Buying Alabama

This is the preface of a story I'd started on a while back, never did go back to finish it.


She had always saved pennies.

The ones she received in change, the ones she found, and the ones given to her by her little friends. The ones she found on the ground would be put in her ‘dirty change’ purse to take home and clean up before adding them to the ‘land fund’ jar.

Miss Pettigrew was odd by town standards. Odd, but accepted. She had grown up in this sleepy little Alabama town and loved it, heart and soul. Her Mama had passed away a number of years ago, taken by one of the mysterious ailments that seemed to afflict ladies of the south.

“It was the consumption I tell you!” any of the town’s many white-haired denizens would say to her, when Mama was brought up in polite conversation. Miss Pettigrew knew though that it wasn’t anything as definable as ‘consumption’ that had taken her Mama away. She knew in her heart of hearts that it was the yearning.

Mama had always talked of the yearning, not that that was what SHE called it, no, indeed. To her it was just a dream, to own land outside of town. Acres and acres of land just imagine! She spoke of it to no one other than her beloved daughter. Not even her dear, dear husband knew of this dream of hers. He just knew that Mama wasn’t exactly as happy as she could be.

Once a week, when Papa would leave for work, Mama would get out her fund jar and show her daughter how much land money they had accumulated so far. It was always in pennies. It was when she was 4 years old that Miss Pettigrew started collecting pennies. “For Mama’s land, “ She would think to herself, every time she picked a penny up from the sidewalk.

Miss Pettigrew was the daughter of the local mortician, Mr. William Ichabod Pettigrew, a decorated war hero and transplant from the North. He had met his late wife Genevieve Isabelle Harper at a dance given at the college they had gone to in Atlanta.

For him it was love at first sight. He had never seen such a vision of loveliness, her golden hair a halo around her head. Her eyes were a particular shade of green that was indescribable, “You just have to see them to believe them”, he would say to his friends.

For JennyBell it took a bit longer to fall in love with Billy. “Ahfta awhl, he’s a Yankee!” she would exclaim to her friends, after reading yet another letter from him. Billy Pettigrew pursued JennyBell Harper for 7 months after the dance before she said; “Yes” she would wear his pin.

After graduation they were married in a lovely wedding in JennyBell’s hometown of Tumbleton, Alabama. Three days after the wedding Billy went to war in Europe and came back decorated for valor and honor, above and beyond the call of duty. He had taken a splinter out of a general’s leg after the general had fallen through a rotten floor in some small town in France. A big fuss was made over him and a medal awarded, despite the fact that he didn’t feel he deserved it; after all it was only a splinter!

When Billy got home after the war, JennyBell and he moved into a tiny cottage in town, near her parent’s home. Billy felt it was too much to ask her to move back up North with him. She would never survive the winters in upstate New York.

Many companies offered him jobs most of them in the city of Dothan, which was just too far to go when one didn’t own a vehicle! Billy chose to apprentice with the mortician since he had made the best offer, was located in town and after all “It’s a business that will never suffer for customers.”

The Pettigrews were blessed with the birth of their only child, Myrtle Savannah Pettigrew, 2 years to the day after their wedding.

She was a happy baby with golden red curls and eyes of her mother’s particular shade of green, that have to be seen to be understood.

She grew up in Tumbleton, carefree and happy-go-lucky. Wherever Myrtle was, the rest of the town’s children were sure to be.

She learned to cook with her mother and grandmother, tackling biscuits and cakes before she was 8. By the time she was a teenager, she made the best oatmeal cookies in town and all the gentlemen would holler out to her when she went by, “Any cookies in the cookie jar Myrt?” Laughing she would reply “Go ask Mama, last I saw she was eating the last one!”

Myrtle went to college in Troy, studying music theory and application. To some it seemed a useless endeavor. After all, what good was music? She should be studying something useful! She would just laugh and toss her golden red curls. All was forgiven when Myrtle Pettigrew laughed.

After she graduated she started giving music lessons in the front room of their house, which by now was one of the larger ones in town, since Papa had taken over the running of the mortuary. The children would come to the front door and ask for Miss Pettigrew, knowing there would be a plate of cookies and a glass of milk on the front porch after the lesson!

Each lesson was paid for with whatever change the children’s parents could come up with. They knew Miss Pettigrew didn’t ‘need’ the money, but their pride dictated payment for services rendered.

All pennies went into the fund jar. Other coins went into buying music and instruments for Miss Pettigrew to give lessons on, and occasionally to give to an exceptional student, who would need it in the future.

Pap never questioned the penny jars. He had no idea what they were for, but if Mama and Little Miss wanted to save pennies, then by George they could save pennies.

The Depression was hard on everyone. Grandmother Harper passed away one night in April of 1932, after having had one of those mysterious ailments. Myrtle said it was her own Depression. Grandmother would read the news stories about men out of work and wonder what was wrong with the world that a decent man couldn’t provide for his own family anymore? Grandfather followed her the next year. According to Myrtle, he just couldn’t stand a world without his dear Daisy.

Mama and Papa had to go Up North for the funerals of his parents. Miss Pettigrew stayed home, much to the shock of the rest of the town. Papa understood, his parents were one reason he had gone to school in the South. They were another reason he had decided to stay there after meeting JennyBell. Myrtle was a thorn in her paternal grandparent’s collective sides. She didn’t act like a girl most of the time. She would wear pants! She would climb trees, and her a full-grown woman!

The Pettigrews made it through the Depression with little else affecting their daily lives. After all, people died every day; it was a part of life.

By the end of the Depression Papa decided it was time for Little Miss to learn how to drive a car. He had had one for years now and trips to the city were more frequent than when he had first moved to the sleepy little town of Tumbleton.

On their trips Miss Pettigrew would stare out the window, looking for the perfect piece of land.