Lest We Forget by Hettie Sears Gregory

Lest We aff Forget!

By rifettie Sears Gregory 24 Ee5 1911 - 22 Sep 2003 Lest We All Forget!

Chapter I My Jottings ...... 1 Chapter 2 Our First House……………………..………………………………………………………………………...... 4

Chapter 3 Pumpkin Hollow – The Place…………………………………………………………………………………………..7

Chapter 4 Toys …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….12

Chapter 5 Early Adventure …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..13

Chapter 6 Aunt Lucy Ann …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….14

Chapter 7 One Room School – My First Year ………………………………………………………………………………..16

Chapter 8 Our New Home …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..18

Chapter 9 School Days …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………22

Chapter 10 Wash Day ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………24

Chapter 11 The Black Smith Shop ………………………………………………………………………………………………….26

Chapter 12 Epidemics ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….27

Chapter 13 Pedro (the pony) ………………………………………………………………………………….…………………..30

Chapter 14 High School ……………………………………………………………………………………………..…………………34

Chapter 15 My First Year of School Teaching ……………………………………………………………..…………………37

Chapter 16 A Big Barrel of Apples ……………………………………………………………………………...……………….39

Chapter 17 Now, My Grandparents ……………………………………………………………………………….……………..42

George Aaron Sears & Polly Tomlinson / Jerry Hughes & Clara Price

Chapter 18 My Parents ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….43

James Henry Sears & Isabelle Hughes

Remedies …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….….47

Games Home & School……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………47

Sayings …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...48

Words Used Then ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………49

Superstitions …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..50

Our Pumpkin Hollow Home Photo

Zion Baptist Church Photo

Winners – All! Newspaper article – Zona’s swim team

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• Introduction

At the Sears Reunion, August 1988, one of my nephews was listening to a bunch of us "oldies" discussing our lives when we were growing up. He said, "Oh, Aunt Hettie, why doesn't someone write all that down so that we younger ones and our children can know about it?" I agreed with him that it was a spendid idea. Then he said, "Why don't you write it?" I immediately declined. I said, "No one would read it if I wrote it, because it would be so poorly done." He assured me that he would. There's one reader I could count on!

I felt very comfortable about suggesting that it be done. I was sure some of the others would come forward and want to do it. Then . . . it dawned on me! There are only three of the Henry Isabelle Sears family left!

Thelma has much trouble with her vision. Zona had just come through a bout with cancer surgery and is busy, busy, too busy. Anyway, Hettie is the oldest of the three and can remember things the other two never had the opportunity to experience. So without even wanting the honor, I guess I'm the elected one. • Now, I'm not a writer as you will soon see if you try to read this. If I could write like Laura Ingalls I'd have no trouble. Our life was interesting! But, it takes talent to be able to put the most interesting memories on paper in such a way that people will read.

The more I reminisced, the more I realized what a wonderful heritage and home life we 15 children had. I know we can't recapture yesterday, yet someone ought to save some of it! • Chapter I My Jottings

I have never kept a diary, but some time ago I wrote some "jottings" about a little bit of my earliest remembrances about a little bit of life in my Pumpkin Hollow home. When I reread them I decided to let them start this off.

I apologize, in the beginning, for making myself the main character in this, but I can have only my memories. The others may have different ones that might be more interesting.

February 24, 1911, after 5 boys I was welcomed into the Henry Sears family. Any girl would have been welome. I'm sure I wasn't a pretty baby--straight hair, piqued face with wrinkles on my forehead. Mom always said I was born frowning (that made the wrinkle). I always insisted she made them later by combing my hair back so tight that when let loose it would cause my forehead to wrinkle.

My big brothers adored me and I was spoiled terribly. I can remember lots of their spoiling. I can remember • demanding it and it being given. Dee, my brother, lived with us then too--he gave me my first pretty China doll. She was beautiful with her straw hat with a red feather, and a red checked dress and patent leather shoes. She was too pretty to play with. I kept her in her pretty box hanging on a wall where no one could reach her. I played with the "rag" dolls mama made for me instead.

Robert, Charles, and Jesse pampered me too. They were always bringing me "pretties" when they came in from work in the fields--Service (sorvis) berries, a pretty rock, a special apple from the trees down in the field, anything! I always met them when they came in for dinner (not lunch to us,then). I loved to see what they had for me or to get to ride one of the horses to the "horse" spring.

John and Edd were nearer my age. They had to take care of me, and when I was big enough I was a "tag along". I'm sure they were often bored with me. Albert and Goerge, my oldest brothers, were already married. Clara, my oldest Richardson half sister, had died of Boll Hives. Pearl and Stella, my older half sisters were also married. Ida, papa's yougest, when his first wife died, had always lived with her maternal grandparents. Our home, when I was born, was in a • pretty valley in Pumpkin Hollow. The house was framed and

and weather boarded. Some of th rooms were originally logs. • We had a big, big family room wi h a huge fireplace which could accomodate a tremendous "b ck log". I can remember papa backing up and throwing the log in, it always frightened me! He would later take the pok r and "chunk up" the small burning sticks around it. The b ck log would last for days. He would put smaller sticks arou d it as they were needed. There was always a mound of ashe that could be raked out to roast potatoes or chestnuts. Th t was fun! Sometimes the potatoes would explode if we for of to prick them!

An iron bar reached out abo e the fire (I later learned this was called a "crane"). Tha 's where mom cooked her beans or fresh meat (backbones, ribs, and ham hocks, etc.) When nothing needed to cook in the black iron three legged pot, a black iron tea kettle sang over the fire. There was room around the f re for mom's big rocking chair with its big flat arms. I she had the baby in her lap the two other youngest could sit on the arms. When the baby was put to bed mom would knit w41 socks, stockings or mittens for us. We hated these, they scratched so bad at first. In the winter there were usually sacks (burlap bags we called coffee sacks) of dry b ans spaced out around the fire to dry. When the beans wer dry papa would beat the bags with an iron poker. This would make them easy to hull. While hulling them we kids would make up games: seeing who • could find the most "red" beans, seeing who could find the first "Sofa Hair" bean, the first "Cindy Thacker" bean, the first or most "Sarah Ward" beans, etc. These were specially colored beans from seeds these neighbors had exchanged for some of mom's specials. When we'd finish for the night, we'd throw the dry hulls into the fire. They'd crackle and make such pretty flames. Mom would later winnow the hulled beans (blow the chaff out), put them into clean flour sacks to be cooked later in the pot with meat rinds or meat. They wire good with the corn bread that she made in the huge rectangular black pans. She always made plenty corn bread so we'd have enough to crumble in milk for supper. She would keep this in the warming closet of the big wood cook stove. She usually had to make more corn bread for supper. But the leftovers, not hot bread, was best for after school snacks and "crumble in". The warming closet was good to keep baked sweet potatoes. My, how good they were, especially after school!

We didn't do too much playing, mom had chores for all of us to do. Such as, carrying in stove wood and kindling, going to the spring to bring drinking water, gathering eggs, shutting up the chicken coops, etc. • 2 • HUGS Its wondrous what a hug can do. A hug can cheer you when you're blue. A hug can say, 'I love you so', Or *Gee, I bate to see you go.' A bug is 'Welcome back again', and 'Great to see you Where've you bein?' A hug can soothe a small chficrs pain And bring a rainbow after rain. Thp hug! There's just no doubt about it—. We sorely could survive without it! A 'hug delights and warms and charms. It must be why God gave us arms. Hugs are great for fathers and mothers, $weet for slate* vwsli - for brothers. And chances are your favorite aunts Love them more than potted plants. Kittens crave them, puppies love them. Heads of state are not about them. • A hug can break the language barrier And make your travels so much merrier. No need to fret about your store 'em The more you give the more there's of 'em. So stretch those arms without delay And GIVE SOMEONE A HUG TODAY!!! By Dean Walley

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In the fall when I was a little bigger, maybe about four, Edd and I would have to go way up on the knob at the back of our place to pick up hickory nuts. The big hickory tree up there had huge nuts on it. Edd was always a coward, so I went along for his protection.

One afternoon late, a big storm came up with lightning and thunder. Both of us were scared so we tried running over the steep hill. Of course, we fell and spilled our hickory nuts. The hill was so steep all we could find was our bucket. We almost got sent back to find the nuts, we found a few of them later.

There was a big persimmon tree up there too. We had to wait until after frost to gather them. Sometimes the Opossums got there first, none left for us!

Another job that Edd and I did was picking the "cornfield" beans in the fall. I was always getting stung by the "pack saddles". I still don't know how John escaped this job. I guess he had to go bring the cows or get the stove wood in. Sometimes I had to help John at both chores. Often we would have to break the wood, especially if it was dry yellow wood it would break easily. John was always my boss. • We also had to bring in kindling for the big fireplace. This would bring the covered coals back to life quickly. This ends my "jottings".

• 3

Chapte 2 • Our First House

My birthplace will never be made a shrine or a museum, but it has a hallowed place in my memories. It was my mother's home with her first family. "Uncle Ike" as she always had us later children call her first husband, had died with tuberculosis when the youngest of their three children was about two years old. Shortl after his death she married my father whose first wife, "Aun Mary Liz", had also died with tuberculosis. He brought h s three oldest children to the union. His youngest daughte lived with her maternal grandparents. Mom's oldest daug ter had died with "Boll" Hives when she was a little more' than one year old. That made five children to start with--more would be added soon. There were eight of us last children, three girls and five boys. The kitchen was a long frame addition. The dug cellar under the end of the kitchen had an outside slanting door. Our kitchen stove was a big wood burner with a long warming closet above it. At the end of he stove was a big water reservoir. Beside the stove was a big wood box, which seemed to always be waiting for John an me to fill. The big meal chest was at the opposite end of the kitchen. It was made • from four broad boards, it was hUge with a slanting lid. One end held flour made from wheat grown on the farm and ground in town.

