Back when we were still sharecropping there was a family name Kennedy that lived about a half mile east of us. They sharecropped on the same land we did and continued sharecropping until I was grown. Mr. Kennedy had a houseful of kids, none of which ever went to school, that included Lecil and Floyd. Lecil was a couple of years older than me, Floyd was several years younger and really small for his age. Everyone in the community but the land owners were poor but the Kennedy's were the poorest. The kids wore clothes that were torn, ragged and dirty and usually didn't have shoes to wear, even in the winter. The Harris family was the closest neighbor to the Kennedy's and had a son about the same age as Lecil. They sometimes went to the "picture show" at Nettleton and one Saturday night they took Lecil with them. He was around 12 years old at the time and had never seen a movie before.
As always, a news reel was the first thing shown and was followed by a short Superman serial before the usual western came on. Lecil was still big eyed the next day over getting to see the movie, but evidently he was really impressed with the Superman serial because the next day he tied a ragged jacket around his neck by the sleeves to make a Superman cape and tried to fly.
According to an older brother, who witnessed it along with several other brothers and sisters, Lecil made several runs and dove into the Superman flying position at the end of them but couldn't stay aloft. One of his siblings suggested trying it by making his flying jump off a terrace row, that was tried but the results were the same. After a group discussion it was decided the best place would be from the top of the barn, which happened to be the biggest, tallest barn on the landowners property. Lecil climbed up on top of the barn, on the peak of the roof which was a good 30 feet or more from the ground, took a couple of steps, stuck his arms out like Superman and dove off.
It was a short flight. Luckily where he landed was about a foot deep in cow droppings and it had rained a lot the previous week which made the droppings soft and mushy, plus over the years the droppings had soaked down in the ground which also made it softer than normal ground. He buried up halfway to his waist, and almost smothered in the cow droppings before he was pulled out, but only sustained a broken left arm. He learned the difference in make believe movies and real life the hard way.
The other incident involved Floyd and happened several years later. A couple of months before I got married, Fred, the acrobatic cousing Vernon and I killed
, and I walked off in the woods looking for a wild muscadine patch. We found it but they weren't ripe and on the way back home we were walking down a path beside a scope of woods when Fred spotted a small sapling leaning out over the path. He said he hadn't rode a tree up in years and asked me to help him ride the sapling down so he could ride it back up. We rode it down and he got on but it was too weak to lift him.
He looked around, spotted a hickory tree about 5 inches in diameter at its base and said that would be a good one to ride. We climbed the tree to the top, started swaying it back and forth until it leaned way over but to get it low enough we had to swing off, hold on the top with our hands and do what we called hunch it on down, that was like doing chinups and then dropping our weight to arms length. I weighed 175 pounds and Fred was about 160 but it took us several minutes to get the top of the tree close enough to the ground for him to get on.
Just as Fred got settled on the tree in what he considered the right position, Floyd ran up and started begging us to let him ride it up. Floyd was 12 or 13 but wasn't much over waist high, and wouldn't have weighed more than 75-80 pounds at the most. Fred climbed down and Floyd climbed on. None of us considered that the tree might be too strong for Floyd's weight until we turned it loose.
It was like a catapult with sound effects. With a giant "Swoosh" sound it rocketed skyward and the swoosh was quickly followed by Floyds scream that diminished in the distance as the tree flung him off when it reached the end of its swing. Floyd flew through the tree tops a good 25 feet off the ground for close to 75 feet before he hit a limb that stopped him. He tumbled down through the limbs and landed on his right shoulder, we ran to him but by the time we got through the undergrowth he was on his feet. He was standing there scrunched over to the right and started cursing us, he called us every bad name he could think of and made up a few for good measure. I offered to take him to the doctor but he turned and ran off toward home, still cussing us. We found out later he had a dislocated shoulder that one of his brothers snapped back in but no serious injuries. Until this day he thinks we deliberatly set him up to get thrown off the tree.
