Rumors and speculation have always been the most regular and sometimes most humorous events of visits with family.  If you come from a large one, you’re almost guaranteed at some point to hear the prompt, “Well, I heard…” or “There was talk…” and my favorite, “Folks was sayin’…”  As a child, whenever I heard anyone of those three phrases, my ears would stand up like antennae.  Even if I had no idea what they were talking about (old folks liked to speak in code back in the day), I knew it was something I wasn’t supposed to hear; which meant it was forbidden, and forbidden meant juicy gossip!

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