CHAPTER 3

THE PRENTICE PLACE

We moved into a big house with a porch around it, near the depot. This would be our home for quite some time. It was close to school, and my dad went to work as a carpenter.

They still had only three churches in Spruce Pine and the saying was that the Baptists would be singing, "Will there be any stars in my crown," and the Methodists would sing, "No, not one." Once in a while a preacher would come into the area and they would build a frame and cover it with bushes, and this was a bush arbor to hold revivals in. The people would put boards on blocks of wood to sit on.

Our school was built in 1924 to replace the one that burned. I loved the Spruce Pine school, and I loved to play basketball. This was played outside on the ground. Our main game was basketball. The boys would play mumble peg with pocket knives, and they played horseshoes and washers. Marbles was a big game. They would dig holes to throw the little round washers in, and they had stakes to throw the horseshoes around.

The big thing on the radio for my daddy was boxing. When Joe Louis was boxing, he would take all of us and go across the creek on a wooden foot log to somewhere so he could hear boxing on the radio. Sometimes the battery would go dead on the radio and he would not hear the end. This was very perturbing to him.

It was good to be back in Spruce Pine. I have so many good memories of there. We just did not have the money as we did in Texas.

During this time tragedy struck again. It was customary after revivals to have a baptizing in a creek down the hill. This always happened on Sunday afternoon. I was walking with Hershell and we were holding hands, going to the baptizing. We saw a dog in the road that had been hit by a car. It made us so sad to see the dog. As we were walking down the road a mail carrier came by just taking a Sunday afternoon drive. His car hit Hershell. A lot of people were walking and they all came running. They were saying, "The little boy is dead." I was thinking, "Please don't say that. I lost my little sister. Do not say that about my brother". Two young couples drove up and they decided to take him to the hospital, anyway. They put him in the car and took off with him to the hospital in Russellville over the steep and dangerous roads.

At the hospital they said they did not think the car could make the driveway curve in to the hospital, but it did. Some one picked me up and started to the hospital. On the way we met daddy, and they picked him up. I told him Hershell was dead. He said not to say that. He said, "We will just pray." My daddy really prayed. And I prayed. He promised the Lord he would not drink any more and would live a good life if He let his son live. I never heard him pray so hard, and I was doing the same thing.

At the same time the car with Hershell was turning into the hospital. He bounced off the seat and into the air. When he came down they heard a gasp and they knew he was alive. For days he was in the hospital in a coma, and very few people were able to see him. He had tubes running from his brain and he was not expected to fully recover. We were all praying, and he did recover. Shortly after that, when I was twelve years old, at the Baptist Church, I went forward and was born again and I joined the church and was baptized at the same creek. No matter what I did from that time on, something spiritual stayed with me.

During Hershell's recovery we moved out of the big house to a house of my granddaddy's on the Prentice place. It was a nice new house. Of course, it did not have electricity or running water or any indoor plumbing. It did, however, have a new barn and a pasture. It had a pig pen and it had a fenced garden and places to grow stuff. We had a big garden. While we were there by brother, Kenneth, was born. My daddy said there would be no more kids, but how wrong he was. Kenneth was number seven.

From there we would walk to school and I got a boy friend, Walter. On the way to school, James would throw rocks at us. He could whip all of us together. One day Hershell hit James with a rock and knocked him out. We just walked on to school. James, however, got OK. If there had been foster care in those days, we probably would have been in it.

Our big thing was going to church, Sunday School and singing school. My grandmother would never miss church, but my granddaddy did not go.

Living on the Prentice place was a good life, regardless of hardships. I spent much time with my grandparents. My granddaddy would tell stories of the good old days. He said the roaring twenties were a good time to be alive. The people could make money and live well. He said there was lots of music, dances and home made wine. Granddaddy said the pretty girls could do the Charleston, and everyone was happy. He said he would call the set for hours on many fun time week-ends.

Spruce Pine was made up of all white people. I didn't know there were other people in the world before I went to Texas. But now I did. I often thought about Will Dee and Happy Jack. I missed my grandparents in Texas and all of my cousins, who were the ages of us kids. But I loved Spruce Pine so much. I was happy.

