A Rude Awakening

Miss Zadie Mae Tompkins is getting on up in years. Some of her organs and body parts have ceased to function at acceptable levels forcing her to reside in an assisted living facility but her mind has remained as sharp as ever. She likes to relate stories to anyone who will listen about her youth and the early years of her career. Herein lies the tale.

Miss Zadie Mae was born in the roaring 20s, came of age in the Great Depression of the 30s, and started her career in social work in the 40s. Her first job was in a rural county in East Tennessee. She was young and full of energy and it was well that she was. Most of her clients were welfare families who lived back up in the hills and hollows. Since they seldom came to town, it was up to the social worker to make the periodic reviews of each family by a personal visit. This was no easy task. There were no paved roads back into the hills; some had not even been rocked. Of course, there were no road signs or house numbers. However, each file generally contained directions to the client's house. It was not uncommon to read, "Don't visit after a heavy rain. The creek will be too deep to ford." Or "Take the left fork of the path. The other one leads to the family still."

So it was that one bright spring morning Miss Zadie Mae was assigned to review the file of Miss Hattie, an old lady who lived by herself back up in the hills. She had neglected to eat breakfast that morning but thought she'd be back in town by noon at the latest. Unfortunately, things did not quite work out that way.

To start with she got lost and like to have never found the old lady's cabin. And Miss Hattie was not much help in supplying the needed information. She was sure some of the dates were in the family Bible but could not seem to locate it even though she searched the cluttered cabin for almost an hour. Another time, Miss Hattie excused herself to visit the outhouse. When she failed to return after quite sometime, Miss Zadie Mae went looking for her. She found her in the garden weeding the onions. Miss Hattie had forgotten about her visitor and was busying herself with her chores.

As the time ran on into early afternoon, Miss Zadie Mae grew more and more frustrated-and hungry. Skipping breakfast had not been a good idea.

With the growling of her stomach growing louder and more frequent, Miss Zadie Mae's attention was drawn to a small bowl of shelled peanuts on the rickety table beside her chair. At first she just picked up one or two to nibble on. But as the time wore on she found her hand making more frequent trips to the bowl. By the time she was finished with Miss Hattie's file, she was embarrassed to note that she had also finished off the peanuts.

She felt so bad about eating poor old Miss Hattie's peanuts that she began to apologize. "Miss Hattie, I've just sat right here and eaten all your peanuts. I'm so sorry."

"Oh, don't you worry your head none about that, Dearie," replied Miss Hattie.

"But I am worried about it," responded Miss Zadie Mae, "I hope you'll forgive me."

"Why, hon, there ain't nothin' to forgive."

"Well, I feel so bad about it that the next time I come out here

I'm gonna bring you some peanuts."

"Oh, honey, please don't do that. I can't eat ‘em noway."

"You can't?"

"Naw. I ain't got no teeth. I jest like to suck the chocolate off of ‘em."

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