We walked two miles to school at Oak Grove. When I was in fourth grade, the bus started picking us up. We had to walk 1/2 mile up the road to the mail box. When we walked to Oak Grove, we had two creeks to cross, and Goetz’s and Otto’s cows to worry about. We were so scared of them. We would walk miles out of our way if the cows were anywhere near our path. For some reason, they always chased us if they saw us. Our lives were never dull! If it rained and the creeks were up, we had to walk upstream about a mile before we could cross. We ate rabbit grass in the spring on the way home from school, and possum grapes, black hulls, persimmons and huckberries in the fall. Cleo and I were janitors at Oak Grove. We got_paid 10-15 dollars a month. We had to sweep the floors, clean blackboards and carry in fresh water each day. We would run all the way home then so we could listen to our soap opera “Just Plain Bill”. It came on the radio at 4:15 PM.
radio
Aunt Lolly’s Story (part 6)
Beatrice was always singing and dancing around the kitchen. She liked to imitate Betty Hutton. I was eight_years old and I was walking through the kitchen when all of a sudden a big ole foot landed on top of my head. She was as surprised as I was.
Mother would have a song or poem for every occasion, idea, or word spoken. She was amazing. She taught us to sing. Cleo and I spent many, many, many hours at the sink washing and drying dishes. Cleo liked classical music. There was a program on the radio with that kind of music. I would get so mad at her for having to listen to it. She was always singing. If she sang a song I liked, I would sing with her. If I didn’t like it or if I was mad at her, I would sing off-key just to aggravate her. I discovered that I could make my singing off-key sound pretty, and I tried harder to make it sound good. That was how we began singing in harmony. Cleo sang soprano. I sang alto and when Naomi got older, she sang alto and I sang tenor. We sounded pretty good together. The Johnnie Boys were a country music group that played for our 4-H dances. They also had a radio show every morning on KWOS. We sang with them at one of our 4-H dances, and they invited us to sing with them on the radio. Mother and Daddy took us to Jeff City to the KWOS studios. It was fun.
Uncle Vernon’s Story (part 5)
No children were born on the second place (Ivan place) or the 3rd place (Aunt Dora and Uncle Theodore’s Honey Creek farm). While at the second place, we had no team of horses to farm with, so Daddy worked for Uncle Theodore. When Mom’s folks passed away, Uncle Henry and Aunt Nora purchased the farm so the folks had a little inheritance to spend, so they got a team of mules (Bert and Tuck) and I don’t know what else except that Bud and Felix each got a coat which I wore both when they fit me and also Mahlon. I don’t know if they lasted for Lloyd or not. We were able to do a little farming then after we got the team of mules.
We didn’t have a car. Uncle Henry Heymeyer took care of that problem for us. I started school while at the third place. I was four years old and we had to walk across the Honey Creek to get to Pleasant Valley School, so Daddy built a foot bridge across the Honey Creek so we could get to and from school when the Honey Creek was up.
Both houses on the Ivan place had slave quarters. Where we lived, it was the concrete kitchen and on the lower house where Ehrhardt’s lived there was a lean to on the lower side of the house that they used for a chicken house. Ehrhardt’s had a battery powered radio and sometime at night we would walk down to their house to listen to the radio. There was a large circle of people around the radio. But the volume was so low that no one could hear much of anything
I don’t remember about the move from the Ivan place to Ehrhardt’s Honey Creek farm. I don’t know if the mules were purchased while on the Ivan place or when we got to Honey Creek. Daddy was able to do a little farming there with the team of mules. When Ehrhardt’s lost the two Ivan places, they moved back to their Honey Creek farm where we lived and we moved to the Relius Beck farm. While at the Beck farm, Daddy purchased a model T-Ford truck of $25.00. It was while there, that Elizabeth was confirmed and graduated from grade school and went to Jefferson City to go to high school. She lived with August and Frieda Beck who a very good job at the printing plant that did the state of Missouri’s printing.
Also, while there Mahlon Lee Otto Hink Gladys Sommerer was born. He was born and baptized in the Beck log cabin. We were butchering and Pastor Bultman came and did it while we stopped for lunch. Otto Tichelkamp and Hink Beck were there. I got to stay home from school to help butcher. The Beck house (or cabin) was two log bins joined with sheds on one side. The lower bin had a cellar under it and the upper bin had a crawl space where a skunk took up residence. That was quite smelly and exciting, so when Mahlon was born, I said that Daddy bought Mom a little skunk…ha!