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Show " " BY ROY No answer. The coffee is still being stirred. "Now don't be difficult. You know very well that if I get up and fry an egg for you to have with toast and jelly, Junior will set up the howl for some of the same." The beans are pushed a little closed to you. The kids have quit eating eat-ing by now and are watching with interest, for you are about to set an example. So you eat the beans, or stew, whichever the case may be. I very well remember one morning in particular that I arrived home about seven o'clock in the morning and Audrey was already up, dressed and fresh-looking as that daisy they're always talking about. She had the kids all ready too. "We are going to Provo for the day to do some visiting." (We lived in Salt Lake City then) "You should get a good sleep today. The house will be nice and quiet." And after they had left, I could hardly wait to get cleaned clean-ed up and between those clean sheets. It had been a long night and I was so tired that I could imagine that even my hair hurt. HOWDY FOLKS Most of us must work and earn our bread by the sweat of our brow, leastwise that's what the Bible recommends, but I dun-no. dun-no. Folks have many ways of earning their bread, not all of which is earned during the daylight day-light hours. Some nights you just couldn't raise a sweat, no '.natter hew hard you worked. Did'ja ever think of how many there are who earn their pay by working the hoot-owl hours? There's hardly a company com-pany of any size who doesn't have night workers on their pay roll. The list is endless and you know who they are as well as I. Shucks, as if it wasn't bad enough to eat beans for breakfast break-fast (4:30 p.m.) and fried eggs and hot cakes for supper, (4:30 a.m.) if you are a night owl you are forever and forever for-ever trying to figure out how to get enough sleep while the sun is shining, to stay awake when it isn't. Many a man and woman ha.ve gotten in trouble with their company for having got caught asleep on the job. Most bosses get excited and real upset when they find a worker in a horizontal position, and especially if this worker It is Impossible to put sleep in the bank, like money, for future fu-ture use. One must sleep sc many hours out of every twenty-four. If not, you gradually grad-ually become run-down anc your scalp feels kinda numb tc the touch, your eyes as big as saucers and blind as a bat That's the way it was with me that moring. I think I must have beer asleep by the time my head hit the pillow. But not for long A couple of cats had gotter under the house and in mj drugged condition I finallj came to realize that those twt cats must have been the champions cham-pions of all cats. They hac evidently moved their operations opera-tions under the house where i( was dark, after it became lighl outdoors. I've heard a lot of cats ir my day, but never a battle like that. I counted 846 turns they made around the perimitei of that house, bumping theii heads on every floor joists a; they speeded through the darkness. dark-ness. Finally the screechin caturwauling merged into soft purr and I passed oul again. I was too sleepy to trj and figure out what they was fighting about, just satisfied that they had ironed out their problems. I read somewhere that after one goes to sleep, it is about two hours before one goes into ' a deep sleep. I had been asleep for about two hours and think I was past the point of "deep sleep." I think I was in a state of death. In my subconscious, I could hear the door bell. Then I could hear someone beating on the '. door. "Maybe they'll go away," . I thought. After about five t minutes of this, I was awake enough that I heard them gc I down the steps to leave. 1 thought. But he never gave up. It'all ; started again at the back door, the bell ringing and door pounding. poun-ding. "Maybe the house is on fire, or there's been an auto- ; mobile accident and Audrey and the kids are in the hospi-. hospi-. tal." My bare feet hit the floor i and I made my way blindly tc . the kitchen door. Not awake, not asleep, I opened the door. A man was standing there . with a bucket in his hand. He gave me a real nice smile, i "Want'ta buy some oranges?" SEE YA'ALL LATER is asleep. Even if it IS 2:45 in the morning. They're sorta narrow-minded that way, and anyway, who is there to catch them asleep? But you learn to tell when the boss has been resting his eyes. They kinda look puffed up and his voice is sorta hoarse while he's raking you over the coals. It ain't a darned bit fair. And 'nother thing! Dad-gummit, Dad-gummit, some folks just can't seem to get it in their thick skulls that the bread on the table was put there by the very one who had to stay up all night, every night, to earn the money to buy the bread. And the night sleepers can't understand why this day sleeper sleep-er don't want to eat that bread along with the ham-hocks and beans that are on the table when he or she gets up in the afternoon. But to the night-worker, night-worker, it's morning, and time for breakfast. It just plain don't occur to the night sleepers that this bleary-eyed character would rather ra-ther have a glass of orange juice and maybe an egg with a piece of toast and jelly. But it's supper time. Ham-hocks and beans or good old beef stew is ALWAYS good at supper sup-per time. (Try getting up at 4:30 in the morning and eating some good 'ole ham-hocks and beans!) So the night-hawk just sits there absently stirring the coffee, cof-fee, staring in the stew bowl and contemplates the long, long night ahead. Meanwhile, the stew gets cold and so does the attitude of the rest of the family toward this mis-fit who lays around and sleeps all day while everyone every-one else is about important business. "What's a'matta? You too good to eat stew (or beans) with the rest of the family?" |