LM, Episode 1247,5/21/23, My Cotton Pickin’ Days Are Over

I have a friend who’s retiring and he’s wondering what he will do with his time. He runs, bikes, and swims, but you can only workout a couple of hours a day. That’s a problem my Grandma Rader never had.

When my Granddad Rader returned from World War I, Grandma Rader was working at JC Pennys. Granddad wanted to get into retail sales, so he asked the manager if he could work at the store on nights and Sundays for free to learn the business. The manager agreed and, after six months, he wanted to hire Granddad Rader as the assistant manager, but company policy said husband and wife couldn’t be employed by the same store, so Grandma Rader would have to quit. Not being particularly work brittle, she used to say hard work didn’t bother her, she could sit and look at it all day, Grandma Rader gladly agreed and retired at the age of 22..

She had so many other interests that a job interfered with. She was artistic, she could singing, play both the piano and the harp. She loved all music, playing the Beach Boys Help Me Rhonda over and over. She painted and even hand painted her own Christmas cards. She wrote poetry and an autobiography about her life with Granddad Rader which continues to bring me comfort.

My brother, Michael, and I ate lunch at their house every Saturday and when Michael would skip school, she’d not only make him lunch, she’d write him an excuse for the principal.

But maybe the thing I remember most about her was she was funny. Whenever they were at our house and Granddad Rader would want to leave, she’d say, “Every party has a pooper and that’s why we invited you.

There was an African American woman, Mrs. Millentry, who cleaned houses, but when she got to Nell’s, the party would start. The two of them would laugh constantly. Once Grandma sent me to retrieve a bottle of aspirin for Mrs. Miollentree’s headache. Mrs. Millentree removed the cap, then asked me to remove the cotton because, and I quote, “My cotton pickin’ days are over.” I can hear the two of them laughing to this day because both of them always remembered laughter matters.