"HIE-COME!" WAS A DREADED WORD
- by W. Ross Berry -
"Hie-come!" was a dread command
we’d run when e’er we’d hear it
And we’d not dawdle, nor delay
for we’d all learned to fear it!
When Dad yelled: "Hie-come!" we all knew
that punishment was coming . . .
If we’d not hasten to his side,
our heads would take a drumming!
If it should be an auto trip
and we were late in starting
And he yelled: "Hie-come!" from the car
We’d scurry to the parting
Or if there were some errand
he’d told us to be doing
If we delayed, he’d use that word
which spelled out: "Trouble brewing!"
Or, if one of us had misbehaved
and feared he’d find us out
We knew for sure, our goose was cooked
when "Hie-come!" he would shout
We learned Dad’s word in infancy
through youth it caused us worry
When "Hie-come!" was the word we heard
we knew WE’D BETTER HURRY!
And now I’ve found, it was a word
Dad’s Dad had used before him
When Dad was young, he’d often quake
when his Dad "hie-comed" for him.
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[Note: The "Dad" in this poem was Willie Roosevelt "Ted" Berry (1906-1998). He was born in Rector, Clay County, AR and lived in Greene County, Arkansas and Pontiac, Michigan. His dad was Young Henry Berry (1848-1925), who was born in Crockett County, Tennessee, and moved to Greene County, AR about 1870, then lived in Jones and Taylor Counties, TX, and Clay County, AR. The boys in the poem were Ross, Bud, Gary and Ronald Berry (who were all born in MI, except for Ronald who was born in Paragould, Greene County, Arkansas]. * * * * * * * * *