When we didn't grow our own ptheat our flour was bought in town in 100 pound or 25 pound sabks. The other end of the chest held a huge amount of meal. This was made from home grown corn which was shelled and taken to a water mill, called "Parker's Mill", quite a distance away. The miller took a certain amount of the meal to pay for the milling. One of the bigger boys balanced the corn across the horse he rode, while he waited his turn tb get it ground. Some days it would take a whole day to "go to the mill". The meal would come back to us bran and all. Mom would sift this by using a big round hoop, much like a sifter, which had a screen bottom. Both the meal and flour containers were covered by a big sliding biscuit board. Mom kept her cutters and rolling pin on this . She hung her tray up to dry on the kitchen wall. The only time I ever saw a chest like this was years later when I visited Presidents Lincoln's home in Springfield, Illinois. It was painted the same primitive • • brownish red. I don't know whatever became of our chest. I'd love to have it. We had a long eating table in the kitchen with a homemade bench behind it. We younger ones used the bench. Hickory bottomed chairs were at the end and on the other side. Dad, Mom, Aunt Lucy Ann, any guests we had, or some of the older boys sat on the other side. The table was always covered with brightly colored oil cloth. This had to last a long time. When the corners became worn the cloth was trimmed down and put on the "wash" table on the back porch. Here we kept the pails (buckets) of water. In the drinking water was a big dipper. In the utility water there was usually a gourd. The wash pan and the long roller towels were kept on the wall. The porch had wide hand rails. These were used to turn lunch pails or milk pails upside down to air and dry. Nails were on one of the walls, here the men and boys hung their work jackets.

I loved the kitchen walls! They were always papered with newspapers. I could read well before I left this first home so I read and reread every article that was on the walls. I loved the current events. It didn't matter if they were a year or two old. I don't know where mama got the newspapers. We didn't get a paper then. If she ran short • she finished out with catalogue leaves. From these I loved to plan what I would buy if I should come into a small fortune. The prices were on each article shown and what prices! My present monthly expenditures for utilities would have furnished a home elegantly, however, I never got the fortune.

Behind the stove lines were stretched. Mom kept these full of pumpkin rings to dry, red peppers, and "shuck" beans. We had a tall brown wood kitchen cupboard for dishes.

The pie safe with its punched tin doors was in the back of the big family room. This was used for some better dishes. It was also used for the cake and dried apple flat pies that mom always made and hid for weekends. We always had a houseful of company then. Relatives would always visit when they came to the church meetings. People walked or drove horses and buggies. They came Saturday afternoons, put their horses in our barns, walked to church Saturday night, spent the night at our house, went to church Sunday morning, ate Sunday dinner with us, and then drove home.

Sunday night was the only time my mom didn't cook a full • meal. We always had left-overs from Sunday dinner and what was left of the cake and flat pies. Only necessary chores • were done on Sunday. That left time for outside play in summer and story time around the fire in winter.

As our family grew papa would add on a side room usually at the end of the big front porch, this too had side rails. Mom always kept flowering plants and a fresh pail of drinking water on these. A big millstone made our front foor step. We also had a high lower porch that was always shady and surrounded with vines such as ice vines, wisteria, and cinnamon vines. We called these potato vines because they had small potato-like fruit on them. Under this porch was a good place to play on hot or rainy days.

The big family room and kitc en was floored with wide oak boards. The bedroom was cove ed with hand loomed "rag" carpets. I think the parlor was arpeted with red and green "ingrained" carpet. At house clering time the oak floors were broom scrubbed with lye wate . The carpets were taken up and beaten outside.

The walls of the bedroom, parlor, and maybe the family room were usually covered with a rightly colored flowered wall paper. The windows were cov red with dark green roller shades and lace curtains. The be is in the bedroom and parlor were usually covered with white counterpanes, with huge stand up straw pillows. These mom had embroidered with turkey red • or bright blue. Sometimes the cases would have doves on them or they would have mottos such as Good Luck, Best Wishes, etc. These were for decorations nly not to sleep on. There was always a bed in the parlor, b cause we didn't have a couch. There was always a pretty center table covered with a starched drawn work spread with our huge family Bible in the center. Enlarged family pictureslwere around the walls.

We all loved this first home The house is still there in the same peaceful surroundings. I get "home sick" very often and go back as often as I can. When I get there I feel that I've been away a long time and have come home!

6 • • Chapter 3 Pumpkin Hollow--The Place

I've told you about our Pumpkin Hollow home, now I must tell you about the place. Our home was situated in a very green valley which was between two "knobs". The Haynes knob and the Jones knob (sometimes called the "Tater" knob). I don't know why these were called knobs instead of hills, but on a geological map a certain section of Kentucky was labeled "The Knobs". We lived right in the center of this area.

The county road forked in front of our house. Both forks would lead to WIlliams Bend which is quite famous now since Lake Cumberland was formed. One of those roads is used very much now. A cemetery where most of the earliest inhabitants were buried has recently been cleared off and opened to the public. It had been closed and neglected for a long time, however, now the decendants of the people buried there are glad to find and have access to it. A steady stream of these people go by usually stopping at "our" home for directions. The school bus, the mail carrier, and anyone else who serves the homes on this road use it. The upper road has grown up and become almost impassable.

THe stretch where our home is situated had farm fields in back of it and meadows in front of it. The hills on each side are covered with trees--maples, poplars, oaks sassafras, hickory, and all kinds of deciduous trees. Mixed in with these are evergreens, cedars, and pines. This mixture makes a beautiful picture at any season of the year. One doesn't need to go to New England for the foliage season, for Pumpkin Hollow can compete favorably any time.

The "bottoms" which sometimes flood during a rainy time have three or four big sinkholes. Some of these fill up and then break out in another place. The one in the center of the meadow is large and never seems to change a bit, it always has low bushes around it to mark the spot. We always used to put our trash castaways in it. I sometimes wonder what an archeologists would decide abodt our civilization if they made a dig and found some of our tea cup handles and brown broken crock jars (these mom used for canning before Mason jars were introduced--She sealed around the lids with melted ceiling wax). I'd like to read the archeologists' report. Broken tools and machinery were dumped in, but the hole never got any fuller. We kids would listen when we dropped or threw things in, and they seemed to go on forever. • We 7 thought they would end up in China. I liked the sink holes; • they were always interesting.

In the low part back of the barn was a huge pond which is now dried up. This had big bull frogs and all kinds of water life. My big brothers liked to go frog gigging there. There's nothing tastier than fried frog legs. Near the pond was a shallow spring, the "horse spring". The horses preferred its water to that in th e pond. I liked this spring because my brothers would let me ride Old Jocko to drink there.

At the edge of the meadow 0 the top of the slope was the "Little Spring", where Calam s, an herb Mom used for something, ferns and wild flower grew. There was never a time in summer that you couldn't see tiny blue and yellow (sulphurous) butterflies flittering around it.

Farther up the valley is the "Big Spring" that came from under a big formation of rocks. A big grove of trees, Jack apples, poplars, and the Balm of Gilead always kept it shady. Our family always kept the channel deep and clean. We kept our milk there in the pit back o* rock platform we stood on the to dip our water. All of ou drinking water was carried from this spring. THe school al o carried their water from it. A dipper or gourd was alwyslkept; there so that any weary • passer bycould rest and have a dtink. That was before people knew or worried too much about tOe germ theory.

The sheep house was on the hill at the end of the meadow. Our big barn with its long hallway, big hay loft and stalls for the horses and cows was at the end of the big barn lot. This was fenced and kept closed to keep the stock from straying.

Along the side of the house next to the upper road were huge horse apple trees of which part of their fruit was solid red, and other trees had striped fruit. They were excellent for eating, drying, or canning. We always made use of them all. They fell from the tree when ripe, juicy, and wonderful tasting. John was never satisfid with a dropped apple. He was always climbing to get a choice one. one day he fell out of the tree landing on the blade of a fire poker. It stuck through his cheek. I was too young to remember the aftermath, but I know he had a scar the rest of his life.

We had a big back yard, which Mom always made us keep swept clean. It never had grass because we kept it worn off.

8 • • We had flat rock walks where they were needed, and at the upper end of the yard was the smoke house. Here our meat was stored when it was cured, we also used its metal roof to dry apples on in the summer. It's roof wasn't very steep, john and I were allowed to go up a ladder, spread the thinly sliced apples on the big cloths. We covered them with big cloths to keep the insects off them. If a sudden sprinkle or down pour of rain came we had to scurry up the ladder, gather them up, and get them down to mom before they got the least bit moist. After they were dry enough she stored them in big cloth bags, for fried pies or thin flat pies. THey made good "stack cake" too.

At the back of hte yard was a June apple tree and some sweet apple trees. Most importantly, by the gate was a small peach tree. I can't remember its fruit, it was never allowed to grow large enough for fruit. Mom kept the small limbs broken off, she used them for disciplin purposes. She was never really harsh or abusive, but we didn't get too farout of line. We knew there was "peach tree tea" waiting for us in a handy place.

The back yard gate opened into a little lane which led to the chicken house. Surrounding it were the chicken coops that housed the baby chick families at night. It also led to the garden gate. THe garden was a very large plot surrounded • by a high, handmade paling fence. Mom always kept the egg laying type of chickens--light eager flyers. In spite of her cropping their wing feathers they would still get into the garden. Papa sometimes had to put chicken netting on the top to keep them out.

We usually had an acre of garden, and every bit of it was used, shared, or stored for winter use in the cellar. Such vegetables as potato, cabbage, and turnips were put into holes lined with straw, covered with straw, and then mounded with soil and other coverings. THey were taken out and used as they were needed. Mom also did a lot of canning.

Above the chicken lot was a row of plum trees. Mom used their fruit for jelly, preserves, and jam.

In front of the house across the road was a smnall store house. Here, mom kept small items that people could buy rather than walk farther to the Gregory Store that housed the Northfield Post Office. The Gregorys kept a fuller line of groceries, it was a General Store. People came here to pick up their mail, buy a few groceries, hear all the current news, etc. In the community there was a number of Civil War • Pensioners. They came to pick up their small pension checks, buy their tabacco, and visit. THey would sit on the steps of • the church close by and whittle while waiting for the mailman. Many people mailed their Sears Roebuck or Montgomery Ward orders in. They calme later, and picked up the merchandise. They could mail their letters to people far away. Two cents was postage for a letter. Lots of people used penny post cards. My mom Could get enough on a penny post card to fill a newspaper. Penny post cards were a good source of cummunity news, becau e anyone could read the cards. Very few secrets were k pt in our community.

Distant mail was brought by train to Elihu. A carrier, usually a man on a horse or mule, brought it on to Northfield. The carrier later put it into boxes along his route. It's final destination, I think was Meece P.O.

A cross from our little store was a small hill covered with flat rocks. At the edge of the hill was a big thorn tree. Mom would let John and me play on the rocks, but we were to watch for hawks. Hawks would come out of the woods, perch in the thorn tree, dive down, and catch chickens. Even though Mom always fed her chickens well there would be one or two brave mother hens that wanted privacy. They preferred scratching for worms or catchin insects. Even though we watched, often a baby chick was caught. Sometimes the hawks got brave enough to catch a grown hen from the chicken lot.

