The County finally built an actual road through our place - which is called Waldrep Loop now. Then, they installed power lines and everybody had electricity. We were surely proud of that. I remember the electric bill would run about $3.00 a month, but before that, we would have to keep the milk down in the hollow where there were small streams of water. There were some places that had a pretty good size hole of water, and we would put the milk in a gallon jug and drop it into one of these holes for refrigeration purposes. It was always in the shade, and the streams all came from really cold underground springs. This provided a way for the milk to be kept longer without spoiling. But, slowly people got refrigerators. I remember quite well going fishing in these little holes of water. There were 4 bluffs, and the water ran off of 2 of them, and the other two only ran in the winter time or when it rained. One at the south end of the hollow had a good hole of water, and water stayed there year round. I would go to the store and buy 5 little fish hooks, and with a piece of thread, a cork bottle stopper, and a few fishing worms - would go down there and fish. I would catch something too - we called them perch, and they were about 2 or maybe 3 inches long, but every time that cork would bobble we would jerk.
Before the electricity came, some people had ice boxes to keep food from spoiling. An ice truck would come by almost every day, and sometimes we would buy what was supposed to be 25 lbs - but by the time it got to our house those 25 lb blocks would weigh about 12 to 15 pounds because it had melted. After I graduated from Colbert County High in 1953, I got a job at J.B.Logamarsino working at the Ice Plant. We called it pulling ice, as the blocks weighed 400 lbs when you first made them. This was dumped, and they had a machine that would saw that block into 25 and 50 lb blocks for sale. I was really making the money, and that was my first official job. It paid $.80 cents an hour, or $32.00 a week .
Getting ahead of myself.... We had got a Model--A Ford, and it was better than the T--Model. I remember a trip to see a doctor at Florence Clinic, where it was just me, my mom, and daddy. Right after they built Oneal Bridge, you had to pay a toll to cross it, and the toll was a quarter. On the south side (Sheffield side)there is a slight hill, which was a little bit of a problem for the 35 horsepower engine of the Model A to get up. Daddy never let a hill slip up on him, and he would build up enough speed to cross the hill without having to change to another gear. Well, we were coming across the bridge southward, and about the time he got on the north end of the bridge he began to build up speed to get us over the hill at the south end. By the time we got to the south end I dare say that we were making 35 or 40 MPH. This episode probably happened about 1939, which would have made me 5 years old. Anyway, there was a toll booth there, and a man to take the toll from you. Since Papa John was building speed to get over that hill, my momma told him "John you are going to have to stop to pay the toll", and he said "I ain't stopping"! Then she says, "what are we going to do then?" He gave her a quarter and told her to pitch it to the man as we passed, and that is what we did. As you might imagine, the man was gettting excited, because he thought we were going to run through without paying. But, in the end he found his money and we made it over the hill, so everything worked out alright.
About that time World War 2 broke out and everybody was worried including me. I was afraid that the war might get over here, and the government kept everything hush-hush - not wanting the general public to know what was really going on. They would bring a movie to the school every Thursday night to try to keep people's minds occupied. It would cost a quarter to go to the movie, and most everybody went. All men that were able to fight were in the military, and the women went to work in the plants to make material to fight the war with.
I had two sisters that were about 20 that went to Memphis to get a job, and I think they got a job in an aircraft plant - which built one part, like an aircraft wing.
Christmas time came, and they brought me a cap pistol and a scabbard. Man.... I was in seventh heaven. My brother lived right below us, and he had a boy about 5 or 6 years younger than me, but we played some serious games of cowboy. One day, we engaged in a game and I was laying behind something. I threw down on him and my gun barrel hit whatever I was laying behind. Unexpectedly, I broke the barrel off completely back to the cylinder where the shells go. As you might expect, my world fell apart right there, because I knew that from then on I would have to play with a pistol with no barrel.
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