Friday, February 24, 2006
Skinners' Shack
Skinners' Shack
The sad old house had never seen a warming coat of paint.
Its starkly nude appearance gave it an aura quaint.
No knobs or locks upon its doors, just latches with a string.
Holes in the floor let in the rats and snakes and everything.
The walls were bare and thin and cold, one window to each room.
The rafters held no ceiling, the prospect one of gloom.
But under that tin, leaky roof a happy family thrived.
We loved and laughed and sang as though our fortune had arrived.
It was the base for active sports, engaging one and all,
an old milk bucket on the front a goal for basketball.
We rode old Star and Dynamite, went swimming in the tank,
the lessons learned while there worth more than money in the bank.
No house of brick with velvet drapes and swimming pool out back
could harbor love and memories to rival Skinners' shack.
The sad old house had never seen a warming coat of paint.
Its starkly nude appearance gave it an aura quaint.
No knobs or locks upon its doors, just latches with a string.
Holes in the floor let in the rats and snakes and everything.
The walls were bare and thin and cold, one window to each room.
The rafters held no ceiling, the prospect one of gloom.
But under that tin, leaky roof a happy family thrived.
We loved and laughed and sang as though our fortune had arrived.
It was the base for active sports, engaging one and all,
an old milk bucket on the front a goal for basketball.
We rode old Star and Dynamite, went swimming in the tank,
the lessons learned while there worth more than money in the bank.
No house of brick with velvet drapes and swimming pool out back
could harbor love and memories to rival Skinners' shack.
Compared to today's cozy homes in the US, this old house from my youth sounds downright pitiful. But just think of how many people there are in the world who would love to have a tin roof over their heads and a wooden floor beneath their feet. Daddy used tin cans, sliced open and flattened, for patching holes in the floor to keep out varmints, and eventually we made a good cotton crop that paid for a 9'X12' linoleum for the living room floor. As my brother Walter says, the walls were dual purpose, being both the outside and inside of the structure. Made of 1"x12" planks with a 2" lath covering the seam, they were all that stood between us and the West Texas sandstorms and blizzards. Mama got rolls of heavy grey wallpaper printed with little pink roses to tack on the inside wall, using metal "washers" about the size of a quarter under the tacks to help prevent the paper from tearing loose. Boy, we thought we were as good as uptown folks! Does this bring back any memories?
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
Cora Gail Trent
www.cgtrent.com
