1. Who would be the one to tell Bo that his pants were unzipped? I think I was probably about 10 yrs. old. Elaine would have been 12 and Barbara 14. We'd go into the kitchen and argue as to who would tell Bo about needing to zip his pants. Barbara's arguement against her being the one was that Bo wasn't her Grandpa. Elaine and I would argue that one or the other was the one who had to do it the last time. Elaine probably ended up being the one who had the job most of the time.
2. Bo said that his doctor didn't have any more sense than a monkey sitting on the moon with his eyes punched out.
3. When Bo was in the hospital once, Junior and I were sitting with him to keep him company. The hospital aide worker brought his lunch into the room. Bo took a look at the food and pronounced that the piece of meat on the plate looked like an old shoe sole that had been left out in the yard where it had been rained on and then the sun had dried it out.
4. One of Bo's favorite sayings was: "By granite". I think this saying was a substitute for saying "Dammit".
5. When Bo was living at a rooming house in Hope, Arkansas, he told how he would wake up early and go into the kitchen where the wife of the rooming house owner would fix him breakfast. The owner of the rooming house started thinking Bo was flirting with his wife and he accused Bo of this to his face. Bo's response was, "Why don't you put your irons (guns) on and meet me out in the street." Obviously, the rooming house owner didn't take Bo up on the challenge. Bo moved out of the rooming house shortly thereafter. I don't know if it was his choice or if the owner kicked him out. I'm betting that most grandchildren nowadays can't remember their grandfather challenging another man to a "gunfight at the OK Corral".
6. When I was maybe 4 or 5 years old, Bo would rock me in a rocking chair on his front porch and tell me stories of living in Uvalde, Texas. Once he told me about someone stealing one of his horses. He said he told the local sheriff that he knew who stole his horse. It was some Indian. The sheriff asked Bo just how he knew it was the Indian fellow who stole the horse. Bo replied, "Because I looked in his eyes and saw it." The sheriff didn't think that was proof enough for him to arrest the Indian. (Duh) ....You may think Bo was kind of stupid, but I know that the reason he would tell stories like he did about the horse thief was mainly to entertain me as a child.
7. After my grandmother (Ma) died, Bo was on the lookout for another woman and would often say he was but he just couldn't find the "right type" of woman. What he meant by the "right type" I can't say. At the time, it just didn't interest me much. Now, I sure wish back then that I had asked Bo to elaborate on the subject of "right type woman". It may have had something to do with the stories I used to hear him tell about his second wife whom we kids referred to as "Ma". He said that a Methodist preacher had told him before he married Ma that Ma came from a "good" family. Bo said that Methodist preacher lied to him and he'd never ever trust anything a Methodist preacher told him again. Bo often complained about Ma's father in particular and the rest of the family in general by saying "Charlie Lamb got kicked in the head by a mule and the rest of the family got "glanced" by the blow." I'm not exactly sure what Bo was referring to when he made that statement, but he made that statement many times in reference to "Ma's" family.
8. Bo never liked one of his daughter's husband either. ( My Aunt Josie)...Bo often referred to Granville Couch (Josie's husband) as a "scoundrel". Bo would always put extra emphasis on the "ou" sound in the word scoundrel when he'd talk about Granville Couch. With the heavy emphasis on the "ou" sound in Couch and Scoundrel, you would readily remember that Couch was a Scoundrel. I never knew why Bo thought Couch was a scoundrel.
9. Concerning my grandma "Ma", Grandpa Bo's wife, of course...Ma and Bo never got along very well. I don't have a whole lot of memories of Ma, but here are a few that I do have:
When I was very young my mom and dad, 2 sisters, 1 brother, and myself lived down the road (walking distance) from Bo and Ma. I remember one time that myself, Barbara, Elaine, and brother Junior were at Ma and Bo's house and we kids found it very interesting to watch Bo building a new front porch on his and Ma's house. Bo was a hard worker, but had a bit of a temper which often came out during his hard work, so you would be entertained by the exclamations of frustration that Bo would utter while working.
