~~~

~go here to see more Pink Saturday posts~

~~~

We just got back from a sad trip to Alabama; a death in the family.

(Charles brother, Odell, passed away)

Picture at bottom of this post of

-L to R~ Odell-Joyce-Charles

~~

Although it was a sad occasion, I was so touched by the beauty of the springtime flowering trees in full bloom.

 This was taken as we were zooming down the highway north of Birmingham. Although this is a blurred picture, I love the soft pastels in this scene.

(click on pic to see better)

Love,

Junie

Brothers

This is another little snippet from my husbands memories of growing up in Alabama-probably early 40s...





Brothers

It seems growing up in a family of ten kids could be a real blast!


O.K.- There were six girls sharing a room and four boys sharing the other, in the upstairs of the house where they lived.

Bro #1 and bro #2 shared a bed, as did bro #3 and bro #4.
(This mini story is about Bros #1 & #2 –the older of the four boys.)

There was always a race between bros # 1 & #2 at bedtime, to be the first in bed.

The reasons being …for #1- to hog all the blankets -for #2 to PREVENT his brother from hogging the blankets-and to save himself from having to shiver -uncovered- all through the night! The older brother, being bigger, faster, perhaps more devious, usually won the races…so... if he didn’t take ALL the covers he at least had his pick of what he wanted! :)

One night things played out a little differently and bro #2 beat bro #1 to the top of the stairs and to the boy’s sleeping room! He could hardly believe his good luck as he entered the dark room and, running, still, made an air borne lunge to the familiar corner where he knew the bed to be!

…Where he THOUGHT he knew the bed to be! OUCH! A hard belly landing, for bro #2, and a big commotion to follow...outraged yelling of surprise and pain, by #2...loud laughter by #1 and the younger boys too!- ( truth be told!! )
Finally, bringing Daddy Boyd to the top of the stairs with a loud, "Shut your mouth and get to bed!"

It just so happened- during the day the sisters had decided to clean and re-arrange the boys’ room, putting the bed on the opposite side of the room! One bro knew-the other didn’t…but found out soon enough! :)


Very generous of #1 to let his brother win that race, eh? :)



June Kellum
2006

Lessons Learned

...Here are more early memories from Mud Bottom -my husband's young years!...

Lessons Learned

Being the youngest of four adventurous brothers (Not to mention, also, having six sisters) could often be hazardous to a boy! This lesson young Ed learned, early on - with up-dates from time to time.

Farm life was not ALL work. There were times when boys could explore!

In the country neighborhood of Mud Bottom there happened to be an old abandoned log house. No one had lived there for a long time. The yard was overgrown with weeds, with the house almost hidden from view. It was the kind of place that would call to young, inquisitive boys to get a better, closer up, look!

The right day came for the three younger boys to explore the old log house. Ed was always up for some fun. He was about age six, with his brother Odell, eight and brother Jack, eleven.

The only thing of interest to be found in the old house was a pile of long discarded, mostly worn out, clothes! Being the only ’Find’ of their adventure, nevertheless, the boys focused on this pile of musty smelling old clothes!

Among the raggedy duds was found a pair of ‘under drawers’ which most likely had never seen the inside of a wash pot, nor ever flapped on a clothesline to freshen in the breeze! Ed remembers them as being a dingy white in color with brownish spots…especially in the seat area.

Jack dared his little brother, Ed, to try the underwear on! Perhaps Ed was intrigued with finding a pair of under drawers of his own. Little country boys his age often wore their overalls with nothing between the rough fabric and tender bottom! Whatever the reason, Ed did just as his brother told him to do! He shucked off his overalls and with his brothers watching him he put one bare foot and then the other into the underwear and pulled them up! He found them WAY too big!

It might would have been a blessing that they didn’t fit and he would leave them there in the heap of old clothes…so that his mother would not discover them when the next bath time came around!

It might would have been …except Jack said, ”Ummmm, I’m telling Mother you found some old under drawers and put them on!!” And with that the two older boys raced home, and did just that; leaving Ed to scramble back into his overalls as quickly as he could, and follow.

A set up!!

