My Family: Chapter 10

Shirley age 10

One day, Dad took Sonny, my girlfriend, and me to the movies at Dehue. I never will forget the movie, it was Comin' Around the Mountain and was about hillbillies. I know it was a Monday night because that's the only day of the week they showed movies. Most of the time Dad went by himself, but this one time he took us with him. Shirley couldn't go because she was sick and Dr. Vaughn said she had a stomach flu. She was real sick and couldn't keep anything in her stomach. Dad told Mom to call him out of the theater if she got any worse. Aunt Belvia came down to our house to see Shirley and after taking one look at her told Mom it was more than a stomach flu. Since Uncle Noah had a car they took Shirley to Orville's Company doctor as that's where Uncle Noah worked in the mines. The Orville doctor said they had better get Shirley to the hospital right away, she had appendices and it was about to bust. Mom stopped at the movie house and got Dad out of the movies on the way to the hospital. It was a twenty to twenty-five minutes ride to the hospital. Shirley was fine after having her appendix out. they had busted and she stayed in the hospital a long time.

Grandma Francis had been living with Aunt Belva but she couldn't get along with Uncle Noah, so she came to live with us. Grandma didn't live with us for very long. Shirley said it was because Grandma and her got into a fight and she told her to leave. She was mean to us girls and treated us awful. I'll tell you some stories later.

Our family had gotten bigger and we needed a bigger house. I was eight by this time that's how long it took to get a four-room house with our name on the list.  We moved to Hutchinson which also had a hollow. There were about thirty homes.  It had a row of two stories houses on one side that had two rooms downstairs and two rooms upstairs, and on the other side was a row of three-room homes which sat against the mountain. There was a creek and road for only one car which ran down the center between the row of homes. And just as you came out of the hollow there were some four-room houses. Grandma isn't with us when we moved to a four-room two-story house when it become available up Hutchinson hollow.

Sonny age 10

We now have four rooms but still only two bedrooms upstairs. Mom made a living room with furniture and a kitchen downstairs and since we only had two bedrooms and one bed in each, Sonny had to share a bed with Shirley, Lucille, and I. We slept at the top of the bed while Sonny slept at the foot.  It was really crowded.  Mom doesn't like living up this holler because she couldn't visit any friends or family. Dad was still leaving on Fridays after work and didn't come back till Sunday.  It came home to her just how isolated she was when one day Ronnie was sucking on a lollypop and it came off of the stick getting stuck in his throat! I remember Mom screaming and crying as she ran up and down in front of our house wailing that he was dying. Steve, who lived next door, came to her rescue. He had to fight Mom to take Ronnie from her and get the lollypop out of his throat. Ronnie had turned blue already; he turned him up side down and patted his back hard. When the lollypop came out he gave Ronnie back to her.

Poodie age 9

We didn't have any toys to play with so we would wait until Mom got a new catalog and cut out the ladies who had on just underwear. Then we would cut out dresses and have paper dolls to play with all day on the porch. We didn't have any friends up the hollow. This one night I had a bad dream and was screaming. Dad couldn't get me awake and when I did wake up Mom cried that she wanted Dad to take me to the hospital. Dad told her to hush and for everyone to go back to bed, I just had a bad dream and I would be alright now. I remember the next day our neighbor on one side of us asked me why I was screaming last night when I told him I had a bad dream, he said I woke every one up.

My Family: Chapter 9

Shirley and I still had to go to school the day we found out our baby brother died. Our neighbor, Mrs. Childers, was there and she told Dad it would better if we went to school. She sent us over to her house to walk with her children - she had twenty in all.  We had to pass the graveyard on the way to school and we could see the pile of dirt as they were were digging his grave.  We passed his grave every day on our way school. Later I learned that Doctor Vaughn had given Dad a terrible choice; Mom or the baby (the doctor always gave the husband the choice). When a baby is born at home and the doctor can only save one he would used forceps to deliver the baby and most times break the baby's neck.  I guess that if Dad took the baby’s life over Mom's then the doctor would have cut the baby out. I can tell you it was tough on Dad, he wanted a boy in the worse way and he took that baby’s death very hard. He's whole family knew it. As tough as it was on Dad it almost killed Mom.

Aunt Wanda

I want to talk a little about my Aunt Eloise, Dad's sister. She married a man who didn't want to work and make a living for his family.  He didn't live with her, so she had to live off Welfare.  He would come home stay, for awhile, but when she got pregnant he would leave again until she had the baby then he would come back and do the same thing all over again.  My Aunt Wanda, Dad's other sister, also lived off Welfare.  Her husband had just left her with two small sons.  She lived with Aunt Eloise and they put their money together to feed nine children.   Aunt Eloise had a hard time raising her children on Welfare and she wouldn't consider adopting her children out, unlike my Aunt Alice.  However, she was desperate so she lent her children to her siblings (for one reason or another) and in return they would help her to feed, cloth, and give them the love. Before she died, she had all her children back with her. She died at the age of 43 from cancer.

Abby age 1

One day not long after our baby brother died, Dad came home with a little boy about two and half years old. We were all so excited and asked if we could keep him. Dad said he was ours and his name was Abby. He was actually Aunt Eloise's son.  Mom even told Dad that Aunt Eloise wasn't going to let him keep the child, but Dad was sure she would. Aunt Eloise had five sons and she had trouble feeding them all that's why she didn't say anything when he stole one of her boys. She let him keep Abby for awhile. I remember Mom went to the store and brought boy baby clothes because Dad didn't bring any clothes with the baby.  Eventually, when Aunt Eloise came to get Abby, Dad didn't want to give him back, but she told Dad that she missed Abby.  However, she felt sorry for Dad and told him could have the baby that she was carrying - if it was a boy.  Dad kept a close eye on her to make sure he would know when the baby came and he made sure the family knew that this baby was his - if it was a boy.  Aunt Eloise delivered a little girl and Aunt Hannah took her to live with her because she didn't have any children after twenty years of marriage. So Dad had to wait another year.

Aunt Eloise

Sure enough Aunt Eloise delivered a boy and named him Ronald Darrell (Ronald after our baby brother).  Mom picked him up and went to Logan to register him at the court house.  I have to tell you that there was no child on earth more loved and wanted than Ronnie.  So that is how Ronnie came to live with us when he was a few days old. He was spoiled too. I remember how he like to bang on the coal bucket with the poker to make music. How he sometimes bang on us but we were not allowed to hit him. Once, I snuck him outside and rubbed dirt all over him just to see what he look like dirty. Mom was so made and hollered who did this to her poor little baby.  Of course, I wasn't about to say me and Ronnie probably told her anyway.