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| Prize Pack Winning Entry |
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- by W. Brent Woodall
My wife Marie is my Hillbilly Goddess because of the wonderful life we have had together. I first met her when I began selling at the local farmers’ market many years ago. I sold rutabagas and corn in my booth and the lovely lady in the booth next to mine sold milk, butter, and eggs. From talking with her l learned that she milked her cows by hand and churned and packaged the butter herself. She based the price of her eggs on the number of times she had been pecked while getting them from her henhouse. To anyone who asked, she explained her pricing method as, “The greater my pain, the greater my gain.” Over the course of the few weeks I sold there, we became good friends and I realized that she would make someone a good wife. On the day I asked her out I told her that she was the prettiest “butter and egg man” I had ever seen; she later told me that it was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her.
On our first date we went to the edge of the woods near her home and picked polk salad. Then we went back to her place where she cooked it for supper. She knew exactly how much fatback to throw in for seasoning; I was hooked from the first bite. I hadn’t tasted polk salad that good since my grandmother died. After sopping up the last of the pot likker with the cornbread she had made I asked her to marry me. She told me that I was moving way too fast so I waited until our fourth date to ask her again. That time she said, “Yes.” Because of fond childhood memories she has of listening to the Louisiana Hayride, we got married at the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana. After the preacher pronounced us man and wife I removed her John Deere cap before kissing her. We then went with family and friends to a local Waffle House where our reception was held.
Another reason my wife Marie is my Hillbilly Goddess is because she has blessed me with three wonderful children; we have a total of five children but two of ‘em ain’t all that wonderful. Before the birth of our third child she was deer hunting and went into labor while on her tree stand. As she was coming down out of the tree she realized that, if she went back to where the truck was parked, she might not make it out of the woods in time. She ended up riding her four-wheeler to the hospital. When she got there, the security guard refused to allow her to enter because she still had her Smith and Wesson rifle with her. After pointing out to him that she was wearing camouflage maternity clothes and telling him that she was only minutes away from giving birth, he allowed her to check her rifle at the door. We picked it up when we left the hospital with our son.
But the real reason my wife Marie is my Hillbilly Goddess is because I recognize that she and I are living proof of the old adage, “If you ever see a turtle on top of a fencepost, you know he had help getting there.” The fencepost on which this turtle sits may not be the tallest one around, but without her love and support over all these years, the view I have would be nowhere nearly as spectacular as it is. |
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