Law, this old man live up above us and ran a little old store. When I'd
get my quarter on Saturday morning I'd run up there and I'd get me… Then
they had, Oh Boy chewing gum, come in a long stick about that long and
about as wide as your two fingers. And they was a penny. And Mary Janes,
they come in a long thing then, weren't them little short things. Come
long, about like that, you know. They
Page 32 was a penny.
Well, I'd get me some Oh Boy chewing gum and some Mary Janes, and then
he had a three cent copper—a drink that tasted almost like a Dr. Pepper.
They called it a three cent copper. And I'd get me one of them. And boy,
I thought that was the best pay, and I'd eat it. One time, I never will
forget, my sisters watched me, and would get my candy and stuff. Well,
we lived in this old house and you could walk up under it, and it
weren't underpinned or nothing. It had rafters up under there. Well, I
took my candy and chewing gum, put it in a little sack, went under the
house and hid it up under there in one of them rafters.
[Laughter] I won't never forget that thing
as long as I live. And next day I went out there to get a piece of my
candy and chewing gum. And went out there and got my sack down and it
was just loaded with ants. The ants had found it. I said, Lord-a-mercy,
what am I going to do, they've got my candy and my chewing gum. Well,
this here old friend of mine lived up there above us, she said, well, I
tell you what we'll do. We'll take it down to the branch and wash it.
Said, we'll wash it off, wash them ants off. We took it down to the
branch and washed the candy and I said, "Well, you eat a piece first."
She said, "No, you eat a piece." I said, "No, you eat one. If it's fresh
then I'll eat one." Well, we finally throwed it away. We nary one could
get nerve enough to eat that candy. And I never did put any more of my
candy under the house.
[Laughter]