When my sisters and brother and I were children, we played many games to keep ourselves entertained. Some were universal, like tag or hide and seek. Others were limited only to our imaginations. Perker was kind of an incorporation of both.

Uncle Hob, my dad’s twin brother, and his wife, Evelyn, lived all the way across the county in Pelahatchie with their three kids, Beth, Susan, and Thom. (You may have heard the 1967 ballad “Ode to Billy Joe.” We used to sing that Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Pelahatchie, instead of the Tallahatchie, Bridge.) Though Pelahatchie was only about 45 minutes away from Star, we would only get together with the cousins a f...

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