The Red Flannel Rag

that was the only medicine she used for years. She told me “Tea made from red

sassafras roots is good for low blood pressure or anemia.”

She owned many of the tools for butchering and canning that she generously

loaned to people in the community and sometimes lost because some folks in Hopkins

Gap envied her ability to hold on to her farm and survive after Uncle Rob’s death.

Ruby, Joyce, Randy, and George Crawford

Because Aunt Goldie and Uncle Rob raised my mother, their four children, two sons

and two daughters, were like my brothers and sisters. They were all older than me. The

daughters, Ruby and Joyce, babysat for Mom nearly every Saturday while she went to

Harrisonburg with Aunt Goldie to get groceries. As soon as Aunt Goldie's truck was out of

sight, Ruby and Joyce would make us stand in a corner on one foot so they didn’t have to

deal with us all day. We were supposed to stay on the same foot until Mom came home.

They didn’t pay much attention after they got us into our corners, so we switched feet when

we got tired of standing on one or the other.

Each of Aunt Goldie’s four children was special to me. Her son George was a baseball

fan and a hard worker. He wanted to be a pitcher in the major leagues. He shared his

interest in baseball and his work with me and used me as his catcher. He threw the baseball

so hard that I would bounce back against the fence when the ball hit my catcher’s mitt.

Mom would yell at him, “You’re going to kill that kid.” She tried to make me stop catching

for him, but I loved him so much, I would have died for him.

He tried to build up my arm muscles by having me carry heavy loads of chicken feed.

He periodically checked my muscles to see if they were getting bigger, and had me flex them

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