SATURDAY STORY, JANUARY 21, 2023

 SATURDAY STORY, JANUARY 21, 2023

On Saturday, I write fiction.

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Farming can be a rough life. Esther Campbell knew it firsthand.

Her family's farm was in the western Missouri hills, not far from the Ozarks.  By the 1950s standards, it was a kind of minimum farm.  Dairy cattle, chickens, corn, and pasture lands.  Her father, Floyd, seemed to have a love-hate relationship with farming.  It took a long time between planting and harvest; every morning he had to be up early to milk the cows; prices weren’t good.

So, to compensate, Floyd Campbell drank.  Some alcoholics get sedated by the alcohol, but some, like Floyd, become argumentative and mean. He took out his attitude on his family.  His wife, Christina Campbell, cowered around the house when he had been drinking.  Christina apologized for the bad prices, for the bad weather, and for a long time between planting and harvest - even if she had no part in the actions.  But, Floyd would yell at her and if she failed to submit, Floyd would hit and abuse her.  Esther heard the screams and the crying.

Esther learned quickly to stay out of her father’s way when he was drunk.  

Esther could have been a good student, but with only two dresses to wear to school, she didn’t fit in.  The other girls looked down on the poor girl.  An athletic girl, she could run like the win, but she wasn’t allowed to.  She was “needed” at home.   When she had bruises from her father beating her, she learned to say she had fallen, or a cow kicked her.   

Esther didn’t have friends.  There were some adults who tried to help, but the task was hard.  Her fifth grade Sunday School Teacher was Joy Reed who brought Esther clothes and prayed with her.  But, when she got home with the clothes, it infuriated her father.  

“We ain’t taking no hand-me-downs from that rich Sunday School teacher.”  But, when money was tight, Papa needed his liquor and Esther needed clothes and shoes, Papa always won out.  

So, Esther wasn’t allowed to go to Sunday School anymore. 

*****

Grandma Keller (her mother’s mother) tried to help when she could, but Grandma was in town and Esther was not allowed (by her father) to spend any extra time there.

***** 

Esther did earn some money by selling eggs to the market.  The chickens were her responsibility.  She fed the chickens,  gathered the eggs, cleaned the hen house, and was allowed to keep the profit (after her father’s “cut” for providing the corn and feed). She learned how to “candle” the eggs to see which ones were carrying baby chicks, and which one would sell as eggs.  

By age 13, she was killing the older chickens, cleaning and plucking them.  She carefully kept adding to her little flock.  More chickens meant more eggs, and more eggs meant more money.  And, more chickens meant that some of the older ones could be sold (after her father kept some for the kitchen table).  Yes, she knew the adage “like a chicken with its head cut off” but tried to corner them and chop their heads off quickly, cleanly, and carefully.  Esther slipped her money to Grandma Keller when she could for safekeeping.

And, when he really “needed” money for his liquor, Papa would abuse and take Esther’s money.  

Esther prayed for God to “take Papa”.  Once while milking the cows, one of the cows wasn’t firmly locked in the stall and kicked out at Papa.  And, Papa took it out on Esther’s brother who was responsible for getting the cows into the milking parlor by swinging a heavy chain on his back and legs until his back was bloody.  (That brother always had a limp after that).

*****

When she turned 16, she worked out a plan with Grandma Keller.  Esther would run away from the farm to the town and Grandma Keller’s and then take a Trailways bus to Jefferson City where she would stay with a cousin of Grandma Keller.  

The bus came through Eldon going towards Jefferson City at about 1:20 in the afternoon three days a week - Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.  The bus didn’t stop unless there was a passenger getting off or somebody had arranged for a ride.  On Saturday, September 7th, 1964, Grandma Keller had arranged for Esther to catch the bus.  Esther brought some eggs to town and sold most of the eggs to the Piggly Wiggly grocery store (while Papa was getting liquor and other supplies), and started on her delivery to homes.

But, at 1:05, Esther ran to Grandma Keller’s house to leave the unsold eggs, change clothes and grab her suitcase.  At 1:15, Esther and Grandma Keller were at the Eldon post office - where the bus stopped, and at 1:20, she got on the bus.

At 2:30 Papa came looking for Esther at Grandma Keller’s house.  Grandma lied and said she hadn’t seen Esther since lunch, and thought she might still be distributing eggs around town.

By 4:00, Papa was raging mad.  He accused Grandma Keller of collaborating to get Esther away.  He knew better than to hit Grandma Keller.  

That evening Esther Campbell got off the bus in Jefferson City and met up with Grandma Keller’s cousin, Earl Thomas.  On Monday, September 9th, Esther “Thomas” was signed up for seventh grade and was wearing new clothes.  Earl and his wife (Jurene) lived and worked in Jefferson City where Earl was the assistant manager of the Western Auto store. 

Earl and Jurene treated Esther well.  Jurene had been a teacher until they married (married women weren’t allowed to teach in Missouri at that time) and Jurene worked hard with Esther to get her up to grade level.  They also took her to the Methodist Church and helped her get friends.  Esther graduated from Jefferson City High School and went to Tyson Secretarial School in Jefferson City and became a secretary.  Since the State Capital of Missouri is in Jefferson City, Esther became a stenographer for the state and took notes and minutes of meetings and proceedings. 

Papa Campbell figured that Grandma Keller had helped Esther escape his clutches, but Grandma didn’t tell anybody, not even her daughter (Esther's mother Christina), although Christina suspected her mother aided and abetted to get Esther out of town.  

Esther did well and dated some of the other aides around the Capitol.  She also lied about her background that she was really Esther Campbell and was Esther Thomas.  

On November 10th, 1975, Esther’s father, who had been searching for Esther for all the years, found her.  The State Representative from Miller County had recognized Esther at the State Capitol and somehow that knowledge had trickled down to Floyd Campbell.  But, this time, Esther was ready to take on her father.  The years of alcohol abuse had weakened him and Esther was a strong woman.  

Floyd Campbell had found Esther’s apartment and was in his car waiting for his daughter to appear after work.  He followed her to her apartment and had a baseball bat (and had been drinking in his car most of the afternoon).  

He swung widely, and Esther threw a glass of water at him - including the glass.  She found the drawer with knives and selected the biggest one.  Younger, agile, and sober, Esther pushed over the kitchen table which knocked the bat out of his hand. Her father rushed her, and Esther did manage to stab her father in his left side.  He was howling as Esther slipped down the hall of her apartment building and a neighbor called the police for her, and the neighbor came to her aid.

There was a trial for Floyd Campbell and Esther, Christina, Grandma Keller, and others testified about his alcohol abuse and his abuse of his family.  Floyd got ten years in the State Penitentiary.

*****

The next few years were interesting as Esther visited her father once a week in Jefferson City - which also was the home to the Missouri State Penitentiary.  Sober because he couldn’t get alcohol in the prison, and with an evangelical group - M2M (Men to Men) and Alcoholics Anonymous, Papa became a changed man.  

Esther found that a sober, older, and wiser Floyd Campbell was actually a nice guy.  He asked Esther for forgiveness, and she granted it, and she asked him for forgiveness and he granted it.  

*****

Karen Komments: Real forgiveness can be tough.  I know of people who say they “never” will forgive their father. My bias is that with supernatural grace, love can triumph.

*****

LOVE WINS

LOVE TRANSFORMS

KAREN ANNE WHITE, ©, JANUARY 21, 2023

(To err is human, to forgive, divine!!!)