4H

Being the tenth of twelve children, life was better for me because of my older brothers and sisters. They seen to it that we had nice clothes and things we needed. ‘My older sisters made or bought us beautiful dresses, and the older boys worked hard to make the farm successful. When they left home one by one, it was up to Cleo, Naomi, Lloyd and I to carry on. We got up at 5:00 AM everyday and milked the cows. The milkman came at 6:30 AM. Then we had to wash and get ready for school. We walked 1/2 mile to catch the school bus at 7:15AM.  If we.found time, we ate breakfast and made some school lunch. If we were running late, we did without.

We milked Jersey cows and raised tobacco for a living. We had a large garden. We raised chickens, sheep and pigs. We used -horses to farm and had a mule named “Ole Bert”. When I was about 14 years old, we got a brand new Allis-Chalmers tractor. We were up at 5 AM each morning and didn’t get to bed before 10 PM. Our lives were work, school, church & 4-H club. I had many wonderful experiences in 4-H.