Rabbit Box Blog

Dad was always close to his Uncle Jim and Aunt Vera Lineberger. They hosted the Lineberger family reunion for years, and we always attended, along with a hundred or so relatives. But our little family also visited several times a year, especially after Grandpa Charlie died.

Uncle Jim lived in the old family house, referred to by everyone as “the homeplace.” I’m not sure when it was built, but it was already an old house back in the 1950s. Jim and Vera had updated it over the years they were raising their four children, so it had a modern kitchen and other amenities. But it also had a well on the enclosed back porch, which I thought was the best thing in the world, and unfinished wooden floors.

Because their children were older than me, we sometimes inherited their old toys. I remember the remnants of an Erector Set that Warren and Joe no longer played with. Many of the pieces had been lost, but it still had the wooden case and electric motor, with enough different pieces to make it interesting. Gary and I gratefully played with it until we lost so many of the pieces we couldn’t find anything worthwhile to build.

One Sunday afternoon visit ran a little long, and Mom and Dad noticed it was getting dark. After saying our goodbyes, we started from the living room, through the dining room and kitchen, and out the back door to our car. I was following Mom when we got to the dining room, watching her feet and keeping close on her heels.

Suddenly she wasn’t there. I looked around, and there was Mom, standing on top of Jim and Vera’s dining room table. I had not heard any chairs moving, and I have no idea how she got up there so quickly. (She may have been pregnant with Charles, but I’m not sure.)

“Ooh, a mouse!” she said. She probably repeated some version of that sentence a few more times, but that was the gist of it.

As most people who know her know, there is nothing that Mom fears more than a mouse.

I looked around the room, but any mouse that might have been there had long since taken cover. Dad and Uncle Jim came running to the rescue, but all they could do was reassure Mom that she was safe and help her down. After a few minutes of recuperation, Mom was ready to resume the trek to our car, but this time with a chuckling Uncle Jim leading the way.

No more mice dared show themselves that night.