Mama, ‘Gunsmoke’ and Me

Every day, my mama and I would watch “Gunsmoke.” My mama, Lucille, lived in the mountains in Old Fort with my sister, Sandra. I live in Newport, in eastern North Carolina. Every weekday, “Gunsmoke” came on at 1 p.m. on a channel we both had. No matter the distance between us, we watched together. 

While Mama and I watched the show, we talked on the phone. Mama used to talk a long time, sometimes we’d talk so much and laugh about things that we would have tears in our eyes. Those were good times. 

As Mama got older, she developed Alzheimer’s, but still, at 1 p.m., we’d watch “Gunsmoke” and talk on the phone. By then, she couldn’t carry on a long conversation. But boy did she still love “Gunsmoke.”

Once we finished talking, I’d always say “Mama, I love you,” and she would reply, “I love you, too. I love you like a hog loves slop. We’ll get married before you stop!”

I’d always say “Mama, I love you,” and she would reply, “I love you, too. I love you like a hog loves slop. We’ll get married before you stop!”

I always wondered where she got that saying. Then one day while watching “Gunsmoke,” I heard the old woman character that hunted for bottles say the same words to an old man on the show: “I love you like a hog loves slop!”

I told Mama I found out where she got the saying. But I asked where she got, “We’ll get married before you stop.” She answered: “Oh, I made that up!” I thought that was so funny and just laughed with Mama.

My sister said in Mama’s last days she would always try to rhyme her sentences. In December 2017, God called Mama home. My sister and brother Daniel sure do miss hearing, “I love you like a hog loves slop!”

Judy Locklear Golden, Newport-Broad Creek A member of Carteret-Craven Electric Cooperative