I surely love my cousins. Something that I'll carry till I'm gone. I did have other friends besides just family. I learned from them all. I guess my favorites were Tom and Ed Wideman. The Wideman's lived about half a mile down the road from my grand paw Gann. They walked into mine and little brothers life one sunny spring day . Turns out they had just moved into the neighborhood. They were the perfect picture of two hillbilly farm kids. Both were dressed in D.C. overalls and homemade feed sack shirts. The both had on "Brogan"type work shoes. A shoe very much like the Amish and Mennonite people wear. Tom had homemade sling shot, complete with "Red rubber" strips hanging out of his right back pocket. Ed was hacking on a "sour wood"stick with an old "Kabar" pocket knife. He was sucking on a  chunk of "Days work "chewing tobacco. Had can of Prince Albert smoking tobacco peeking out of the "chest" pocket of them D.C. overalls.

These two boys were a perfect replacement for our pal's Danny and Jimmy who we left behind on Catalina. As good as they could be and a totally new level of southern back woods people. Pure country folks. Plain and simple. Both were smart in the ways of the land, the woods and the water. Both of them were fun to be around and I admit of just two of a small number people that I trusted. They would see to it that my back was covered. Tom was Lowell's age. Ed was about a year older than me. 

The Wideman's moved from the coal mining town of Sipsey to the old farm near my grand paws place. Mr. Wideman was a farmer although he had worked in the coal mines for a while. All the Widemans were hard workers. Tom and Ed  worked in the field a lot. Me and little brother would go over to their place and help out. I could do field hand work but I never developed a real appetite for it. My dad didn't try to farm anymore, so my farm boy day's were over. Mom still tried to put out a garden. I was able to keep a "green thumb" working in her garden. A garden was standard fare in our community. Everyone lived off the land during the summer months. Meat, except for our chickens, was kind of scarce but we didn't miss it that much. Mom was a good cook. She could actually make vegetables taste good. A good thing no doubt or else we all would have gone hungry at times.

So here we were, in world that was changing at an alarming rate. I never fail to wonder at the changes during my life time. All us children were blessed with the chance to witness the changes that followed World War Two. In years to come we would scatter to the four corners of this nation and in some cases this world. A life very much in tune with the "Walton's" but life with a much sharper edge.