by Wendy V. Smith (January 2011; edited July 2, 2020)
Donna is 11 years older than me and Carol is 8 years older. Donna and Carol were members of the 4H Club where young people learned how to do things that people did living in farming communities. For example, they learned how to take care of a calf and how to make clothes. Carol liked making clothes, but she didn’t like anything about the farm. She thought the farm was stinky and she was afraid of the chickens. This is a story Mom loved to tell at family gatherings, plus other stories of Carol and Roy ….
One day, Mom was making a cake and needed two eggs. She asked Carol to go and collect some eggs from the hen house. Five minutes later, Carol returned empty handed, claiming there were no eggs. Mom was puzzled. There should have been several eggs that day, as they had not been collected yet. So, taking Carol by the hand, Mom went to the hen house. It was a little house about the size of my bedroom. On either side were shelves with lots of straw nests on them. Some had chicken sitting in the nests and some were empty. Mom put her hand under one of the chickens and pulled out an egg.
“What do you call that?” Mom asked Carol.
“Well,” Carol answered with a quiver in her voice, “I hope you didn’t expect ME to stick MY hand under there!”
“And how do you expect to get the eggs?” Mom asked.
“I don’t know,” said Carol defiantly. “But I’m NOT putting my hand under any chicken.”
“For goodness sake, child! What kind of farmer’s wife will you turn out to be?” Mom said, mostly to herself.
“I’m not going to be a farmer’s wife and I’m not going to live on a farm.” And with that, Carol marched out of the hen house.
Mom and Dad’s best friends were Beatrice and Melvin who owned a farm not far away. They had a son Roy, who was the same age as Donna. Mom told me about the times that she and Beatrice would talk about how wonderful it would be if Donna and Roy ended up getting married. Donna and Roy became childhood friends with Carol tagging along.
“Come on Carol! Jump on!” coaxed Donna, one cold winter day. Roy was holding the ropes of the toboggan.
“No!” Carol cried. “You’ll make me get on and then you won’t pull.”
“Yes we will,” said Roy. “Come on. I’ll pull you.”
“Promise?” asked Carol.
“Yeah, sure!” reassured Donna.
“Get on!” said Roy with a sweet smile.
Carol thought Roy was cute and wished that he’d come to visit her instead of Donna. So, lost in Roy’s convincing boyish smile, Carol plopped herself on the toboggan, only to be left sitting all alone and angry, while Donna and Roy ran off laughing.
As the years went by, Roy continued to visit, but he did not come to visit Donna anymore. He was coming to see Carol.
When Roy got his driver’s license, he would come and take Carol for a drive. When they came back, they would sit in the driveway and talk.
“WAYNDY!” Mom shouted when she got our names mixed up. “Get away from that window! Let them have some privacy.”
“But Ma,” I whined pressing my nose into the glass, “They might kiss. I wanna see them kiss.”
“Get away from the window,” Mom repeated, waving a wet tea towel at us.
“Awe – they’re coming in,” moaned Wayne as he bounced off the couch.
Carol walked in the kitchen door with Roy behind her. “Mother! Can you stop those kids from starring out the window at us. Its embarrassing!”
“What were you doing in the car?” sang Wendy. “Roy and Carol sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!”
“MOM!” Carol pleaded.
Mom put her hands on her hips and gave THAT look that let me to stop now, or else.
“OK,” I said reluctantly. “Wanna play a game?”
“Good idea,” said Mom. “Play a game with them. Monopoly or something.”
“YEAH!” Wayne and I squealed. Wayne ran to the cupboard over the washing machine, pulled over a chair, climbed up and pulled down the Monopoly box. The box was ragged from so much use. All four corners had been taped together.
Wayne and I set the game up on the dining room table and Wayne counted out all the money.
“I’ll be the banker,” said Roy.
“I’LL be the banker!” said Carol. “They’ll be no cheating going on here.” She eyed her three opponents with a warning. “House rules: $500 for landing on GO and you can borrow from the bank.”
An hour into the game, there was no money in the bank because Roy had borrowed it all and put hotels on all his properties. When Carol landed on Roy’s property, she had no money left. Carol was so angry that she ran from the table and threw herself on the couch, face towards the back.
“I’m never speaking to you again, Roy Sullivan!” she exclaimed.
Wayne and I looked at Roy. “Oh oh!” I thought. “Now what?”
“Let’s just keep playing,” said Wayne. “We don’t need her.”
Roy jiggled the dice in his palm, then stopped, then jiggled them again, then stopped.
“Oh, come on Daisy, come on back,” Roy pleaded.
“No!” Carol’s voice. “Don’t talk to me!”
“Here,” Roy said shoving some of his money to where Carol had been sitting. “You can have some of my money.”
“I DON’T … WANT … YOUR … MONEY!” Carol said.
“Can I have your money?” I asked Roy.
“No! Don’t you want your sister to come back and play,” Roy reasoned.
“If I throw myself on the couch and pout, will you give me some money?” asked Wayne.
“I’M NOT POUTING!” shouted Carol, her face still facing the back of the couch.
Roy finally stood up and walked to the couch. “Come on Daisy. I’m sorry,” he said softly, sitting on the edge of the couch beside her.
“Eooowww!” I sighed making kissing noises.
After a good deal of coaxing and apologizing, Carol finally agreed to come back to the table to play. Roy promised to cash all of his hotels into the bank and pay back everything he owed.
What a hoot we had at Monopoly!!