Letters from Papaw
45 letters, most recent first.
- Sunday, August 30Woman at the post office yesterday morning stopped me at the counter. Sixty, maybe. I did not know her from Eve. She said, aren't you…
- Friday, August 7Went hunting a fuse in the front room drawer and came up with my time card from the mill. Thirty-two years old, my name typed at the top,…
- Sunday, August 2Read Curtis Neely's obituary in the paper this morning. Sat two rows behind him in high school. Hadn't laid eyes on him in fifty years.
- Friday, July 31The spring on the screen door's still loose. Been loose since before Ruth got sick. I could fix it in ten minutes. I've had ten minutes…
- Wednesday, July 29Was hunting the small screwdriver in the sideboard drawer — the one with the yellow handle, the one Earl hasn't managed to walk off with…
- Tuesday, July 28Went down easy this morning. Reached for the skillet under the stove and my knees said down we go, and I went. Sat there a full minute…
- Wednesday, July 22Was hunting a stamp in the junk drawer yesterday and pulled the whole thing out on the floor. My hands did that — got tired of holding the…
- Tuesday, July 21I'll say something now I've been chewing on all week and haven't put words to.
- Monday, July 20Neighbor's boy — grandson, I mean — come up the drive yesterday afternoon selling something for school. Popcorn, I think it was. Catalog in…
- Sunday, July 19One of the grandkids sent me a picture two nights ago. Little girl at the kitchen table at her mama's house, coloring something, tongue…
- Saturday, July 18Going to tell you something I have not told a soul.
- Friday, July 17Before light. Kitchen linoleum cool under my feet, that yellow patch by the stove I've been meaning to replace since '92.
- Thursday, July 16Ran into town yesterday for a box of screws. Fella behind the hardware counter — same one's been back there years, knows what I need before…
- Tuesday, July 14I'm going to say this plain and I'm only going to say it the once.
- Monday, July 13I'll admit something. There was a fella at the gas station off the highway last month I was short with. Filling the Ford, radio going to…
- Saturday, July 11Yesterday the heat had Hank flat all day. Wouldn't eat till near dark. Just laid on the cool of the floor and watched me move around him.
- Friday, July 10Went hunting a flashlight in the cabinet under the TV last night and put my hand on Ruth's church directory from '02. Hadn't seen it in…
- Thursday, July 9I'm going to tell you a thing I've carried fifty-some years and never put down for anybody to see.
- Monday, July 6Went out to the shed this morning to hang a rake back on the wall and there was the outline on the pegboard where the reciprocating saw…
- Saturday, July 4Went into the drawer for a book of stamps and put my hand on my time card from the mill. Not the last one — one from the middle years, '84…
- Thursday, July 2Listen to me.
- Wednesday, July 1Pulled a photograph out of the drawer this morning looking for a fuse. Ruth on the back steps, summer of I don't know when, holding a dish…
- Tuesday, June 30I was looking for the long screwdriver, the one with the yellow handle. Wasn't on the pegboard where its outline says it ought to be. I…
- Monday, June 29The neighbor's grandson came to the door about an hour ago. Skinny boy, maybe twelve, holding a paper bag full of candy bars and a…
- Sunday, June 28Listen to me, because I'm only going to say it the once.
- Saturday, June 27I went looking for the registration on the Ford last night. Glove box. Drawer in the kitchen. The folder I keep with the truck papers.…
- Friday, June 26Would have been forty-five years this week, me and Ruth.
- Thursday, June 25Saw an obituary in last Sunday's paper for a fella I sat next to in tenth grade algebra. Stood at the counter and read it twice.
- Wednesday, June 24Read in the paper they're widening the road into town. Two lanes to four. Going to take a year and a half they say, which means three.
- Tuesday, June 23I'll tell you something I've been chewing on since yesterday.