John and I never strayed from the rocks. We were always bare footed. Around the rocks was a carpet of penny royal, a low growing sweet smelling plant, but in among this were Prickley pears, a variety of cac tus. They had beautiful yellow flowers which I could hardly resist pickling. Later a rose colored pear developed them. The plant has long, strong, sharp needless that would go through a foot or shoe. They are so covered with tiny barbs that would get into feet or hands and are almost impossible to remove. They are very painful. Just one short encounter and John and I would admire them from the rocks. We had fun on the rocks. I'm afraid we sometimes forgot all bout the hawks.

Just below the rocks was the "Little Road". This was a shortcut through the woods. We could take it to school and not have to climb the rocky hill. Even tough I had three brothers that were big enough and would gladly take me to school piggy-back I loved to go along the little road and find interesting things and pic flowers for my teacher. Horses and wagons had to take t e "Rocky Hill". If papa went to town I would hear him coming down the hill, He'd stop and let me ride on the coupling pol the rest of the way home.

10 • The woods just above the road always lured me. There were always wildflowers to pick. There was also the "Stooping" bench. This was a big tree that bent at a right angle just about three feet above the ground. I t grew out about two or three feet then grew upright the rest of the way. John and I even used it for a horse. One year back inthe 1800s a huge snow storm had come on May 19. THis tree was a sapling then. THe trees were all lleafed out, the snow made the leaves so heavy that all the smaller trees bent adn kept that shape. John and I had a playhouse around it. WE carpeted it with moss, made our furniture from flat rocks. Mom gave us her broken dishes to use. We even took the rag dolls and Rex our black and white mongrel dog up there.

One day John wasn't around to play with so I chased a butterfly up to the woods. I probably picked some wild flowers too. When the butterfly started down toward the house I follOwed. It went across the road and under the storehouse. 'By that time I was so tired I lay down and went to sleep. Mom missed me, hunted every where that she thought I could be. Then she panicked, she stopped every person that came along the road. She rang the big dinner bell to call papa and the boys from the fields. Everybody searched the rest of the afternoon every where, sink holes and all.

After I waked from my nap, I came walking out. Such • rejoicing! I was smothered with hugs and kisses, wrapped in a quilt, and put in the big rocking chair in front of the fireplace. They built a small fire--thinking I might have been chilled from lying on the cold ground. After that some of the wagon drivers brought me flower plants and called me the "blossom girl".' I'm sure I was watched more closely after that.

Mom always thought it was easy to forecast the weather in our Valley. Steamsboats were used daily on the Cumberland River then. Their whistle made a low melodious sound. She said she could tell form their sound what the weather was going to be. She would watch the clouds, if they came over the Jones knob it was sure to rain. The katydids, the frogs, and the whipowills even told her things about the season and weather. John and I were usually too busy catching fireflies or things like that to pay attentnion to the sounds. I did miss the steamboat whistles and whiporwills when we moved away.

• 11 Chapt r 4 • To

We didn't have any bought toys. Mom made us girls "rag" dolls with maybe a bought china head. Sometimes she made the whole doll of cloth, m rking in the face with oak balls or berry juice. Papa wou t d make the boys wooden sleds which served for work or play. The bigger boys would make cornstalk people, horses, or sleds for us younger ones to play with. For themselves they would make sling shots, gum flips, pop guns (from elder canes), and whistles from river canes. Bows and arrows were made from pliable cedar braches and a strong cord. Stick weeds made good arrows. Mom would make the boys a ball from yarn Scraps or heavy twine. If we ever had any spare time we didn't have to sit bored, we could make see saws, Jacobs ladder, cats cradle, etc. from strings. The boyus didn't want to fool with these trivial things, they could make churn drills or "Whimmy Diddles". They told us little ones they used them to grind smoke.

We all loved to play club ILst. We didn't like for John to have the bottom fist, because he pinched and boxed too hard at the end of the game. We all could play William, William, Trimmy Toe... It was un for someone else to be the rotten dish of Kraut. If it to ned out to be "you" that wasn't so funny! •

• • Chapter 5 Early Adventure

I've told i you about being lost and causing such a stir, however, if iti were not for the terrible scars on both of my hands I could not remember this next episode. When I was two or three--too young to remember. I narrowly escaped bleeding to death or having hands so scarred they they would not have been usable. I have already told you how spoiled I was. Well, one morning I had picked up a mason canning jar, and saw one of my brothers coming to take it away from me. I ran and fell on the rock walk in the back yard, and I broke the jar. The pieces went all the way through my left hand, and cut my right hand at the wrist. Of course, all the family came to my rescue. I bled so profusely they could find no way to get it stopped. After trying everything, they had my big brothers take turns carrying me all the rest of the day with my hands held above my head. Finally, the blood stopped. My lefthand is still badly drawn. A piece of glass worked out of .t when I was 12 years old. I don't know how the cut was treated. From accounts I suspect that prayers and tears even from my big brothers had a lot to do with it! • I'm thankful that I had such a family.

• 13 Chapt r 6 Aunt Lu y Ann II

Every home and family shou d have an "Aunt Lucy Ann". When I was a baby and until I w s nearly a grown up there was no social security, welfare, or anything of that nature. Older widows had a very hard ti e. They etiher had to live with relatives or wander around the community and stay with any family that would take them in for a few days, and then go on to another home. Many of them came to our home. Mom never turned anyone away. Some she didn't care for, but it seemed when Aunt Lucy Ann came to our home she loved us and we all loved her. She stayed with us for years until she died.

She had a son and a daughter who lived in Barbourville. They seemed to care nothing about her and almost never had any contact with her.

She was too old to do any ha rd tasks, but she always kept happily busy with the mend ing,g, peeling potatoes, bean stringing, and things like that. When Mom had to be outside to do the washing or gardening Aunt Lucy Ann could watch us babies for her. She could watch what Mom left cooking on the stove or on the crane above the fireplace.

She was always clean and neat. She wore a big floor • length apron with big pockets. In one she kept her mending tools, and in the other she kept a clay pipe with a river cane stem and a twist of tobacco.

In those days it was o.k. for an old woman to smoke a pipe, but I'm sure a young girl who smoked cigarettes would have been condemmed to the "bad place". Aunt Lucy Ann smoked after supper for her digestion. We kiddies loved to watch her smoke. When I had an earache she would hold me in her lap ("nuss" me she called it) blow warm smoke into my ear until I was easy and went to sleep.

She loved all of us youngsters, but she always said Thelma was her favorite over me because "Hettie was spoiled". I loved her just the same, I loved her and I had brothers to spoil and love me. She could always tell lots of funny stories. We all loved to listen to her tales while we sat around the fire at night. She and Mom always enjoyed being together. She stayed with us even after we moved to Cabin Hollow. In her last days, she got colon cancer. Mom cared for her until she died. We all missed her so much!

I was too little to be very sad when we had to leave our home in Pumpkin Hollow. I was anxious to get to the fabulous

14 • "new" home that I'd been told about. Then too, I could always come back to visit and stay a while because Dee, my oldest half brother, took over the "old" place. He and Olive did a lot of remodeling and redecorating to made it be their home, but none the less the house is still there in the same peaceful surroundings.

•

• 15 Chapter 7 • One Room School--My First Year

I started to school when I was four years old. In those days if a young child four years or older gave the teacher no trouble they were allowed to come to school. Also people who had finished eighth grade could come as long as they wanted to.

Schools began in July; by that time summer farm work was done. Many young people who had finished school came back just to have a social outlet. We had a man teacher that year. He was glad to have the older ones. They could finish their lessons quickly, and then they were used as "teacher's aides" to help with the younger pnes.

I don't know what teaching ethod Mr. Barnes used, but I learned and learned well as did 11 the beginners. There were always enough of the older ones to give us individual attention. They helped us with anything we needed them for.

Henry Barnes was a great baseball fan and player. He organized the older boys into a baseball team. They outfitted themselves with all the paraphanalia that big professioanl teams used (catcher's mit and masks, breast protectors, shin guards, etc.) They had regulation bats and balls. I don't know where they got the money to aford all this.

Mr. Barnes would practice with them ever noon recess. On Friday afternoons they would Ohallenge and play neighboring school's teams. Fariers in the community would let them ride their horses if the game was far away.

It was not unusual for Mr. Barnes to extend noon recess to two hours if a good game was in progress. The big girls were good to watch and keep younger ones occupied at recess. At the same time they cheered the players on.

Mr. Barnes was supposed to )e a good teacher. He was careful to see that the basics w re taught, but we got our extra curricular activities, too. We had music at opening exercises and somebody read the Bible. Our P. E. was taken care of through organized games at recess. Field trips as they are called now were afternoon hickory nut, chestnut, and wild grape hunting.

By this time baseball seaso was over. The big boys had to stay home for harvesting, cor cutting and gathering,

16 • sorghum making, etc. Often they came back to school just to visit.

Mr. Barnes always said he didn't allow any "courting" in school but I'm sure he ignored lots that went on.

I demanded my usual attention from my big brothers. They usually carried me piggy back to school. At recess I made them share all the muffins (cupcakes) that Mom had put in each boys lunch bucket. They did all of this gladly, but they weren't too happy with me when I came to them for help with the middle button on my hand made underclothes. Dee or Robert (my older brothers) had a talk with Mom. She explained that I should go to the older girls. They were glad to oblige.

This was the year, too, that I married Lloyd (my future husband) for the first time. A two hour noon reacess someitmes seemed very long to the older girls. So one day they dreamed up the idea of having a Tom Thumb wedding. I was four years old, and Lloyd was six. We younger ones were always flattered if the older ones gave us extra attention so we were chosen to be the bride and gr000m.

Across from the school was a rail fence backed by some tall pine trees. Asters, purple and white, and other wild • flowers were in bloom. Sumac's made a red and gold border around the fence corner. The prettiest flowers we used for my bouquet. I'm sure we made a pretty couple, both of us were bare footed. Our feet were probably covered with dust. Lloyd had on overalls, and I probably had on a hand made dress. I'm sure both of us had at least one fron tooth missing also.

I can't remember who performed the ceremony, probably one of the "big" girls dressed in Mr. Barnes's coat. It was all done seriously. It wasn't just a silly childhood play!

I always remembered that wedding with its vows and felt like it was the real thing. Lloyd always insisted he did too. We married about eighteen years later. He never dated another girl, and I never had another boyfriend. As all "good" stories used to end. We lived happily ever after. • 17 Chapter 8 • Our New Home

Forgetting for a time what we had left behind, the old home was Dee's now, John, Thelma, and I were fascinated with the new house. It wasn't finished. We kenw it soon would be and we liked it the way it was. Instead of broad board oak floors we had narrow board pine floors. The new lumber in the house smelled heavenly. Th walls were not covered with newspaper or huge flowered wall paper, but with a rosy brown "building" paper on all the rooms.

