The Joke Is On Me

My name is Jayla Jennings. My story started when I was nine years old and the experiences I had have lasted a lifetime mixing love, fun and family.

It all began on my two week summer vacation at my aunt and uncles home on a small little ranch outside of Hawkey, Texas. It’s located just north of Abilene. My uncle Harlan Moore and my Aunt Rita Moore have three children Maddie, age 11, Adam age 8, and Pamela age 4. It was always an adventure going to their house since it was out in the country. There was always some wild adventure waiting for me and my cousins to get into.

My uncle had an unusual job that most have never heard of. He worked as a Special Agent for the State of Texas. You've probably heard of Texas Rangers, which is a whole different category. However, Special Rangers also work with Texas Rangers occasionally, but partners with the Texas Cattlemen's Association. His job was, and you’re not gonna believe this, is to investigate and arrest cattle rustlers. Yep, I said cattle rustlers. There is still such a thing. These crimes included horses as well and did not stop in the 1800s. It’s still a big business for thieves and huge loss costing ranchers and farmers millions of dollars each year all over the Texas. Theft is not the only cause of lose . After natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires, flooding and even tornadoes, ranchers do have many lost animals .

The reason I explained this job is because it takes a rugged man to travel off road through dry to flooded terrain and almost impassible brushy places to find missing or dead animals in their investigations.

My Uncle Harlan was a big man about six foot four probably 260lbs. He was the funniest man I ever knew. I always wondered how he could always be so positive and cheerful. Aunt Rita told me that humor was the way he survived his thankless job as a commissioned law officer.

Occasionally on his day off he would take me and my three cousins to a store in town to buy some things or to eat at a restaurant or his favorite diners. Sometimes he would load us up in the back of his pickup and just drive around. (It wasn’t against the law back then.). This particular Saturday, he had taken us to a nearby lake to fish. After a few hours we were all starving. He took us to one of his favorite diners called, “Bob’s Haven Diner.” As we entered it was apparent that he ate here quite often because everyone there knew who he was as we and greeted him warmly as we found a place to sit. We took our seat at an empty booth covered in squeaky red plastic. A waitress walked up smiling and said how are yall doing today and my uncle just smiled and nodded pretending to focus on his menu. She wore a name tag on her uniform that read Rosie. She walked away to pick up another order. We were all looking at our menus and Uncle Harlan whispered to, “you have to order real loud to Rosie she’s almost deaf. It’s very embarrassing for her to have to ask us to repeat our orders. So when she comes to take our order, make sure you talk loud enough where she can hear you the first time and we won’t have to repeat it.” We always whispered back to him. I remember feeling so sorry for her. “OK, we understand” in reply to Uncle Harlan telling us this secret. I wanted the Saturday Special. It was on a footlong Coneydog and some french fries and a Coke. I hadn’t had a hotdog in a long time and it sounded really good and I asked Uncle Harlan if they could put extra cheese on it. He told me “sure they can. They can put anything on it you want.”

Rosie came back to our table, all smiles and had her order pad in hand, ready to take her order. She started with me, so I basically screamed at her, “ I WANT A CONEYDOG SPECIAL WITH FRIES AND A COKE!”

She looked at me like I had two heads, but she said, “ OK” and she went onto my cousin Adam. He said he wanted a hamburger with no vegetables, just ketchup and some french fries and a Coke and he too was screaming. This time she was looking a little confused and seemed suspicious. She glanced at Uncle Harlan who was managing to keep a straight face. The next order was my cousin Maddie. Maddie did the same thing except I think she was even louder than I was. She said “ I want the same thing as Jayla. I want a Coneydog with extra cheese and fries and a Coke!”

Rosie had figured out what was going on. She was frowning as she looked at my uncle and was pointing at him. “what’s going on?” Rosie asked as she poked him in the chest with her index finger was busted. What would you like for your dinner, RANGER MOORE?” she yelled . She started laughing which we kids thought was strange. He started screaming his order. She waved a menu in his face and told him might not get anything to eat after this but maybe some oatmeal,” but she was laughing as she walked away. She came back in just a few minutes with our steaming hot food. She leaned over our table and whispered, “you know what kids, this man is a story teller. I’m not hard of hearing and I can hear you just fine.”

I turned red as my mouth dropped wide open. My cousins had a similar shocked expression on their faces.

We all just felt so bad and I could have died from being so mortified. We had been yelling at this poor woman at the top of our lungs plus all the stares the other customers were giving us strange looks from around the little diner.

We finished our food and headed out to the pickup. My uncle just chuckled.

Rosie had yelled at him as we were on the way out that she promised to get even with him someday. We agreed that he fully deserved it.

We didn’t know what to say but later this experience turned into a big laugh. He had gotten us once again. He was always doing something like that.

The next big event for me occurred about three years later. I’m thinking I was probably about 11.

Today the cousins and I were all out back at the tank. The tank was a big watering hole filled in with very muddy water that we did not swim in. We did wade in it but only in very shallow water. It was a place where a few cattle drank also whatever wildlife passed through, which was mostly at night. It was refilled periodically with rain so it was deep enough for some fish. My Uncle had stocked it with perch and some catfish. I enjoyed the leisurely afternoons at the tank.

