My Family: Chapter 59

The mines shut down in 1957. We still lived in the Company house for free but as families moved out, the people who stayed behind would tear down the old houses to burn. We had no electric which meant there were no lights to see so no more partying at home. Mom and Dad began to go away to someone else’s house to party.  I remember one time they took Bonnie and Ronnie with them, usually they left them with Shirley or I (if I was home)to watch. So, we had to only Lucille to watch and we took her with us square dancing at the radio station. We stayed so late that Lucille climbed up on a table and went to sleep. Shirley and I told her we were never going to take her with us any more, I don’t think we ever did. 

Mom’s sister, Tince, came from Tennessee with her family to live with Grandma Francis. Her husband, Earl, was the one who showed Dad how to make moonshine with the cornmeal the Government was giving us for free. The Government began to give out free food to everyone since the mines shut down; cheese, dried eggs, dried milk, flour, and cornmeal. This was our basic diet. food. Once, I went with Dad up on the mountain to help him run off eight gallons of moonshine since he had no one else to go with him and help carry it.

We stayed up there all night and waited for the moonshine to drip one drip at a time into the glass gallon jugs. That was the first time I had ever climbed to the very top of the mountain and it took us all day. I carried three gallons down in a burlap sack over my shoulders while Dad carried five. When we got down off of the mountain, Mom told us Shirley had lost her baby, she had been six months pregnant. 

It wasn’t too long after Dad got caught; he was at the still when a guy he knew came up to the still and started a conversation with him about moonshining. Dad didn’t think anything about it because he had worked with this guy in the coal mines and considered him a friend. The man told Dad he was sorry but he had to arrest him then he called his buddies out of hiding. They tore down the still and the man told Dad he had become a revenuer since the mines had shut down. He had approached Dad by himself so there would be less trouble since he knew him. Dad asked if he could come home to let his family know what had happened before he went to jail. I still think it was a low down dirty trick and told him so with a few more things - I don’t remember what all I said. I must have been running my mouth because the revenuer told Dad if he didn’t shut me up he was going to have to take me to jail too. Dad got out of jail on a three hundred-dollar fine and three years probation. I paid the three hundred-dollar fine for him after I went to Ohio. 

My Family: Chapter 58

Every time I would go home for a visit something had happen. This one time I went home, my best friend since school had had a nervous break-down. Apparently, she tried to kill herself with a knife. I went to see her and she was in a bedroom just sitting in a rocking chair. She hadn’t said a word to anyone since she tried to kill herself. She even refused to talk to me, but stayed anyway and talked enough for us both.  When I still didn’t get a response, I read out loud to her. I did this every day at about the same time. I stayed home a little longer than was normal for me. Then one day she began to talk to me and I asked her to tell me why she tried to kill herself.

She said she was in love with a boy who lived in Orville and he was going to marry someone else.  The girl who lives next door to him was pregnant with another guy’s baby but he didn’t want to marry her. So my friend’s love interest decided he would marry the girl and give her baby a name. Well, that told me right there this boy was in love with the girl but my girlfriend didn’t want to hear it. She begs me to call the boy on the phone and ask him to come talk to her. I didn’t think it would make any difference and told her so she begged me so hard I did what she wanted. At the time there were only two phones in the coal camp and I figured our neighbor would be more likely to let me use their phone.

I told the love interest who I was and what I wanted but he told me to tell my friend “no” he didn’t want to see her. I called him everyday for a week and begged him. He finally said he would be down later that day. When he came and they had a long talked. He explained to my friend he was sorry but he didn’t love her that he was in love with the other girl. And as quickly as that started, it was over. I went back to Aunt Hannah’s to stay since my friend was going to be okay. My girlfriend had a sister who was thirteen and she met this man who was already married, had a family, and lived on Buffalo Creek. She became pregnant but neither she nor her family knew it. Everyone just thought she put on a little weight and was looking good since she was real skinny to start with.

My girlfriend told me that one day her sister ran around the house like a crazy person crying with a stomach-ache and her mom had to get someone to take her to the hospital. When they got there the doctor took her sister away then came back and told her mom that the sister had a baby son. Boy, were they shocked! My girlfriend also had a little boy out of wedlock. The father was the same male friend who was kidding when he said he was going to rape our other friend in the ball field. She said they started to see one another right after I left. Later she had a little girl by the same guy but they never got married.