We knew that Mom would soon have the walls covered with new wall paper and the floors covered with some kind of covering. Our big table came with us, and most of the other furniture came too. We had to leave the big cherry "bureau" with its big glass knobs. That was Dee's, his daddy had made it.

After we had explored the new house up and down, over and under, we heard the trains blowing. We wouldn't have to listen for steamboat whistles now. They were too far away for us to hear any more.

We had new tall windows st' 11 no curtains or shades so we pulled up chairs or boxes to stand on. We could hear the • steam engines chugging and the whistles blowing as they came through the tunnel at Cedar Grove. They'd blow again as they crossed the bridge and for the trossing at Elihu. We were fascinatred for days and tried not to miss a one.

Papa had bought our farm from Mr. Ramsey. He had saved all those years he had lived at Pumpkin Hollow so that he could buy the material for the new house and have an unbelievable amount to pay down on the farm. To this day I can't figure out how he saved sm much when he had no outside job. He just made cross ties, or perhaps sold some surplus crops, or maybe a few sheep, etc.

Our farm was interesting t us, no hills. It was days before we found the one sink ho e. It was large, covered with an arbor of wild grapvines It was too far away for us to use for throw aways. We use the big gullies that ran from the upper edge of the plac for this. They crossed the barn lot and ran into the big p nd at the end of our property. THis pond had a stro g fence across it and was shared by us and the Ramseys. round our side of the pond were big willow trees. A big pe rsimmon tree was near by.

18 • • In our barn lot by the road was a good sized mulberry tree which was easy to climb and had delicious berries on it. Mom always warned us that they might be wormy. If we shook the tree we were always careful to eat only the ones that didn't crawl away. We tried not to smear our face so Mom wouldn't know we'd eaten any. Somehow, she always knew though, I guess she figured it couldn't have taken us that long just to gather the eggs in the barn. That was what she'd sent us to do!

Our new home was so different, no hills, no spring, no big flat rocks to play on. At first we had big fire places but soon they were replaced by grates. We could still use the big rocking chair around the fire and the hand made hickory bottomed chairs that had been made in Pumpkin Hollow. I still remember Papa coming home with the strips of inner hickory bark around his neck to be used for new chairs or to repair the old ones. He soaked these strips and worked with them while they were wet. He said this made them tighten up when they dried out.

We kids had been hard on chairs, I can remember their being turned over, lined up, and used for a train.

Mama had a neighbor or two from Pumpkin Hollow to come help her with the papering, painting, etc. Aunt Lucy Ann was • still with us but she was now too old to help. Mom was trying to get this all done before Zona interrupted her schedule early in the next year.

Our first year in Cabin Hollow was just routine. Robert soon married, so th4 bigger boys helped papa with the farm work. I was big enough now to help mama with lots of things such as watching the turkey hens on their nests, gathering eggs, etc.

Then Zona came, I doubt if mom and dad ever dreamed that she would add the excitement she did to all our lives. We all adored her, but she kept us tense wondering what she was going to do next. Mom and papa who had always been so strict with all of us just seemed like parents who didn't quite know what to do with a child. She was cute, loving, unpredictable, not disoedient, but always seeming to get her own way. She never let anybody or anything keep her from having fun. Swimming holes that were off limits to Thelma and me were not to her. She learned to swim early and has kept it up all her life. Neighbors stayed shocked at all her antics. When one reported seeing her and a nephew paddling across our wide deep pond in a leaky hog scalding tank no one was too surprised. She did things like that all the time! • 19

Mom, however, was really j lted when she ran down our • front porch steps, jumped the i on fence and concrete wall to get to greet a boy who had stop ed in a car out front. Needless to say, Thelma and I w re both scandalized. We had tried so hard to get her to act lady-like. Zona still blushes when this is mentioned. Don't get me wrong, she was not a brat, never, she was just daring! Thinking about all these things later I came to th conclusion that God gave her this kind of nature so that she could meet what lay ahead for her.

Plenty laid ahead for her. A short time after the fence jumping episode she really met an adventure that I'm sure non of us could have taken as well s she did. One morning she was driving to the Elihu store o get some soap poder. The car she was in was struck by a rain and demolished. My niece who was with her was killed instantly, Zona, however, was taken to the Somerset hospital. It wasn't noted for the quality of its service. The doctors there were so sure that she wasn't going to make it that they didn't even clean out her wounds. They pretended to set her broken leg, but didn't even put it in a cast, they just laid sand bags beside it to hold it in place. She was delirious part of the time, relived the wreck in nightmares, etc. Naturally, the bones did not stay in place, the wounds that hadn't been cleaned out became infected, and her internal wounds became so infected that she was near death. Mom put so much pressure • on the doctors and railroad authorities that they were glad to take her to Cincinnati Jewish Hospital. Here they had to rebreak and reset her broken bones, put pins in and cast on to hold them in place, they had to treat her internal infections, some of the wounds they had failed to clean and treat had already decayed and f ller out. All of that had to be taken care of. Even the experts at Jeish were never able to get her injured foot back as it should be. She still suffers from these injuries, but she never let it get her down. She had to be in the hospital for six months, alone in a strange place, with only one Weekly visit from some of the family. I'm sure anyone but Zona would have given up and gone into deep depression, but she had fun even there. She did meding work for the interns and cheered up the older patients. She came home for awhile and used crutches. She had to go back from time to time for therapy. She was a calmer Zona after that but shehadn't lost her firm spirit.

When she went back to scho 1 she was a year behind all her classmates. She went on an graduated from UK. She married and had three daughters. The first one didn't live, and the second one had to have many treatments for a foot • • deformity she had at birth. Zona weathered many crisises after this she maintained a home and raised two lovely daughters with almost no help. She taught school in Nashville while she was sending two girls to school. During this time she obtained her Master's Degree in education and later she obtained a higher degree.

She works in her church, she coaches a Senior swimming team, under her coaching they go to the Olympics each year and win many medals. Lloyd (my husband) used to teasingly tell her. "Zona with all your antics you'll be in a reformatory before you are grown". Well, she never made that, but accomplished more than the rest of us. We all have to feel grateful to her. She cared for my mother through her last five years of invalidism, because she was so far away none of us could help her much.

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• 21 Chapter 9 School Days

School began in July, and Jesse, Edd, John, and I would go to a green one room school house about two miles away. To reach it we had to walk. Not far from our house was Pitman Creek, which we had to cross on a row of rocks. Near this ford was Ramsey's big spring where many people stopped to rest, get a drink, and water their horses. It was always a delightful shady place and we were always tired and thirsty. We usually stopped to get a drink, but we weren't allowed to stay long. Mom would be worried because chores were waiting for us too.

It was at this ford that I had my first big adventure in Cabin Hollow. Pitman Creek would flood often and be what we called "past fording". Then no one dared to try the rocks. Mom had no idea how deep the creek was, but she never could stand for any of us to miss a d y of school. She didn't want me to try the rocks so she sent my older brother, Charles, to take Jocko (our gentle work horse) to take me to school. Charles thought a better idea would be to take two horses, I would ride Jocko, and he rode Ben (another work horse). Charles was supposed to hold on o me. No one dreamed the creek was so strong, swollen, and swift. WHen we got to about the middle of the creek the current carried the two horses apart. Charles did hold onto my arm, but I really got a dunking. We were both scared to death. CHarles knew he would be severely scolded so he took me to the next neighbors house. Her daughter, Lillian (my greatest rival at school), had already gone to school. Mrs. Denny undressed me and put Lillian's clothes on me so that she could have mine dry when I came home from school. I shudder to think waht scolding Cahrles endured when he got home and told what happened. I still don't like water, except to drink.

By evening when school had dismissed at four o'clock the creek had run down I got re-dressed at hte Denney's. A bigger brother helped me across the rocks, and no real harm came from the ordeal.

We later got a swinging bridge which solbed a lot of problems. It got everyone safely across the creek. Bigger boys had lots of fun shaking it so that it scared us girls half to death, although sometimes we enjoyed the attention.

This was replaced later with a sturdy iron wagon bridge. About three or four years ago this was condemned and replaced by a new one. Landscaping almost did away with the parklike

22 • area around the bridge. It still there but it's not as accessible as it used to be. Mr. Barnes had transferred and taught a year or two at Cabin Hollow. I had three lady teachers here and another man teacher. 1THe school was always crowded. I had a lot of good frineds here. We were near the county seat, the County Superintendent was nearby so our school was always run according to county rules and regulations. My teachers were alll good teachers, they were good disciplinarians and really taught us the basics. WE were happy in this school, but had no two hours noon recesses. THe year i finished the eighth grade we were required to pass a county examination. It was no simple thing. All of us in eighth grade passed and were really ready for "high school" the next year.

In the year 1924, Pulaski County children were allowed to attend high chool with their tuition paid for the fist time. before this tuition was so expensive that very few families could afford it. So my class was first to go from Cabin Hollow.

I was elated, I always loved school and meant to go as long as it was possible for me to go. Some of my classmates • made false starts. The boys would find the pool r000ms and other attractions, play hooky, and drop out. some of hte girls would find they didn't want to put out that much effort. However, my parents were always glad forme to have this opportunity, but I knew from the start if I didn't measure up with effdrt and grades i would not be allowed to go.

After we became accustomed to the new routine and such we county kids who came from the one room schools could keep up with the city school pupils in all our studies and sometimes we could come out ahead of them.

I'm glad that we have consolidated schools now and i would not advocate going back to croweded one room schools, but I have never felt deprived that all my elementary school days were spent in them. Our teachert all encouraged us to go on to school and never neglected any phases of our studies. We read and reread any books we had or could exchange. We were eager to get to a library that had more. • 23

Chapter 10 Wash Day Wash Day at our home was always a busy tiem for all of us. John and I always had to have enough wood carried to keep the fire going under the big kettle that started the wash and to do the boiling. Mom always had two or three big rain barrels to catch water for wash day. After papa dug a cistern at both homes much of the water was taken from them-- spring water was "hard".

Mom always made a big part of our soap by using fat scraps and lye. If no store bought lye was available, and ash hopper would furnish enough lye for soap making, scrubbing floors, etc. This was a barrel kept full of wood ashes. Water was poured slowly into the hole left inthe bottom was lye so strong that you treated it with respect.