Every Sunday my parents and my uncle and aunt and my grandparents would all eat together, taking turns each Sunday. We would walk or daddy would take the horses and wagon. We only had a car in Texas--never in Spruce Pine.

The summer revivals were fun because school was out. School was my life. Every time it was out, I would cry. Therefore, the revivals and singing school were a blessing to me.

My grandmother always set apart part of her Sundays for the preacher to have dinner at her house. These Sundays she did not join in the dinners with her daughters. I would stay at my grandmother's, and I loved the cakes, pies and breads that would be in the safe with glass doors. I would open the doors and smell the aroma. How sweet it was. Grandma always had plenty to drink. There was milk, coffee and tea. There was also all of her juices from apples and grapes. Only a little juice. It was good. She called it "only juice." Now I wonder why you only drank a little.

In the summer Decoration Day arrived. It was a get together once a year to honor the dead. My granddaddy kept the cemetery clean the year around. He would put a hoe on his shoulder and walk up the road to the cemetery very often. He made sure everybody's loved ones grave was kept clean.

My uncle was a politician. He knew everyone in the county, and in most of the state. He would give and give, especially to anyone in need. He would have big cook-outs in the school yard. It was for everyone, and it was free. He would cook in big black wash pots. It would be for him or for someone running for office that he wanted elected.

During the summer I would only see Walter at church. So we didn't miss church. We were really thinking we were grown. I had turned thirteen, and he was a little older. His sister, Dotty, was my age. We were all in the same grade. He would walk me nearly to the Prentice place until the dog barked. Then he would say bye until church again. Daddy would always question us. "Why did the dog bark?" James, Hershell and I were to be alone. Daddy would say, "The dog never barks unless it is someone who doesn't live here." "Oh, it was just us, Daddy, no one else."

I was taught never to touch a boy, or to be touched in any way. We would hold hands and I thought I was committing a great sin. My mother taught me if I ever let a boy kiss me I would be pregnant, for sure. No way was I ever going to be kissed. I saw enough babies. Once, standing by the big wood burning heater at school with friends and other kids, Walter embarrassed me. He looked at me and right in front of everyone he said, "May I kiss you good morning?" My very brown skin turned red.

Everything was pretty when autumn came to Spruce pine. The hills were a beautiful color. Gathering leaves for school projects was a joy. The wild flowers were pretty spring through autumn. People gave each other yard plants, cuttings from roses and flower seeds. There was no nursery. I never heard of one.

All summer we would use our swimming pool. That was a pretty clear creek with pretty rocks. There was one on two sides of our house, down the hill. At one of them we had a wild grapevine swing and we would swing back and forth across the creek. It was on the side across the barn yard and pasture.

We went barefoot and it was pretty gross when we stepped in the wrong place where cow manure had crusted over and our little bare feet got pretty bad between our toes. But there was the creek for a good foot washing. This was the creek with the foot log daddy took us across at night after going to the neighbors home to hear Joe Louis box. We always fell asleep during the boxing. Since we left Texas we had no radio, or much else. The beginning of school we got our one pair of shoes a year.

The first day of school at Spruce Pine was always a great and joyful day. Most of the people's farm work was done for the year. There were a few watermelons left. There were peas to pick. Pears would come later. School always let out for cotton picking season, so the kids could help pick cotton.

We never had a farm, only truck patches, which was a variety of small vegetable gardens. But my uncle (my mother's only sister's husband) farmed big. We often helped him. They would drag those big long picking bags behind them. It was hard, hot work. The kids were given a toe sack. I wished Oh! if only I could have one of those big white bags like the men and women have.

A wagon of my uncle's would be parked to empty the bags as needed. Cotton scales hung there and a pencil and paper. A lot of bragging went on around the wagon about how many pounds they picked. Who would pick the most? We loved to go with daddy and Uncle Charlie to take the cotton to the gin. It was run by the Smiths of Spruce Pine. They also had the best food store in town.