My Family: Chapter 57

The second time I ever saw a policeman or a patrol car I was with my father and our neighbor who lived next door to us. I was driving because they were drunk and Dad had passed out in the front seat with the neighbor passed out in the back. I don’t even remember where we had been or why we were driving around in the car. I decided that since I had a car and Dad couldn't say ‘no’, I would drive to Charleston, a city about 90 miles from Logan. I had to drive over Blair Mountain to get to Charleston.  

Now, I didn't know anything about driving in the city, we only had one red light in the town of Logan and no policemen only a Deputy Sheriff. Logan did get a policeman after I left West Virginia and when I came back it was as if there was a policeman on every corner. 

Of course, I got lost once I was in the city and turned down a street to find my way back, it was 3:00 in the morning and I was the only car on the street. All of a sudden there was a car in front of me with flashing lights on top of it and then one behind me.  I didn’t know what they were doing, the one in front of me was in the same lane as I was and we were heading straight toward one another. He pulled to one side just as I passed but another two took his place because I was not stopping. Three cars more were across the road behind me and one on each side of me. I was scared and wasn't going to stop for nothing. I slowed down to a crawl, almost to a coast.

With all the flashing lights in his face, Dad woke up. He asked me where we were, when I told him and he saw the cars on each side of us; he told me not to stop (he didn't know what they were doing either). By the time they got me to stop the car there was eight patrol cars surrounding us. They had slowed my car down to a crawl and we came bumper to bumper so I had to stop. Dad and I locked the doors and talked to them with the windows up. Finally, they told us who they were and we rolled the window down on the driver’s side of the car. They laughed at us because they figured it out that we hadn’t been in a city before. I think Dad really should’ve known who they were but he had just woken up and was still half drunk. I don’t think he was thinking clearly.  

The police said I was going the wrong way on a one way street and I hadn’t stopped for any of the red lights. I explained I hadn't see any red lights and asked them to point out the lights to me.  The traffic lights were on the corners instead of overhead in the middle of the street. They shined a flashlight into the neighbor’s face and asked about him. I said he was drunk and the owner of the car. I was so nervous that I forgot to put the car in park and when I took my foot off the brake, the car began to coast into the cop car in front of us. They yelled at me to brake and they are lucky I didn’t faint. They showed us how to get out of the city and on our way back to Logan. The neighbor did’t wake up until we got back home, and my dad and I never did tell him what had happen or where we had been. 

My Family: Chapter 56

Sonny went into the Army but didn’t like very much and wanted to get out - he was 18 years old. While on leave he went to visit Uncle Vondon in North Carolina where my sister, Lucille, was living at the time. One day, they were outside talking while Sonny cleaned his gun when he got the idea that if Lucille shot him in the foot he would get discharged. Well, Lucille didn't want to shoot him, but he persisted by saying he was going to say that it was an accident and he shot himself while he was cleaning his gun. She kept telling him no, but he finally talked her into shooting him. Uncle Vondon heard the shot and ran out of the house. Sonny told him it was an accident but I don’t think Uncle Vondon believed their story. However it must have worked on the Army because they give him a discharge. I really think it was his heart which got him out of the service. By the time he was 21 he had a pacemaker put in, and he died at the age of 49.

This is one of my weekends at home and why I didn’t stay at home among other things. Dad and Mom had left me to take care of Bonnie and Ronnie on Friday while they went to spend the weekend with friends to drink and party. On Sunday night they came home drunk as usual and I had to helped get them to bed. I put them in the same bed in our old room because it had two double beds and the only fireplace which had bricks around the hearth to keep the fire from falling on the wood floors. I had to go outside and get more coal to put on the fire so I took Bonnie and Ronnie with me. While we were outside, I heard Mom screamed - I was already upset and jumpy from getting them to bed. So I ran into the house to see what is going on. Dad was in front of the fireplace calling Mom names and throwing bricks from the fireplace at her. Mom screamed and dodged the bricks. I yelled at him and asked him if he was crazy. He told me he was going to kill Mom because she wouldn’t let him touch her. I told them both I was leaving and they could kill each other for all I cared. Dad got in the other bed and I put all the bricks back around the fireplace. I took Bonnie and Ronnie over to stay with Grandma Francis while I went to stay with Aunt Wanda in Man.  I’m 17 years old, Mom is 37 years old while Dad is 39 years old - they acted younger than I did.