The first commercial soap Was a big yellow bar called Lenox. this was saved touse wit the more delicate clothes. THe boys and Papa's work clothes required the lye soap. All white clothes were rubbed onthe wash board wrung by hand, put inthe big "turkey" kettle to boil. THey were taken out of the "boil" into the rinsing tub, rubbed some more, and then put into the final rinse. This rinse usually contained blueing to keep your • withes from looking yellow or dingy. Our Sunday clothes were usually starched. Work clothes were not always boiled but they had to be soaked, rubbed, and rubbed, and rinsed. The wringing by hand and hanging out was just as big a job as the rest but it did give us tiem to straighten your back. Mom alwaus had many lines full and often used the yard fence for some of the extra clothes.

In the winter time, the was was done inthe kitchen. Out big cook stove had a big wat r heating reservoir to start hte wash. The stove top was big enough that by lifting two caps it would accomodate the big turkey kettles. We took the clothes out of the boil with a b g stick.

On wash days mama usually hid our mid day meal onthe crane over the fireplace. When unt Lucy Ann was with us she watched it, adn sometime she bak : d the rest inthe big oven. The clothes were hung outsi e in winter no matter how cold--Hom liked for them to free5e. Sometimes when the wind blew strong, it would sound like la pitched battle was going on with the clothes. They were left outside until they froze dry, she said this made them whiter. 24 • • Ironing Day was just as full and tiring. Mom never wanted her hamily to look neglected or slouchy so everything had to be ironed. This was before the time of "wash and wear" or "drip dry". No one wore casual clothes, so bushel baskets of Sunday clothes had to be dampened and ironed. With the old fashioned "sad" irons it was an all day's job to iron hte boys' Sunday shirts, my dresses, etc. Later we got more modern equipment--a gasoline iron, then later an electric iron, and even later a gasoline Maytag, which changed later to electric. Our family decreased, but laundry was always a big chore.

Just after I had written the above about our wash day, i found this in Country Woman magazine. It sounds like our wash day, doesn't it?

In great grandmother's own personal spelling style, was this step-by-step set of instructions:

1. Bild fire in bach yard to hear kettle of rain water.

2. Set tubs so smoke won't blow in your eyes if wind is pert.

3. Shave one hole cake lie sope in bilin water. • 4 Sort clothes. Make 3 piles/pile white/pile cullard/pile work britches and rags.

5 Stir flower in cold water to smooth them thin down with bilin water to make starch .

6 Rub dirty spots on board, scrub hard, then bile. Rub. Cullards but don't bile, jest rench and starch.

7. Take white things out of kittle with broom stick handle then rench, blew, and starch.

8. Spread tea towels on grass.

9. Hang britches and rags on the fence.

10. Pore rench water on flower bed.

11. Scrub porch with hot sopy water.

12. Turn tubs upside down.

13. go put on a clean dress. Smooth hair with side comb. Set and rest a spell and rock a spell and • count your blessings! 25

Chapter 11 • The Black Smith Shop

After we moved to Cabin Hollow my papa built himself a blacksmith shop. He may have had one at our first home, but I don't remember it. For some reason papa didn't use John for his helper in the shop. Eatlier when it was suggested that John help with the dishes he announced that he couldn't do the farming and help with the dishes too. After that we called him Farmer John, he helped with the farm work. I then helped in the shop to do the th ngs I was big enough to do.

I was always eager to lear new things. the shop withits forge, its bellows (whi h I could pump), its termering bucket, all its diffetent tools, and all the different things my dad made and did was like a school for me.

After the fire was started i could keep the bellows going. I could hold the tongs that held the white hot iron while papa pounded it or cutit into the shape he wanted it to be. I loved the sizzling soundthe hot iton made when he put it into the tempering bucket.

He made many of his own tools, a fro to split boards, plow points, harrow teeth, and irons (dog irons to us). I • loved to hear the clang of his hammer as he shaped all these things onteh anvil.

I got to hold the horses, Jacko and Ben, and later Pedro, the pony. We always had a pair of mules, they were not so docile. They all had to be shod. I had to hold them all as each got a new shod. I learned how the rasp was used to trim their hoofs, how the shoes were fitted with corks, and how the horse shoe nails were put in and clinched so that they held but never hurt a hors s's foot. Almost never was a show lost until it was completely worn out. I still know how to do blacksmith work, but I do 't do it.

When I read about the prices farriers charge who work for race tracks, I think that if papa had charged he could have soon become rich. He did lots of work for his neighbors, but as far as I know he never charged anybody anything.

26 • • Chapter 12 Epidemics

We were a big family and when an epidemic did strike there was enough of us to almost merit a hospital being set up. One spring measles hit, from Edd on down we came down with them. All of us except Zona! Of course, Mama darkened the rooms, and gave us the usual teas and remedies, but we didn't recover quickly. None of us had any appetite, and Mom was really worried about us. She suggested to Papa that he go to town and buy us some oranges or anything else that might whet our appetite. Zona heard the plans and since we never had oranges except at Christmas she did so want some of those oranges. She immediately came down with measles that very day! Mom knew that Papa couldn't go to town every day, and from experience she knew measles symptoms when she saw them. However, she also knew Zona! Mom gave the oranges only to us who wouldn't eat anything else. She may have given Zona something, but she saved the oranges for us sick ones. No one ever saw a quicker recovery from measles that Zona made! She sprang out of bed, ran through the house, turned over the ironing board, knocked a kerosene lamp off the end of the board spilling oil and bits of glass all over • the place, and then she bolted outside. I was too sick to remember how mom dealt with her. Though she had no relapse then, she got the measles later and was quite sick. I'm sure she got some oranges then. All of us, including her can still laugh about her measles.

Three or four years later in the Autumn, I can't remember the exact year. Papa became very sick, he got so very sick that finally a Doctor was called. By this time Papa had begun to break out with big sores all over. The doctor puzzled over him, consulted with Mama, and then in a second they decided he had small pox. Mom would not have it, she begged, argued, and everything else, but the doctors made her accept it. What she objected most was the fact that we would have to be quarantined for the duration. At this time Robert was married and lived nearby.

Neither Papa or Charles could go back to work. They both worked at Ferguson Railroad Shop then. We younger ones could not go to school. None of us could go off the place, and no one could come in. We had to put up a yelllow flag on a pole by the front gate. There was not a scrap of yellow on • 27 the place except for a few fragments left from my newest • dress Hom had just finished making for me. I'm sure there were tears when my dress had to be torn up.

People were afraid to get near our place. People passing going to town or to the shops to work would hug the fence across the road. We had no telephone and no means of communication with the outside world. Sometimes Robert would yell from a distance to see how things were going. The mail man would put mail in our box but would not pick up mail.

We each had a bad case of the disease coming down with it one at a time. The quarantine stretched on and on. It seemed to us forever! Luckily, We lived on the farm, so we had enough food.

Christmas came, and of course, none of us expected a gift. Zona could have been youn enough to hope for Santa, though. Mom did the best she coOld, cooking goodies for us, making gingerbread, rag dolls, etc. Robert brought each of us younger ones a small gift, and all of us some candy and fruit. He left this in a box on a lower porch which was not often used. He yelled to tell uS "Merry Christmas" and told us the box was there.

I don't remember what the o thers got, but my gift was a story book "Beauty and the Beast . I always hated that • story, but I must have read that book (it was a thick one) fifteen times before the seige was over.

By this time John and Edd were well but still imprisoned. They felt so rebellious that day that without getting permission they got out papa's old shot gun that he kept for butchering time or to shoot ground hogs, and they shot the flag down. We were not all through with the disease, but it relieved some of their tension to not have to look at the despised yellow flag.

It was mid-January before the doctor would release us. Everything had to be washed and boiled, the whole place scrubbed, sulphur candles had to be burned in each room which smelled awful. The doctor gave is a certificate of release. Papa could go back to work and we could go back to school where we were shunned for a day or two.

You may ask why we hadn't had vaccinations. Well, no case of small pox had been heard of for years, so vaccinations were available but seldom used.

Later papa told of meeting a neighbor who lived up a lane from us. Papa was always friendly, he'd missed Archie • 28 • around lately so he'd greeted him profusely. Later we learned that his whole family had had small pox and hadn't let anyone know about it. We never knew where that family got the disease.

Later when I reached high school everyone was required to be vaccinated. Some people had such reactions that I felt great that I didn't have to have one.

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• 29 Chapte r 13 Pedr 0 • Pedro was not a brother or sister, not even a close relative, but he played a big part in my teenage life. He deserves a place in this paper.

Pedro was a beautiful, sleek, almost horse size, black and white pony. We bought' Pedro when I was about twelve years old from the Meece family ho owned the farm adjoining ours. Beatrice, their youngest aughter had been crippled by polio when very young. Her fath r had bought the farm and Pedro so that she could get abou and enjoy riding. Pedro adored Beatrice and she worshipp d him. Beatrice had three sisters and two brothers. The w ole family loved and spoiled both of them. Mr. Meece got a p sition as head of an automobile agency. He had found that farm life wasn't what he expected it to be. They move back to Somerset. They could not have Pedro where they ere moving to. Beatrice parted with Pedro very reluctant y and he with her.

He was a "character" from d y one at our place. Having had full charge of everybody and everything at the Meece place he let all of us know he s , ill intended to keep that position. He seemed to feel that he should be in charge of all the live stock. He learned how to operate every latch papa had made for all the stalls in the barn. Their • operation wasn't easy for even some people to figure out.

Wher the cows or calves, even the horses and mules had been shut up as long as he thought they should be. He would unlatch the door and open the stalls. If the animals didn't come out he would go in, nip them on their backs until they did. After they were all in the barn lot he'd make then all go in a body to the pond. Very often he'd get the barn lot gate open and start them up the lane to the pasture, and he'd go with them. After he'd stayed as long as he wanted to, then he'd make them all come back to the pond and into the barn. He couldn't be counted on to do this chore regularly. Sometimes he wasn't in the mood. Then John and I would have to go after the cows.

This trip after the cows was a great time for John and me. I loved to tag along listening to his scientific discourses. He explained such things as why there was never any lightning until electricity was discovered and some of it got loose. He had an answer for any question I ever asked. I kept these answers, thinking he must be the smartest person living. I learned later that he wasn't reaaly an Edison or an Einstein, but I always thought he was smart. • • Pedro had special friends and people with whom he never became friendly. He became my friend quickly. I suppose that was because I was near the size and age of Beatrice. He liked John and would obey him. My father and the other boys he didn't. No one except John and I bridled, saddled, or harnessed him without getting nipped. Hany times he almost refused to do anything for Robert, I think it was because he didn't like his voice. During the summer I rode him many times weekly to Rush Branch to take my music lessons. He would stay tied during my lesson, give me time to untie him, and mount, but then he would set out in a long lope and keep it up until we were back home. He'd always hit Rush Brandh with a big splash. During the summer I had driven him a few times in the buggy.