Lecil turned into a drunk and was found dead in a ditch near the shack he lived in when he was in his mid 30's. Floyd and the rest of Kennedy kids all did well considering they had absolutely no educaton. Floyd still isn't much over waist high but he owns a lot of land north of here, the other boys went into their own businesses, mostly custom upholstery, appliance and auto repair, and as far as I know the girls married well.
As always, a news reel was the first thing shown and was followed by a short Superman serial before the usual western came on. Lecil was still big eyed the next day over getting to see the movie, but evidently he was really impressed with the Superman serial because the next day he tied a ragged jacket around his neck by the sleeves to make a Superman cape and tried to fly.
According to an older brother, who witnessed it along with several other brothers and sisters, Lecil made several runs and dove into the Superman flying position at the end of them but couldn't stay aloft. One of his siblings suggested trying it by making his flying jump off a terrace row, that was tried but the results were the same. After a group discussion it was decided the best place would be from the top of the barn, which happened to be the biggest, tallest barn on the landowners property. Lecil climbed up on top of the barn, on the peak of the roof which was a good 30 feet or more from the ground, took a couple of steps, stuck his arms out like Superman and dove off.
It was a short flight. Luckily where he landed was about a foot deep in cow droppings and it had rained a lot the previous week which made the droppings soft and mushy, plus over the years the droppings had soaked down in the ground which also made it softer than normal ground. He buried up halfway to his waist, and almost smothered in the cow droppings before he was pulled out, but only sustained a broken left arm. He learned the difference in make believe movies and real life the hard way.
The other incident involved Floyd and happened several years later. A couple of months before I got married, Fred, the acrobatic cousing Vernon and I killed
, and I walked off in the woods looking for a wild muscadine patch. We found it but they weren't ripe and on the way back home we were walking down a path beside a scope of woods when Fred spotted a small sapling leaning out over the path. He said he hadn't rode a tree up in years and asked me to help him ride the sapling down so he could ride it back up. We rode it down and he got on but it was too weak to lift him.He looked around, spotted a hickory tree about 5 inches in diameter at its base and said that would be a good one to ride. We climbed the tree to the top, started swaying it back and forth until it leaned way over but to get it low enough we had to swing off, hold on the top with our hands and do what we called hunch it on down, that was like doing chinups and then dropping our weight to arms length. I weighed 175 pounds and Fred was about 160 but it took us several minutes to get the top of the tree close enough to the ground for him to get on.
Just as Fred got settled on the tree in what he considered the right position, Floyd ran up and started begging us to let him ride it up. Floyd was 12 or 13 but wasn't much over waist high, and wouldn't have weighed more than 75-80 pounds at the most. Fred climbed down and Floyd climbed on. None of us considered that the tree might be too strong for Floyd's weight until we turned it loose.
It was like a catapult with sound effects. With a giant "Swoosh" sound it rocketed skyward and the swoosh was quickly followed by Floyds scream that diminished in the distance as the tree flung him off when it reached the end of its swing. Floyd flew through the tree tops a good 25 feet off the ground for close to 75 feet before he hit a limb that stopped him. He tumbled down through the limbs and landed on his right shoulder, we ran to him but by the time we got through the undergrowth he was on his feet. He was standing there scrunched over to the right and started cursing us, he called us every bad name he could think of and made up a few for good measure. I offered to take him to the doctor but he turned and ran off toward home, still cussing us. We found out later he had a dislocated shoulder that one of his brothers snapped back in but no serious injuries. Until this day he thinks we deliberatly set him up to get thrown off the tree.
Lecil turned into a drunk and was found dead in a ditch near the shack he lived in when he was in his mid 30's. Floyd and the rest of Kennedy kids all did well considering they had absolutely no educaton. Floyd still isn't much over waist high but he owns a lot of land north of here, the other boys went into their own businesses, mostly custom upholstery, appliance and auto repair, and as far as I know the girls married well.
I intentionally raised raised them in the "country", thought it was the lesser of two evils, in later years they thanked me for it 
