CHAPTER TWO
We
continued living on our side of the house while Granny and Granddad claimed the
three rooms of the original house for their side. Mother slept days and worked
nights as a switchboard operator. Granny grudgingly watched my sister and me
for those hours when Mother was sleeping but she was quick to turn us over to
Daddy the moment he got home from work.
Though
we lived in separate sides of the house, we all ate our meals together in the
dining room. At least we did when Mother was home to do the cooking. The nights
she went to work early, Daddy fixed simple suppers of soup and sandwiches for
us and Granny and Granddad ate by themselves. Once again, Granny made it known
that she did not like Daddy.
Granny never showed any special
kindness to me that I can remember. Perhaps she simply didn’t like children.
Any special treats in the house were hers and she didn’t share, at least not
with me. I would look yearningly at the small glass bottles of Coca Cola in the
refrigerator. Granny would sniff and say that they were her medicine and not
for children. By the time Lloydine was old enough to walk, Daddy started
keeping out enough money from his paycheck to buy a bag of candy for us every
payday. He rode the bus to work and it would drop him off at the corner right
by the little grocery store next to Smity’s Barber Shop where Granddad worked.
He would buy a small white paper bag of Brachs Jelly Nougats. I would take my
piece of candy, unwrap it and admire the creamy white square of nougat and how
pretty it looked with the colored jelly pieces pressed into it. Lloydine and I
would eat our one piece of candy very carefully and very slowly, making it last
as long as possible. As we got a little older, Granny would turn us out in the
back yard after our naps and lock the screen door behind us. We were still outside
one day when Daddy got home from work. Since it was payday, he was carrying
that familiar white sack with the candies in it. As he unlocked the screen
door, Lloydine and I came flying up to greet him and get a piece of candy.
Granny thought this was a waste of good money and she would sniff her
displeasure and turn her head away. I wonder if she was really wanting a piece
of that candy herself? Most likely Daddy shared even if she didn’t.
In
the early fall of 1952, Mother and Daddy, Lloydine and I took the train and
moved back to Kansas City. I guess the tension had built up with Granny and
Granddad until it was unbearable. Lloydine and I were thrilled!!! We both still
remember the train ride and how exciting it was! We had fun looking out of the
windows and watching the scenery as the train sped down the rails. Our favorite
thing on the train was the water fountain. It held a stack of small white paper
cone cups that you pulled out from the bottom of the dispenser one at a time.
We couldn’t reach them by ourselves but Daddy would hold us up and let us get
our own. We drank a lot of water on that train trip!
At
first we lived with Daddy’s parents in their apartment. Lloyd’s parents were
Walter Rush Ewing and Edna Vern Lyon. We called them Grandma and PoPo. After a week
or so we moved into our own apartment a few floors below theirs. The apartment
building resembled a huge white birdcage to my sister and me. The stairs were
on the outside of the building running up and down and around. They were encased
with a white lattice and wire screen and we had so much fun running up and down
the staircases from our apartment to our grandparents. One day we accidently
stopped at what we thought to be Grandma’s door but we were on the wrong floor.
A strange lady opened the door and we were so surprised it wasn’t Grandma! She
was a nice lady and we ended up playing this “wrong floor” game over and over.
Our shenanigans never seemed to irritate her and she would laugh with us every
single time we knocked on her door.
I
don’t remember there being as much tension in Kansas City as there had been when
we lived in Fort Worth, but it was still there nonetheless. We had not even lived
in Kansas City even a year before we were boarding another train and heading
back to Texas. I guess we had worn out our welcome in Kansas City, too. Or it
may have been that Mother was expecting another baby soon. We left without a
lot of hugs and kisses and smiles. Actually, we left without any. I think they
were glad to see us go. Grandma Ewing didn’t like Mother any more than Granny
Whitfield liked Daddy.
