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Excerpt from Shuffletown USA
Baby Puddin Bounces
There are 117 of us Fullers. That includes 29 grandchildren and last I counted 45 great-grandchildren. And it all began with my ten children.
Now as you can imagine, when my kids were young I did not get much rest to speak of. Those were long, hard days for a countrywoman. Before the sun was up I’d’ve made a batch of biscuits from scratch, and by the time it’d set I’d’ve cooked up three big meals for the dozen of us, washed a couple kettles of clothes, put ‘em all out to dry, and canned at least half an acre’s worth of crops. I had to go to the outhouse just to sit down.
Lots of times after a day on my feet I’d fall to sleep and dream about more of the same: more washin’ and cookin’. One night I was washing dishes in my sleep. I had little Puddin' sleeping next to me ... me and Saul always kept our babies in bed with us until they were old enough to survive sleeping with the bigger kids. Back then, when you finished washing up you threw the dirty water off the back step. So when I finished the dishes in my dream that night, I got out of bed, gathered up what I thought was the dishpan, and tossed the contents outside.
I woke up immediately. "Saul!" I screamed. "THE BABY! I THREW PUDDIN OUT THE WINDOW!"
Everybody came running. But he was all right. He had landed in some bushes, and they broke his fall. He sure did scream, though. After that, I never threw another baby out with the dishwater.
- Evelyn Fuller
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