10. About a week later after the porch building project was finished, Ma walked down the road to visit with my mom. She told my mom that she had to get "out of the house" because the old man (Bo) was down there raising the roof off of the house. Us kids remembered how entertaining it had been to watch Bo building that new porch, so we asked our mom if we could go watch Bo raising the roof off of the house. My Mom and Grandmother both got a laugh out of that and then they explained that Bo wasn't really doing anything to the roof on the house. He was just ranting and raving about something. Us kids weren't sure what "ranting and raving" meant either, but we were sure disappointed that Bo wasn't building a new roof.
11. I remember once going down the road to visit Ma and Bo and Ma had a new bed set up in the living room. She said that she wasn't going to sleep with Bo any more because he dipped snuff and her doctor had told her that it aggravated her asthma. Personally, I think she was feeling smug that she had a real good reason not to sleep with Bo any more. How those two people managed to manufacture five children together, I do not know and really wouldn't want to know.
12. I suppose maybe the only thing Ma really did like about Bo was his money and possessions. I remember going to their house once and Ma had purchased a brand new "divan" as she called her new couch. It was red vinyl, but in those days vinyl couches were the latest rage, so everyone was really impressed with Ma's new "divan".
13. Maybe Bo was generous with buying Ma "things" from time to time and that is what kept Ma hanging on. Also, back in those days people couldn't get a divorce for incompatability. I also remember once going to visit them and Ma was proudly showing off her new "Ice Box". Ma and Bo had no electricity back then as most people didn't. An Ice Box, although it resembled the later refridgerators, kept food cold because it had a compartment in the botton where you kept a large block of ice that slowly melted and was routinely replaced when the Ice Man" would come by and deliver and sell you a fresh block of ice on schedule.
14. Poor Ma. I remember her having asthma so bad that when us grandkids would spend that night at her and Bo's house, I would be awakened at night hearing Ma gasping for breath so loud that it scared me. I don't know if you have ever heard anyone with asthma gasping for breath, but it can be quite loud and frightening! Back in those days, the best treatment doctors had for asthma was Vick's salve. Ma and the house smelled strongly of Vick's salve all the time. I'm sure the fact that Ma and Bo had no electricity in their house back then contributed to Ma's severity of asthma symptoms. The wood stove and coal oil lanterns gave off ash and fumes that couldn't have been good for asthma. I remember a coal oil lantern that Ma had sitting on a dresser in the living room. The lantern sat in front of the mirror to the dresser and you could barely see yourself in that mirror because the coal oil lantern had smoked up the mirror so badly. Although Ma was proud of her new bed in the living room, her new red vinyl "divan", and new ice box in the kitchen, Ma wasn't really that good of a housekeeper and I guess she didn't ever clean soot off of that dresser mirror in the living room. Maybe she did try cleaning if off and maybe the heat from the lantern "etched" the soot into the mirror. Seems like I remember once trying to wipe the soot off with my small hand and nothing much came off and the mirror stayed so dim and distorted that you still couldn't see yourself very well in it.
15. Bo was only around 5 feet 2 inches tall, but he was a crusty, tough dude. I remember him once telling about when he taught school for awhile and how he kept the older boys who were taller than he was in line. He said he carried a long log-type, board with him to class and threatened the older, big boys with it and the boys knew he wasn't just threatening them idly. They knew he would use it on them for sure if they got out of line. (Oh the good old days when corporal punishment in school was accepted and actually encouraged!)
16. Okay, I'm finished with the "Ma" subject for awhile any way. Back to Grandpa Bo....
17. After Ma died, Bo went on living life to its fullest. Bo used to like to walk into Nashville and spend a lot of the day sitting at Spigner's Barber Shop where a lot of the local men came to visit with each other. (Bo would sometimes walk all the way to "our" house where we had moved to from the house down the road from Ma and Bo's house in the country.) That was a great deal of walking for a person to do in a day, so Bo decided to get himself a "Mo-ped" to ride instead. For those who don't know what a "Mo-ped" is, it is like a bicycle with a motor on it....not quite a motorcycle, but much more than a regular bicycle, I'd say.
