Untitled - Depression Era Excerpt

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So it is Excerpt Monday again! This month I am sharing an excerpt from a Depression Era piece that I started and well…you know. Haven’t worked on again in a while. I am not sure I would call it “romance” but then again…who knows where it might lead! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

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I can remember mama in the kitchen getting dinner together. She would pluck a plump white chicken while she hummed a tune, though I can’t quite remember the name of it. The string beans sat in a bowl on the counter not far away, their ends all snapped off. Potatoes were next to them, peeled and gleaming a creamy white from the water that still lightly layered them.

I can see her in her blue dress with the pale yellow floral print apron that she always wore. Her chestnut hair was captured back in a simple bun that allowed a few whispy strands to fall around her face. Every so often she would reach up with the back of her wrist to gently push some of the tickling strands away. She enjoyed preparing dinner then, but that was before it happened.

One day I was just coming down the stairs as a knock came at the door. It was Mrs. Kelsy from down the lane wanting to buy a chicken. You see, we raised chickens to sell as well as eat. I smiled as I saw her and leaned around the dining room entry to holler back at mama.

“Mrs. Kelsy ‘s here for a chicken mama. I’m running down to the coup to get her one.”

“Alright Wilma, just send her on in here to have a chat while she waits.” Mama replied. Turning back to Mrs. Kelsy I passed on the message in short order, “Mama’s in the kitchen. I’ll be right back.” And I was off running down to the coup.

Mrs. Kelsy waited with mama in the kitchen swapping gossip as she casually laid 50 cents on the table in payment for the chicken. Mama would never turn around, she knew the money would be there when Mrs. Kelsy left. Shortly I reappeared with a squirming and clucking sack. I handed it off to Mrs. Kelsy and then disappear back into the upper reigons of the house.

Long about 4pm daddy would return from working at the factory up the road. He wasn’t a laborer though, he worked in the office. I can still recall the musky smell of his aftershave as it mixed with the grease he put in his hair to hold it in place. In the evenings as he came in, he would drop his hat and newspaper by the door along with his lunch pail. Early in the morning mama would put a fresh lunch in his pale and throw out yesterdays paper.

It was the same Monday through Friday.

Every once in awhile he would go out in the evening to get the days paper, usually when he was too busy at work and had to skip lunch. Sometimes when that happened, while I was little, he would take me with him to get the paper and buy me a piece of penny candy in the store. As I got older those walks happened less and less until not at all by the time I was in high school.

I miss those walks.

[Via http://dyockman.wordpress.com]