Ed of course, got a whipping from Mother and spent hours in a tub of water on the back porch, scrubbing his bottom with a bar of lye soap!

The brothers laughed! :)

June Kellum

July 2006

~~~

This picture was taken on our recent trip to Mud Bottom!
The old barn is still there and , still used, it seems!
A big, new house was built on the spot where my husband's family lived, but the barn remained the same- except for the red paint!
:) Charles said it had no paint on it in their time there!









Amazing to me that so many old barns are still standing - after 70 -or even more- years!

I love the old things!



Junie

Farm Life of the Past: Breakfast Time

...one more little story from my husband's memories of growing up in a big family in Alabama...

  (First posted, May 2006, at Junie's Place~ comments can be seen there)

  ~~~

Breakfast Time


Breakfast, to feed a family of twelve people, had to be a big thing.

There was the platter of sausage patties, piled in a mountain, perhaps, ten deep at it’s highest point… the biscuits counted in dozens…rolled out and cut in perfect round circles…to rise and brown to perfection… the butter, hand churned and molded in neat blocks, lightly salted… Jams or jellies from the summer’s bounty and canned by Mother and the girls, to mix and melt with the butter inside those biscuits… the eggs, gathered daily, cooked, sunny side up, stacked, one atop the other… the browned, milk gravy – to top it all off!

There was always milk to drink - and buttermilk!

And coffee, hot and black for the adults. It was the custom in those days to pour coffee from the cup into the saucer for cooling- a curious thing to do and something that is seldom seen in today’s world!

Some child among the ten, at almost every meal, would manage to spill a glass of milk!
Being one of the youngest it was often Ed who would have this mishap, resulting in a stern look, at the least, from the head of the family, Daddy! Invariably, with eleven sets of eyes watching, tears would follow!

Sausage, when available, was a favorite of one and all in the family. The platter was passed around the table and everyone took what they wanted. It was considered poor manners to take the last of anything left on a serving dish…(if you were a kid, especially) in case somebody else wanted it.

Once there was one lone sausage left on the serving plate. Several eyes were on this fine morsel but no one had yet worked up the courage to make the move on it.  Finally, one of the older sisters went for it! Her fork was half way back to her mouth with the sausage when it was taken, in mid air, by the older brother; and was gone in a flash!!

So much for manners!!

:)