The
train car we boarded was different from the one we had ridden before. This time
the water fountain with the little white paper cone cups was attached at a
lower level that we could reach ourselves and we were having fun filling our
cups, drinking and then refilling them! This didn’t last very long until a
conductor came and directed us to another car. Apparently we had boarded the
wrong one. It made for a wonderful memory my sister and I share to this very
day! I still love the sound of a train. This was the last trip we made to Kansas City.
We
moved into a very small, shabby frame house on Barber Road in Fort Worth, which
was just around the corner from Granny and Granddad’s house. We were living on our own as a family for a
little while at least. The neighborhood boys had made
some homemade stilts using 2 X 4 pieces of lumber. They nailed a smaller piece
of wood to the inside of each long board to put their feet on, and tied them to
their legs with rope to hold them in place. They looked pretty scary walking
around on them and Lloydine was absolutely terrified and refused to go outside
and play when they were out there. We loved playing outside and had both a
front yard as well as a back yard to play in. While we didn’t have any toys, we
did have our imaginations. One afternoon Lloydine discovered an ant hill so she
sat down in the dirt beside it and started playing with the ants. The little
critters wouldn’t stay where she put them and they started crawling up her arm
and eventually began to sting her. She yelled out, “Darn ants!” Mother came out
to see what was happening and told her darn was a bad word and never to be said
by good little girls.
The
radio was inexpensive entertainment and, in the evenings, we would sit around
the kitchen table listening to shows like The Six Shooter with Jimmy
Stewart. We listened to Amos ‘n’ Andy, The Lone Ranger, The
Roy Rogers Show and Hopalong Cassidy and Fibber McGee and Molly!
One of my favorites was Melody Ranch with Gene Autry. It would be hard
to choose between Gene Autry and Roy Rogers! I loved them both! We also listened to musical radio shows like Dinah
Shore and Rosemary Clooney. Life was simple then.
Even
as children, we knew we were poor. Our main food staple was potted meat
sandwiches. What is potted meat?
“In the Industrial Age, when mass production of
food took over, the process for potted (or canned, as it became) meat changed.
These days, a whole bunch of “meat junk” is thrown together, regardless of the
animal, mashed up into a paste, and sealed in a can."
Mother mixed the potted meat
with the cheapest mayonnaise she could buy and if we had a little extra money,
she would chop up an onion and add to it. On the rare occasions we had a little
more money, she would add a chopped boiled egg. But we mostly ate them with
just the mayo. It was the same thing with peanut butter. Mother will make it go
further by adding Karo white corn syrup to it and would put it on crackers. For
special treats she would sprinkle a tiny bit of sugar on top.
Our
sister, Lanita, was born in November of 1953 while we still lived on Barber
Road. It was in the spring of 1954 when she was a crawling baby that she
somehow managed to get a wire coat hanger stuck in her eye. Mother was
hysterical and grabbed her up and ran to Granny’s house, which thankfully was not
that far away. Mother didn’t notice the coat hanger had slipped out of her eye
as she ran with the baby in her arms. She was so surprised but thankful and
relieved when she showed her to Granny. Lanita’s eye was just fine and no
complication ever came from the incident.
Mother
had always had a problem with her teeth and after Lanita was born, she had all
of them pulled. Since there was no money for a set of false teeth, she went to
Sunday School and church “without a tooth in my head” as she would say. Finally,
she and Daddy managed to save up enough money to buy her some new teeth. As
children, we never even noticed.
The
water heater in the house resided in the bathroom right next to the toilet. I
was six years old and just beginning to feel the stirrings of the Holy Spirit
in my heart. I was learning about how God sent His only son, Jesus, to suffer
and die for our sins and how we needed to ask Him to forgive us and trust him
with our whole heart. I was taught Satan is real and a powerful evil being.
When I would get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, that old
water heater’s pilot light remained lit and it would sometimes flare up with a
rush of flames and scare me. I believed Satan lived in that water heater. I did
believe in God but had not accepted Christ as my personal Savior yet – so just
to hedge my bets, I thought up in my mind that if in the end Satan was really
stronger, I could tell him I remembered him living in the water heater!
