I sure don't like to be taken advantage of by family

My close relative has some kin that are like the ones causing many of the settlers going west to change their names. No one, not even their own dogs, want to be associated with them. I have witnessed hounds whining and running as one of the men approached their own front porch.

We can't pick out our families, but we can run when they get too friendly. I choose to beat it speedily when some of my close relative's wayward kin arrive.

I was caught between the house and the barn, did not have an escape route in any direction. I wanted to scream that a flood was headed this way or we had small pox and were quarantined, but I knew I would be in way too deep with my cook.

I never dreamed about letting our offspring travel to the beach or any other exotic location when they had spring break. I figured that would give us a solid week to get the spring cattle working done. We would be able to finish up on the last day and might even get to go look at new haying equipment before they had to return to school. Well, some folks think it means take a vacation on your kinfolk's place and eat them out of house and home.

I realize that sounds a tad greedy, but look at it this way. I could kill the fatted calf and a dozen old hens and still need to go to the grocery store. I am grateful we can feed the kids because they need nourishment, so tall and thin, but the older folks are different. They are well fed by the looks of them and they are loud.

The seven of them stayed four and a half days, draining the strength and patience of my close relative. She was sitting at the kitchen table sobbing with relief and worn to the bone when I came in the door after shooing the herd of them down the drive. Their old car was wallowing around as they settled in and fired up the engine. Black smoke billowed as the motor coughed and sputtered, causing me to stop breathing in fear it was not going to start. It finally fired up and they rolled away.

It is my opinion, and everyone has one, the greatest commandment is to love one another. I try to be a good feller and help out around here and the neighbors. But I sure don't like to be taken advantage of, and that happens occasionally but almost always by family. I know of not one neighbor or friend within a hundred miles that would unload and try to wreck a home and farm for a week, even in a dire emergency.

Try to be the kind of feller to turn the other cheek, as I am doing, and suck it up! After all, they do live a few hundred miles south of here and not in the next county!

Bill is the pen name used by the Gravette area author of this weekly column. Opinions expressed are those of the author.