When September and school came, two of my girl friends and I drove Pedro in a buggy to Somerset each day. He always had to be urged along each morning and had to be held back on the way home. We had to cross the railroad four times each day. He acted like he was scared to death each time he saw a train or heard one near, sometimes we almost had a runaway. It was all we three girls could do to prevent it.

One day driving along the road by the creek bluff, Pedro stopped abruptly and turned the buggy completely over • depositing three girls in the middle of the road. He was going as fast as he could go dragging the buggy on it's top until someone caught him at Elihu. He was taken home, and John took us to school in the Model T Ford we had then. We never missed school for anything! People investigated to find what caused the scare and found that there was the bloated body of a dead pig lying at the bottom of the cliff. Some driver had probably hit the pig and knocked it over the cliff. It was hardly visible from the road. Somebody removed it and burried it.

The next day Pedro hadn't forgotten. John went along with us in another buggy, and as Pedro neared the spot he started to shy. John touched him lightly with the whip and commanded him to go on and we got by with out any trouble. Pedro wasn't one bit afraid as we came home, but John went with us the next two or three days. Then Grace Jones the bravest of us three girls took John's place tapping him with the whip and threatening him. Pedro figured that was one battle he couldn't win so he gave up and started acting normal again.

The second year that we drove him was the most exciting. • Pedro would never step on a paper or any unusual debris left 31 in the street. He would stop and jump over them taking the • buggy and its contents with him. Many times our necks seemed nealy snapped in two, because we weren't braced for the jump!

During this year the city of Somerset painted stop signs at each intersection. They were painted in huge bright letters on the surface of the street. Pedro was not going to touch them, he would stop and jump over the sign. We learned to anticipate and get ourselveS braced. People often stopped and watched this performance which he never gave up.

After I graduated from Somerset High School and became a teacher at Pumpkin Hollow School I rode Pedro to Dee's each Sunday afternoon. He would stay in Dee's pasture until Friday afternoon, then he woul come gladly for Dee to have him ready for me to ride back ome after school. Dee would hold him until I mounted. He ould start loping and would

keep that up from Dee's gate u n til we got to out barn lot gate. He would be covered with foam from sweat. He crossed Pitman Creek bridge so loudlythe people all around knew that Hettie Sears was coming home fkom teaching.

It wasn't considered lady-like for a young girl to be riding this fast through the countryside, but no matter how hard I tried I was never able to slow him down. He would be happy then until he was captured again on Sunday afternoon. • After we did not use him enymore Dee kept him. Pedro liked him and did small jobs for him. He lived to a very old age for a pony. He never lost his spirit and stayed my friend!

The last year that I drove Pedro to school John and Edd went away to Cincinnati to Auto Mechanics school. I don't know how long they were away, but it seemed like an eternity to me for I had to take over their chore--helping with the milking in the mornings before daylight and evenings after school.

Mom would always have bricks heated to place in the floor of the buggy to keep our feet warm. After milking I'd have to harness Pedro, get dressed for school, and get to school before the bell rang at 8:15. School dismissed at 3:15 but about three days each week we had to meet extra classes such as Gym, Music, and any other extra curricular activit we had. We had slow time back then. I can remember being met by a parent with a lantern sometimes. Any homework we had was done by kerosene lamps after the chores were done and supper was over.

32 • • During John's first year of marriage, he got a job that headed out of Burnside. There was only one car in the family, and John and I were the only drivers. Each morning I would take him to Burnside cross the ferry, come back, and get ready for school. This, too, had to be done before daylight most of the time.

The Model T had wooden floor boards with cracks but we didn't use Mom's heated bricks, but before Spring we sure wished we had. Both John and I got frostbitten feet. John went to the doctors and got some relief. I didn't go to the doctor and I've never suffered anything worse than I did with that frostbite. Each year during winter and spring the torture came back for years.

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• 33 Chapt r 14 High S hool

Somerset High School was a great school. It was highly accredited and was staffed with capable teachers. Only occasionally would one be expos d to a teacher untrained for his or her job. For example, m French teacher had majored in math. No French teacher cou d be found. She taught some math, but had to learn French a ong with us. For that reason I now know very little French. Our Latin, Science, Home Ec, English, and History teachers ware the best! Courses I took at Somerset High prepared me for any course I met in college. This was not true of all the alulmni from many other high schools.

Somerset high School at that time clung to some old requirements. Every pupil was required to compose a 1,000 word oration and deliver it in chapel to the whole school body. This was the most difficult task I had to do in all my four years. That year was the year we had National Champion orator in our class. He sat directly in front of me that day. I could watch his measuring the redness in my face. (I could always have won the national championship on blushing.) No one knows the relief I felt when it was over. My class was the last class required to do this.

We were required to work sol many hours in the library. We were supposed to have the best library in the state. This was one of the requirements I enjoyed and profited much from it.

We were required to take a certain number of hours of printing. This too was enjoyable and very profitable. We printed our own school paper and school annual. We often won prizes on our annual, "Homespun".

Each graduating girl was r quired to make her graduating dress by hand. This was no ordinary dress. It was an elaborate evening style dress. Every stitch was to be perfect or out it came to be done over until it met our sewing teacher's standards. We did not have caps and gowns for graduations.

The one great fault one could find with Somerset High School was it put much more emphasis on our teams winning football or basketball games than it did on their academic work. I can remember three football heroes who sat behind me, never participating in class, preparing no homework, tying my sash to my chair, just pestering me in any way they • 34 • could all month long. Then came test time, they'd pull their chairs close to mine, copy every word from my paper and pass with flying colors. Teachers ignored this. They would get into trouble with the superintendent and principal if they didn't. We always had winning football and basketball teams. Country girls and boys weren't on the teams. They couln't stay late enough for practice.

The year after I graduated the Hills moved to Louisville and Somerset High School got a new superintendent and principal. The whole routine was changed. Most of the antiquated requirements were dropped such as the orations, etc. Some of the older staff members retired, so new and different staff members came. Somerset was still a good school, though, it has became more like other schools.

I have told you about my two years driving Pedro. Hy last two years of high school I drove a Model T Ford. Charles' accidental death at Ferguson shops had left the family with the car. Papa was never interested at all in cars so Mama assumed the care and responsibility for the car. John and Edd were both old enough and both learned to drive. Edd married and went away from home. That left John in control of the car. At that time one could get a driver's permit at the age • of fourteen. John taught me to drive. Since I'd loved driving and had had no trouble, I drove the Model T during my Junior and Senior year. A number of neighborhood boys and girls wanted a way to get to school, so we always had a load.

John had taught me how to crank the car, change the tires, clean and gauge the spark plugs, patch innertubes, put up the curtains in case of rain or bad weather. Mama felt it would be better if there was a boy along to help out if there was an emergency, Homer Losey would have no other way to school so Mama chose him. His mother was having a struggle trying to raise four boys with no help from their father. Homer was a likeable boy with a lot of ambition. Later after I graduated he rode with Thelma for the two years. He later became a State Representative.

The only real trouble when I was driving the car, came one morning, while crossing the notorious Elihi crossing a four man hand car on the railroad ran into us. None of our crew were hurt, just scared. When most of the men got up bleeding, spitting out teeth, etc. we all thought we were killed. Again, John came to our rescue driving us to school and back that night. Life went on smoothly. • 35 Then John took one of our passengers away from us Wilma • became his wife. Of course we all thought they were too young and had made a terrible mistake, but they proved us wrong in every way. John was always the one the whole family went to for advice and spport in times of crisis. He gave nursing care for my dad when he was dying with cancer. He also kept my mother after she wais unable to live by herself. Zona kept her later in Nashvillei until she died, almost five years. Wilma proved to be a jewel. Their home was always a place the family could come back too. She's still the best sister-in-law anyone could have.

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36 • Chapter 15 My First Year of School Teaching

At the end of the school year, June 1928, I graduated. Pulaski County, then, was in great need of teachers. Many of their older teachers had been certified by taking and passing an examination given by the state. This certificate had to be renewed every two years. Many took the exam that year. Anyone who had graduated from highschool was eligible. A number of us graduates were urged by some of our teachers to try the test just to see how we measured up.

At that time none of us graduates had any idea of wanting to teach. A few of us passed with flying colors while many of the older teachers didn't pass. The only reason we could figure that this happened was that the board of examiners had revised the test to include current events and more modern subjects. We highschool graduates shone on the fact that the older ones weren't so well prepared.

Mom was always eager for us children to advance our education. She didn't question my ability at my age. She thought I should try to get a school. I wanted to go on to college but I knew we couldn't afford it. No jobs were available for young girls. In spite of the fact that I knew my only hope of getting funds for college was to use my certificate and teach school I almost hoped I would not get a school, but one just came to me! The good veteran teacher who had taught my beloved Pumpkin Hollow school for years didn't pass the examination and couldn't teach. The trustee knew I had passed. Without him making a search or without even an application I had a school.

During that summer the State offered a six weeks "normal" teacher training school at Somerset. Knowing that I sorely needed it, I attended. Then at age 17, scared to death I started teaching in July. I had forty-seven pupils some of them taller than I and some almost as old. I had all eight grades in the same one room that I had started my own schooling.

I had had all my elementary schooling in a one room school. So planning my day's program wasn't too difficult. I really worked hard at being a good teacher. In spite of my inexperience, I didn't make too many mistakes and pupils learned. My beginners learned to read well. My eighth grade pupils all passed the county examination and were ready for high school.

My biggest problems was with discipline. Many of the • pupils knew I was young and inexperienced and thought it would be fun just to try me out I managed through some difficult problems by praying, bluffing, and "whatever" without any casualties. I think most of the pupils and their parents learned to like me and were cooperative. The teacher who had taught before me came a number of times to help me when some special project was being worked on. I learned much from her. I think she must have been planning to retire soon any way so she never seemed bitter that I had taken her place.

The most important lesson learned that year was from my "slow learner". He would try so hard to do anything he would be given to do. He would say, "Miss Hettie, I chan't I chan't but I chan chy" and he would do the very best he could. Many times I've repeated Arnold's saying and made myself try what I thought was impossible for me to do.

I was asked to teach again the next year. I learned so much from my first years teaching and was much better prepared for my second year ther,. I learned that I needed more preparation so I decided to save as much of my salary as I could so that I could go on to school.

