Besides Mr and Mrs Carder, there was their son, Conde (who joined the U. S. Marine Corps after World War 2 started) and a German Shepherd dog that you learned quickly not to venture too near.

What I liked most about their home was the big country kitchen where Mrs Carder always seem to have some yummy baked goody to taste. The various odors encountered there seemed to fill me with a feeling that I should stay very near. It was such an enticing atmosphere, almost indescribable.

Near the kitchen was a room where a quilt-in-progress was on a full frame which was suspended from the ceiling. There was a system of cords and pulleys which allowed the frame to be raised to the ceiling when not being worked on and lowered so that it could be worked on. A group of women would gather periodically to work on the quilt. Occasionally, they would be working when I was visiting and I would watch them, in fascination, as they so adeptly made the little stitches to finish the quilt.

The Carders also had some dairy cows and during one of my visits, they showed me a newly born mostly brown calf with a white mark in the form of the numeral, "7" on its face. They had named it, "7-UP."

Somehow, at one time, I had a ticket to the Texas State Fair in Dallas, but no way to get to the fair. All looked hopeless; I was very sad and cried. I just wasn't going to be able to go, so I tore up the ticket and dropped the pieces down one of those knotholes in the floor.

A while later, my mother called me in to tell me that the Carders had stopped by and were going to the fair that night. She had told them how much I wanted to go to the fair and that I had a ticket. They would be happy to take me to the fair.

What a disaster! I had destroyed the ticket! I told mom and the Carders what I had done. I still wouldn't be able to go. Mr Carder asked where I had put the pieces. When I told him, he said I should go quickly and find as many of the pieces as I could. If we glued them together, he would speak to the gateman and try to get him to let me in with the repaired ticket.

Fortunately, there had been no wind to blow the pieces away and I found them all. Mom helped me glue them together somehow....I think we glued them to a piece of cellophane. I got all cleaned up and was ready when the Carders drove up and we went to the fair.

At the fair, the gateman listened to my sad story, accepted my repaired ticket and welcomed me to the fair, the first time I had ever been to one. I was filled with wonder as I walked through the aisles of huge displays of vegetables, fruit and farm products. We also saw several kinds of rabbits and chickens, more different kinds than I had ever seen. I had a most wonderful time that night.

Is there any reason I would ever forget about those wonderful people, the Carders?

©Copywrite January 2001; ALL Rights Reserved