My Family: Chapter 55

My first crush was on a guy 13 years older than myself. I didn't think I was ever going to fall in love. He lived a cross the street from Aunt Hannah and would come over to talk to Uncle Andy. I didn't pay him any attention until one day Aunt Wanda and Uncle Andy told me he was only coming over to the house to see me, so I started to pay attention to him.  I could see his house from my bedroom I had at Aunt Hannah’s.

But he had a girlfriend who lived in the apartments and he took her out on a date every day. I would watch him leave to pick her up and still be watching his house from my window, while lying on my bed, when he came home. He was twenty-seven and I was fifteen. All we every said to one another was hello.

Aunt Wanda lived in the apartment over the dance hall, and I could see the apartment building where his girlfriend lived and sometimes I would be at Aunt Wanda's when he dropped her off at home and start back up the alley. Aunt Wanda and I would race down the steps and sit on the bottom step pretending we were there the whole time as he passed by. He would stop and talk to us for a few minutes.  After he left, I would  be in seventh heaven for the rest of the night. It wasn’t to be because one day he moved to Ohio.

Here’s the story of how I gave Shirley’s wedding dress away. Remember she was dating Dave? Well, they decided to get married. I was living with Aunt Hannah at the time but I would go home for short visits.  While at Aunt Hannah’s, I met a girl who was around my age and lived down the alley. She needed a dress to wear to an event - I don't remember where she was going - but I told her I had a dress she could have. I hardly ever wore the dress because my parent’s neighbor bought it for me when I sang on the radio with the class. That was the only time I believe I wore it. 

However, I forgot the dress was no longer mine it was now Shirley’s. Shirley made me give it to her either because she did my dishes for me or because she didn’t go to the movies with me. Anyway I didn't know it but Shirley was going to wear the dress when she got married which just so happened to be the same weekend I gave it to my new friend to wear. Shirley was desperate, she had no wedding dress and I believe Dave’s sister either brought her a dress or loan her one. If she knew where I was (I moved frequently) she could have come and I would have gotten the dress back for her.  

My Family: Chapter 54

When Aunt Wanda’s welfare check came in, we would eat well for a week and then starve for three weeks. Her oldest son later said to me before he died that as a child he was always hungry and he had joined the Marines at 16 just so he could eat. I still liked staying with Aunt Wanda even if I didn’t get enough food. It was better than living at home.

I remember I use to send My 3year old cousin to the neighbors to borrow flour, baking powder, and eggs. When she returned, I would fix us something to eat.  But one day the neighbors told her they wouldn’t loan her anything more. I guess I could have went to my Aunt Belvia‘s to eat but I never did. After The baby was born, Wanda moved her family to Man, in one of Aunt Hannah Apartments.

I was beginning to have a problem with Aunt Hannah. Every time I saw her she would talk me into coming and staying with her. I would pretend to be home sick to get away from her. So, I would temporarily go home then I would slip back to Aunt Wanda’s. I remember, I would make her children swear not to tell Aunt Hannah I was at their house. I was able to keep it a secret for about a week then Aunt Hannah would come to Aunt Wanda’s and get me.  She asked me once why I like to stay with Aunt Wanda more than her. It wasn’t as if she was making me do housework nor was I babysitting the boys since they had a yard to play in. But Aunt Wanda was more then just my aunt, she was my friend and we talked like girlfriends.

My Family: Chapter 53

I  stayed with Aunt Wanda while she lived in Logan, before she moved to Man. This one time she became pregnant while having two boyfriends. Pearl, her live in fella, was still with her but he would often leave then he would write to say he was coming home. The day he showed up, her other boyfriend would stop coming around until Pearl left.

Aunt Wanda working in  a Greyhound Bus Station

 in Col, Ohio

I spent almost the whole nine months with Aunt Wanda because with her being pregnant we couldn’t hitch-hike into Man to see Aunt Hannah and her dance hall. Aunt Hannah wouldn’t come and get me.

The night Aunt Wanda went into labor, she asked me several times if I thought she was in labor and I would yell at her how should I know. I’d never been around someone who was in labor. See, Aunt Wanda had no labor pains and all she wanted to do was sit on the commode. I hadn’t been with her when she gave birth to her son, Spanky. I came to her house when he was a couple days old. So, I asked her how she knew she was in labor with him and she told me she hadn’t; eventually her oldest son had called a cab and sent her to the hospital.  I thought this was a good idea, I would do the same thing because I wasn’t going to deliver this baby like her oldest had to deliver his sister when he was twelve. I sent him to call a cab. When the cab came, I helped her get in and I sent her to the hospital by herself and told her what to name the baby if it was a boy.