By
late fall of 1954 we were back living with Granny and Granddad. Uncle Truman and his family had moved to their new house and were no longer living on Poinsettia Road. Our grandparents may not
have wanted us, but it is to their credit that they did take us in time after
time. Mother was
pregnant again.
Our
baby brother was born on January 29th, 1955 and we were all
thrilled. Daddy finally had his son! Everyone fussed over him! My sisters and I
took turns holding him and Mother let me give him his bottle. We loved having
Mother at home with us and I suppose this was the happiest period of time for
us children.
Daddy
worked and Mother brought in extra money by babysitting. Daddy’s brother, Gene,
lived in Kansas City. His girlfriend had two children and for whatever reason,
she had moved them back to Texas. Mother took them in for several months while
she went back to Missouri to tie up some loose ends. Her children’s names were Debbie and Mike were
their names, and they fit right in with us. That made six children for Mother
to take care of. Lonnie was the
youngest. Lanita was just 18 months old, Debbie was two, Lloydine was three,
and Mikey was five. I was the oldest at six. In addition to looking after all
six of us, Mother also did all the cooking and cleaning, too. Being a child, I was not aware of what a load
that must have been for Mother to bear along with the ever-present stress of
living with Granny and Granddad. All I remember is how much fun we all had
playing together and the joys of a happy family life.
Mother
loved her nieces and nephew and in July of 1955, she gave her niece, Joyce, a bridal
shower. She made party favors using tiny plastic umbrellas turned upside down
and filled with small party mints. After Joyce married Clarence, they lived in the same
little house on Barber Road that we had lived in just the summer before.
By fall of 1955, I began school.
In order to register, I had to have my birth certificate and get my ‘shots.’
Mother couldn’t find it so she sent off for a certified copy of my birth certificate
which I still have. I remember going to the Public Health Service on University
Drive in Fort Worth. In fact, we all went that day, Mother and six children. It
was a sweltering hot and we had to wait for hours in a long line. It took all
afternoon and by the time we were done, all of us were whining and fussing. We
would come back to this same place in 1957 so Lloydine could get her shots. We
never went to a regular doctor’s office in all the years we were growing up.
Since my birthday is September
24th and you had to be six years old by September 1st, I
was a bit older than my other classmates.
My teacher was named Mrs. Woods and I loved her. Don’t all children love
their first grade teachers? I enjoyed school and the new adventure of learning
how to read and write. I already had a love for words even though I couldn’t
read when I started school. I loved the Dick and Jane books and the stories
about Spot chasing a ball and Dick and Jane each receiving a cookie. Jane wore a
pretty little dress and had blond hair.
I
brought home a supply list one day and two of the items were blunt scissors and
a box of the large Crayolas with a flat side so they wouldn’t roll off the
desk. I was long past due with getting the supplies and when Mother finally got
around to buying them, she bought sharp scissors and the wrong Crayolas. I was
devastated and didn’t know how in the world I was going to face my teacher with
the wrong things! Thankfully, Mrs. Woods was very kind to me and didn’t draw
any attention to the mistakes. I later felt so guilty for telling Mother she
didn’t buy the right supplies. I tried to tell her how sorry I was but she
didn’t seem to be paying any attention to what I was saying.
In
the mornings Mother was up before anyone else making breakfast. The milk was
delivered in glass bottles and when you opened it, cream filled the top of the
neck and the grownups would put that in their coffee. Granddad and I would eat breakfast together on
school mornings. The other kids were still asleep and Daddy went to work very
early in the morning. One morning I was
the first one up, got dressed and went to the kitchen to eat breakfast. No one was in there. Mother must have over
slept so I very quietly took a grapefruit from the bag and cut it in half. I
didn’t manage to cut it evenly so one half was a good bit bigger than the
other. I decided to eat the small one first and then I would eat the big one. I
had just sat down when Granddad came in. He fixed his coffee and then, noticing
the other half of the grapefruit sitting on the counter, asked if he could have
it. I said, “Yes, sir.” But I thought to myself, “Next time I will eat the big
half first!
