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Brother mine, do you recollect

The days gone by?  Why, you can't forget,

Our old pine house in the settin' sun,

'Mid swamps and hollers where we had fun.

           

Do you recollect the old swimmin' hole,

The flyin' Ginnie and the chinnin' pole?                                                      

The tumble bugs and the little hop toads,

 As we traveled the winding dusty roads?


 

Do you recollect the old Bob White,

That whistled to us from morn till night?

We followed the plow and dropped the seeds,

Thinned the corn, and chopped the weeds.


 

Do you recollect the cooing dove,

As all day long she mourned for her love?

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The blue bird's nest in the holler snag,

As you rode the horse that pulled the drag?


 

Do you recollect the old feedmill,

The corn husk pile near the spinnin' rill?

The friends that came and the roads we made,

The fights we had and the games we played? 


 

Do you recollect, and call their names,

Playing kick the picket and other games?

There was Rusty and Anne, Betty and Jay,

Our cousins who came and stayed all day.


 

Do you recollect the waterin' troft,

And the fun we had in our hayloft?

The wasps we fought and the bumble bees,

And the sap that drapped from the big pine trees?


 

Do you recollect the hounds and good coon dogs,

The rabbits we twisted from the holler logs?

The shocks of hay on the side of the hill,

The corn we hauled to the old feed mill?


 

Do you recollect the gate and path that led,

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Up over the hill to our honored dead?

The monuments and the tall cedar trees,

Sighing and singing in the lonesome breeze?


 

Do you recollect our horses' names,

That we rode to work, clutched to their hames?

There was Trigger and Molley and Ned,

Ole Mare and Bell that have joined the dead.


 

Do you recollect your first true loves,

With fascinators to match their gloves?

The notes you wrote in verse and prose,

Do you recollect just how it goes?

"Sure as the vine grows, around the stump,

You are my own sweet sugar lump."

"Roses are red, and violets are blue,

Candy is sweet and so are you."


 

Do you recollect when the days grew cold,

The potatoes we buried and apples we holed?

Wild geese flying south were our almanac,

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And how glad we were when they came back.


 

Do you recollect at Christmas time,

When Mother said we could spend a dime?

Peppermint candy in a barber pole,

Banana puddin' for the body and soul.


 

Do you recollect the old grass hopper,

That drank so much you couldn't stop 'er?

And the soap we made in our back yard,

And Ma out there working so hard?


 

Do you recollect our old pear tree?

You clum' and got 'em, 'cause I couldn't see.

The plums and the figs, peaches and pears.

The jams and the jellies we stored upstairs?


 

Do you recollect the old cider mill,

The smoke house built on the side of the hill?

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The peas we picked and the hornets we killed,

The butter Ma made and the jars she filled?

The school house that stood on the hill so high,

And the movers we watched as they passed by?

There was 'rithmetic and the spellin' bee,

Mighty good place fer a feller to be.

________________

Dedicated to my brother, Lew

www.lewlasyone.com


These verses were taken and edited

from a poem written

by U.E. Harding                                                             ©