18. The law required a person to possess a driver's license to ride a Mo-ped in town. Bo couldn't get a license because his eyesight wasn't good enough to pass the driver's test and for some reason I never remember Bo wearing glasses even though his eyesight wasn't good in later years. That didn't stop Bo from riding his Mo-ped in town and the local law enforcement threatened to give him a fine for riding his Mo-ped without a licensce, but I think Bo was in "tight" enough with the law enforcement that they never went through with fining him. Bo had several wrecks on his Mo-ped, but nothing really serious. Once he got hit by a car and knocked off the Mo-ped and the only damage he suffered was that his false teeth got broken. (The false teeth were in his back pocket and not his mouth.)
19. Speaking of Bo and false teeth....After Ma died, Bo's teeth went bad and he had all of them pulled out. Bo had brought an old set of Ma's false teeth that he found in a dresser drawer to the dentist and in order to save money, he asked the dentist if he could make Ma's false teet fit his mouth instead of the dentist making a whole new set of teeth for Bo. Of course the dentist told Bo he couldn't make those teeth of Ma's fit Bo and I'm betting that dentist really had an amusing story to tell his colleages at Dental conventions. I doubt if any one of his colleages ever had someone bring in their dead wife's teeth and ask about having them made to fit their mouth. Yuk, yuk, yuk!
20. Back in Bo's day, false teeth often didn't fit well even when they were made especially for you, so Bo complained a lot about his teeth and when he wasn't visiting with his comrades at Spigner's Barber Shop, Bo would put his false teeth in his back pocket instead of his mouth. Hence, the explanation about the Mo-ped wreck where Bo got his false teeth broken. Bo never used Polident to clean his false teeth. I remember seeing him take his false teeth out of his pocket, lean down and swipe them in the dew on the grass at his feet, and then rub them dry on his pants leg. Hey, who needs Polident when they have dew on the ground?
21. Yes, Bo was a tough old man. He had his "irons" (guns) and he was tough even without his irons. I remember when Bo turned about 70 years old and was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He had surgery for it and it sure didn't take him long to recover from the surgery. Maybe two months after the surgery, Bo had a young horse that he decided to break to ride all by himself. I remember my dad telling the story about that episode. Bo announced that he was going to break that horse on a certain day. My dad told my mom, "I guess I may as well go out to the Old Man's (Bo's) house and make sure he doesn't kill himself trying to break that young horse." After my dad came home from the horse breaking thing, I remember him telling my mom about it. He said that young horse was really fiesty and Bo had a time getting the saddle on the horse. Bo was bound and determinded that that young horse wasn't going to get the better of him even if he had had surgery not long before, so that horse didn't stand a chance against Bo putting that saddle on him. (My Dad said Bo worked for quite awhile getting that saddle on that horse and my dad was surprised that Bo managed to do it.) After all the work of getting the saddle on, Bo put one of his feet into a stirrup and was getting ready to swing his leg over the horse to put his other foot in the other stirrup. My dad said the horse took off running and bucking before Bo could get his leg swung over the horse and the horse dragged Bo quite aways before Bo finally got his foot out of the stirrup. My dad said he was thinking that the "Old Man" wasn't going to be able to get up and probably had a broken leg or ankle. No way. Bo jumped up and ran after the horse yelling, "Help me catch that horse, he's going to break his neck!" I think my dad did help the Old Man catch the horse after the horse was finally so worn out from running and bucking that he was too weak to put up too much of a fight. Bo decided he'd better let that horse rest up and not try breaking him that particular day. I really don't remember if Bo ever got that young horse broken himself or not. Maybe he did. Maybe that horse learned who was boss as Bo had showed him that particular day and therefore didn't put up much of a fight the next time.
22. Bo's prostate cancer didn't kill him. He finally died from multiple strokes. I sure did miss him when he died and as you can probably tell from all that I've written about him, Bo was quite a character and although he spoiled me rotten when I was his favorite little girl, he could be a hard man to live with. He was well-liked by his co-horts at Spigner's Barber Shop, though. He was not well-liked by anyone who tried crossing him though. I remember several years after Bo had passed away, my Dad, who was a Baptist preacher, was talking about the subject of the antichrist in the Bible. My Dad said that he remembered when he was growing up and lived in some place in Oklahoma, that Bo got "crossways" with some group of church people in the smalll town where Bo was living. My Dad said those church people actually speculated that Bo might possibly be "The Antichrist" spoken of in their bibles.
