HOCUS POCUS

"Hocus Pocus"

When I was six, I was still living with the three widows in Joy, in the sharecropper's shack.  We knew that Aunt Vera and Uncle Hub were coming for me in August to put me in school in Georgetown.  We decided on a last visit to Aunt Belma and her kids was in order before I left.

When any sort of storm threatened, the three women that I lived with, would go into fits of anguish and I too, became upset.  Kids were always saying "Hocus Pocus is gonna get you".  This scared hell out of me.  I became fearful anytime I saw clouds of any sort.  I suffered often from this acquired fear of "Hocus Pocus". 

At Aunt Belmas one day near noon, I was asked to go and take Uncle Harvey's lunch, in a distant field just as a spring thunder storm was gathering and Aunt Belma had no other family member to do it.  My grandmother told her that I was afraid of storms but Belma would insist.  So off I went with lunch pail in hand.

When I neared the patch where Uncle Harvey was plowing, the storm got nearer and so did the thunder and lighting.  I cringed, but Uncle Harvey was watching.  I stood up and flung my fist upward and shouted "Hocus Pocus can kiss my ass".

I've never feared thunderstorms since.  Elbert     

sketch by Elbert Price