| OCR Text |
Show Nettie, Page 6 "One day while helping out at the church house she hid away a couple of nails in her apron. Had a shelf loose or some such and she thought she'd just confiscate a couple of loose nails to help her fix it. At the end of her work shift she removed the apron and started walking off the grounds toward home, shaking sawdust from her apron as she walked. Well, children, the nails flew from her pocket and landed in an empty barrel. Matty, pinchpenny that she was, was not about to lose those precious nails, so after chem she went, with both hands, head first, into the barrel." Grandma paused, the laughter burbling up from deep within her. "Well, she lost her footing and there she was, skinny, spindly legs covered with pantaloons sticking out of this barrel, kicking and scrambling, screaming and shrieking." Grandma paused again, this time to wipe her eyes while the children doubled over with laughter themselves. Nettie's tinkling peals joined with Clarence's tiny chuckles and Alice's shrill cackling. It was a noisy bunch. "Oh, my, the men sure had a good laugh, too, before they pulled her out," Grandma wheezed a bit from all the exertion. They all heaved a contented sigh after their hearty laugh. "It wasn't long after that that Grandpa Peterson and I moved back to Utah. He signed over his land to the city fathers and that's what started the whole do-flicky down there," she finished. "What's a do- flicky, Grandma?" Nettie's ears pricked up at the new word. "Well, in this case it was a city--Mesa, Arizona they call it now, |
