I was seventeen when I first met Miss Sis, I have no idea what her given name was. I’m sure her mother didn’t name her Miss Sis but that’s the only name I’d ever heard associated with her, so as far as I’m concerned, that’s who she was and always will be. God rest her soul.
Anyway, that summer I went to visit my Aunt Bessie and Uncle Cannon (yes, those are real names). They lived in a small town in South Carolina called Hartsville. Miss Sis was Uncle Cannon’s mother and she lived with them. Actually she lived in the same house but she was rarely “with” them. Aunt Bessie couldn’t stand to be in the same room with her so Miss Sis spent most of her time sitting on the porch watching the grass grow. She was the first person I ever saw dipping snuff. For those of you who don’t know what that is. Snuff is basically ground tobacco leaves. It comes in a small round can to keep it moist. It smells bad and looks nasty, but people use it.
Miss Sis used it a lot, so she spewed a stream of vile, brown, nasty spit, a lot. She kept an old coffee can sitting on the porch floor beside her chair to catch it and her aim was pretty darn good. She rarely missed. But I still sat on the other side of that little porch, (just in case).
Any who, she popped into my head today, or rather something she used to say popped in. No matter what the topic of a conversation was, her input was always “Just keep living.” For instance. If some asked, “How could someone do something like that?” Miss Sis would reply. “Just keep livin’ child. You gone see people do more than that.” Or “It wasn’t supposed to rain today.” “Just keep livin’ child. You gone see a lot of stuff that wasn’t supposed to be.” Get the picture?
Since her favorite expression just showed up today for no particular reason, I figured perhaps I’m just supposed to share her ancient wisdom with you. So here it is:
“JUST KEEP LIVIN”
Photo courtesy of art rave
