the old kitchen tin box

 

the old kitchen tin box

of matches

brings back fond memories

 

it hung on the wall

above mama’s stove

 

the matches were used

for many things

 

to light the stove to cook

the family meals

 

to ignite the oil lamps

at night to light the house

 

to break and splinter

to make a toothpick

 

to light the wood burning

stove in the living room

 

to start the grass fire in the fall

to burn all the dead grass

from around the house

 

to light the fire in the

55 gallon drum out behind

our house to burn the trash

 

but the best use of the matches

was when Kenny and I sneaked

matches to our secret hideaway

 

where we would light the ‘tobacco”

we had made by crushing dried

sweet gum tree leaves and packing

it into our little corncob pipes

 

then we laid back in our little grass hut

puffing away like we were

real men