The Red Flannel Rag

Mom and Dad shared a strong commitment to their children, their home, and

their extended family in Hopkins Gap. In spite of their arguments, I could expect to

smell supper being prepared as I walked home from the school bus stop. The aroma of a

fresh pot of pinto beans and homemade bread greeted me nearly every day. I knew Dad

was going to work every morning; and, at 5:00 in the evening, Dad was coming home

from work. On Fridays he handed all of his pay to Mom except for five dollars to buy his

lunch the next week. She used the money wisely to provide for the family.

Although they lived very close to each other as children growing up along the

Shoemaker River in the Gap and went to White Hall School together, they didn’t really

know e ach other. Mom explained, “I never considered him as a boyfriend because he

was a Shifflett. Morrises and Shiffletts didn’t have much to do with each other.” They

didn’t pay any attention to each other until Dad was nineteen and Mom was eighteen.

And their meeting and courtship occurred outside Hopkins Gap.

When Dad was about eighteen years old, he was arrested for making moonshine.

He was working for one of the more prominent large-scale female moonshiners in the

community. He went to prison for four months. When he was released, he went to work

for her again. Two weeks later, he was arrested once more. After serving another eight

months in prison, his brother, Lurty, noticed that Dad was becoming a heavy drinker.

Uncle Lurty told Dad he had to get out of the moonshine business or he would spend a

lot more time in jail. He convinced Dad to move away from Hopkins Gap to live with

him. Lurty helped him get a job in a shoe factory.

Mom had recently moved from Hopkins Gap with Aunt Goldie and Uncle Rob.

She was eighteen and by Hopkins Gap standards, long overdue for marriage and

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