My Family: Chapter 12

Two things happened once we moved out of Macbeth, Sonny got the mumps and Grandma Francis came to live with us again. Mom and Grandma Francis put Sonny in a room by himself and made it real dark. For two weeks they didn't let him come out of that room, they didn't want the mumps to fall on him, and they wanted him to be able to have children when he grew up. This meant the seven of us shared the same bedroom.

Bonnie age 3 Sonny 13 Ronnie age 5

I forgot to tell you the most important thing, I was forever getting into trouble and getting a beating. I always had to go and get three switches for Dad to braid together. He would leave cut marks on my legs and back. These rules saw to it that I got a beating everyday with a switch: cussing (which also got my mouth washed out with soap), don't play on railroad tracks, don't repeat what you hear adults say, come home when you hear your dad whistle, and mind your mother. I just couldn't help myself. And I never saw the two boys get a hit at all. The other kids could hear me scream all over the hollow because when I got whipped I didn't stand still. I crawled under anything and ran behind furniture - wore Dad out beating me. Mom always cried, first she would nag Dad to beat us then cry because he beat us too hard.

Dad's beating weren't the only reason I had bruises. When I was in third grade a bad storm blew up with a very strong wind. It was so bad that the side of the wall in our schoolroom caved-in on top us. My seat was next to the wall and there was a boy who sat in the next row of seats across from me who, when the wall began to cave-in, hollered he'd save me. He knocked me out of my chair, onto the floor, and was lying on top of me. I screamed for him to get off, but he kept saying he'd save me. The teacher finally had to pull him off, which was my most embarrassing moment. No one got hurt as the wall was only plasterboard.

Poodie age 13

Another time I was in the middle of a accident was when I was in the fifth grade. I was on the metal maypole on the playground and it was my turn to cross all the other kids’ chains. Let me discribe the maypole to you; it's an eight-foot iron pole with a wheel on top and eight chains hanging down with three rings on a chain. Each child would take a chain holding on to the ring at the end. On your turn, you'd cross all of the other chains while the other children ran and pulled you along which would make you go higher in the air. I was straight out even with the top of the maypole when my chain broke and threw me over the bank and into the ball field which was about twenty-five feet away.

Taken at a 1930 period costume celebration. The scene is reminiscent of the more permanent metal post maypole-type swing with swivel top and attached chains that stood in the playground another cited the little-known tragedy of a child who was killed in the 1930s, when a rusty metal `maypole' collapsed

I was knocked out for awhile and when I woke up a teacher was standing over me. At that moment the bell rang and I went back into class. The teacher must have been concerned about me for she got someone to take me to the Dehue doctor. His office was across from the school; we had to walked across the road and railroad tracks. He told me I had a dislocated shoulder and he can’t do anything for me. He advised me to go and see the Macbeth doctor which I never did. Of course, I didn't know that the same thing had killed my grandfather. I didn't even tell my parents about it.