Tales, Trails, & Trials, of Grandma Lillie

If you are wondering about the title, it is the title of a book Grandma Lillie always wanted to write. In it she wanted to tell all about her growing up days in Oklahoma, during the dust bowl and depression, and their move out West. Sadly, she never got to it.

Grandma really did live a full and interesting life, and she could tells stories about her growing up days, that would split your sides with laughter.

Grandma would sit in her old rocker and tell stories, and it always made me smile.

One of her stories went something like this:

When grandma was young, she and her family lived in Oklahoma. One evening, they were sittin' on their back porch shelling, "goober pea's", an old time name for peanuts. A small crop of which, great grandpa Charles, grew. 

Anyway, it was one of those nights grandma said, that was hot and dry and the air was full of electricity, like a storm was brewing. Out in the yard their suddenly appeared a hovering light, that was about the size of a baseball. It hovered in the air, about a foot or so off the ground.  Grandma said they called it, "Ball lighting." She said, they saw these things from time to time in Oklahoma and they always gave her the shivers.

Just at the time she saw the ball lightening, out of the house came their cat, through a hole in the screen door. Before it could be stopped, it shot down the steps, and went right for that ball lightening. Well, when the cat hit that ball, it just lit the cat up in blue white light. It traveled down that cat, from its head to its tail in a crackling snap, and made every one of its hairs stand on end. The cat let out a yowl, leaped into the air snarling and spitting, and tore off across the yard going lickity split, and disappeared around the corner of the barn.

It happened so fast, everyone on the porch was just too surprised to say anything. Then her father said, "That do beat all," and they all burst out laughing.

After a time grandma got worried that the cat was dead. It didn't come back for two days. When it did tho, there wasn't a thing wrong with it, not even a hair of it was singed.