Just Another

My new great nephew is named Justin Other Droke Jr. after his father Justin Other Droke. Just another Droke ......good gravy..... I started thinking about this and thought I bet when I started school they thought just another Karr. I was the 14th child. Little did they know I was like no other.

One day when a neighbor visited our home the elderly woman looked over my sisters admiring their beauty. She said "Rozanne you have such beautiful daughters and they all look alike, except this one, pointing to Peggy, she doesn't look like them at all. Apparantely she wasn't just another Karr girl. The other girls where brown haired, Peggy was a blond. Peggy took this to mean that she wasn't beautiful and that she didn't belong to the family. She was convinced that mom had adopted her. She asked me and I told her she was a loon. I asked mom after she cried and Mom said "Peggy do you really think I would adopt my 13th child?" Peggy didn't take this as an answer. She pointed out that mom takes in strays off the street all the time. We did from time to time have people stay with us. Since I was just younger than Peggy I couldn't attest to anything about her birth. The older girls teased her and she became convinced she was left on the doorway.

I was born early and grew slowly. It never stopped me from talking. My older sisters took advantage of my small size and pushed me around in a buggy. Of course I was moving, so I was happy. They would dress me in their doll clothes. I'm sure I was adorable. When they would get bored with me, I climb out and go visit the animals. I remember one cow who must have thought I was a calf 'cause she would lick my hair. It didn't take much to amuse me. I would spend hours digging in the chicken yard with one of my mother's spoons. The chicken pick the ground clean of vegatation so great place to make roadways . My sisters also loved to teach me things they had learned in school. Then they would stand me on an old stump and I would give shows. The shows consisted of me reciting a poem or stomping out the answer to a math problem. Nothing that a trained monkey couldn't do. Cookaberra sitting in the old gum tree, merry merry king of the bushes hee. laugh cookaberra laugh how gay your life must be. I can remember all the words 47 years later.

i was always anxious to see what there was to see. One time I followed the ducks down the creek to pasture a couple miles from home. I was sure I was columbus discovering new land. i must have been missed 'cause mom found me and took me back home. She told me that I was to stay on the 40 acres. so I would walk the parimeter of the farm. and scare up rabbits from the multi-flora roses that filled the fence around the farm. My dog cootsy was usually at my side. I just laughed at myself. The dog was everyone's dog. She was a beagle and they had named her cutey but I couldn't say it so her name became cootsy. a quarter mile from the house I wouldn't ask mom to kiss my wounds. Just a good licking from cootsy and I was good to go.

on our few outings I was more than happy to talk to strangers. Not only talk I would dance, sing, and recite my abc s. If they would take me home with them I was more than happy for the adventure.

My grandmother had lost her husdband when I was 3 and she often would come and get me for company. She cheated and cards, smoked too much. Actually she usually lit a cigarette then left the room to do something else. I got good at putting the out without damaging the cigarette. She had a tv but I never saw it on. She had a piano but I don't ever remembering anyone ever playing it. The breezeway was my kingdom. I had 2x4 blocks that I could build anything my imagination allowed. It is funny what you remember. Grandma was a wide as she was tall. She wasn't very tall. She would chew on cooked fat that would cut from meat. she made tea but it wasn't wonderful. If I remembered I would bring a quart jar of cream from the farm so I could put that in the tea. but when I was with grandma it was wonderful 'cause I wasn't just another Karr. I was her favorite for the day.






We assume that children today know so much outside their small world they experience first hand. We think well they have have TVs, Internet, Movies, but all too often when we ask children to connect a book or article to their own experiences they have a hard time making that connection.