 |
| Palmer Roscoe Harrell |
Me and my brothers called him Uncle Buddy like everyone else in the family. Palmer Roscoe Harrell was born on Oct 28, 1900 and died in 1977 in Amite, Louisiana He and I share the same birthday. I grew up in Amite, Louisiana, for the first twelve years of my life and got to spend sometime with Uncle Buddy drove an old green pickup truck to the family homestead to do his farm work. He farmed on the land that his mother Emma Mead Harrell had purchased in 1896.
Uncle Buddy drove so slow that my oldest brother Reginald would jump on and off the back of the truck. Boy! If my mother would've seen that we all would've been in big trouble. And especially me because I'm the oldest. He took out so much time with my brothers and me, we all loved him dearly.
Sometimes I would sit in front of the truck with him. I had to push all the stuff he had on the front seat over so I would have a place to sit. I remember the old mason jar with frozen ice water and a bag with vanilla wafers and cheese in it. After we helped him with his daily chores, we took us to Bell's store to buy some treats with the nickel he gave each of us. Now, those nickels with far back in those days. Uncle Buddy walked as slow as he drove his truck. He'll always hold an extraordinary place in my heart. The lessons of planting vegetables came from him. Whenever I'm working in my garden, I think of him. I called my youngest Michael and asked him what he remembers most about him.
I remember after school, he would give us time to change our school clothes and put on some work clothes, and he'll come and pick us up to help him pick peas, beans, and load the hampers on the back of the truck, said Michael. Sometimes we just walked across the road and help him.
Michael had me laughing so hard; he remembered when our brother Thomas took two watermelons and put them in a sack and put them in the pond to stay cool so he could eat them later. Uncle Buddy said I know how many watermelons I had. If I find out who got them, you would be in trouble.
He told us if it was raining and start lightning don't stand under the trees. "We soon found out why he said that," said Michael. We did just what he told us not to do, and the lighting stuck the tree we were standing under a tree that struck by lightning. We ran as fast as we could all the way home.
He always gave our mother fresh vegetables for us, helping him. Little did we know we were buying our groceries. "Not only did we help harvest the crops," said Michael. We had to clean the vegetables and help mama freeze them. One thing is for sure it taught us good work ethics, he said.