She said later the cab driver helped her into the hospital because she nearly had her 4th son on the front steps. She was home in two days because she was a welfare case. Her other boyfriend came to Logan to see his baby, but Wanda told him it wasn’t his that it was Pearl’s baby. They’ve argued the whole nine months over rather this was his baby or not - him for and her against. The other boyfriend got so angry he went all the way to Man and came back with his baby picture just to prove they looked like twins. She still said the baby was Pearl’s.

After I had moved away and had came back for a visit, I asked her who really was the baby’s father - she just looked at me and grin. Of course, I knew her other boyfriend was the father. Many years later, when the other boyfriend died in North Caroline, his son's brought him back to West Virginia to be buried along side His Parents.Wanda is buried behind her second son.

My Family: Chapter 52

I had a cousin would try to hang out with us but we threw rocks at her to make her go home because we didn’t want her dad to follow her and whip her with the razor strap. She asked me once, after we became adults, if I remember doing this to her. I said I did because every time she’d come up to the house, there came her dad with the razor strap to whip her every step of the way back down the road. Her mom and dad came up to our house all the time. Every day after supper, her dad would come up talk to Dad while we did the dinner dishes. If we dropped a knife onto the floor, we would say he was coming for a visit. That’s an old wives tale; if you drop a knife a male was coming for a visit. 

Dad’s niece met her second husband at our house at one of the house parties and I got my first speeding ticket driving his car. He had a wife and a house full of children which lived further up the hollow but, like all the rest of the men, once they started to come to the parties they just kept coming back. Some of the men’s wives would come with them but mostly the wives thought they were above messing with White Trash. These wives would sometimes stand at the fence and call us names. One time Mom took out after a lady who came to the house and called Mom names because her husband was at our house drinking on the weekends. Mom went after her and picking up a pipe as she went, the woman ran and got into her car real fast. 

My Family: Chapter 51

By this time my Grandma Francis had moved up the path to another the house across the creek from us. The other family who had lived there had had  a girl and boy. The boy had been a little older then Shirley.  The house had a tree in the yard with his initials and an A.D. carved into it. For all I know it could have been mine but I never looked twice at him.

When i came home for visits, I would go over to stay the night with Grandma Francis. Sometimes she told me stories while she made quilts. She always chewed tobacco and would spit into a coffee can wherever she was.

Here’s one of the stories she told me: when she was a young girl there was old woman who lived down the hollow from her parents in Kentucky. One day, her father brought a cow from her but this cow never gave them any milk. He went back to the old woman and told her she put curse on the cow and must be a witch. She said he deserved it since he tried to cheat her and not pay her what the cow was really worth. Grandma Francis said she caught the school bus every morning with this old woman's two daughters and they were friends.

Well, one morning the daughters didn't show up for the school bus or come to school that day. And that evening when Grandma Francis got off the school bus and walked by this old woman's house, she came out the door and called Grandma Francis over. The woman asked her if she had ever seen green flour before. Grandma Francis said  no and didn't know there was such a thing as green flour. The old woman said that morning she had gone to the store where they had sold her some spoiled flour and it was green! She asked Grandma Francis if she would like to see it.

She said yes she would; who wouldn't want to see green flour? The old woman took her to the bedroom and showed her the spoiled flour. It was green alright. Grandma Francis said the room had been empty except for the green flour which was everywhere and it sparkled!

The next thing she knew was her brother Ben was waking her up. It was now dark and she had been laying on the side of the road beside a log. Her father had sent her brother to go look for her since she hadn't come home from school yet.

Grandma Francis also told me how witches could come across the mountains, turn into mist and get into your house under the door.

My Family: Chapter 50

On one of my stays home, Sue came for a visit. We got into a fight because Bascom’s sisters told him I had said all this bad stuff about Sue. Truthfully, I don’t know where his sisters heard about Sue’s past from but it wasn’t me.

This is Sue’s story: when she was living with Aunt Belvia and Uncle Noah, she got hard to handle because she was boy crazy. She was 15 years old when they let her go live with my father’s nephew Junior and his family in Detroit. But after about six months, he brought her back to Aunt Belvia’s saying he couldn’t handle her and she was going to get in trouble. He apparently couldn’t keep her out of the bars where she was dancing and singing. None of the rest of the family wanted to be responsible for her, so Aunt Belvia sent her to live in Kentucky with Grandma Dillo who was living with her brother.

