Song of the South

Kinsey

Kinsey had always been a good daughter. She helped around the house, helped around farm, and helped the neighbors whenever they needed anything. When her father became disabled, she took over running both the house and the farm. She was 16 when she took things over. She had a 3 year old brother and a 4 year old sister she looked after. Her mother had gone off the deep end and started partying. She wound up having two more kids by the time Kinsey was 18. Shortly after the last child was born, her mother left them. She liked partying more than being stuck at home with her “invalid” husband and “needy” children.

So Kinsey had put the children in day care, the ones who weren’t old enough for Kindergarten, and kept the others in school. Kinsey herself was trying to attend the local community college all while running the house and the farm. She did her best to help her father and tried to keep all the children away from her mother. The courts thought it was best the children stay with their father and big sister. That was a big relief to Kinsey even though she was looking after 4 children and her father. Family was everything, especially in the south, and she didn’t feel burdened with her family at all.

They didn’t really raise any farm animals although they did have a horse she liked riding whenever she could. They mainly raised fruits and vegetables. They had an orchard, not as big as some of the “professional farms” but it was big enough for them. They only had 3 types of trees. Orange trees, Apple trees, and Pecan trees. She had turned picking the pecans up off the ground, and the good apples too, into a game with the smaller children. Even the two oldest siblings still had a good time when they helped their big sister. They were a little old for the game she had made up so she turned it into a race for them.

Despite the atmosphere between their father & big sister and their mother, the younger four children loved their big sister. She tried very hard to keep all the negativity and what their mother was doing away from them. She would read them stories at bedtime and tried to help with homework. The oldest of the smaller children, Daisy Lynne, loved helping her big sister cook dinner. The eldest boy, Jesse, liked helping his sister gather fire wood, pushing the wheelbarrow, and other “manly” stuff as he put it.

Kinsey was so thankful her siblings were so helpful. In 2009, when she was 16 years old, she sat with her father to watch the Kentucky Derby on TV. He’d always loved horses and the Derby. He never missed it every year. That year’s Derby was quite the shocker but it was a hell of a race, according to her father. He told her that was the best race he’d ever seen. It always made her smile when she thought about how excited her father had been watching that race.

Another memorable moment for her with her father was when he took her to a Shinedown show. He had always been a strictly country fan. That night he became a Shinedown fan as well. They had an amazing night together as father and daughter. They weren’t able to get pictures with the band or autographs or anything but it would always be one of her favorite memories with her father.

Once day while she was in town, she ran into an acquaintance. As they caught up on their families and farms, Kinsey was told about a new movie that was coming out that Friday. As her acquaintance explained about the movie, Kinsey knew she had to go see it. It was a movie about that fateful 2009 Kentucky Derby winner! She eventually bid her acquaintance goodbye so she could finish her errands.

She returned home just in time to check on her father before meeting the two oldest kids at the school bus. It was a good little walk from the road to their house. She got the children settled at the dinner table to do their homework while she started preparing dinner. Her father was situated in the living room in a comfortable chair to watch TV. The smaller children were playing outside happily.

Going to movies wasn’t something she got to do often. Usually she put her father, her siblings, the family farm, and then her schooling before anything she might want to do. This was a movie she really wanted to see so she decided that she would take her siblings along as well. She knew the two oldest would probably enjoy it. The smaller two would most likely fall asleep in the middle. She smiled at the thought as she peeled a few potatoes for supper.