I boarded that first year and the next with my brother Dee's family. He still lived at our old home. I paid $10 • per month board and my salary wa $70 per month. Mom always insisted that I let her keep buy ng my clothes so that I could save what I earned to go t. school. I never let her do it. By being frugal, I had boug t my own clothes and many times school supplies and saved nough to go to Eastern Teacher's College for a semester of taecher's training.

By this time, Cabin Hollow ad built a two room school. My third, fourth, and fifth year of teaching was there. I'd teach, save, and go to school un it I got my standard Life Certificate. This certificate c uld be renewed for life if one taught three years successfu ly. This had to be signed by the three trustees under whom you had taught. I renewed the certificate, but I also kept going to school to work toward a degree. I taught thirt -one years. I always loved my schools and pupils. I can't say I enjoyed every moment of teaching but most of them I did. To me there's no more difficult job, none more rewardin•, and none more challenging!

38 • Chapter 16 A Big Barrel of Apples

I have mentioned by name some of my family members. I feel that all of them should have a place of recognition:

1. Albert Sears - He grew up in our home much loved by my mother even though he was her stepson. I only knew him through our visits to his home in Iowa. He'd left Kentucky when his first son, Elmer, was a baby. He had gone there and worked for farmers until he owned his own big farm and raised his family there. He married Mary Williams.

2. Goerge Sears - He grew up in our home and married Bertie Denham. He also went to Iowa to work. He later owned homes there and also in Minnesota. All of his family were born and raised there.

3. Pearl Sears Colyer - She grew up in our home and was my father's oldest daughter. She married Forest Colyer and had two daughters before I was born.

4. Ida Sears Hall - She was the yougest of my father's first children. She was raised by her maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Will Massey. She married M. C. Hall, and then lived in Pennsylvania.

5. CLara Richardson - She was my mother's first child. She died suddenly when she was a little over one year old from what they called Boll Hives.

6. Stella Richardson - She grew up in our home and married Lincoln Hair. She was burned to death shortly after her marriage. A "wash" fire caught her long dress on fire. She lived seventeen days afterwards. This was before I was born.

7. Dee Richardson - He was mom's youngest son of her first family. He grew up in our home, and he was much loved by all of us. He heired the old home place, and he lived there all his life. He married Olive Gregory and they raised their family there. One could go there today and find her sitting by the window watching the deer play in the meadow by the big sinkhole.

8. Robert Dewey - He was my mother's and father's first born. He had a fiery temper, but he was lovable to his family. When I think of Robert I always think of what he said when reminded that the Bible says, "As much lieth in you • live peaceably with all men." He would always reply, "I know 39 that, but it doesn't lie in me to just take anything." He • married Lillie Hair. 9. Charles Spurgeon Sears - He was lovable, easygoing, and so good to us children and my mother. He was killed accidentally at Ferguson Railroad Shop at the age of twenty- three.

10. Jessie Talmadge Sears - one' side of his body was slightly deformed at birth. Heas! sickly his first two years. He overcame this illness however, and was normal and healthy during his elementary school years. He excelled in school work especially math. He was finished with the eighth grade, when at the age of,twelve years he became an epileptic. He had the most seve e type of the disease. At that time there was no treatment for the disease. As he suffered with the seizures, his ind gradually deteriorated. We all loved him and tried to he p with his care but at that time most of us were at work or n school. Mom had most of the burden of his care. He died when he was about twenty- eight.

11. James Edwin Sears - Edd as we called him was the playmate that John and I had to look up to. He was loving but loved to boss John and me. He married Betty Kittrell first, and then later he married Dorothy Burton.

12. John Wesley Sears - John was always my idol as we grew up. I loved to be his tag-a-long.

13. Hettie Mae Sears - I married) Lloyd T. Gregory.

14. Thelma Lee Sears - Of the three of us girls left, Thelma probably shoud have the place of onor. She was the prettiest of the three. My earli st remembrance of her was a roly, poly, curly haired cherub i the bed with my mom. That meant to me that she already had aken my place with my mom, and I was sure the big brothers w.uld transfer the attention they had given to me to her. The, didn't though. She stayed the prettiest of us three all thr.ugh our growing up and college days. She was the smarte t of the three. When she and I were at Eastern Teacher's C•llege there were 1100 students enrolled. She was honor d in chapel, and allowed to sit on the stage for having made he highest grades of all the students. She didn't use her certifica e to teach. She married Ray Hamm. Like Barbara Bush, our First Lady, she used her education toward being a good wif and a wonderful mother of seven boys and one girl. She fit the description of a wife of noble character that God gave us in the 31st Chapter of

40 • Proverbs. She raised wonderful children and I'm sure they would all rise up to call her blessed.

15. Zona Vee Sears - She married John Bell Jones Jr. I've already given you a good description of her. She's still going strong coaching swimming teams, doing church work, fighting arthritis, frolicking (as she calls it) and being a happy, helpful person. Yes, we were a big barrel of apples, not a rotten one in the bunch!

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• 41

Chapter 17 • Now, My Grandparents

Goerge Aaron Sears was my paternal grandfather. He was a corporal in the Union army during the Civil War. He was an itinerant Baptist preacher who made a living by farming. He was a tall square built man. Once after a raft sank in the Cumberland River on which he was with a crew, it was said, "even though none of the rest drowned he was the only one that had nothing to fear, for the river only was deep enough to reach his armpits."

My grandmother was Polly Tomlinson, a very quiet easy going person who raised a big family.

I never knew these grandpapents very well. The only remembrance I have of them was when they visisted us on Sundays, church meeting days once a month. They lived in another community.

My maternal grandparents, however, I knew better. My grandpa was Jerry Hughes, a man who would have passed for Santa Clause's identical twin. He was a very sweet natured person that always spoiled and 1 ved us grand kids. My grandma was CLara Price. Most e eryone knew her as a very precise, high tempered lady. Sh had worked for some very • elite perople in Burnside beforeshe married my grandpa. She was an immaculate housekeeper, nOt a spec of dust anywhere. Her clothes were always clean and starched. Even though she was a hard worker her clothes were never mussed or soiled. I guess I was her favorite grandchild because she said I was the only one who didn't "meddle". She didn't know that I sometimes peeped into the little milk glass hen that sat in the middle of her dresser.

To me her house was beautiful. She had hand woven rag carpets on the floor. Her beds were high cord beds with large straw stand up pillows. T ese were embroidered with turkey red thread. They had "Go • d Morning" and "Good Night" on them. Her beds were covered ith white counter panes.

Her hallway was full of Asparagus ferns on willow twig tables whose fronds reached the floor. They were covered with red berries. A big oleander sat in her living room by the fireplace. Her kitchen was a log kitchen with a big fireplace. Beside that fireplace was the little chair my Mom had sat in when she got a snack. She had to put on an apron, catch all the crumbs in the apron, and dust them outside.

42 • • In the middle of the big table was a big honey stand filled with comb honey from grandpa's bee hives that he kept. Close beside it was a covered dish of sweetbread.

I never started going to grandmas until I was old enough to ride behind mom on ole' Jocko. She would ride Jocko on a side saddle and visit Dee and Olive at the old home place or to services at the home church visiting Dee later. She'd let me stay at grandmas while she went on. I was old enough to know not to meddle. I also could read well. Neither my grandmother or my grandfather could read until my mom taught them. Grandma could read well for a beginner but she could not read fluently enough to read the Somerset Journal to grandpa so I always read it to both of them. She thought I was very smart to be able to do so. Something else I could do that she couldn't was read a recipe to bake a cake. Each time I was there I must bake an Old Maids cake and ice it with meringue frosting. The recipe was simple and easy for me to remember. It was a great change from the sweet bread she always kept baked.

Grandma loved flowers and had beautiful ones inside and out. She always saved seeds for me. Mama would let me order a lot of new ones from such old companies as R.H Shumway. Their 10 cent packages were always enough to share with • grandma. Grandma was a great quilter. She quilted fancy quilts and she sometimes sold them to the shopmen. She had many of them when she died, but they didn't last long after grandpa married again. For the new Mrs. Hughes distributed them out to her folks. He gave one treasure to my Mom. I still have it.

Even though I love to make quilts and quilt them I would never be able to make one like it. She had raised the cotton seeded and carded it for the padding. She had also hand woven the lining. Grandma would take me upstairs each time I went to see her so that I could look at her latest quilts.

My oldest sister-in-law says the way she remembers grandma was when anyone in the community was sick you would see Aunt Clara as she was called with a basket of goodies going to visit them. She'd always have on "make up"--parched oatmeal and would be wearing a white starched apron.

I was away at school when she died. I went back to see grandpa to read to him, but it was never the same without • her. 42

Chapter 18 • Hy Parents

This last part I come to with great humility. Many people have had more famous parents histoicaly and socially but none had parents that were any more caring, hard working, christian, community minded, compassionate, or honest than ours were. Neither were highly educated. Hom had a good eighth grade education. Hy Dad had to quit school early because Grandpa Sears was away from home much of the time preaching. Grandma had nine children, Dad was the oldest so it was necessary that he be home to help with the farm and to cope with the big family. I don't know how far he went to school. I would have thought perhaps to the sixth grade, but others say he didn't go that far. The fact that he no longer attended school didn't mean that his education stopped. He always kept as many books as he dould afford, not just any old book. I don't know how he knew to choose them but later when I was in high school and college many of the books that he kept in our home were on our required reading lists. There were good fiction, poetry, books from sermons by noted preachers such as Spurgeon, Talmadge, etc. Rainy days and evenings after work he spent reading. I think I can truthfully say he was the best educated man in our community even though he had spent far less time in school. With our big family to care for Mom had little time for reading. Her evenings were spent knitting socks and gloves for all the • family, doing mending, quilt piecing, and things like that.

My parents didn't always agree on every little matter but they were both determined that us children should be raised right and provided for wit the very best of their ability. From the time we were b rn we were taken to church. We were kept in school every day hen we were old enough. We were taught to reverence God and he Bible. We were taught to love our country, home, and fa ily. These principles were not forced upon us it was just th way we were taught and what we all did willingly all our lives.

My dad was Sunday school sup rintendent, school trustee, and magistrate (any sere ce that the community needed he was willing to perform). He was most compassionate, he lent money to many people when he knew he'd never be repaid. Every passerby as always welcome and even though they were strangers h 'd invite them into rest, have a meal, and lots of them spe t the night.