That’s how she met Bascom because they all lived up Collin Creek. Sue liked him right away but Bascom thought she was too young to marry or to date. Then Sue either tried to kill herself or she threaten to kill herself, so Grandma Dillo went to see Bascom and talked him into marrying Sue.  Either that or she threatened him because Sue was under age. Sue had told Bascom she never dated before and somehow Bascom sister’s knew that wasn’t true and they didn’t want her to raise the twins from Bascom’s previous marriage.

Sue apologized after the fight and said she knew I wouldn’t have told the sister’s anything about her. The next time I went to stay, they had moved to Collin Road in Kentucky where Bascom had built his first wife a house which Sue had accidentally burned down a couple of weeks after they got married. It had been an electrical fire; she left something burning and gone back to bed after Bascom went to work.

Bascom still owned a good size chunk of the mountain but because they had no house to live in they had to rent. They rented a house right down the road from his parent’s and it came with a piece of land so Bascom wanted to put in a garden. He wanted me to help him, but I was to also help Sue in the house at the same time. I was busy working from 5:00 am to dark because I did all the work. The twins were in their first year of school, and it was my job to iron the dresses which they were to wear to school the night before. All I ever saw Sue do is lie around and read books.

One day, Bascom’s brother and sister came for a visit. His brother and I sat on the back porch while I cried because I heard Sue tell her sister-in-law I was lazy and she couldn’t get me to do anything to help out around the house. I told his brother Sue was lying, and  I did all the work there. I even had to help Bascom in the garden. I was miserable, if I went home I wouldn’t have to lift a finger to do anything, and yet here I was working like a slave. As soon as his brother and sister left, I went in the house and demanded they take me home because I heard what Sue said. Bascom and Sue both begged me not to go. Sue said she had to say that stuff to his sister because Bascom family didn’t like her and she wanted to look good in their eyes. I told her I didn’t care I was still going. Bascom took me home the next day.

My Family: Chapter 49

Later that day, I called Mom at the our neighbor’s house (remember we didn’t have a phone) and asked to pick me up at aunt Belva home in Logan so I could come home. She said Dad and her would come and get me , and I was to stay at Aunt Belva's house until they got there. I don’t remember exactly how they got to Logan, but I do remember after arriving Dad left again saying he would be back with a ride and we were to stay there.  Well, we waited all day for him to come back; even Mom got tired of waiting. I talked Mom into walking, she didn’t want too, but I told her that she wouldn’t have to walk long, someone would come along and pick us up to take us home.

I was half right, we did get picked up but we were dropped off at the mouth of Rum Creek Hollow. We still had about 2 ½ more miles to go. As we started up the hollow, someone came along and we hitched a ride the rest of the way home. Dad got home about midnight, he came through the door drunk and hollering for Mom and me.

I was laying  with Mom on their bed; we were reading by an oil lamp as we had no electric lights. Shirley was now married to David and they were in the other room sleeping. Dad hollered so loud he woke everyone up but no one dared answer him. Suddenly, Mom jumped off the bed and blew out the light so he couldn’t see us. Then she ran out the back door and left me to face Dad alone.

He yelled at me to strike a match and light the lamp so he could see to beat me, I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to disobey him but I didn’t want to get beaten either. So I snicked into Shirley’s bedroom and asked her what she would do if she were me. Here is what she said, ”You’re a fool if you light the lamp and just let him beat you. Mom’s no fool, she ran. Do what you want but if it was me, I’d leave.”

That’s what I did, I went out the back door and down to my girl friend’s house to stay the rest of the night. The next day, I got a ride to my Aunt Wanda’s and then went on to Aunt Hannah’s to stayed. I only went home for visits after that night.

I don't remember ever having ask Mom or Dad if I could ever go and stay with one of my Aunt's or cousin I just walked away and come back when I got home sick, sometimes I would stay for a week or month depending on how things where at home, if things were bad I would leave and show up on someone's doorstep and they always let me stay, even Aunt Eloise and she lived in Ohio, Mom and Dad would fine out where I was at, because Dad would come and get me when they wanted me home, which wasn't often.

