The Boarding House

When my mother and dad were a newly married couple, Daddy got a job with his cousins lumber mill.  One of his first jobs was to go into the forests of eastern Kentucky and pick out the trees that would make good lumber.  This was done as a team with the forestry service.  He and one of the rangers would look over the trees and decide which ones needed to be thinned that would meet the standards of good lumber.  The job was good and he always loved spending time in the forests, but it was a long way from my mother. 

During this time he was living in the little community of McKee, Ky., deep in the mountains.  He stayed at the local boarding house with several other men, including the forestry service employee he was working with.  Boarding houses are a thing of the past now, but at one time nearly every little town had one.  Usually run by a widow who was left with a big house and not much income, she would rent out rooms to make ends meet..  In addition to a room she would provide lunch and dinner.  The residents might be long term, or even permanent, or some of the many traveling salesmen that covered the area.  Most were men, but often a spinster lady or older couple would find a boarding house supplied an alternative to living with relatives.

The lady who ran the house ran into some troubles and needed some time off.  If I ever knew what troubles I've forgotten, but the important thing is that she couldn't just leave her boarders with no cook.  Daddy saw this as a golden opportunity to get Mother to the mountains without having to pay extra for her to stay.  He promptly volunteered her to come and take over the cooking.  So Mama went to the mountains to cook for the boarding house. 

Now Daddy always had a soft place for anything that was hurt, helpless, or needful.  The helper at the boarding house was a mentally retarded boy who did all the heavy lifting, helped clean up and kept the wood box filled.  He was a gentle soul and soon realized that Daddy would take the time to talk to him and show him how to do things, like tie fancy knots, carve little items, or just read to him from the paper.  He became Daddy's constant shadow.  As kind as Daddy was, he loved a practical joke better than anything.  With Mama on the way, he couldn't resist roping this young man into playing a joke on her.

You see, Mama, as young as she was, had totally gray hair.  It wasn't pretty silver hair either, it was a dull, salt and pepper gray.  Daddy pulled young friend to the side and told him that he wanted him to be especially nice to his wife who would be arriving shortly.  He went on to say that although she was a nice lady, he would have to be very careful about one thing.  She was very sensitive about her age.  Under no circumstances was he to bring up the fact that she was several years older than Daddy.  (In reality, Mama was six years younger than Daddy.)

Mama arrived and met everyone at the boarding house including Daddy's young friend.  After checking out the kitchen, she decided that a trip to the store was in order.  Knowing she had a lot of purchases to make she took the young friend with her to help with the load.  At the store she noticed that every time she turned around he was staring at her intensely.  If she took a step back, he was there, staring at her.  Finally on the walk back to the boarding house she could stand it no longer.  She asked him why he found her so strange and why he kept looking at her so oddly.  He blushed and blurted, "I know Mr. Morris told me not to say anything, but Mrs. Morris you just don't look like you're 10 years older than him!"

A couple of weeks passed and Mama hadn't said anything about the joke, but she was laying her plans.    The night came when instead of serving the food to the residents as she usually did, she let her helper wait the table, while she stayed in the kitchen.  When dessert time rolled around she picked up the plates and made her entrance.  With every eye on the kitchen door, she walked through with her head held high.  Except instead of the gray hair  they had come to expect, she was crowned with a mass of flaming red curls!  Daddy's mouth dropped open and then shut.  He knew he had been beaten this time.

The color wasn't permanent but no one ever mentioned her gray hair again.