{"id":14,"date":"2025-04-07T00:06:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T00:06:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/?p=14"},"modified":"2025-04-18T04:23:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T04:23:30","slug":"making-change-rural-isolation-1947","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/?p=14","title":{"rendered":"making change–rural isolation, 1947"},"content":{"rendered":"

Begin forwarded message:<\/p>\n

From: <\/strong>Halltennis@aol.com<\/p>\n

Subject: making change–rural isolation, 1947<\/strong><\/p>\n

Date: <\/strong>June 21, 1997 at 01:28:27 EDT<\/p>\n

To: <\/strong>WWTennis@aol.com, MTennis391@aol.com, joe@joe10.com, LMF99@aol.com<\/p>\n

MAKING CHANGE<\/p>\n

Maw asked, “Go around to Aunt Lulu’s for me and pick up a dozen eggs?”<\/p>\n

“Sure,” I answered, “Where is it?”<\/p>\n

“Mrs. Hawkins’, she explains. Right around behind the church, we got eggs
\nthere a couple days ago. It would be shorter to walk through the woods, but
\nit’s getting dark and you’d better drive around. It’s the only house, and I
\nknow she’s home.”<\/p>\n

I put down the John Donne I’m browsing–leave “the bells” to toll for me
\nlater–and snag the car keys off the kitchen table. Maw hands me a shallow
\nbasket.<\/p>\n

“Here, and here’s a dollar to pay her. You’ll have to help make the change.”<\/p>\n

“Hunh?” I query that last advice.<\/p>\n

“Making change. You’ll have to help with counting the coins.”<\/p>\n

I had met Aunt Lulu, a bright and sturdy, weather browned woman in a plain
\ndress–feed sack print, now that I remembered it–a week before when Maw and
\nI had driven by to get eggs. There was nothing that I could see wrong with
\nMrs. Hawkins.<\/p>\n

I drove out the front gate, closing it behind me and turning right on the
\nsand road (later to be named after old Dr. Beal), and on down to the corner
\nof the five acre piece my folks were buying from Silas Gibson, turned right
\non Waters Beach Road, dodging the big puddle from yesterday’s rain, and just
\npast the church, turned right again into the sand ruts to the Hawkins’ place.<\/p>\n

I remembered the place from last week: deep shade under the oak trees, neat
\ngate in a low fence, lot of flowers along the fence, hens clucking in the
\nback yard.<\/p>\n

Got out and walked to the gate. She was moving briskly from the porch to
\nmeet me.<\/p>\n

“Hi, Aunt Lulu. Maw said she needs a dozen eggs.” I handed her the basket.
\nShe asked how is she and I said just fine thanks and she headed into the
\nhouse and two minutes later was giving me the basket of eggs.<\/p>\n

Handing her the dollar bill, “Maw said it was sixty-five,” I suggested.<\/p>\n

Her right hand dove into her apron pocket and opened before me covered with
\ncoins.<\/p>\n

I paused a second to look at the coins, then up into her eyes, and understood
\nthe task. Picked out a quarter and a dime, said my thank you, mam, accepted
\nher best wishes for Maw and Paw.<\/p>\n

Now to find my way home<\/p>\n

6\/20\/97–ht
\n418wds. ,<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Begin forwarded message: From: Halltennis@aol.com Subject: making change–rural isolation, 1947 Date: June 21, 1997 at 01:28:27 EDT…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-email","wpcat-4-id"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions\/313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.halltennis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}