My Family: Chapter 48

My cousin Sue’s house had a straight line floor plan; you could come in the front door go through the living room, continue to walk into the kitchen and out the back door. There were two bedrooms; one off of the kitchen and the other off of the living room. The first night alone in the house, I locked both the front and back doors before we went to bed. I decided we would sleep in

Alma Poodie Dillo age 15

Sue and Bascom’s bedroom because the twins and I could sleep together in their bed while Sharon slept in her cradle. That first night, I got up in the middle of the night because I was cold. The twins were still asleep, so I got up out of bed and went into the living room to find out why I could hear the wind whistling in the house. Both doors were standing wide open, perplexed I closed the doors and locked them. I thought maybe I had forgotten to lock them the first time and the wind blew them open. The next day no one came up the mountain to see us. That night, I made sure the doors were locked before we went to bed, but the same thing happened again. I woke to both doors standing wide open but this time I knew I had locked the doors. I woke the twins and asked which one had open the doors, they both said they hadn’t done it. Someone must have opened the doors and I knew it hadn’t been either me or the baby. I was angry with the twins for lying to me. I once again locked the doors and put everyone back to bed.

The third night, I locked the doors and put Sharon in the big bed with us so we could all be together. This way I wouldn't have to get out of bed to give her a bottle. The bed was pushed up against one of the bedroom walls. To make sure no one rolled on top of her I laid Sharon between the wall and myself.

In the middle of the night, I woke to Sharon screaming but I couldn't find her. I searched all over the bed, I even woke the twins to help me. We still heard Sharon crying at the top of her lungs but we couldn’t find her anywhere. An idea popped into my head, I grabbed the covers and pulled them away from the wall. There she was stuck half way down between the wall and the bed!

Because she was so upset I gave her a bottle to quiet her, that’s when I realized both doors were wide open again. Exasperated, I got out of bed and locked them. I then yelled at the twins for opening them and explained the dangers,  some wild animal could have walked into the house and killed us all.  Because I didn’t want to lose her again, I put Sharon back in her cradle for the rest of the night. The twins were crying and still denying that they opened the doors. I went back to bed wishing someone would come and stay with us.

The fourth day we had no food in the house, all we had were the beans which had spilled out of the bags and never cleaned up. I was scooping up the last of them into my hand when I heard something out on the back porch.  I saw through the kitchen window, a strange man standing at the rail. I picked up the rifle from the kitchen corner, took the safety off, opened up the door, and aimed it at him. Then I asked what he was doing up on our mountain. He held up both hands, in one of them was a clip board. He explained he was only there to read the electric meter. I never heard of such a thing and asked him what it was. He pointed to the meter and explained why he was doing it. I told him to be quick about it and get himself down off of our mountain. I watched him through the window until he finished and made his way off the mountain.  That night I didn't wake up at all, I wearily just closed the doors the next morning. It had become normal for them to be unlocked and standing open.

The next day, we were rescued when Bascom sent two of his sisters to take us to his parent’s house. One of them said Bascom knew we probably ran out of food. We walked all the way to Collins Creek about three miles with his sisters. As we walked, they wanted to gossip about Sue (which she had previously warned me about) and kept asking me questions about her. It was the longest three miles ever. I stayed with Bascom's parents for two days where I helped his mother peel peaches for canning and had a pillow fight with his brothers; one was my age and the other was two years younger. Bascom had an older brother as well and he drove me to my Aunt Belvia’s house in Logan.

My Family: Chapter 47

When I was 14 years old, I would spend some time (a couple of weeks or as long as I could stand it) with my first cousin Sue (she’s three years older than me) and her husband, Bascom, in Kentucky. I could only stand to stay two or three weeks and then I would make them bring me home. If they didn’t, I would threaten to walk from Kentucky to West Virginia and they knew I would. So when I was ready to come home, they always brought me home. Then I stayed at home for a week (which was about all  I could stand) and then I either found a ride or hitchhiked to my Aunt Wanda’s in Logan or in one of Aunt Hannah’s apartments in Man.

Sue would pay me $5.00 a week to help her with her housework. Bascom also had a set of three-year-old twins by his first wife who died in childbirth. She had been my third cousin. I was only suppose to help Sue but I ended up doing all the work. I had been with them about two weeks when they left me home to take care of the twins and a tax man came around to the house to write down what you own and how much it cost so they could charge your taxes (this is a personal property tax).  Well, I was very helpful. Sue was always bragging to me how much she paid for her furniture, in the end, she paid for it. I told the tax man double what she really paid.

