wandering hillbilly

life of buddy don, chaptur 81:
rite in publick

whenever i moved in with emily, we lived a short walk frum campus n dint hardly need no car. i tuck a job of shovelin coal into the furnace n gut the landlord to wave the rent n we dint have hardly no eggspences n the rent maisie paid tuck care of my part of the mortgage on the farm.

since i dint need it, i sold my car to eli, witch he wrecked it the furst week, but he gut it fixed n whenever emily n me needed groceries, he wood cum over n take us to the kroger out on chapman highway. but not havin a car meant i dint git out to clinton or the farm much ever agin.

in sted, i went to skool ever day n studied in the liberry nex to a unabridged dickshunary n wrote my novel n enjoyed bein in love with my maedchen, witch thats whut i called emily since it means lil gurl in german.

ye kin tell a lot bout a persons life by relatin a sangle day of it, n twood make ye see how thangs wuz back then fer me to tell bout one frum back in that time.

twuz a weekday in october of 1978. i gut up at 6:30 n pullt on a ole pair of carbide overhauls that susannah had give me n went down to the basemint to shovel the coal n warm the place back up, witch i used to sorta bank the coals at nite so twoodnt git to hot n burn up all the coal befor mornin since tiz hard to warm the place up once it gits too cold.

whenever i wuz a'pullin off the overhauls, i gut emily riled on a counta she wuz a'wontin to sleep sum more n i wuz makin too much ruckus n purty soon we wuz in the midst of a lil fuss n fite. i made thangs wurse once i gut into to bathtub by havin the radio runnin till she sed she couldnt sleep n gut up, witch twuz time fer her to git up innyway. she cum to pee n brush her teeth as i wuz leavin the bathroom n we kep up the fuss n fite till we wuz dressed n walkin over to campus.

we et at smokeys lack we dun ever day. ye could git ye a cheese omelet with fried taters, two do nuts n coffee fer $1.05. ye couldnt git a better deal ifn ye wuz a'cookin it yer ownself. we run into virgil thar rite away. durin brakefuss me n emily made up n that mint we had to kiss in publick, witch she knew how much i hated to do that n seem lack that made her wonta doot all the more. they left fer opposite ends of the campus, he fer ayers, she fer mcclung, n i stayed at smokeys long a nuff to finish reedin the chattanooga times, witch twuz thonly good mornin paper ye could git back then.

after i wuz dun i packed up my thangs, witch i always carrd a pack filled with my books n notebooks n pens n ink n pencils n whutever i mite need, n i walked over to the undergrad liberry n found a spot on the third floor near a english german dickshunary n tuck to doin my home wurk, witch we wuz reedin friedrich schillers wilhelm tell. i red thru the home wurk n then almos gut stuck in the cobweb lef by my other german teechur, witch she had give us this chart showin all the adjectives in whutever case ye wuz a usin with the propriate form of 'der' or 'ein' fer the word. i could git lost in sumthin lack that, so i made myself shut it up in a notebook n git out of thar.

i went over to the student center whar i knew ye could sneak into the auditorium n play thar peeano n i practiced fer bout a hour or so. once i wuz dun with that, i walked past the graduate liberry, thru the parkin lot, along the sidewalk tween our house n the house nex door, round the corner, up the porch stairs, into the door n up the wooden stairs to our apartment, witch thay wuznt nobidy home. i tuck a look at the furnace n kindly stirred it up n put a lil coal in on top of it n went up stairs n made a cup of coffee n loaded a lil bowl with sum of the homegrown frum the garden n begun readin bullfinches mythology.

purty soon emily cum home n we agreed on havin a lunch of canned hot tamales n chilly beans, witch i figgerd thar wuznt a nuff meet in them tamales to make a fuss over. after eatin she turnt on the soap opers n i turnt my tentchun back to bullfinch n the gods n after jes a bit, virgil cum by.

