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<DIV> trading aunt Sally </DIV>
<DIV>by Kevin Brown </DIV>
<DIV>There are times when a story has more in common with juicy gossip than a
truly narrative tale. With the speeding motion of runaway word boulder's drawn
by the gravity of downhill momentum, newsworthy accounts can often go spinning a
wild careening route through the community at large. It can go bouncing from
teller to teller, changing shape and color with each contact of the randomly
encountered personality. </DIV>
<DIV>I first heard this story during an introduction to the popular local
homemade favorite beverage known as muskadine wine. I do have to admit that this
potent fruity brew likely added much to the authenticity of what I heard
somewhere during its fourth or fifth circuit of the impromptu doorstep
gathering. </DIV>
<DIV>It was claimed that they, family members, traded </DIV>
<DIV>old strangely silent Aunt Sally for a sack of potatoes and poor stuttering
Billy for a jug. The bottle in question was probably filled with the very same
previously identified elixir of missed shaped truths known as muskadine wine.
Nevertheless, between streams of tobacco juice propulsion, know-it-all Junior
insisted that it was a gallon of that: "mean ol' Silver Georgia
Moonshine!" </DIV>
<DIV>Aunt Sally wasn't truly silent. Its just that the silent treatment was her
only effective weapon against a family full of inattentive disrespectful younger
relatives and tiredly complacent age mates. When she was upset, Aunt Sally could
go hours, days and even weeks with out speaking a single intelligible word .
Sitting in the bent wood rocker in her room, fanning herself, aggravated sighs
and constant humming of unidentified old fashioned Negro spirituals were the
only responses to requests for a dollar or two from her meager social security
check. </DIV>
<DIV>Similarly and contrasting, Stuttering Billy did sometimes stutter. But, the
descriptive moniker came from nervous ticks and twitches almost severe enough to
resemble a modern dance which could have actually been symptoms of a serious
neurological impairment. His innocently performed antics brought much notice
wherever he went and was a constant source of curiosity. The family's concern
had more to do with their own public embarrassment and impatience rather than
any possible diagnosis and cure. </DIV>
<DIV>Western Tennessee Mental Health Institute was the biggest employer in
Hardman county and wielded great influence with the areas politicians. It was
rumored that `quite a few Campaigns had been bolstered by its generous
patronage. This appeared to have the effect of allowing wide ranging liberties
to be taken with regulations and the civilized rules of common human decorum.
</DIV>
<DIV>Even though, the facts probably rested somewhere firmly between two
extremes of reality, I just couldn't rid my mind of late night TV, B movie
images. Somber faced acolytes of an ancient temple based faith. With hood
shadowed eyes and voluminous robes, they seem to float over the grass to the
front gate, firmly taking committed ones securely by the hand. Were they doing
the bidding of secretive dark ecclesiastical high priests? Did I uncover
something sinister in this often unnoticed corner of the south? Maybe this was
simply just an example of administrators and psychiatrists who were tenaciously
wed to the old mental health medical model. Possibly, the answers could only be
found on the yellowed back pages of treasured family Bibles, faded spaces in
tattered photo albums and the wavering chronology echoes in the halls of myth
making. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> In the 1930's, Gail Laughlin, the first woman in Maine's legislature
authored a bill penalizing husbands for involuntarily committing their wives for
offenses such as arguing over common subjects and disobeying orders for house
work. In one instance, a Lutheran minister committed his wife for having
different religious views. This is just some of the documentation of involuntary
commitment for the purpose of social control. Such cases may be the basis for
the rumors of trading relatives for material goods. </DIV>
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