Walter and I were in puppy love. Almost all of the kids went to the Baptist Church. I went to the Methodist with my grandmother, and part time to the Baptist. I picked the Baptist to join when I was twelve years old. After that I only went to the Methodist when they had revivals. It was the only way Walter and I could see each other until school started. We had grown out of the Sunday School class with the little picture cards we loved so much. Now we were in the big kids classes. Now we had Sunday School leaflets.

During the years in Spruce Pine my name was Jack. Three mornings a week my granddad would come to my bedroom and call out, "Jack, Jack, get up. Grandma is ready to go." I would go with her to take dairy products and produce to her customers in Russellville. Of course, she always had a new car. I would help granddad pick apples, grapes and stuff from the garden, and gather eggs. I would think, "I love them so. Surely they will live forever."

Near the foot log was my granddaddy's big sand pit. He sold sand and it would be hauled out to a place called Crow Town. This was near the railroad. We would go to the railroad track and pick up coal to burn in the heater.

My grandmother would cover bricks with pretty fabric and use them for door stops. One time there was a feud between my granddaddy and my uncle at my grandma's house. Granddaddy picked up a brick and hit my uncle and knocked him out. I was small and I thought he had killed him. My daddy ran and stood between my uncle and my grandfather. My dad took care of my uncle and went home with him. Another time, when my daddy was going to whip me, granddaddy told him not to touch me, and he didn't. However, one time he did whip me, and I will never forget it.

We had music. My mother would wrap a piece of paper around a comb and she would slide the comb right and left across her mouth and blow through it. My daddy would play spoons. James, my brother, would play a jug and my granddaddy would play a Jews harp. They would make music.

I could always find my granddad either playing checkers or dominoes, if he wasn't playing pool. He was the pool, domino and checker champion of that part of the country. My mother had a lot of artistic ability. She could draw anything.

At the Prentice place we did not have screens on the windows. We would get a peach tree limb and fan it over the table to keep the flies off the table.

One day as I was walking across the field, I was watching the sunset. I just kept my eyes on the sun and I was very afraid because I thought it was a ball of fire, and this was the end of the world.

While we lived there I had a room all my own. This was the first time I had ever had a room to myself at my parent's house. However, I always had a room to myself at my grandparent's house. I would fix it up and make it pretty. I would go in my room by myself and think about whatever kids that age think about.

I used to hear stories about how in the old days of Model T Fords they would have to sometimes turn around and back the cars over the hill. They would tell stories about haunted houses. All of these things were interesting to me. My grandmother Hawkins would tell a story about how when they would be sitting around the fireplace at night they would see a big white ball come through the ceiling and bounce and roll under the bed. There was no hole in the ceiling, and they could never find the ball. She said sometimes when they would be walking on the stairs they would see an old man, and he would just vanish. It turned out that an old man had lived there many years before. He died there. My daddy said he came home one night on horseback and found all of the lamps lit in the house. He wondered why they would have so much company at night. There was a light in every room and he heard the people laughing and talking. He tied his horse to the gate and when he got to the door there was not a light or a person in the house. He ran to his horse and rode to where he thought they might be. Sure enough, there they were.

I got a new yellow coat for school and I was so proud of it. I was running around the school and I caught the coat and tore it. I was broken hearted and everybody was laughing. I could not understand why they would laugh when I felt so sad. I worked and helped buy that yellow coat. I would take my daddy a jug of water after I would draw it from the well. It was nice cool fresh water so he could whoa his horses, Pat and Mike, and have a drink of water and roll a cigarette. I loved my daddy as much as a child could. I wanted to help him. When I was little, he often took me on his knee and sung and rocked me.

Back then the fourth of July was a big day. Everybody would go to Aunt Minnie's and make homemade ice cream in a hand ice cream freezer, and a churn jar of real lemonade. That was the only time we got ice cream. We always hoped for a ripe watermelon by the fourth of July so we could have the first watermelon of the season.

During this time, my Uncle George Thompson lived with us. He worked with my daddy in the field. Daddy would always have a bag of tobacco or a Prince Albert can in his pocket. He would open it and get tobacco and cigarette paper and roll his own cigarettes. He would strike the match on the bottom of his shoe. My granddaddy dipped snuff, and it would amaze me how he could spit tobacco. One time I slipped some of his snuff and went behind the little chicken house out back, and until this day I have not tried snuff again. I thought I would die. I was very sick. I never told what was wrong.

