I guess I fell in love with my uncle Vaden when I got the Chicken Pox and my Momma and Daddy had to leave me in Danville with my Grandma Maude. I wasn’t old enough to be in school and I don’t have the slightest idea why I was that far out of town in the first place, havin a fever and all, but all I know is that they left me there and there I stayed until I got better.
My Momma’s Momma wasn’t the nurturing type so I’m not sure she knew what to do with me, but my uncle Vaden would check on me ever mornin’ and every afternoon; he‘d bring me a present. He was my medicine.
He was probably one of the only men I ever let spoil me…cause I learned later in life about “Greeks bearin’ gifts” and so while I love Greeks, I don’t accept their gifts without reservation and my famous sideways squinty-eyed glance. (Trust issues form early you know.)
Uncle Vaden was a big man, he must’av been 6’4 or so and had some meat on his bones. His hair was a black as coal, and he had a big ol’ nose and a boomin voice, “Moses like” as my friend Mr. Pat said. He moved real slow…I guess it took some thought to move all that presence at once and keep everything so smooth. But he did it. He had a swagger. Later in life, after I’d seen Gone with the Wind, I would liken’ Uncle Vaden to Clark Gable…all be it with a big ole nose.
He was excitin’ too. Momma said he was kicked out of every school Grandaddy sent him to. He and my Daddy were best friends and would skip school when they were young and go over to neighborin counties to find trouble, Momma said Uncle Vaden wrecked every car they ever had. She said, it was good the War came along when it did, or they would all be dead.
He did his time and bein big and havin swagger, made it out alright. He told me stories about he and Momma winnin' Jitter-bug contests all over the county and travelin to Richmond when the Big Bands hit town. He loved to dance, drink, and win...a man after my own heart!
He loved his Momma and took great pride in drivin her and her friends to Richmond to shop and stay at the Jefferson Hotel in the Winter and the Cavalier at Virginia Beach in the Summer. He had the life.
After the army he moved down to Fort Lauderdale for a spell and was Captain of the Lifeguards. He loved the beach and swam like he walked, real slow. I could not for the life of me figure out how that man stayed afloat…swimming that slow and all.
But all good things come to an end and his Daddy said he needed to think about a serious job, think about joinin’ him in the tobacco market. So Vaden went with his daddy and worked with the Imperial Tobacco Company purchasing tobacco all over the world; Turkey, Africa, South America, he had stories on top of stories and I never, ever tired of hearin’um.
He was a bachelor for a long time, but always had a shiny black car and a blond girlfriend. He married late, which was fine with me. They didn’t have any children so I remained the center of the Universe in his eyes. He and Irene took me on vacations when I was little. I remember they tried to teach me to play tennis, (thus begin’n my early fear of fast movin’ balls). They took me to restaurants and always ordered me a “Shirley Temple” so I could sip along while they partook of a little “Taste” as he used to call it. He often gave me a little "taste", thus ruinin my appetite for Scotch for life.
Uncle Vaden was extravagant and preferred the top of the menu; one of the few differences I ever saw him and Irene have was when she thought my young appetite might be appeased more so from “chopped sirloin” than the Porterhouse he ordered for me. Irene won that one and I remember when my dinner came, I turned to her and said, "Irene, this iddin' steak...its hamburger," and so Uncle Vaden called that waiter right over and said, "Bring this child a steak!"
When I went to college, every month he would send me a little spendin’ money, five dollars a week, every week, for four years. No strings. After I graduated and started workin, he would tape a ten or a twenty under the bottom of a Russell Stover Sampler that he would give me after a visit. He’d say, “Here Honey, git yourself somethin’ special.” Not bein a “takin” girl…I don’t have the words to say how this made me feel, all I can say is that I made sure I didn’t pay bills with his “Honey-money” I made sure I did as he said, and “got myself somethin’ special.
I could go on, but bottom line is, every little girl falls in love before she even knows what it’s all about and I was blessed to have my Uncle Vaden as a measurin’ stick. I miss him now...and I always will.
WVG: 12-12-1918 to 2-12-2010PS. He loved Buck...and Buck loved him.
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