Mr. Ira

 #52ancestors
Week 43: Oct 21-27
Prompt: Quite the Character

 Everyone in that part of the country called him Mr. Ira and he was quite a character.

 I met Mr. Ira just a few days after I married his grandson. We were on our monumental trip from Texas to Norfolk, Virginia where my new husband would be stationed on the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Independence. We stopped over in Memphis to see his Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, and Granddad.  We were only able to stay one night, but when we left in the wee hours of the morning he was awake to tell us good-bye.  

 Over the years I heard many stories during reunions that showed what a special man he was. One memory that several of the cousins experienced was him teaching them to drive.  When my husband was about 14, he was visiting Granddad. His parents had gone to town and Robert asked to walk down to the corner store to get a soda.  Now this was out in the country and several miles away, so Granddad told him to take his truck. When Robert protested that he didn’t know how to drive, Granddad told him, “It’s easy, just keep it in the middle of the road. If you see anyone coming, just wiggle the wheel back and forth and they will get out of your way.”   That is the way Mr. Ira drove and everyone knew to get out of his way in that part of the county.

 The smell of WD-40 brings back a special memory for Robert. He remembers as a kid sitting on the porch with his Granddad while he dosed his arthritis with WD-40.  He took the big metal can with the screw top and would tip it over to pour the lubricant into his palm, then he would pull up the legs of his overalls and rub the WD-40 into his knees, then elbows, and use the last for his hands. He swore by it. Since he lived until 95 years old, there is a good chance he was right.

 Not too long after his oldest son came back from the war, he and his younger brother Ed were walking down to the river near their house.  They were messing around as young men do sometimes and Son (that is what everyone called John) took aim and fired a shot in the top of the door of the outhouse. Granddad came boiling out of the outhouse, holding his pants up with one hand and threatening to whoop the two boys.  They took off for the river and didn’t come back until they figured he had cooled off.

 On our last trip to see Granddad Ira, our daughter was about 2 years old. We stayed a week and every morning and late afternoon; we spent time with Granddad at the nursing home.  Between those times, we explored Memphis and the surrounding area. Granddad enticed Katy to come to him with chocolates he kept hidden in his top drawer. He was diabetic and wasn’t supposed to have candy, but he and Katy became fast friends sharing the chocolate.

One morning we mentioned our planned trip to the Memphis zoo. He told us about the two black bears that he raised from the time they were cubs. Their mother had died and when he found them, he took them home. They were so cute and fun as babies but then they got too big. They were becoming a danger to be around, so he donated them to the fledgling Memphis zoo.  He was as amazed as we were when we came back that afternoon.  We had a conversation with one of the zookeepers at the bear habitat that told us that the black bears they had were descendants of two black bears that were donated to the zoo years before.  

 Mr. Ira had 2 boys and 6 girls. His brother, Bill, had 7 boys and 1 girl. The cousins laughed when they told how about every other year, they would go to Uncle Ira’s house for a few days and when they went home, they had a new brother.  The next year their cousins would come to visit them for a few days and when they went home, they had a new sister.  The two sets of cousins were very close and had lots of adventures together.

 On one of those adventures, Granddad Ira took the two sets of cousins hunting. There was an area that was fenced on both sides but rather long.  The deer could jump the fence and grazed in the area often.  On this particular trip, a group of the cousins gathered at one end and some including Granddad were at the other end.  The cousins started walking toward the others hoping to scare a deer into the other’s view and they did.  One deer came loping straight toward their sight.  Granddad shot the deer and went to cut its throat to get it ready to butcher.  He slung one leg over the deer and lifted its head by the antlers.  Only his bullet had hit the deer right between the antlers and only stunned it.  When he lifted the head, the deer jumped up.  Granddad was riding the deer around the field, screaming, and yelling as the deer bucked to get him off.  They eventually parted ways. The deer jumped the fence and got away. Although Granddad was tough as nails, he refused to do it again for the ones who missed seeing it.

Ira Lee Evans
1886 Sumner, Tallahatchie County, MS
1981 Cordova, Shelby County, TN

Update: This post was mentioned in Amy Johnson Crow's newsletter date Oct 27, 2020.