23. Bo's house never had electricity until he was in his mid to late 70s. One of his sons from his first marriage (Bo's 1st wife died leaving him with 2 sons and a daughter) paid to put electricity in Bo's house. I remember visiting Bo late one evening during the winter time. Bo still used his wood stove for heat. He was sitting in a rocking chair with a big winter coat on watching a 9 inch TV and wearing a pair of snuff covered sunglasses. Why the sunglasses? We asked him. He said that he wore sunglasses while watching TV because he believed watching TV could damage a person's eyes. Bo rarely wore regular glasses and would complain about not being able to see well. He must have been able to see fairly well though, because I remember being on his front porch and a dog ran across his yard with a sock in his mouth and Bo said, "Why has that dog got that sock in his mouth?" My much younger and perfect eyesight really couldn't have figured out that it was a sock in that dog's mouth, so Bo must have been able to see more clearly than he complained about. Concerning the advent of him having electricity installed in his house, I think Bo was a tad bit suspicious of electricity. I remember him saying once that he believed the reason there were so many bad thunderstorms happening is because electric lines were taking all of the electricity out of the air. Hummm...I didn't ask him to elaborate on that theory, but I wish I had because I'm sure the rest of his thinking on the matter would have been very interesting to hear.
24. To change the subject. Bo had a colorful way of talking. "By Granite" as a substitute for "Dammit"....."What the Devil?" as a substitute for "What the hell? He said his doctor didn't have any more sense than "A monkey sitting on the moon with his eyes punched out"...a substitute for "Really dumb". I also remember Bo telling about his neighbor showing up at his house late at night and beating on his front door and wanting Bo to let him in. Bo said his neighbor was "drunker than a boiled owl" (extremely drunk) and Bo would't let him in. The neighbor wouldn't go away, so Bo got out his shotgun (his iron) and aimed it at the front door and yelled that he had a shotgun aimed at the front door and he was going to use it if the fellow didn't go away. He went away.
Charlie Lamb (Ma's daddy) "got kicked in the head by a mule and the rest of the family got glanced by the blow"......The whole family had mental problems according to Bo. My Aunt Josie's husband was a scOUndrel (sorry excuse for a man).
25. Bo was a healthy man except forthe prostate cancer and mild diabetes when he got older. He died from a series of strokes at age 84 (I think). My grandma "Ma" had terrible asthma and it put such a strain on her heart that she died in her sixties.
26. Ma (Grandma Roberts) looked pretty bad in some of her photos, but I was told by Charles Henry Lamb (Ma's nephew) that when Ma was young, she was the prettiest woman in Howard County. I guess the asthma and Bo took a big toll on her looks in later years. Although she wasn't ugly, she looked like she was a bitter, broken woman in the photos I have of her.
27. As far as Bo's looks, I don't have any young photos of him. He just looked like a crusty, tough little man to me, of which he was. He usually wore a cowboy hat since his hair had fallen out except for a "Bozo the Clown" fringe on the sides. He also dipped snuff (not to be confused with "chewing tobacco"...snuff was a very fine powder that came in amber colored bottles back then). My brother Junior got "snuffed" every time us kids would spend the night with Ma and Bo. Junior had to sleep with Bo and Bo would go to bed with snuff in his mouth and talk to Junior before going to sleep. Bo called Junior "Boo Boo" and whenever Bo said "Boo Boo", a "snuff cloud" would be released from Bo's mouth and land on Junior. Once, Junior and a friend of his were sitting on the back steps of our house when Bo was visiting. Bo walked out onto the back porch and spit a powerful stream of snuff saliva out the screen door onto Junior and his friend. Bo didn't realize the boys were sitting on the back steps, so he didn't spit on the boys on purpose. (I don't think so, anyway.)
In conclusion: I believe Bo was a saved man and now resides in Heaven. It will be interesting to see him again in a new body minus the dust from working a mule in the field, and minus the snuff, and minus his "irons". I loved Bo very much and I still miss all of the entertaining things he said and did. The bible says that when Jesus returns, Jesus will rule with a "rod of iron". I don't suppose that "rod of iron" is referring to a gun, but who knows?
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