Coffee-shop memories on a rainy day

To the editor:

The spring rain was pelting against the Hardee's window, and we were remembering rainy-day stories. No one recalls sunny-day stories.

Bob Talley was one of five boys in school that year. His father had rented the McWilliams farm. And sometimes when they were away and sudden rains fell, the Talleys could not cross Hartle's Ford and return to their own house. Then they called upon the Penders, a couple who lived on the correct side of the crossing. The Penders were childless.

"I really believed she was glad to see it rain," Bob mused. "She started cooking the moment we came in. Fried chicken and mashed potatoes and white gravy and pies. She was especially happy to bake pies. And they had beds for all of us. I suppose they are both dead along ago."

Bob thought. His own career with public utilities took him to Cape Girardeau. His kids have city jobs. But memory threw a certain golden coloring over the rainy morning when we learned of the Pender family.

Had the Penders lived earlier, the Greeks, who always stressed hospitality, would have made a constellation of them and given the two stars a name, something like Pendernales or, perhaps, Aquarius.

PETER HILTY

Cape Girardeau