Genesis

August 4, 1970. Tuesday morning, 4:12 a.m. Marlboro General Hospital in Bennettsville, SC. That's where and when it all went down. After much pushing and cajoling, I ventured out into this world and took my first breath. Matthew & Jackie brought their bouncing bundle of joy home to our little white house on Main Street in Clio (rhymes with Ohio), SC. I don't remember very much about my early years (obviously), but I'm interested to see how much will come back to me as I type this.

My hometown was quite small; pop. < 1000. It would be four years before I got a baby brother, so for the moment I ruled the roost. Me and the dogs, that is. Well technically they were roaches, but mom said I called them dogs. These were the large roaches known as "water bugs" or "Palmetto bugs". *Do not confuse with the true water bugs. While they do look similar, the bugs of which I speak are just a large variety of your typical cock-a-roach).* Anyway, I distinctly remember how they would FLY around the house when the lights were out. Giant flying roaches. Even as a toddler I remember that that's just not right.

One of the things that was so cool about our location was that my paternal grandmother lived two houses over. Two houses past that was one of my maternal great-aunts (who spoiled me to death!), and behind her lived my maternal grandmother and grandfather. My paternal grandfather died when I was about 1 ½; I don’t remember him at all. We had one Polaroid of me sitting in his lap, and one of my dad at his casket (coffin for you non-Southerners); but his face is hidden in both pics. I finally got to see his face a couple of years ago when my grandmother showed me his last driver’s license. My dad’s sister looked just like him. Everyone tells me he spoiled me too before he died.

So my dad’s lineage is Palmer and Cabbagestalk. I’m glad that wives took the husband’s name back in those days. I’m not really feeling Cabbagestalk. It is rather unique however, and a member of our family has traced it back to some slaves in Manning. It appears that ALL Cabbagestalks are related. My dad had four brothers (two deceased) and two sisters.

As for my mom’s side, her dad was a Johnson and her mom was a McLeod – like the guy in Highlander. My mom’s side of the family is a little different. Grandma had 12 kids – 11 of which survived. She had three boys, then three sets of boy/girl twins, and finshed off with a set of triplets (two boys and one girl). When Grandaddy died in ’96, we counted up her grandkids; she had ~ 60. Her 4 daughters had 3 kids between them; the other 57 came from her sons. Let’s just say there are Johnsons up and down the east coast, from Florida to Connecticut. Needless to say, I’m related to pretty much my whole town. This is a good thing for the most part; this does, however, present obstacles when trying to find a date/girlfriend…

I have two older siblings: Ronnie and Carolyn (Ann)… There’s also baby brother Mark. There’s also another possible brother named Len, but that’s a story for another day.

We spent 5 ½ years at this house before we moved to our current palace. Other than the roaches, I have a few random memories of my time there. I remember being trapped on the porch while a vicious killer Cujo devil dog menaced me, instilling in me a lifelong aversion to large canines; sitting on the front steps tieing and re-tieing my shoes until I got it right; sitting in the crook of the little dogwood tree by the sidewalk in the front yard; helping our neighbor Mrs. Annie Ruth pick up pecans in our yards (her trailer is visible in the pic); seeing our neighbor’s beagle lying in the road dying after being hit by an 18-wheeler; getting the truck drivers to honk their horn as they drove past… I haven’t thought of these things in years.

Well, I must go try to get my truck window fixed. I’ll try to attach a coupla pix – one should be of me around the age of 5, and the other should be a pic of me taken at the old house a couple of years ago.