Monday, April 18, 2011

O is for Odie



I go by either picture so take your pick. Odie Langley, Jr. first born of Odie Langley and Martha Katherine Flood Langley. I came into this world on March 24th 1947 (I know I'm older than dirt) at the Rocky Mount Sanitarium delivered by Dr. William Wall. It was the big hospital in Rocky Mount at the time and and been long since torn down with fewer by the day remembering it.


Don't know what Dr. Wall was smoking that day or a couple of days later because somehow I ended up with 2 birth certificates, both signed by him. One was dated the 24th and the other the 26th. My mother always assured me I was actually born on the 24th. All this came home to me when I needed a passport to go on a cruise and went to Nashville, NC to get a copy of my birth certificate and they asked me which one I wanted. Yes, they even had both of them on record at the county building.


As I have mentioned in a previous post I grew up kinda/sorta in the grocery store my dad bought from his dad after getting lucky in a poker game one night at the store. Later he married my mom and built a house a stone's throw from the store and very close to my grandparents house. I have been told that my mother would get up and discover me missing early in the morning only to find me later in bed with my grandpa. I really don't remember any of that and even finding grandpa dead in bed one morning. I was very young when he died so the only real memory I have of him was riding in his horse and buggy. If I didn't have a hat on he would make me one out of a paper sack.


My sisters Linda & Marie came along after I was about 2 and then about 3 so were were very close in age. I tried to stay as far away from them as possible and spent a lot of my growing up years in the woods with my faithful dog Poochie (looked exactly like Benji). She lived for about 13 years & I found her dead in front of her dog house one morning so she went peacefully.


Much of my young to teen years was involved with farming to some extent. My dad had a couple of acres of land that he always planted something on to sell in his store. It might be tomatoes, watermellons, field peas, peppers, squash or whatever he wanted and my sisters & I had to harvest the crop. One year he went absolutely crazy and planted cotton. That was just a bad experience. As we got older we were allow to work for other people getting the tobacco crop in and usually that meant handing tobacco to a person who tied it onto a stick that was hung on racks in barns with heaters that cured the tobacco taking moisture out of it. I really did love the smell of freshly cured tobacco. We would come home from school and have to go to the tobacco tying room where we would gather carefully a small handful of tobacco by the stems and after grouping them so that the ends of the stems were all even we would take one very pretty leaf of tobacco and wrap around the stem ends tightly and end by securing the stem of that leaf inside the bundle. Then the bundles where placed on sticks for further processing. Now they cure the leave in bulk barnes and the careful, tedious process is long forgotten.


That's how Odie spent most of his childhood. I was a quiet boy, very shy but glad to have had the experiences I had when I look back on them. I'll give you more about me later. Have a great week everybody.

17 comments:

  1. Wonderul story, thank you for sharing it with us. I love the part with 2 birth certificates, you are very original in that respect!

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  2. You were an all American boy, Odie. It's no wonder you chose The Simple Life as the title for your blog because you had an opportunity to experience the simple pleasures denied to many children today such as living in a natural rural setting, doing honest farm work, sharing love with extended family, and I could go on and on. Hooray for you, Odie!

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  3. what a really interesting and lovely childhood Odie, sounds just ace.

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  4. Now that is a southern fubar!!! 2 birthdays though! Have 2 parties.

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  5. hi Odie:)

    so...instead of you being 3 years older, you're actually 6 years older then me and 128 years old altogether! that's amazing! i enjoyed catching up on the posts i missed while out of town and this one too!

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  6. That was really interesting Odie - sounds as if you had a lovely childhood. That's amazing that you have two birth certificates though! I wonder how many other people in the world have that - you might even be totally unique!! Hope little Rocky is well.

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  7. Nice bumping into you and learning about you. I enjoyed reading about your childhood.

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  8. Nice childhood. You were blessed. Just wondering if you also receive two social security checks. If there are two of you, you might just be eligible for it. LOL

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  9. I love this post Odie!! So nice to get the nitty gritty on my sweet friend. Big Hugs!!

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  10. This is such an awesome post!
    My family planted, raised, and dried tobacco one year. My father rented the base out after that year. Only having me and my mother to help, proved to be too much. I love the smell of fresh cut tobacco..

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  11. I love O for Odie!! The real Odie that is.

    This was a great post, I love hearing about your life.

    the funniest part was about you as a little tot ending up in Grandpa's bed. I bet he loved you!! (sad to hear how you found him one day though--good thing you were too young to understand)

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  12. Fantastic recap of your past. Great story!
    That's one of the things I like about visiting blogs - the stories that are based on personal history, family roots, and what life was like way back in the dark ages - before electricity!

    I can say that - because I'm pushing up the decade behind you! I remember B/W TV!

    Loved the post!
    Jenny

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  13. I always enjoy reading your stories about your childhood, Odie!

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  14. When I was reading about your childhood why did I think about 'To Kill A Mockingbird' or 'The Andy Griffith Show'. I had a great childhood too.

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  15. Sounds like a lovely Childhood - very interesting fact about how you have 2 birth certificates, I'm sure not many can say that!
    Looking forward to reading more of your stuff!!

    Have a lovely evening!

    Kristina
    somethingdeepwithin.blogspot.com

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  16. Well Odie, you're not as old as my gramma who will be 92 this August!

    http://theadorkableditzmissteps.blogspot.com/

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