months!’
Mister McGivver was so happy he done give me a fifty-cents-an-hour raise an let me have Sundays off. I used the time to go down to the town an sort of ass around. Coalville wadn’t much of a place. A few thousan people maybe, an a lot of them was out of work account of the coal seam that caused the town to be there in the first place had done played out. The mine entrance was just a big ole hole in the side of the hill overlookin the town now, an a lot of the guys set around the courthouse square an played checkers. There was a diner there called Etta’s where some of the ole miners gone to drink coffee, an sometimes I’d set there an drink coffee alongside em an hear them tell their stories about when the mine was runnin. Tell the truth, it was kind of depressin, but it was better than hangin around the hog farm all the time.
Meanwhile, it became my job to arrange for the mess hall slop to be brought to our hog farm. First thing we had to do was to separate the pig food from the other shit, like napkins an paper bags an boxes an cans an all. Sergeant Kranz done figgered out a way to do this, however. He made all the KPs in the various barracks divide the garbage into separate cans, marked Edible Trash an Inedible Trash. This worked good enough till visitors’ day at the army base came around an some of the mamas an daddies of the soldiers complained to the general about what their sons might be gettin to eat around there. After that, we figgered out a new code for the cans, but it worked just as well. In a few months our operation was workin so good Mister McGivver had to buy us two new trucks just to haul the garbage to our farm, an within a year, we had seven thousan an eight-one hogs to our name.
One day I done got a letter from Mrs Curran. She says it is gonna be summertime pretty soon, an she thinks it might be a good idea for little Forrest to spend some time with me. She don’t put it exactly in the letter,but I get the impression little Forrest is not doin too good. It is like ‘boys will be boys,’ but also she adds that his school grades ain’t high as they used to be an ‘it might be helpful if he could spend some time with his daddy.’ Well, I wrote her back, sayin to send him on up on the train when school let out, an a few weeks later, he arrived at the station in Coalville.
When I first see him, I can hardly believe it! He has grown about a foot an a half an is a fine-lookin boy, with sandy brown hair an good clear blue eyes like his mama had. But when he sees me, he ain’t smilin.
‘How’s it goin?’ I ast.
‘What is this place?’ he says, lookin around an sniffin like he has arrived at the city dump.
‘It is where I live now,’ I tole him.
‘Yeah?’ he says.
I get the impression little Forrest has developed an attitude.
‘They used to mine coal here,’ I say, ‘afore it run out.’
‘Grandma says you are a farmer – that so?’
‘Sort of. You wanna go on up to the farm?’
‘Might as well,’ he says. ‘I don’t see no reason to stay here.’
So I took him up to Mister McGivver’s farm. Half a mile fore we arrive, little Forrest be holdin his nose an fannin the air. ‘What is that smell?’ he ast.
‘It is the hogs,’ I say. ‘What we raise on the farm is hogs.’
‘Shit! You expect me to stay here all summer with a bunch of stinkin hogs!’
‘Look,’ I say, ‘I know I ain’t been that good a daddy to you, but I am tryin to get us both by, an this is the only work I got right now. An I got to tell you, you ain’t sposed to be using words like “shit” around here. You is too young for that.’
He didn’t say nothin for the rest of the drive, anwhen we got to Mister McGivver’s house, he gone on inside to his room an shut the door. Didn’t come out till suppertime, an when he did he mostly just sat at the table an played with his food. After he gone to bed, Mister McGivver lit up his pipe an say, ‘The boy don’t seem to be very happy,
Mister McGivver was so happy he done give me a fifty-cents-an-hour raise an let me have Sundays off. I used the time to go down to the town an sort of ass around. Coalville wadn’t much of a place. A few thousan people maybe, an a lot of them was out of work account of the coal seam that caused the town to be there in the first place had done played out. The mine entrance was just a big ole hole in the side of the hill overlookin the town now, an a lot of the guys set around the courthouse square an played checkers. There was a diner there called Etta’s where some of the ole miners gone to drink coffee, an sometimes I’d set there an drink coffee alongside em an hear them tell their stories about when the mine was runnin. Tell the truth, it was kind of depressin, but it was better than hangin around the hog farm all the time.
Meanwhile, it became my job to arrange for the mess hall slop to be brought to our hog farm. First thing we had to do was to separate the pig food from the other shit, like napkins an paper bags an boxes an cans an all. Sergeant Kranz done figgered out a way to do this, however. He made all the KPs in the various barracks divide the garbage into separate cans, marked Edible Trash an Inedible Trash. This worked good enough till visitors’ day at the army base came around an some of the mamas an daddies of the soldiers complained to the general about what their sons might be gettin to eat around there. After that, we figgered out a new code for the cans, but it worked just as well. In a few months our operation was workin so good Mister McGivver had to buy us two new trucks just to haul the garbage to our farm, an within a year, we had seven thousan an eight-one hogs to our name.
One day I done got a letter from Mrs Curran. She says it is gonna be summertime pretty soon, an she thinks it might be a good idea for little Forrest to spend some time with me. She don’t put it exactly in the letter,but I get the impression little Forrest is not doin too good. It is like ‘boys will be boys,’ but also she adds that his school grades ain’t high as they used to be an ‘it might be helpful if he could spend some time with his daddy.’ Well, I wrote her back, sayin to send him on up on the train when school let out, an a few weeks later, he arrived at the station in Coalville.
When I first see him, I can hardly believe it! He has grown about a foot an a half an is a fine-lookin boy, with sandy brown hair an good clear blue eyes like his mama had. But when he sees me, he ain’t smilin.
‘How’s it goin?’ I ast.
‘What is this place?’ he says, lookin around an sniffin like he has arrived at the city dump.
‘It is where I live now,’ I tole him.
‘Yeah?’ he says.
I get the impression little Forrest has developed an attitude.
‘They used to mine coal here,’ I say, ‘afore it run out.’
‘Grandma says you are a farmer – that so?’
‘Sort of. You wanna go on up to the farm?’
‘Might as well,’ he says. ‘I don’t see no reason to stay here.’
So I took him up to Mister McGivver’s farm. Half a mile fore we arrive, little Forrest be holdin his nose an fannin the air. ‘What is that smell?’ he ast.
‘It is the hogs,’ I say. ‘What we raise on the farm is hogs.’
‘Shit! You expect me to stay here all summer with a bunch of stinkin hogs!’
‘Look,’ I say, ‘I know I ain’t been that good a daddy to you, but I am tryin to get us both by, an this is the only work I got right now. An I got to tell you, you ain’t sposed to be using words like “shit” around here. You is too young for that.’
He didn’t say nothin for the rest of the drive, anwhen we got to Mister McGivver’s house, he gone on inside to his room an shut the door. Didn’t come out till suppertime, an when he did he mostly just sat at the table an played with his food. After he gone to bed, Mister McGivver lit up his pipe an say, ‘The boy don’t seem to be very happy,
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