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I'll never forget my first pair of underwear. Red shorts, they were; and, the daintiest and prettiest little things you ever did see! But I'm getting ahead of the story now.
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It was almost my 18th birthday and my pop and me was sitting on the front porch of our little half-room house in the rough part of the Ducktown section of East Southwest Wormhaven, Kansas. Wormhaven, for those of you who don't know was actually the capital of the world as far as worm ranching goes, until the worms came down with parasites.
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| A rare picture of a world-famous Wormhaven Worm getting an x-ray scan early in the parasite outbreak that eventually ruined the Wormhaven economy -- and the Wormgear Family legacy. |
Kinda' strange worms having worms. But, that's another story. Anyway, so my daddy and me was sitting out there on our front porch. My brother Cleetus was out in the street playing in traffic. And, my momma was out in our backyard trying to remember why she was there. Daddy looked at me real hard and said, "Honey, it's almost your birthday! What do you want?"
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| Young Verna's Daddy posed the question..."What do you want for your birthday?" It was a question she hadn't heard very often...and it made her head dizzy with possibilities. |
I had to think real hard, cause the last time Daddy had asked me what I wanted for my birthday I was 12. We'd had some lean times and there wasn't always enough money to buy presents for birthdays. In fact, Daddy was working for the first time in six years! He'd just landed a job as a tire inflator at the Gizmo Brothers Gas Station over on East Pea Meadow Road. Grady Gizmo had hired Daddy, 'cause he said they needed a man with good lungs to work for them until they got their air compressor fixed. So, anyway, Daddy asked me what I wanted for my birthday. Like I say, I wasn't used to makin' this kind of decision, so I just sorta' stood there and thought. Well, truth is, I was so stunned, mostly I just tried to think. But, just then, a gust of wind come up and blew my skirt up into my face. I fluffed it down as quick like as I could. But, there was this kinda' long pause, then Daddy says, "Honey...you're almost growed up. You're a gonna be 18. You need your first pair of underpants."