Sidney lived just up the road in one of Daddy's houses and worked in the store after school and on Saturday's. His nickname was Pig. Pig sorted the drink bottles, putting empty Coke bottles in the Coke cases and empty Pepsi's in their cases and things like that. All soft drink bottles were returnable and had to be sorted and placed in their own wooden flats (boxes) so that the drink truck could easily pick them up each week and replace the empty flats with new cases of drinks. Pig swept the floors, pumped gas, filled cans with kerosene, refilled the drink box, carried groceries and feed to customer's cars, and endless other chores.

Pig talked a lot about his aunt and uncle who provided a lot of entertaining conversation around the store. Aunt Mattie and Uncle Bink were the most entertaining of Pig's relatives. They lived in one of Daddy's houses, too. I remember Pig saying numerous times, "Uncle Bink, he's in the hosspittle. He in bad shape, like te died las nite." "What happened to him?" I asked. The answer was always the same, "Aunt Mattie, she cut em up! Yeah, they got drunk, got to fight'in and Aunt Mattie cut 'em wid de butcher knife real bad." I can't remember the times this story was repeated. Uncle Bink and Aunt Mattie never got a divorce ..so far as I know. People just didn't get divorces in those days. Come to think of it, I think a lot of people probably didn't get married. They just made a commitment and started living together and eventually became common law husband and wife.

Several weeks passed before Pig's Uncle Bink appeared around the store. Sure enough, there were big scars on his arms and neck. He took his shirt off to show the scars on his back neck and arms. "Mattie put everyone of em there", he said. They would separate for a while every now and then, but always went back to each other. I guess that Uncle Bink and Aunt Mattie were living proof that love endures for better or worse.

Pig had the unique ability to walk with a foot tub full of water balanced on his head. Pig's family got their water from a spring next to the millhouse. Several times a day either Pig or one of this brothers or sisters would walk from their house to the spring at the millhouse, a distance of about 500 yards. Pig was a little fellow, maybe 7 or 8 years, when he started totin' water. He barely had enough strength to lift the bucket of water to the top of his head but once there, he dropped both hands to his side and walked confidently up the road to his house. His neck and shoulders quickly maneuvered from side to side if the bucket got off balance, but I never saw it fall. After a time, he could make a fast pace toward home with the bucket in full balance. This continued for as long as Pig was at home. I'm convinced that years of carrying this bucket on his head during his growing up years caused Pig's head to be completely flat on top. Pig got his flat top naturally. I had to pay the barber to cut mine!

We each finished high school about two or three years apart, and went our separate ways. Shortly after graduation, while working at a Piggly Wiggly store in Macon, Pig became seriously ill, was eventually diagnosed with a rare disease and only lived a short time afterwards. Memories of Myrick's Mill include sad ones, too.

©2003 - William C. Humphries, Jr.