The singing teacher was Uncle Charlie's sister's husband. I remember he walked crippled. He seemed so sad because of the way my legs were striped and blood was running down my legs.

School starting was a big time in our life. We got our one pair of shoes and I would get fabric for helping my grandmother peddle. One yard of fabric would make me a dress. My mother would take white flour sacks for my slips and put lace on them. Also, my underwear. My dresses would have collars and ric-rac and lace. I would go to Aunt Minnie's for a hot lunch.

I would get Francis' clothes cut down. I loved to spend the night with my cousins, the Littles. They, along with the rest of the family, would spoil me. I was the only granddaughter. Littles only girl, Francis, was grown. They attended the Church of Christ. I would go there with them. Everyone called it the Campbellite church. Mothers cousin, Mary, always took the crackers and wine for communion. All of that silver and glass fascinated me. I loved to look at pretty things. They had everything pretty. The Littles were one of the wealthiest families of the town. Shelby, Mary's husband, was the depot agent in Spruce Pine.

I loved to sit in the depot and hear cousin Shelby's telegraph running. I was a child who observed everything. I longed to be as rich as I thought they were. I would dream of adult life. Gigi and I would talk of when we were grown we would go to Washington, D.C. and be lady F. B. I. agents.

I must have been a pretty little girl, because everybody would tell me so. So, I thought I was. My daddy, my granddaddy, my uncle, my aunt and her husband, Uncle Charlie, would all pet me. My aunt had a house full of boys, but she would always have time for me.

Our school went through the ninth grade, and all of the boys wrote notes to me. It did them no good because Walter was my boy friend. Another boy would write me a note every day. Of course, this was against the school rules. Gigi and I would walk around the school and he would hand me a note. These puppy love notes were folded a certain way so they would stay closed. The teacher better not see you, or you would be in big trouble.

I had big brown eyes and brown hair with olive skin as soft as cotton, even though we never had any cosmetics. We did not even have good soap. Only O.K. or P and G. O.K. soap was yellow. P and G was white. I often wished I had Ivory soap like Gigi had. She had lotion and stuff, but I was blessed with velvet skin. I always looked pretty with my ten cent dresses. Pretty fabric was only ten cents a yard. I would have voil, seersucker and all kinds. Grandma gave me the ten cents I would get for a bucket of peas or other vegetables. They used lard buckets to measure with--ten cents a bucket. Granddaddy would pick them for me.

My grandmother had a pedal sewing machine. This is where my mother sewed. There was only a garden between them. They were all on the gravel road, which was the highway.

After school, I would pump gas for Uncle Bob and Aunt Dora at their filling station. They were my grandmother's uncle and aunt and they owned the only service station in town. It had a roof over the front. By the door was a big red Coke box full of ice and pop. My reward was to be able to open that lid and get a Coke and open it on the opener on the side of the box. All of the town used bottle tops to play checkers on the home made checker boards. They would sit on nail kegs in front of the stores in town.

Often on a Friday, Hershell and I would walk to Phil Campbell to Uncle George and Aunt Mollie's new retirement home. It was so pretty, clean and beautifully furnished. There was lace and doilies on the spotless shining furniture. They were also my grandmother's aunt and uncle. She was Uncle Bob's sister. Hershell and I loved all of that good food they always had. They had the only pottery in town. I spent much time watching Uncle George put his arm in those churns and pots while they were turning. What beautiful memories Spruce Pine holds for me.

As I turned thirteen, I was happily dreaming of going to school in Phil Campbell, where the big kids go. Grades ten, eleven and twelve had to go to Phil Campbell. My dad's first cousin, Alma Lee, was a teacher there. I had high hopes at this time. I did not know my daddy would get itchy feet and would uproot again and go to Louisiana, where his parents, sister and three brothers were. The whole family was there except him.

I was the only little girl they had around. They adored me as I was growing up. I was always the big subject. I was known to be very observant. They all said I was a joy, beautiful and just a sweetheart. I grew up in Spruce Pine happy, smart, and worshipped by all. Uncle Monroe thought I was a queen.

