Our vacation summer 1952.

What to do with an eight-year-old boy?
We were on, what they call vacation. Our family and my Aunt Elsie drove from California all the way to Oklahoma. My dad, mom, older brother, youngest sister, and myself rumbled through the heat and dust storms in order to visit kinfolk in Oklahoma. Never mind they in Oklahoma seldom if ever came to California.
But anyway, while there, my Aunt Elsie and my mom decided to drive south to the other side of the Red River to visit my Aunt’s girl cousin Billie. So off we went to somewhere in North Texas. Probably a two-hour drive south. We arrived and went through all the hugging and glad to see ya’s. Then went inside and sat down and everybody except myself went into recollection mode. Talking about the past. So, I sat there and fidgeted and moaned. Then the girl cousin Billie could tell I was being left out of the conversation. And then she took me into the kitchen and found a fly swatter, put it in my hand, and told me to swat any fly I see. So, I did. I saw flies on the wall. I saw flies on the kitchen table. I saw flies on the refrigerator. I saw flies on the kitchen windows. I saw flies on the kitchen cabinets. I saw flies all over the kitchen stove. So, I went to work. Swatting flies everywhere I saw them land. Swat! Swat! Swat! I made good progress and felt I was doing good work.
Then later, the girl cousin came back into the kitchen and saw my handy work. I could quickly see she was a bit surprised if not miffed. Realizing what this eight-year-old boy had wrought. There was fly guts all over everything in the kitchen. Especially on spaces where food was cooked and prepared. Slimy fly guts. Everywhere. High and low. I must had swatted about two or three hundred flies if not a big bunch. Smashed. Rendered dead. Just wall kill.
So, she took from my hands the fly swatter and lead me back into the living room where people were still speaking about the past.
But I was doing such good work. The girl cousin seemed a bit perturbed if not really miffed. That’s when I realized it’s difficult to please women. So, I just sat there and picked my nose.