Monday, June 23, 2025
Billy was my first cousin. We lived in Topeka, Kansas. My Father, George Bernard Ridgeway was Pete Ridgeway’s brother. Growing up, my Dad, Mother ( Martha), my sister Judy and I would drive from Topeka to Jackson Georgia in our old 1945 Green Buick, 1000 miles, no air conditioning, no seat belts. We would visit during the summers ( thru the 1950’s and early 1960’s. )for two weeks each visit. Being a city girl, visiting the farm was like Disney land.
My Aunt Ruth and Uncle Pete treated us like their own children. We always felt so loved and wanted. I can just taste Aunt Ruth’s biscuits.
My four cousins, Maridale, Susanna, Bub and Billy were our most loved long distance family. Billy and I were just one year apart and we played from the moment we awakened until bedtime. I loved my cousins but Billy and I grew very close and he was the brother I never had. He was always so sweet to me and he made me laugh with his great sense of humor , even as a child. I would tell him to “ slow your talking down because I can’t understand you”, and Billy would reply, “ Well, that’s because you are a YANKEE”!! He always made me laugh.
He once drove me in their old truck that had a gear shift on the floor. He must have been 9 and I was 10. We were both bare footed, and he had a wooden block wired to the gas pedal so his foot could reach it. He wasn’t supposed to drive from the farm but he took me maybe 2 miles to visit another family member. I can still see him behind that big wheel, smiling. The windows rolled down, that hot summer breeze blowing our hair, going down those red dirt roads, he drove maybe 10 miles an hour but we both felt so grown up, so smart, so free. I will hold Billy in my memories and in my heart until I too leave this world.
Sleep now, sweet Billy.
Lynda Ridgeway- Morrison
Topeka, Kansas