I could not bear the pain and hurt I felt to be taken away again. I cried. I grieved just to think daddy might take me away again. I just could not go and leave my friends and my grandparents. It was not sounding good to me that it could happen, and I just didn't know what to do.

James, the tough one of us kids, was getting at least one switch whipping a day. He would whip all of us kids going to school. He would not come home from school. He would stop in town. The rest of us would go straight home from school. One night when daddy found him at grandma's house all propped up and listening to the radio, Daddy whipped him every step of the way to the Prentice place. People did not have telephones, except for the very well off. So my daddy had to walk to hunt him.

I enjoyed going to school so much. I would walk around with Gigi and talk about where we would go to make a success of our lives when we grew up. I would cry when school was out. I felt sad and lonely because I could not go to school in the morning.

My brothers were really something else when we were growing up. We all walked to school. They would walk a different way. They would cut through by the Ballentine's house. They had a bunch of girls. The girls went barefoot, even to school. Kids made fun of them because they dipped snuff and did not wear shoes. There was a path that ran from their house to the school. My brothers would go up the path and use the bathroom and cover it with leaves and hide and laugh when the girls would come along the path and step in it.

People did not have indoor plumbing. Every house had a toilet behind it. On Halloween night the boys would go around the town and turn over these outhouses. One time they turned one over with a woman in it. Kids have always done things like this, I guess. A big thing in the summertime was to go through the watermelon fields and break ripe melons and eat just the heart of the melon and leave the rest in the field.

Between my grandmother's house and the Prentice place was where the Hossetts lived. It was a great big house. They had a daughter. She would visit at our house sometime. One day when she was there she was lying on the bed. We were all just cutting up, as kids will do. My mother claimed that daddy pinched the Hossett girl. So my mother threw a fit. My mother yelled, "Sidney, I saw you pinch her on the tit." I stood there so numb, as all of us kids did. My mother left the house and took Kenneth with her. They went to one of her friends. Daddy sent me over there to beg her to come home. After a few days she came home.

When we lived at the Prentice place we had chickens. My mother would kill chickens for us to eat. I could never stand to see this. She would take eggs and mark them with a pencil and put them under a hen to hatch baby chicks. The eggs would be marked so if a hen laid an egg in the setting nest, she would know it, and take it out.

At Christmas we would go out and cut a tree and make popcorn and string it on the tree. At school we would make all kinds of decorations from paper and take them home for our tree.

When I was just a baby, my uncle and my grandparents and my aunt and her husband on the Hawkins side all lived in a little house just down the railroad from us. They were from Tremont, Mississippi. They only lived there a few months. They were chair makers. They would make rockers and straight chairs and put them on his car and take them to the towns around and sell them. They would use the same car to run machinery to make the chairs. He would take a wheel off the car and use the wheel to turn the machinery. They always seemed to come up with a way to do things without having much.

My grandparent's oldest son took them to east Texas. They never returned to Mississippi or Alabama.

In the wintertime the house would get cool at night as the fires would go out. We would hold a blanket near the stove and heat it as hot as we could and take it to the bed and my mother would tuck it around our feet and that would keep us warm through the night. When we got up she would have a fire built and the house would be warm again.

At the school it was the job of the boys to go in early and build a fire in the school house. Everybody would stand by the heaters when they got to school and get warm.

After all the Little's kids were men and a woman, the oldest boy from the Little family was in California in the service. He stayed there and got the rest of the family to come out there. He later was killed in an automobile accident. The story is that Mary, his mother, cried until she went blind.

The town had a very tiny post office. All you had to do was go to the post office and ask for your mail and the postmaster would slide it out through a window with bars on it. He had a son who got killed in a hunting accident.

The many heartbreaking things that happened to this small towns folks never broke them apart. It drew them closer together. The whole town was a big caring family.

As I lay at night in my bed those last nights in my own room, I prayed, and I tried to think of some way to get my parents to allow me to stay in Spruce Pine with my grandparents. My heart was breaking at the thought of moving from this caring little town of wonderful people. I would go to sleep thinking, I'll beg again in the morning.