The next time when I came to stay with Sue, they had moved to Kentucky. Bascom said they had to move there because I had cost them too much money when I told the taxman how much they had paid for furniture. I never told them I had lied. Sue just had a baby and she wanted my help for the summer; if I would stay that long. They lived on top of a mountain and it was the only house up there. It was about half a mile off the main road. One day, Bascom told Sue and I to kill and cut up 10 chickens a day (five for her and five for me) as we were preparing meat for the winter. We were to kill and cut up the chickens each day until there was none left. On our first day, neither of us could kill the chickens. So before Bascom left for work (he was a coal miner) he would kill the 10 chickens for us. Our first couple of days we did just like Bascom said, but soon we got tired of cutting up the chickens. Sue wanted me to do her chickens but I refused. She got so disgusted with me and the chickens, she said that if I wasn't going to cut them up to just throw them down the mountain side and that’s exactly what I did. I took the pan with her five chickens in it and toss them over the mountain side. When she seen what I did, she yelled at me (she couldn’t believe I actually did what she said). Sue and I got into a fist fight and went rolling down the mountain after the chickens. We quite fighting when we realized if we didn't find the chickens Bascom would paddle both of our behinds. It took us a long time to find the chickens in the weeds, bushes, and trees.

Another time I stayed with them, Bascom got sick and Sue had to take him to the hospital to see the doctor there. I was to stay home to watch the twins and their baby who was about five-month old. Before Bascom left, he showed me how to load, shoot, and put the safety on a 22 rifle. Just in case I needed to shoot someone who came messing around the house and intends to do us harm or if an animal came in from the top of the mountain. They were only going to be gone that day and be back before nightfall. I could probably have handled the day but, as it turns out, while Sue was at the hospital she told the doctor about this little bit of pain she had in her chest. She was having a heart attack and they put her in the hospital and instead of Bascom coming back home he decided to stay at the hospital with Sue. That left me up on a mountain by myself with four-year-old twins and a 5-month-old baby. They were gone for a week.

My Family: Chapter 46

My Grandma Francis lived with us off and on since my Grandpa died. There wasn’t anything Mom wouldn’t do for her. But I will always remember she didn’t like Shirley, Lucille, or me - a fact she didn’t try to hide. It’s not that Grandma Francis would hit us or anything, she just talk hateful to us. She would take Ronnie’s and Sonny's side in everything. I remember once, Grandma Francis got her Social Security check and bought a bag of candy. She called Ronny into the pantry, which was off of the kitchen, and feed him the whole bag. I stood on the outside and listened to her tell him not to give us any of it.

Out of Grandma Francis family she only care for her granddaughter, Sue. Even Aunt Alice who wouldn’t lift one finger to help her mother. Uncle Vondon never came home to visit with his mother, he wrote her letters instead. I don’t think anyone knew why he didn’t visit, and if Mom knew she wasn’t saying. All I ever heard Mom say was Uncle Vondon was ashamed of his family. After the war, he moved to Ashland, Kentucky and got married. I don’t think we would have ever found out he had gotten married if his wife hadn’t found Mom’s address and wrote her. She told Mom she didn’t know Uncle Vondon had a family. She wanted to come for a visit and meet his sister and mother. Mom invited her to come and visit for a week.

When Uncle Vondon’s wife got to our house, I heard her tell Mom that Uncle Vondon had said if she came for visit he would divorce her. She asked Mom if she  thought he would? Mom said she didn’t think so. But later she wrote that when she got home Uncle Vondon had filed for a divorce while she had been away. The next time that we heard from him, he was living in North Carolina with a different lady.

Grandma Francis (home)

About this time, Grandma Francis came to live with us again but now Mom found her a house across the creek from us. The old man who had lived there had died and Mom moved Grandma in before it could be torn down. At one time there had been four one-room homes with porches across from us, but they either burnt down (once with an old man inside) or were torn down. Now there was only two houses left.

Mom said she wanted that house because she didn't like for Grandma Francis to spend the night alone without someone close-by to run for help if needed. So guess what? It was me who had to spent the night with her when I was at home. I think the real reason she couldn't live with us was because of my parents partying on the weekends.

My Family: Chapter 45

We had a real live Santa Clause as our next door neighbor. He lived with his mother and brother and was the about same age as Dad and Mom. I call him Santa Claus because if we were hungry, he would feed us something to eat. Plus he bought all four of us girls camera and a roll of film. After we use up all the film he would then give us another roll to use. He would take what pictures he wanted and give the picture taker the rest.   

