I got up early and helped Myrtis cook some breakfast. We had sausage and toast. She ate her toast with some homemade muscadine jelly. I also perked a big pot of coffee and she poured in some PET evaporated milk to sweeten it.
We sat for a long time and talked. She is like a treasure trove of family history. She was telling me the story of when my great uncle Walt got drunk one Easter and sent my father three Easter baskets. She also told me the story of when he was three sheets to the wind and got into the tub with all his clothes on. Walt was an interesting fellow. He went to Europe in his forties after being drafted and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was never the same after he got home my great aunt said. Something was just not right about him. The war and losing so many friends changed him.
One time, my grandfather and grandmother drove him three hours to Birmingham Alabama to the VA hospital to dry him out and get him some treatment. Later that day, after driving all the way back, they were sitting on the front porch talking. Up drove a taxi and out stepped Walt. They all had to scramble to get up enough money for his fare. He said he was not going to stay in some damn hospital and get poked and prodded for a week. I laughed as my great aunt told me this story. Walt sure was a character. I only remember him vaguely. He died when I was very young in the seventies.
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