One of our fishing days, as always we had, we carried our plain cane poles, that didn’t require fancy reels, no special line, just a bobber to alert us if we had a fish nibbling on our line. Me and my cousins had been fishing for a little over hour and a half, when my uncle walked out back to check on us. He had just gotten home from work. He came out to see how the fishing was going. He asked, “are you kids having any luck?” Adam said, “yeah I just got a big old perch but I didn’t figure mom would want to cook it so I just threw it back.”

Uncle Harla said, that’s good because we have a lot of catfish in the freezer. He continued, "Hey Jayla, come over here with me, I want to show you something.”

I followed him and we stopped under this tall tree.

He pointed up high in the tree and told me that this was a Macaroni Tree.”

I looked up where he was pointing and told him, “A Macaroni Tree? I’ve never heard of a macaroni tree.”

My cousins were just laughing. They were probably thinking, uh-oh here we go, but they didn’t say a word. They kept the secret and just kept fishing. The tree was at least twenty feet tall, at least it looked that tall to me. It was even taller than my uncle. He asked if I had ever had fresh macaroni pulled straight from a tree.

“No sir,” I replied and continued. I love macaroni and cheese. It’s my favorite. He said, “Mine too”. He continued as he raised his arm up into the tree branches. I’ll pick some fresh macaroni for your Aunt Rita to cook us for supper tonight.”

I was so excited I was jumping up and down. I said, “OK that would be great. I've never had fresh macaroni before. All I ever eaten was what was in a box or a bag at the grocery store. I couldn’t wait to get inside to eat this macaroni and cheese. I couldn’t see clearly into the tree because the sun was shining so brightly through the back of the tree blinding me. I watched as he brought his arm back down by his side. A few leaves were falling off the tree. He turned over his hand and opened it where I could see his palm filled with glorious macaroni. All I could do was giggle.

He said,”this will be enough now cause I think we have some already in the kitchen.” I nodded an excited yes.

“Why don’t you go back to the tank and you kids bring in your fishing gear. Supper should be ready shortly. You kids need to wash up.”

I watched him go into the house and heard him chuckling. I remember thinking that he must be as excited as I was to eat that macaroni. I proudly announced to my cousins, “we're going to have fresh macaroni and cheese for dinner!” They tried stifling their laughs but didn’t say anything. I think Adam finally said “oh that sounds good.” No one else commented. I picked up my fishing gear and we walked to the house.

After we were cleaned up, Aunt Rita said supper was ready. After my Uncle said the blessing then, we started passing around a hot steaming platter of fried chicken and a big dish of mouthwatering macaroni and cheese, a bowl of green salad and some sliced carrots with sugar and cinnamon on the top. That’s the only way me and my cousins would eat them. For dessert, Aunt Rita had baked a fresh apple pie. I was so full I didn’t think that I would ever be hungry again.

After we finished eating, we helped Aunt Rita clean up the kitchen. Then we all settled into the living room to watch Gunsmoke. It was Uncle Harlan’s favorite TV show. During a commercial, he asked, “hey Jayla, how did you like that fresh picked macaroni?

Aunt Rita suddenly glared at him and swatted him with a Reader's Digest she had been reading, Harlan?” She asked in that serious mom voice.

I quickly answered, “it was the best macaroni and cheese that I’ve ever eaten. Thank you Aunt Rita for cooking it for us.”

Uncle Harlan explained, “I picked it just for Jayla today so don’t be fussing about it. He laughed and patted her on the shoulder. She didn’t say anything but jus kind of made a sound like “harruff!”

She knew exactly what he had done and probably played the same joke on countless others. start back in.

My two weeks went by so fast.

Soon my mom, dad and brother came and drove me back home.

After school about two years later, I found my mom getting ready to make macaroni and cheese for dinner. I noticed immediately that the macaroni was out of the familiar blue box. Can’t you get some fresh macaroni like Uncle Harlan uses?

She asked,”what are you talking about? I explained, “you know like the macaroni we pulled when I was at their house. I watched as he pulled it off the tree.” She looked very perplexed but then it finally dawned on her.

She sat down to explain like we were discussing heart surgery instead of just macaroni and cheese,”Jayla, macaroni does not grow on trees.” Uncle Harlan had played another big joke on me by putting a handful of macaroni in his pocket before he came out to get me. Then when we went over to the tree, he had a handful already in his hand and while he was reaching up, it looked like to me he was really pulling macaroni.

“There is no such thing as a macaroni tree. Macaroni is a pasta just like spaghetti.” Mom said, “You know how much he loves teasing you and his kids too.”

I said, “I'm to get him back someday.” I never did. He was always one up on me. Nothing got past him and I wouldn’t change a thing.

The two jokes/pranks that started it all.

The macaroni tree and yelling at the waitress, I’ll never forget. He was something else and so much fun to be around. Uncle Harlan was always happy and smiling and I never knew what was coming. I got a taste of it. His kids, my cousins, got it all the time and plus Aunt Rita’s was also a victim. Such wonderful memories, lots of love, fun and family. But, “The Joke Was On Me!”