Davy "David" Cox
I have many fond memories of my brother James. Among such memories was the summer of 1958. The setting was rural Arkansas on a warm Saturday night. James was 16 years old and I was 9. Our Dad had begun to date after losing our mother & his wife in the spring of the previous year. Often during those times James and I would go skating at Uncle John Cox's roller rink in Jacksonville, AR. Normally we would ride with Uncle John and his family, but on this night James drove my Dads' stealthy 53 (I think) Ford pickup. Our old pickup had a V-8 engine & a big hole in the muffler. 'Old Stealthy' could be heard a mile away. Well, we went to the skating rink in our pickup with Jerry and Gary Russell who were about 15 year old twins. To my displeasure, we left the skating rink not long after we had arrived. Being the little kid, I did not know what was going on, however I did hear the guys discussing "Moons' watermelon patch." Mr. Moon had a place adjacent to a country road a little ways past Marvin Milam's dairy farm and about two miles past our house & dairy. Here we go in 'Old Stealthy' on the gravel road past our house, past Marvin Milams' to Mr. Moons' watermelon patch. The plan was for James & Gary to raid the watermelon patch, rolling the water melons into the road ditch. So as to not be noticed, Jerry very slowly drove our pickup back and forth down the road, with me riding along, while Gary and my brother had sufficient water melons in the ditch. They flagged us down & loaded the melons in the bed of the pickup. On the road back to Ward, Gary and James must have thrown a melon in the yard of every house between Old Austin & Ward. As we drove past our house in 'Old Stealthy', we noticed that our Dad was home earlier than we had expected. We took Jerry and Gary to their home in Ward and then went back home. It was about 10 PM & Dad met us in the front yard. Very loudly he demanded, "Where have you been". James said, "Just riding around." That was not not good enough so Dad again asked, " Where have you been". With no good answer from James, Dad grabbed me by my shirt just under my chin, lifted my body up with my face parallel to his face. He said, "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN". Here I was having to make a decision, either a conflict with James or a conflict with our Dad. Without hesitation I said, We we we been been to Mister Moons' watermelon patch. Dad, with some relief in his voice, started the "I can't believe you would do something like this" shame speech. Well, after Dad knew what we had been up to, we got settled down and went to bed. The next day being Sunday, we went to church and then went over to Grandma Coxs' for Sunday dinner. While Grandma was preparing our meal, Dad said, "Mama, You wouldn't believe what these boys did last night." Oh no, thought I, as James and I started bracing for another round of shame speeches. Grandma replied , "Aubrey, You shouldn't get so upset about that kind of thing. You used to do the same thing." Dad replied, "Mama, you shouldn't say that in front of these boys".