Daddy and Trigger Lake often played golf together.

What I knew about Jean Lake was that she was Trigger Lake’s wife and she was an artist.

I had occasion to talk with her several times. We shared a deep appreciation for the rural South and those who plowed the fields and those who boiled the pots.

I grew up among those whose lives were simple and hard. I knew about layin’ hens and pecking roosters. I knew about hog killin’s and chitlin’’ suppers, about wringin’ a chicken’s neck and about pickin’ blackberries and sweepin’ yards.

She was a city girl but she talked “country.”

I liked that.

As far as Jean Lake’s art, I knew that she was an exceptionally talented artist. And, that she painted scenes that I could relate to and appreciate. But, I never “laid eyes” on her paintings until the Pike Pioneer Museum hosted and arts an’ crafts show.

Several of us Brundidge girls decided an arts and crafts show would be interesting and fun. And, it was. The art show was set up around the museum grounds. The artists had set up their own “shows” and I was having a learning and appreciative time.

“But, when I saw Jean Lakes artwork, it was like I had stepped back in time … the time when I was playing in the hay barn, fishing with a worm, swinging on a tire swing, running from a rooster. A time when I played with corn shuck dolls, caught lightning bugs and made frog houses. Memories filled my mind and, dog gone it, I wanted one of Jean Lake’s paintings. I was going to buy one.

But, her artwork was way more than I could afford. And the one with the woman stirring the wash pot …  that was the one I would cut my toe off to buy.

I went back again and again.

“If you don’t get it, you’ll always regret it,” Jean Lake said each time I stopped to look and wish.

The painting was $150. I had babies at home.  They had to be fed.

“You’ll always regret it …”

And, I always will.