thought a minute, and then said “Yeh, you can get an orange one and I will have a green one”.
There I was again!
