On a quiet neighborhood lawn in Oxford, MS, five kids were
fighting the heat of a 1954 summer by making mud pies. The group was instructed
by Kat to place them on the stove she and her sister, Margaret, made out of
bricks. The pies were stacked like hamburger patties waiting for a grill.Carol, the oldest in the group, thought she might talk one of them into taking a bite. “Here,” she said. “This is good for you. And it tastes so good, too.”
The sisters were not impressed and responded in unison as twins often do. “Yuck, no way!”
As Carol ran home in a huff, the sisters were called by their older brother, Bill. A familiar sound was coming down the street and the trio had to hide. Clop de clop. Clop de clop.
At the end of the street moved a buckboard wagon being pulled by a mule. The man holding the reins drew on a pipe as he got closer. The children hid behind a huge hydrangea bush at the end of the driveway and watched as the pipe produced smoke that surrounded his whole face.
As the cart slowly inched near, Bill dared his little sisters to hitch a ride. On his count the three siblings bolted from the bush sopping with mud and naked from the waist up and hopped on the back of the wagon. Bill laid back in the wagon to look at the sky while the girls peered uneasy at the smoker whom seemed oblivious.
The smell of the mule became too much and Bill gave the signal. All three hopped back off bare-footed and headed for home. The driver, Mr. William Faulkner, continued in a cloud of smoke to the square.
This is just one of the many entertaining stories that sisters, Katherine and Margaret King, share with readers of their new book, Y’all Twins? I did not do the above story justice. Their version is longer and funnier as family stories can be.
This tag-team memoir opens with a teaser. Their mother spent special care to make them matching outfits for their school pictures. She fashioned a blouse and jumper and was sewing the last button on one jacket that morning before school. She instructed them not to mess up their hair at recess and to take off their jackets before the picture.
On the back book cover are the actual photos taken that day with one twin still sporting the jacket they were told to take off. You are to read the book and say which is which.
Please, if they come to a library near you to talk and sign books, go! They are a hoot!
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