When God Calls, You Will Answer!. George A. Ross
the water snakes would start leaving. You would think that in all the time we were around snakes growing up, that someone would have been snake bitten. We knew that snakes were dangerous but as kids and as outgoing as we were, this never seemed to worry us. I know now that God was watching over us because we had praying parents. James 5:16 teaches us, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” When a child is covered by their parents’ prayers, God honors the prayers of the righteous. So through it all, I believe that God always had His hands on me and kept me from harm.
Summer Time
My summer time vacation was full of fun and splendor. In the summer, my siblings and I would go to the cotton fields to pick cotton. We always went to work for Mrs. Louise Wilcox, which meant work plus fun. Mrs. Wilcox did not own the farm where she lived; she hired the hands to pick the cotton fields for the owner though. Now, these were happy times for us because when it would rain, we would go over to the Wilcox farm house and ride the calves and the cows in the barn until it stopped raining. We also went skinny dipping in the lakes and creeks located on the land. Pay day was early Saturday mornings, we would gather in line at Mrs. Wilcox’s truck to receive our pay. My cousins, Ellis, Jr., Hollis, Barbara Ann and Lloyd White, were good cotton pickers. They were so good that they could pick a hundred pounds or more a day.
It was a great way to earn our money. We would have enough to buy our own school clothes plus have extra spending money for going to the movies and other things. I remember that feeling of freedom. I was at a high point in my life because I was able to work, buy my own clothes and had money left over in my pocket. All of us kids went to the cotton fields and earned money to help buy the things we needed.
There were some black families that were well-off and their children didn’t have to go pick cotton. These families owned the stores and other businesses in town and made enough money to buy everything their children needed.
There was a time one summer when my mother went with us to the cotton field because my father’s plumbing business was suffering. She pitched in to help make money needed for the family. One afternoon, my mother was thirsty from working so hard in the heat and we had no water left. Actually, there was a little bit of water down in the bottom of the barrel, littered with trash. Back in that day, the trash in the bottom of the barrel was called “drugs.” So my mother poured the remaining water, laden with all of the drugs, into a cup and before she drank it, she placed a clear cloth over the cup to strain the drugs. It was very difficult for us to see our mother in such desperation. We all agreed that we never wanted that to happen again and we all helped out where it was needed.
My cousins from Galveston, Texas, would always visit when they were out of school for their summer vacation. Their names were Margery Ann Bailey and Nelson Miller, Jr. and they visited every summer. We were very close and we loved one another. The summer was a great time for our families to send special time together; we had lots of fun getting reacquainted every year. There was plenty of time for us to spend together, including attending church as a family and just sitting around talking about our dreams or just talking foolishly. We were just being children, enjoying our lives together, creating a bond that would connect us together for life.
We all enjoyed playing hide-and-go-seek. When we played this game, the person doing the seeking counted to ten while all the other players hid quickly before the count was completed. Once the seeker got to ten he or she would begin their search for those that were hidden. Oh, I get so excited just writing about those times. We had a wonderful childhood and I would not change a thing about it. We were kids growing up with two loving parents and loving grandparents on both sides. Whenever we needed correction, it did not matter which parent or grandparent did the correcting. And if one of us did something wrong at school, church or anywhere else, if there was an adult in the area, they would correct us and usually call our parents to tell on us. If that happened, we would prepare ourselves for another round of correcting. In those days the black neighborhood worked together on raising their children. A kid couldn’t get away with anything if there was an adult around.
There was never a dull moment at 2920 Park Avenue, in the summer time we always had something going on. There were fun, teenage places to go to on the weekend. Some of our favorites were Eddie’s Teenage Play, the Freeze-Ease and Boss Man’s. But we had to be home by twelve o’clock so we had to leave Boss Man’s before closing time since they stayed open until twelve. The Freeze-Ease stayed open until ten. We visited Eddie’s Teenage Play, right around the corner, and danced there from time to time but we spent more time at the Freeze-Ease or Boss Man’s. We never complained about anything because we had everything that was needed for us to grow into responsible adults.
Winter Time
The winters in Bay City meant it was time for hunting season. Our rabbit dogs knew at the first frost that they were going hunting. My grandfather, Papa Hill, (also known as, The Warrior) was an avid coon hunter whose dogs were named King, Tailor, Yellow Gail, and Red Bell. His dogs were all well trained in the art of treeing a coon.
Papa Hill had promised my cousin and me two puppies from a litter when they were old enough to leave their mother. We named the male puppy, Tiger, and the female, Frisky. We loved them and cared for them. I was the one who took the must care of the puppies. We started training them as soon as possible. We took a rabbit skin and drug it over the yard, then hid it from the pups so they could track the scent of the rabbit skin until they found it. I worked them every chance I had until they were old enough to go on their first hunt. They went out hunting with well-trained rabbit dogs so they would continue to be trained properly. When they were about seven or eight months old, they tracked and I shot their first rabbit. They were so excited when they achieved their goal. They had the hearts of true hunting dogs and they loved to get out on a cold day and jump their game.
The Texas Swamp Rabbit
My friend and I hunted this swamp rabbit for about four or five hunting seasons. I remember hunting the canal behind the school every season. We would come to a place on the canal among the wolf weeds and it was there that we would always jump him late in the evening. My hunting buddy had a little Terrier dog named, King, and King would always go to that spot and start the hunt. It was just like clockwork every day after school, we would go out and try to capture or kill the Ghost, as we called him. This name was suitable for this elusive swamp rabbit. Season after season we hunted this rabbit and we seemed to fail every time.
My buddy and I would set-up in the creek bed as the dogs were chasing the Ghost. It seemed as though he knew just where we were at all times. We would set-up on either side of the creek bed and wait. This swamp rabbit would come out running between us so that if we fired our shot guns, we would shoot each other.
Then the Ghost would go into a little pond covered with water and submerge himself, sticking his nose up out of the water just enough to get air. He would continue to hide, waiting patiently, until we would give up and start to leave. Then he would jump up out of the water and run. This would startle us so much that we would not be able to fire a shot. This went on and on until the day when we finally achieved our goal.
It was a cold and misty evening; we had come to the place where King would always jump the swamp rabbit. As we stood quietly listening for the bark of the dogs, we heard a low growl from King and then silence. We held our position and listened. Soon all of the dogs began to dark and we knew that it was a race. It was on. As the dogs were hot on the trail and as their chase became more and more intense, we got excited. We knew this race was different from all the others. The dogs drove him out into the open field and my buddy fired his shot gun and wounded him. The dogs heard the shot and became even more eager as they continued chase in the open field. Now we knew that the swamp rabbit had left the safety of the creek bed and the wolf weed and the dogs were hot on his tail. The Ghost had left the canal to get some distance between him and the dogs but he was wounded in his attempt. The Ghost had begun to circle back towards the canal. But Tiger was jumping up high above the grass looking to find that swamp rabbit. This was Tiger’s race,