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Chinaberries and the Great Cedar Tree
The trail leading from the James house to the Hough’s residence cut through a small forest–probably just a wind break–full of chinaberry trees. They dropped china berries which we used to pelt each other in china berry fights. I steered clear because those marble-sized things hurt when they hit you. I enjoyed that small trail because I…
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Little April Goes to School
My school career began when my family and I lived in the James house in Van. Back when I was a youngster they didn’t have kindergarten in public school, so I attended a two-week preschool at J.E. Rhodes Elementary School. I don’t remember a lot about it, but I do remember riding a big school…
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Another Move
In 1965 (or maybe late 1964) we moved to the James house on the west side of the small town of Van. The old rental was basically a four-room house with the later addition of a bathroom and a closet converted into a tiny bedroom. There were no hallways in the house, and the large…
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Hang on, Mama!
Step on the brakes! Your baby has made it all the way to his last year of school. This is the year you have been working toward, the culmination of all those years of trudging through his childhood, buying that mountain of school supplies every August just to find out that by October he was…
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Spitting on the Chrysler
“Don’t spit on our new car!” My brother Allen and I sat on the hood of our brand new car (1953 Chrysler New Yorker—new to us) in the driveway of the house by the football field in Van. Our neighbor friends Lisa and Tracy had come over to see our new car, and apparently…
April Coker, Author 