Richmond Press, Inc.                          Richmond, VA                          1938

Toad-Frog Pinny Show

One day Davie Dugger asked me an interesting question:

"Boob, you'all got any ole toad-frawgs in yo' garden where come hoppin' around' of a evenin'?"

Several explanations are in order here. I was called Boob by my pals, when a kid, so that in recent years I told old Boob Gerring that he had no good right nor title to the name, because I had it first. Second, I had maintained, with my puny hands, a kitchen garden for some two summers, when the above intriguing question was propounded. Third, everybody in Richmond and old Manchester (in whose classic shades the question was put) knew Davie Dugger. He had ricketts and never attained the stature of a man, but everybody loved him, he had such a mixture of childish heart and wicked, old-man cunning. So now, explanations having been made, to the story!

"Y'all got any toad-frawgs?"

"Yeh," I answered, with my chest sticking out. "We got plenty toad-frawgs."

"Well, le's us have a pinny show."

"How we gon' have a pinny show.?"

"We'll ketch us a toad-frawg and put him in a hole. We'll dig two holes and cover um with glass. We'll dig a tunnel f'om one to the other and put the old toad-frawg in. When you look at him down one hole, he'll jump over to the other side; an' when you look down the other hole, he'll jump back to the first side."

So we made a sign, painting it with poke-berry juice: Grand Pinny Show in Boob Wallace's Yard. This we posted at the corner of Twelfth and McDonough, the most central corner in the world (our world), and we dug our holes and caught us a toad-frog and put him in. Talkin' 'bout an audience! We had all the kids in the neighborhood. Each contributed a pin, both boys and girls--no bent or crooked pins accepted--and the show was on.

As each kid would look down at the toad-frog, he, resenting the intrusion on his privacy, would hop over to the other side; and then the operation would be repeated. Each kid would have to see this done several times, and many kids took a look; so that the poor toad-frog got plenty of exercise. Evening came on, the audience dispersed, the toad-frog was released to ramble in his native wilds, and the grand pinny show was over.

Poor little Davie! He died many years ago.