The Walnut Experience
From age ten to age seventeen
Doug Caffey was heard
and often seen
in the Mississippi Delta
community known
as
Walnut.
Depression had raised
its ugly head
in the thirty's and early
forties.
I must have caused
the Depression
for it began
shortly after made my
grand entrance
into this big world
in the year
of 1926.
Old Henry was still
making the
Tin Lizzie
known as the model
T.
What a machine
it turned out
to be!
Three pedals on the
floor
and an engine with
cylinders
four.
The T was the poor man's
car
thus setting the stage
for wandering
far.
My dad bought a farm
on the Moore
road
in the year of
'35,
160 acres of black gumbo
kept his large family
alive.
I remember learning
how to drive
a tractor
and a car in my dad's
hay field,
the tractor was a
Farmall
while the car was a
'34 Ford Victoria
with rumble
seat;
a V/8 engine
made that green Ford
complete.
Then he bought a
brand new
'37
and I thought I died
and went to
Heaven!
But at the young age of
eleven
C. Douglas rolled
that new Ford
and taught him that he
was nowhere near
heaven,
but much closer to
the town of
Vance
as he was "flying" that
black Ford by the
seat of his
pants!
Totaled that car
he did,
when in grade
five.
He wished he were dead
but learned he
was alive
instead!
And so the story continues
to unfold
and some of the things
Doug did cannot
be told!
It looked for a time that
he might never
grow old!
But high school at Walnut
finally came to be
since the Mississippi River
flooded the farm,
turning it into a
sea!
The Caffey family moved
to a farm near Neal's
store.
There was Bo, Cornelia and
Pop
Edward Avant, and Jerry
Mills...
those were the days of riding
bicycles and our many
spills.
We soon learned that
pedaling a bike
was much easier when
a pretty girl
sat cross-legged on
the frame.
Strange, it is, how the
female gender
made our hearts so
tender
when in our teens
we liked to be
seen
with a pretty girl.
Now stealing a kiss
from a pretty
miss
was done with
finesse,
and what we didn't know
was that the girls
were wondering why we
hadn't done that
long ago!
Then high school days went
swiftly by and
World War Two came
into view!
Pearl Harbor was hit
by the Rising
Sun
on a cold, cold day in
December
and the saying
"Remember Pearl Harbor"
was heard throughout
the land.
It was then that boys
started turning into
man
for we all donned a uniform
of Navy Blue
or
Army Tan.
C. Douglas chose the
Army Air Corps
and at the age of
seventeen
went off to college
in the Army Air Corps
to learn to be come a fighter
pilot.
Those were the days so
far removed from the
Walnut Community,
but we took with us all the
memories
of riding bikes decorated
by pretty girls,
as we kissed the girls
and the bikes
farewell!
Off to war we went
answering our nations
call.
Some of us lived through
the war,
but changed we were
upon our return
when bikes and pretty girls
were just memories
and the Walnut
experience
had vanished with the
winds of war!
By C. Douglas Caffey
disabled veteran of
WWII
of the 509th Composite Bomb
Group. 58th Wing
Air Photo Unit
Army Air Corps
20th Air Force.