I would also slip over to his house and “borrow” his car, truck, or whatever vehicle he had at the time. One time, everyone wanted to go swimming up on Blair  Mountain and Santa Claus had a truck. I knew the brakes got stuck sometimes but I would just pull them out with my foot. He had forewarned me about the brakes. Most cars at that time were stick shift. But Santa Claus made sure he got an automatic, because that is all that any of us girls could drive. He said he got the car for us to drive and asked us if we wanted a convertible. When he got tired of making the payments on a car. He’d wreck them by driving the car over the embankment into the creek in front of his house. He had so far bought two used cars and a truck (I could drive a stick shift by the time he had gotten the truck). I still had no license. 

Anyway, we all went to swim up on Blair mountain. I should tell you, Blair has a very narrow road and high cliff with at least 3500 foot drop. We were on our way home, I don’t remember how many kids were in the back of the truck and a friend and I were up front. The brakes suddenly got stuck, we were going around those curves almost on two wheels. The kids in the back were hanging on for dear life and screamed for me to slow down. My friend was on the floor in front, she cried and yelled at me (she always ended up on the floor of whatever I was driving because I would take the mountains too fast - I did it some times just to scare her). I yelled back to her the brakes were stuck and I was too busy keeping the truck under control to get them unstuck. Then I had a plan, I yelled for her to put her hand under the brakes and pick it up. She scooted over, put her hand under the brakes and pulled it up. I pumped the brakes and with a jerk the truck came to a stop.

Everyone in the back jumped out to scream at me for nearly killing them. After I told them what happen, we all got back in the truck and went home. Don’t think to bad of me for “borrowing” the truck. Santa Claus always left the gas tank full and the keys in it for us. I remember we use to fight over who was going to drive before any of us had a license.  You might wonder why then did we feel the need to “borrow” the car, why not just take it? Because Santa Claus’ brother wouldn’t let us take the car and would stop us if he seen us. 

My Family: Chapter 44

When we were teens, I would sit at the kitchen table and watch Shirley pluck her eyebrows. This one day I asked her if it hurt and she said at first it hurt it did but not now that she was used to it. Of course, I begged her to do mine and she warned me it would hurt but I said I could stand it. I was tough.  Well when she pulled one hair, I screamed; she laughed and told me she knew take the pain. Never again did I or anyone else ever pluck my eyebrows. Shirley also sat at the kitchen table and draw dress designs, I could sit and watch her for hours. Sometimes, we would go into Logan and buy leg make-up; the kind you put on your legs to make it look like you have a suntan, but we would put it on our face as make-up instead - it work the same.

Because of my parent’s partying on the weekends, my neighbors in the hollow thought I was fast and easy. When my girlfriend and I would go into the Company store, we were sometimes treated to string of catcalls and teasing.  One woman even said to me she saw me lying on the green (a section of grass up the mountain where we took a lot of pictures) with a boy. After several times like this, my girlfriend and I made up a story of what we were going to say if they teased me again. As we went through the door my friend waits until I get a little ways from her and hollers to me, “Poodie, wasn’t that you I seen in green bottom.”  And I holler back, “No, I thought that was you.” We left the store laughing thinking that the joke was on them when really the joke was on us. We were giving ourselves bad names. 

My Family: Chapter 43

For all the grief I thought Shirley gave me while growing up: not sharing her shoes, beating me up, and telling on me; she did save my life once.

I loved going to the movies, but I was never allowed to go alone, Shirley always had to go with me. When we went to the movies there always seem to be a few boys and girls walking home which was about four miles. I would laugh and have fun with the boys and Shirley would be walking a paces behind me and the other girls saying she was going to tell on me but I knew she wouldn't.

This one time a boy drove by us and asked all of us if we wanted a ride. He had two other boys in the car with him. The group of kids we’re with consisted of five girls and about four or five boys. Everybody said yes including myself.  Shirley refuses. The driver said he would take us all home but first he had to go into Dehue first to drop off the boys he had in the car. After the my group climbs aboard, it was overflowing with teenagers; on the hood, the running board, and  inside the car there was four up front with some boys sitting on the windows with half of their bodies sticking out.

Shirley wouldn't let me get in the car no matter how much we all beg her, her excuse was the car was too full and the driver was going to have an accident. They left without us and in the pitch dark we walked home with me fussing the whole way. By the time we got in front of our house, we met some of our friends who said the driver had an accident before they got to Dehue and some of the kids had to go to the hospital in Logan. All Shirley would say was “I told you so.”  I humbly agreed.