June Kellum
May, 2006

Mud Bottom Cotton Chopping-Summer 1944

This is another story from my husband's growing up years in Alabama -  and this is mostly in his own words!

~~~

Mud Bottom Cotton Chopping - Summer 1944

The area where this story takes place was known as Mud Bottom. It was in the bend of the Elk River, where Alabama and Tennessee joined, in northern Limestone Co, Al. This river bottom land was excellent farmland. It was called Mud Bottom because of the, often, muddy conditions - especially in winter.

Cotton had to be chopped three times between it’s coming up out of the ground and laying it by. (end of plowing and chopping) With a family of ten children, and Daddy supervising, the work progressed at a steady pace!

(Or a steady CHOP- as it were!)

It was hard work in the sun all day, so we had to have drinking water. Usually one of the boys would be designated for this job. On this particular day Jack was sent to the house where the well was located, on this errand. The well water had to be transported in glass gallon jugs.

This day, Jack was gone an unusually long time, for the two-mile trip- there and back.

Finally, we could see him coming up the field road, with his bare feet kicking up the dust.

It seemed he would never get to us with the cool, fresh water! When he finally reached us we could see why it had taken him such a long time to make the trip.

On the way back with the water he had stopped at a blackberry patch and picked the jug half full of blackberries! That cool, fresh water was filled with all manner of trash, not to mention the small spiders, ants, and bugs!

He thought we would be thrilled that he had brought us the berries but water was what we needed and no one wanted to drink that water!

True to Jack’s sense of humor and personality he said, ”If no one else is going to drink it, I will! I don’t care how trashy it is! I’ll let my kidneys filter it out, all they do is set up in there and ride!”

And with that he tilted the jug and took a long swig!  ;)

Daddy looked at the sky and saw that the sun was about an hour high and said, “Let’s quit for the day!”

June Kellum

May 2006

Note:

Thinking about this story I've wondered if there might not have been some secret gratitude felt by some of the others,  for Jack's dallying on that trip for water that day.

In the end  it made for a shorter day!  :)

Pictures:

The group is from about the time of the story. It's the oldest brother  and the 2 youngest sisters of the family.

The mischievous boy peeking around the back is Jack!

The second picture is of Jack , about 19 47.

Junie

The Penny

( first printed at 'Junie's Place'~July 2, 2006 )

...another story from my husband's memories of his childhood. This event was probably in 1939...

(photo of Charles Edward near the time of this story)

The Penny

The baby sister played with a shiny penny she had found or someone had given her. As the young will, she would bring it to her mouth for this new sensation - the feel of it in her mouth and the metallic taste! She would drop it and watch it roll, pick it up and drop it again. What was inevitable, happened, after a while. The penny fell through a crack in the floor of the old log home where this family lived!

The youngest brother, about age five, was told to go under the house to find the penny for the baby sister! The little boy, Ed, thinking of spiders, snakes and other scary things he might meet under there, nevertheless, did exactly as he was told!

The penny was found!

What happened after that has bothered Ed, all the rest of his life!

He told the family he did not find the penny. He put the penny in his own pocket. It became a hot, burning, secret thing, there in his bib overalls!

In the next day or so some of the older brothers and sisters were walking to a little country community store. The mother needed something to prepare the suppertime meal,

perhaps some dried beans! Although it was a long walk to the store in Leggtown, Ed tagged along with the older siblings.

Along the store route, most travelers knew of a natural spring near a church. It was customary for people to stop there for a cool drink of the water. The water, always fresh and cool, flowed out of the rocky hillside; pooling in a cement basin. These travelers to Leggtown, on the errand for their mother, gratefully, stopped for a drink from the spring!

A plan evolved here…or maybe had been in the works all along! After being refreshed with the cool water, and as they started to resume the trip, the little boy, Ed, unobserved by his brothers and sisters, dropped the penny on the ground and ‘Found it’ for the second time!

A found penny! What luck!

With much excitement, and relief on Ed’s part, the group of children traveled on! Ed was now free to contemplate what he might buy with the penny!

At the Leggtown store, Ed was dazzled with the array of candies available for just one penny.

He finally settled on a ‘Walnettos.’ This was a black walnut and caramel candy, which came packaged with several indivually wrapped pieces to the pack!

He shared this with his brothers and sisters, on the long walk back home, having only one piece for himself.

Note:

IMO- having known Charles Edward for 46+ years now, this experience was a big influence in helping Ed become the honest, giving and caring man that he is.

He always felt guilt for what that little boy had done, all those years ago!

Cotton Shed

(Another farm memory re-posted from Junie's Place)



The Cotton Shed

My husband, Charles, grew up in north Alabama, in a farm family of 10 kids. He was number 8 in the line-up, having 3 older brothers and 4 older sisters. He would have 2 sisters born after him.

He has so many stories of his early life, growing up in the country in a family that farmed for a living, as most did at that time in the rural south. The stories are entertaining in the re-telling but not, necessarily, in the living through them.

Charles has memories of living in several different locations during his early life, but all in the general area of north Alabama, Limestone Co.

The home place of this remembrance of my husband was what the family always referred to, in later years, as the frontier place. The house and all the outbuildings were made from rough-cut logs! Even in the late 1930s, that farm had to have been old! The time of this account was when my husband was about age 4 -as near as he can determine - probably in 1939. He was born in April, 1935.

The family grew cotton, with all the kids, as they grew old enough, doing their share in the fields and around the farm. Old enough, in those days, was by age 6 or so.

The fields were plowed in those earliest days, not with a tractor, but with a plow pulled by mules! (Joe and Nell are 2 Mule names I remember hearing!) Between the planting of cotton in the spring and picking of the cotton in the fall, came the hoeing and thinning of the growing crops; a dreaded job, I have been told.

Cotton was the main crop, however a garden was always a necessity, too, with 12 people in the family, to feed. They always had cows for milk and butter…chickens for eggs and meat…and hogs for lard and sausage and other meats!

(And that’s another story for later!) :) *Jake*)

In 1939, Charles was not yet old enough to work but tagged along after the older brothers around the place. I suppose it was fall because they were harvesting cotton. It was stored - just loose cotton- in a shed (cotton crib) built just for that purpose - a building about 16x16 ft. Like all the buildings of the farm this small building was made of logs, but unlike the house, it had small spaces between the logs not filled in with mortar! Breathing spaces…which would come in handy!

Being near the end of harvesting the building was 2/3 full of fluffy, loose cotton; to a height of 5 feet or more. The older brothers, in fun, decided to dig a hole in the pile of cotton, and put the little brother down in it… face down, flat on the floor, with his nose against a breathing crack between the logs! They did this and then covered him with the cotton, completely… telling him to keep his nose to the crack and lie real still! Miraculously, this little boy did not panic but did exactly as his brothers told him to do.

I feel sure they didn’t leave him like that for long, but to a little boy, it had to be scary! Dangerous too! …However, it ended well. You’ve all met my Charlie! :) Country boys CAN survive!

(his own words ~well~ and Hank Jr's!)

