Hide 'n Seek

This is a true story that happened in October of 1956. Mike was 6 and I was 9. How can I be so sure of the date? Well, we lived in California and drove to Louisiana because our grandfather was very ill and not expected to live. Mom and Dad were in Jena at the hospital this particular day. We stayed behind at our grandparents house in Nebo with our Aunt Betty and Uncle Oscar and a few cousins. Aunt Betty got on to Mike about something (don't remember what now) and Mike went and hid out. After a while, Aunt Betty realized that she hadn't seen Michael in a while and went looking for him. When she couldn't find him, she had all of us looking. Papa and Granny's house was in the woods and Uncle Oscar went into the woods looking for Mike - it had been raining and the ground was muddy - there was also a lot of quicksand in the woods and she had visions of him getting trapped in that. I was crying because I thought my little brother was truly gone. I don't remember how long we looked, but when the woods had been searched, the house searched and all the chicken pens had been searched, my aunt and uncle decided the only thing left to do was to let our parents know that Mike was gone. There was no car and Papa & Granny didn't have a telephone, so Uncle Oscar set out walking and hitchhiking to Jena (in the rain), about 10 miles away. After Uncle Oscar had gone and we were all crying wondering what in the world had happened to Mike, in he walked into the living room. You can imagine the commotion that caused. Aunt Betty screamed and grabbed him and hugged him and kissed him - we were all so happy. When things calmed down, she wanted to know where he'd been. Well, after she got on to him, he went and hid under the kitchen table - he laid across the chairs and Granny had an oilcloth table cloth on the table that hid the chairs. Mike fell asleep and slept all through the great search!! When he woke up, he just got off the chairs and innocently went looking for everyone else. Aunt Betty remembered Uncle Oscar going to Jena to tell mom and dad that Mike was missing and she knew she had to get word to them that he was ok. She ran in the rain to a neighbor's house who had a phone and called the hospital and told Daddy what had happened. Not long after the phone call, Uncle Oscar finally reached the hospital. Dad & Mom said when he came in the door, he looked like a ghost - he so dreaded to tell them about their little boy. Mom & Dad were laughing and told him that Aunt Betty had called. Poor Uncle Oscar almost cried! Aunt Betty said she wanted to shake Mike, but she was so glad to see him all she could do was hug him!! What a kid!!!

Lynn