burying ground. That belonged
to the plantation."
"Where's the plantation?" John
Wesley asked.
"Gone With the Wind," said
the grandmother. "Ha. Ha."
When the children finished all
the comic books they had
brought, they opened the lunch
and ate it. The grandmother ate
a peanut butter sandwich and
an olive and would not let the
children throw the box and the
paper napkins out the window.
When there was nothing else to
do they played a game by
choosing a cloud and making
the other two guess what shape
it suggested. John Wesley took
one the shape of a cow and
June Star guessed a cow and
John Wesley said, no, an
automobile, and June Star said
he didn't play fair, and they
began to slap each other over
the grandmother.
The grandmother said she
would tell them a story if they
would keep quiet. When she
told a story, she rolled her eyes
and waved her head and was
very dramatic. She said once
when she was a maiden lady
she had been courted by a Mr.
Edgar Atkins Teagarden from
Jasper, Georgia. She said he
was a very good-looking man
and a gentleman and that he
brought her a watermelon
every Saturday afternoon with
his initials cut in it, E. A. T.
Well, one Saturday, she said,
Mr. Teagarden brought the
watermelon and there was
nobody at home and he left it
on the front porch and returned
in his buggy to Jasper, but she
never got the watermelon, she
said, because a nigger boy ate
it when he saw the initials, E.
A. T.! This story tickled John
Wesley's funny bone and he
giggled and giggled but June
Star didn't think it was any
good. She said she wouldn't
marry a man that just brought
her a watermelon on Saturday.
The grandmother said she
would have done well to marry
Mr. Teagarden because he was
a gentleman and had bought
Coca-Cola stock when it first
came out and that he had died
JOY FEELINGS | DECEMBER ISSUE
233