For my seventh birthday that
year I was allowed to walk over to the little store, and buy a package of paper
dolls. It was so exciting! I took Lloydine with me so she could help me pick
them out since we were going to be playing with them together. We decided on a
packet of Betsy McCall Paper Dolls for ten cents. The sharp scissors Mrs. Woods had sent back
home with me came in handy to cut them out and it was a tedious job! It took
hours just to cut out enough figures and clothing changes for us to play with
together. I had second thoughts about buying them and vowed to get something
different the next birthday. We didn’t have birthday cakes or birthday dinners
when we were growing up. Just a dime or two to spend at the store for something
special.
While I loved learning to read,
the book I loved most of all was the Bible. Mother had a big family Bible and
allowed me to look at it. In the back of the Bible, there are blue tinted pages
with children’s stories and illustrations. I longed to know what they said.
When I learned new words at school, I would come home and see if I could find
the same words in the Bible. I treasured that Bible and still have it today. It
survived the big Fort Worth flood of 1949, the house fire of 1950 and my own
home fire in 1983. It is battered and torn now but remains one of my most
treasured possessions.
Later that fall, one of Granny’s
favorite cousins became seriously ill. I was sitting at the kitchen table
eating my cereal while the grownups were discussing his condition. I looked up
at them and said, “If you would all pray more and talk less, he might get
well.” Even as a young child, I knew the mighty power of prayer.
As Thanksgiving approached,
Mikey and Debbie’s mother came back for them. While we all missed them, I’m
sure Mother must have been relieved to have only four children to take care of
instead of six.
A few weeks before Christmas of 1955, we woke
up to the fragrant smell of a Douglas Fir Christmas Tree standing in our living
room. Daddy had brought it in and set it
up after we had gone to sleep. We helped to decorate it by hanging crinkly foil
icicles on the lower branches and then throwing the rest as high as we could
throw them. That Christmas Eve, Mother gathered us into the living room and we
watched A Christmas Carol on TV. We were all dressed up in pretty dresses and
kept our ears open to any sound that could possibly be Santa’s reindeer on the
roof.
Christmas morning, we all piled in the car and
went to Uncle Truman and Aunt Alice’s house. Uncle Truman was mother’s only
brother and that’s just what she and her sister called him “Brother.”
It was a long drive and I recall looking at the passing
country side from the window of the back seat and wondering how long it would
take us to get there! Finally, we arrived, spilled out of the car and swarmed
into the house. Aunt Alice always made three kinds of candy and I loved them
all. The candy filled platters sat on a little round table of their own and
rightfully so – it was so special and so good! The first platter was full of
fluffy little clouds of divinity! They were pure white and with a curl on the
top and looked so elegant! The second dish was full of chocolate fudge, all cut
up into neat little squares. On the third plate were slices of date nut loaf candy.
That was my favorite! That particular year, we arrived in time for me to watch
Aunt Alice unroll the tea towel she had wrapped the candy in and cut it into
thin sweet slices. These were special treats reserved only for Christmas. It’s
a treasured memory I continue to hold close to my heart every December when I
prepare the very same recipe my dear Aunt Alice used to make.
While
I remember the candy in every tiny detail, I do not remember the Christmas dinner
I am sure we had! I do recall all us children, including our older cousins,
gathering in one of the bedrooms that afternoon. We spent hours perched on the
bed, happily playing with our Christmas gifts of books, puzzles, crayons,
coloring books and paper dolls.
It
was dark when we left for the drive back home and it didn’t seem nearly as long
as the drive there. I thought to myself then, “Does going home always take less
time than getting somewhere?” Little did we know that this would be the very
last family style Christmas we would spend with our cousins, aunts and uncles. The holidays were over and I returned to school and life continued to move on.
I
came home from school every afternoon to a loving mother, my two sisters and our new baby brother. Life was good and we were happy. Then school let out for the
summer and Mother went back to work, and once again, things changed.
Back in Granda's farming days in west Texas...
Linton, Myrtle, Truman, Irene and Linna Pauline Whitfield