~~~

Every July we visit the folks in Alabama, and we always ride out and see all the old places of my husband’s childhood.

On this particular place of this story, the only building still there is the cotton shed! I have taken pictures of it a few times and we have even talked of trying to buy it, dismantle it and bring it to our place here in Ocala, Fl., and re-assemble it. I would love that! It would make such a wonderful addition to our place here…for a garden shed! Or just for the HISTORY of it!
~~~




Photos:
#1- a recent pic of the cotton shed
#2- another original building, from that time and place,
with the wood shingled roof.
This was the smoke house.
The baby is Charles’ youngest sister, Mildred!
(This photo, late 30s)


Junie

Kids

This is Charles (standing) with a brother and his 2 younger sisters.

( Around mid 1940s)







Junie

Siblings

Two big brothers and a little sister:

Charles was the youngest boy of 4 boys, and 3rd youngest child in a total of 10 children!
He is the little boy on the right in this picture. ( About age 4, I believe)



Junie

The Bowl Cut

I will start with this story...They will be in no particular order .




The Bowl Cut


In the late 40s, short and neat haircuts for boys were the thing! This was the accepted and desired hair cut for all boys of that day. The hair was parted on either side or the middle, and combed up and back to the sides and held neatly in place with ‘Rose’ hair oil! This aromatic oil was used by one and all - farm boys and city boys alike! Sometimes, OVERUSED, to the point of running down behind ears and down necks…under shirt collars!

Keeping a neat haircut could be a problem, with money in short supply as it usually was,
in this farming family.

Luckily, (or maybe not) the older brother of the family had acquired a hand-operated hair clipper. With three younger brothers in the family, he had ample material to practice his hair cutting. But one needed to catch the older brother in a receptive mood, to be assured of getting the desired haircut! On some occasions that clipper seemed to be pulling the hair out by the roots, rather than cutting it! This, perhaps, depending on the older brother’s mood at the time of the clipping!!

Ed, being a young teen, and wanting to look his best, had been pestering his brother for a haircut for awhile-with his hair becoming more straggly and unkempt with each passing day! The Rose hair oil was fighting a losing battle in keeping all that hair in place!
Finally, the haircut was agreed to and it got under way!


The young Ed was captured there, under his brother’s hands, being very still, so as not to invite the pulling from the clipper…not realizing at first what kind of haircut his brother was giving him!

The finished haircut looked as if a bowl had been placed on the boy’s head, with the scalp shaved close, up to the distance a bowl, placed on top of the head, might have covered! The rest of the hair was cut straight, with no tapering; being left to hang straight down all around the head!

:) It would take awhile for that hair to grow out!
(But as Charles has been known to say,” Country Boys Can Survive!”)

Yes!
This haircut was similar- but more drastic- to the haircuts ‘THE BEATLES’ would make famous, some 15 + years later! :)

Charles Edward never WAS a Beatles fan! ☺


Junie

( some comments at original post _ Junie's Place-May 7, 2006)
May7, 2006