On The Foot

‘On The Foot’

During our ‘wonder years’ we lived on 3^rd Avenue in South Bay, Florida and our world was filled with family and friends and some of the best times of my life.  One of mama’s oldest and best friends, Willie Sue Manning, lived at the far end of 3^rd Avenue and right next to her house was an old, broken down, abandoned house.  Willie Sue lived right across the street from one of the neighborhood's most interesting people, a little person named Vernelle Simpson, who has absolutely nothing to do with this story, but I always found her so interesting so she is worthy of an honorable mention here. 

My two best friends at that time were Cathy Mayo and Doris Ann Peters.  I hung out with Karen a lot too and on this day, all four of us were looking for mischief.  It was summertime, it was hot and we were bored.  I was about 12 or 13 years old, I believe, and for some reason, we all decided to go explore the old, abandoned house next door to Willie Sue.  We walked all over the neighborhood all the time so we may have just walked by it on the way to our favorite shortcut to and from Cathy Mayo’s house and decided to go check it out.  We knew we weren’t supposed to be there but it was far too interesting a place to ignore so we sneaked our way into the old broken down house.  At some point, a window had been broken, probably by some kid that was as bored as we were, and most of us ran around in flip flops or barefoot all the time.  Doris stepped on a piece of broken glass and cut her foot, and much to our dismay, she was a huge cry baby about it!

She screamed and cried as if she were dying and of course, we all ran out of the house because we could hear Willie Sue coming, yelling and cussing at the top of her lungs.  That woman could cuss a blue streak and she never held back!  Doris was bleeding and when Willie Sue reached us she started yelling at us for being around that broken down old shack to begin with, insisting that we all knew better.  Then she asked the fateful question:  Where did she get cut?

Karen and I both insisted that Doris had gotten cut on the foot, I mean, it was obvious, wasn’t it since that was where the blood appeared to be coming from, but every time we gave that answer, and we gave it several times, Willie Sue would get madder and louder.  She asked the question over and over: Where did she get cut?  On the foot!  Oh, we knew that what she really meant was ‘where was she when she got cut,’ but we weren’t stupid!  We knew we’d be in trouble for being there to begin with, so we weren’t about to fess up to being somewhere we knew we weren’t supposed to be.  Our answer remained firm: On the foot!  The louder Doris Ann wailed, the madder Willie Sue got and the louder she yelled and cussed!

Willie Sue wrapped Doris’ foot up then marched me and Karen home.  I think Mom was at work, but Daddy was home so Willie Sue proceeded to tell him that we had been disrespectful and smart allecky to her and we needed to have the…well, you can imagine what she said after that. 

Daddy sent us to our room to await punishment.  He made us stay there for the longest time and we were having sloppy joes for dinner.  We really wanted a sloppy joe!  We had been out playing and exploring all day, after all, and probably didn’t think to stop and eat unless it was a hot pickled sausage from the old convenience store on the corner that we gobbled down on a regular basis.  

One at a time, Daddy made us come out of the room, go outside and cut a piss ellen club that grew next to the big trees in the front yard.  Then it was back to our room to wait for him to come spank us.  Daddy rarely spanked any of us…mom was the disciplinarian and the one to beware of, but that evening, Daddy spanked us with our own little switches which he made a big production of skinning in front of us.  He didn’t really spank us all that hard, though piss ellen clubs always hurt.  He lectured us about respecting our elders.  To top all of that off, mom got in on the lecture too and that was never a pleasant experience.  I was mad at Willie Sue Manning for years after that but now I know how silly that was.  What she did helped to shape me and provided me with a lesson and a memory that will never be forgotten.  I would much rather have gotten in trouble for being where I knew I wasn’t supposed to be than for being disrespectful to Willie Sue so honesty really is the best policy. 

Donna White Johnson