Dad had a humorous side to h m also. I can recall him telling about his first meal when he was courting the girl he married. The meat wasn't too ten er, and when he tried to 43 • cut it he tipped his plate. It fell from the table, landed • on it's edge, and rolled around and around the table. To him that was always something he could laugh about.

The incident he could laugh the most about came later. He never learned anything about cars. One evening after work at the Ferguson Shops he and Ed Harrison, a neighbor, rode to Somerset with Ranson Phelps, another neighbor. Coming back home Mr. Phelps stopped at Hughlin Massey's grocery store. The store was at the top of Waite's Hill, which was a very steep hill. After Mr.Phelps had gone in the store DAD and Mr. Harrison stayed in the car. For some reason it started moving, headed straight for Somerset's train depot at the foot of the hill. They were frightened to death. They jumped out, one got at the front and one at the back of the car and held it with all the strength they had, while Mr. Phelps leisurely did his shopping and visiting as country people always did. When he came out they both were shaking all over. Mr. Phelps was so amused that he could hardly get in to put the brake on properly. He never let them forget it, and it never ceased being funny to them. Dad never learned any more about cars.

For his time he was a good carpenter and blacksmith. He kept the farm going in Cabin Hollow and later had a job at Ferguson Shops. This hard work schedule probably hastened his death in 1936 at age of 68 from cancer.

My mother was just a mom until I was old enough to understand all she went through. She married early, she was a widow left with two very young children before she was twenty. "Uncle Ike" died of tuberculosis and left her nothing except the farm that he had heired. Their first baby had died suddenly with what was known then as Boll Hives. With two babies there was no way for a mother to earn a living. She often remarked that they would have starved had it not been for the kindness of a neighbor. Shortly there after she married my father. He, too, was left with small children. His in-laws kept Ida, the baby.

Mom and Dad started their married life with five childrenr-a big family of seven people. Later we eight children came along. Mom and Dad were young and strong and very good workers. They had made a good comfortable home for us at Mom's homeplace. Then Stella, my Mom's daughter, was married. She was burned to death as I briefly mentioned earlier. A windy day in March caused a fire to ignite her clothing. She suffered for seventeen days before she died. I know this must have been agony for my mom and I'm sure she grieved deeply for the loss, but she was the kind of person • that never would let things like this "get her down". 44 The next tradgedy that came to our home was when Jesse at the age of twelve became an epileptic. Mom and Dad tried • to find a doctor or medication that would stop or lessen the effects of this disease but there was none available then. He grew into manhood with an increase in the number and severity of the seizures. Since Dad was at work and we other children were away from home at school, married, etc. It fell to mom to have almost complete Care of him. I often saw her legs completely black from broken vessels, the result of having to carry him from some place he had fallen and couldn't be left in that position. Once he fell so that his feet went into the open fire and burned his toes so badly that most of them came off. Mom never left him alone any more than she had to but running the household had to go on!

During this period my broth r, Charles, her second child by my father, was killed at Ferg son Shop, when a loaded crane fell on him. This almost illed my mother from grief but life had to go on. Then Jesse died nine years later. When Zona, Thelma, and I were in Cabin Hollow school, Aunt Lucy Anne had come down with cancer. Mom cared for her until she died. I've already told you about Zona's experience with the train accident. Mom had that worry also. She made weekly trips to Jewish Hospital tn Cincinnati until she could be home again.

Thelma and I married and Zoia went away to Western University. Dad came down with cancer and had to be in a • Lexington hospital. Then with what help John could give her as he went to and from work, Mom cared for him until he died at age 68.

When one considers all that my mom went through one knows she had a lot of inner strength and had to have strength given to her by God. She wore herself out for others. I've often heard her say, "I'm tired!", but never, "tired of my life", or "I wish I didn't have to do this!" She even took in three foster boys and cared for them after my father died and she was left alone. She loved them. The first one died of appendicitis suddenly--another tradgedy for her to overcome. Then the last two went back to their homes. She couldn't stay at home anymore alone. She stayed with John and Wilma for a awhile. Each of us other children would try to keep her with us, but she was never satisfied. Finally, she went to Nashville and lived with Zona until she died. She, too, with all her cares, had a good sense of humor and kept it until she died;

She died twenty-six years ago and even now when I go to Nashville people in church will come to me and say " Oh, I

45 • • remember your mother. I loved to visit her. She was fun and such a great person."

I think it was Dr. Frank Crane who said, "The greatest rewarding compensation that mothers/parents know is just to have sons and daughters who rise up to call them blessed, and who make something of themselves of which they can be justly proud." I'm sure we all would "rise up to call our parents blessed". How very blessed we all were to have such parents, such a home, and such a family in which to grow up!

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• 46

Remedies- • 1. Turpentine and sugar for worms. 2. Wormweed ,a weed that grew in our backyard) was used with sorghum to make a candy for worms. 3. Horehound (a weed that grew in our backyard) was used for coughs.

4. Catnip (also grew in our yard and garden) was used to make tea, and a sedative for new babies.

5. Walink (grew in woods above our house) was used for tea for babies.

6. Burdock root tea was tonic for the blood in the spring.

7. "Bammy Gillian" salve was made from the buds of the Balm of Gilead tree by the big Spring and used for burns.

8. Sassafras tea was a spi4ng tonic.

9. Mullen tea was used for colds. 10. Sometimes an asafetida ag was worn on a string • aroung the neck to ward off cont gious diseases. If it was not successful in doing this it ertainly kept people who had the diseases away from you becau e of it's unpoeasant, sickening odor.

11. Coal oil (kerosene) was used on nail punctures and cuts.

12. Many patent medicines w re used extensively then-- a. rosebud and cloverine salve, . Lydia E. Pinkham for female ailments, c. Drakes Croup Cure, d. Vermifuge for worms.

Games--

I. At home around the fireplace

A. William, William Trimmy Toe.

B. Clubfist C. Riddle, Dee, Dee • 47

• D. Guessing Riddles E. Whose initials

F. Making a see saw, or Jacob's ladder, or a cat's craddle with string. G. Putting the baby or babies to sleep with a handkerchief. II. At School

A. Stink base

B. Anty (Anthony) Over

C. Draw base

D. Drop the handkerchief

E. Doodle bug, go home

F. Rotten egg

G. Sugar loaf town • H. Leap frog I. Baseball

J. London Bridge K. Simon says stoop

Sayings-

1. I've been "laying off" to do that.

2. A watched pot never boils.

3. A whistling girl and crowing hen always comes to some bad end.

4. Never count your chickens before they hatch. 5. With that, he thinks he can ride right up to the flitter tree.

6. That's what the shoe maker threw at his wife--the last and all (last and awl).

• 48 7. Chomping at the bits. • 8. Don't bite the hand that's feeding you.

9. Be sure your sins will find you out.

10. Somebody left the bars 'town.

11. Pretty is as pretty does.

12. Haste makes waste.

13. A stitch in time saves nine.

14. A face as long as three days of rainy weather.

15. It's just as it 'tis and can't be no 'tiser.

16. An empty wagon rattles the loudest.

17. Dull as a fro.

18. "Shoe mouth" deep-as mud.

19. It's better to whistle then to whine. 20. When he said that he "slobbered a bib full". • 21. With that he thinks he has a fortune by the tail with a down hill pull on it.

22. He's "poking" along.

23. Moseing along.

24. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

25. Not worth a pewter button.

26. Crops "laid by".

Words used then-

1. puny- sickly

2. biggity- proud, stuck up

3. civer- cover

4. fetch- to bring

49 • 5. si godlin- not straight

6. finent- not straight

7. catiwhampus- not straight

8. gumption- ambition, aggressiveness

9. haint or hainted- for ghost or haunted

10. noggin- head

11. fire and tow- quick tempered

Superstitions-

1. If a tortoise gets hold of you he'll hold you until it thunders.

2. If it thunders in February there'll be a frost on that same date in May.

3. A dry June brings a good crop year.

4. The number of fogs that come in August determines the III number of snows in the following winter. 5. If your nose itches you'll get company; on the right

side - a woman, on the left side-a man.

6. If a groundhog comes out on February 2 and sees his shadow, he'll go back in and there'll be six more weeks of had weather.

• 50

• • • June, 1990 • The Senior Sentinel • Page 11 WINNERS - ALL!

Bringing home the gold (and silver) for swimming are, front row, Betty Norine Campbell, Hadey Park Senior Center medalists, at the party in their honor, are L to R, William Mason, Catrie Mayle; stancing, L to R,Instructor Zona Sears Jones, Walter Wunderlick, Ruby Davis, Marie Morris, Mattie Farris and William Brady, all bowling medalists. Bowler Eva Mitchell and Jean Cothran, Norman Truxton, Virginia Nickels, J.D. Murray. Winner David Harkness is not golf winners were not present when the picture was made. in the picture. The Nashville Aquatic Queens and free style 50, 100, 200, 400 meters; gold, I silver; Zona Sears Jones, five for information. Kings, swim team of Senior Citizens, backstroke, 50, 100, 200, 400 meters; gold, one silver, Carrie Mayle, six gold; Athletes from Senior Citizens, Inc., Inc., brought home a total of 47 breast stroke, 50, 100 meters; butter- J.D. Murray, five gold. Hadley Park Center brought back medals from the District Senior fly, 50, 100 meters; individual medley, The swim team is sponsored jointly medals in bowling and golf. They are Games held at Austin Peay State 200 meters. by Senior Citizens, inc., Metropolitan preparing for the Tennessee State University, Clarksville. Six women and four men - winners Parks and Recreation Department and games. All District finalists will advance to all - competed on the Senior Citizens the American Red Cross. It is an out- A reception honored the "winnners" the 1990 Tennessee Senior Gaines to team. growth of swim classes sponsored by with refreshments, cards and games. be held in Clarksville, July 30 through Winning medals were Jean Senior Citizens, Inc., at Glencliff pool. Medalists from Hadley Park were August 3. State winners will qualify to Cothran, two gold, one silver medal; Many contestants learned to swim bowlers Eva Mitchell, William Mason, compete in the National Senior Betty Norine Campbell, six gold after reaching their seniority. Mattie Farris, Marie Morris and Olympics to be held in Syracuse, New medals; Virginia Nickels, four gold Classes are free for all senior citi- William Bradyi; Melvin Lightford and York, in June 1991. medals, three silver; Ruby Davis, six zens and will resume in the fall. James Mitchell won silver medals in Swimmers were permitted to enter gold medals; Norman Truxton, three If you are interested in learning to golf. six events chosen from the following: gold medals; Walter Wunderleck, four swim, call Zona Sears Jones, 361-1431 AIM