Granddad use to tell me stories about the Old days. Here is a compilation of 3 stories that I made into one. Hope you enjoy it: Back in the early 30’s you could order about anything you wanted from a Sears and Roebuck Catalog. There was a man named Willie who was a bachelor and a very lonely man. He was illiterate so he depended on other folks to help him. Willie was in his 50’s so he was able to go to the town square in Dahlonega on Saturday evening to sit with the older gentlemen. Their wives would be doing the weekly shopping while the men sat and talked. One day Willie stated how lucky he thought they were and he wished he had a wife. One of the men told him he had ordered his wife from the Sears and Roebuck Catalog and suggested he do the same. One of the men brought a catalog the next Saturday and helped Willie to fill out the order form. In two weeks, Mae came. They were married on the back of Willie’s wagon and headed on up the mountain where Willie owned a little farm. They were very happy and content for a while. Mae kept the house spotless and did the duties of a wonderful wife. However they both felt like something was missing. By this time Willie was 72 and Mae was almost 50. They were both to old to have children, but they both longed to have a child of their own. It just wasn’t meant to be. Adoption was impossible because of their ages, and besides that every child in the county had a family. One day Mae was looking through a new Sears and Roebuck Catalog when she noticed a new line of stock she had never noticed before. The catalog had added monkeys. She took the catalog over to Willie who was busy shoeing the old mule they used to pull their wagon to go to town. Mae was excited. “Willie!” she said. “Willie. Look here. They have monkey’s on sale in this catalog. It’s only $15. Can I take the money I have made selling eggs to order one. Oh Willie. It would be so much fun to have one and we could pretend it was our child. Oh, Willie please!?” Willie asked, “Woman, have you gone crazy? Monkeys stink. They are messy.” and Willie went on and on about why they shouldn’t have a monkey. Mae persisted. She cried and she pouted. She did everything to convince Willie she would be responsible for the monkey. Finally Willie gave in They ordered the monkey and it arrived in 2 weeks in a cage. Mae fell in love with it and vowed it would never live in a cage again. Mae named the monkey Roscoe. Mae made clothes for the monkey. She taught it to eat at the table and trained it to go to the bathroom in the outhouse. She taught it how to dance when Willie played the fiddle. Soon the monkey was riding in the wagon between the two everywhere they went. They even took the monkey to church. They were very happy. The monkey lived with Willie and Mae for 15 years and they thought of it as a son. The monkey never learned to talk, but it understood what was being said and what was expected of it. One winter it came a snow storm. During one night, Roscoe went to the outhouse and never came back. Willie and Mae had been sound asleep so they did not know Roscoe was out in the cold. They found him the next morning. He had froze to death. Willie brought him in the house and laid him out. They both wailed as if the monkey was their only son. Willie made him a coffin while Mae dressed him in his favorite suit. Willie went for the preacher and some neighbors to comfort Mae. The neighbors dug a grave on that mountain and gave Roscoe a funeral and buried him. Willie carved his name in stone for his grave marker. A year later Willie died and was buried at his church cemetery. Don’t nobody know what happened to Mae. Some say she left town. Some say she still roams the mountain, grieving over her dear Roscoe and Willie. But every remembers the old couple who ordered a monkey from Sears and Roebuck and took it in as their son. Life has a way of compensating what we have missed. That monkey was one compensation.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 14:59:23 +0000
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