Jiggs

Karen Templeton

Jiggs

All of my uncles had njck:names. Jiggs was the oldest and the one I loved best. He smelled of straw and oats and hand-rolled cigarettes. His eyes disappeared when he laughed.

I grew up listening to rus lilt and rhythm Like you listen to rain hit the roof of a tentsnuggled and warm, reluctant to leave.

Strays and orphans drifted to rum like the hayseed that caught in the cuffs of rus pants. He was always bringing home kittens to us, ''just until he found their mother."

He had a herd of Holsteins, but loved Jerseys and Guernseys for their gentile nature. He named the cows after us and the pigs after presidents. Fertile thoughts grew during solitary hours driving the tractor milking the cows shoveling the srut into spreaders.

An eighth-grade graduate of a one-room school, Jiggs never left home except for the war. But instead of Korea, Jiggs saw an asylum A secret so fierce it lives longer than rum.

Only three teeth, he called them his "snappers" He wore dentures only to funeralshis highest respect for the recently dead.

Voices carry giftsHis gift was laughter. He called my mom "Tex" Tho' no one knows why.