he wuz in a good mood n wonted to git hi so i loded up a nuther lil bowl n we smoked n gut to talkin bout pi. i ast him did he thank twuz a real thang? wuz it truly a priori? n he sed twuz whut the universe wuz construcked on. n i ast him wuz it a formative cause or a material cause? he figgerd twuz formative so i ast him how did it operate n he sed twuz a law lack gravity. n i sed seemed to me lack twuz merely a human conventchun, a langwage device to hep splain whut humans wuz observin. n he gut to splainin how twuz ackshly how thangs wuz made n thats why we could observe it n discover the rule it wurked on. we went on n on till twuz time fer me to go to class.

the class wuz theology n literchur n twuz a goodn. that teechur, dr. saxon, had him a way of weevin in mos everthang frum flossofy to relijun to literchur. i never gut so minny idees fer thangs to read in my life. in class that day he wuz grate, weavin in meister eckhardt n mark twain n the bibl n lao tzu. he had me on the edge of my seat n barely able to make a note n then sed 'times up' n it broke the spell n we had to go. n thang wuz, one of the gurls in class had dun fell asleep!

after class i went back home n started fixin pizza fer dinner, witch i wuz the one to cook ever meal once i moved in with emily on a counta how she sed she coodnt boil water without burnin it. thay wuznt a nuff cheese to doot rite, but thay wuznt no money neethur so twernt verr good, but twuz fillin.

emily wuz eggcited bout seein a movie name of orphee or sumthin lack that over to the auditorium in the student centar whar i played the peeano in the afternoon. she sed twuz a grate film n she even wonted to git hi befor, witch she dint do that twice in a year. we walked over to the movie, bought sum gum n candy n tickets n went in. twuz all in french with subtitles only whoever twuz ritin them subtitles dint no english all that good n thay wuz lines lack 'we must discover what we must do!!'

on the walk home, i had to add mitt i wuznt too impressed by the movie n i wuz reddy to pall gize only she sed she wuz sprized how twuznt as good as twuz the time befor. n that gut us to talkin bout heraclitus n how ye cant step in the same river twice n hinduism n how everthang everwhar is changin all the time n ye cant even tell if whut ye member bein good wood still seem good.

she tuck a bath while i went to bed n gut back to readin bullfinch only i watched while she brushed the knots out of her long brown hair, witch she kep it silky by usin milk plus six n lettin it dry on its own. she went into the livin room to smoke n read fer a while, n whenever she cum to bed, i wuz near asleep. she ast did i member to bank the furnace n lack twuz mos nites, i hadnt.

while i wuz jerkin out the slag frum the day befor n dumpin it n shovelin in more coal n gittin it to burn sos i could bank it with new lumps, i gut to thankin bout heraclitus agin n how he sed everthang in life is lack fire, jes a'burnin. i gut the fire banked jes rite n thought bout how twood burn slow overnite, keepin thangs warm but not too hot n all.

life that fall wuz a lot lack that fire. warm, rich, barely changin but never quite the same two days in a row. i had kindly ansered sum of the big questchuns durin the sesshuns with el doc tore n i dint feel such pressure to anser them no more. i wuz in love n livin in such a purrfeck time of life.  i wuz applyin fer a fullbright n ritin on my novel till i had near three hundred pages n studyin german n trine to keep up with emily in readin. how deelishus!

i wuz thankin bout all this as i crawled in to bed beside of her. she tuck my arm n pulled it between her breasts till i wuz close, our bodies lack spoons. i sed mein leibes maedchen. she pulled me tighter.

nex mornin started much the same only i wuz keerful not to wake her n thay wuznt no need fer no fuss n fite. we had brakefuss at smokeys. randy fox joined us. he wuz goin to classes a'studyin draftin. i had classes in german n german lit n flossofy, so i went to em. after that i went over to the graduate liberry n wrote on my novel till emily cum over to git me. she wuz bored, reedin the tv guide frum chicago, pullin on her hair a strand at a time, as if lookin fer that speshul one. i wuz near dun but i strung it out sos i could watch her. she wonted a cigarette. she got bored of the tv guide n gut one of the volumes of the oxford english dickshunary n tuck to readin this n that, still a'pullin on her hair, still bored but waitin.

i couldnt hep but smile whenever i closed the notebook n she jumped up. she cum roun the table n into my arms n i kissed her, even ifn twuz rite in publick.