Muddy Water Fishing

I had a Brother-in-Law that he was a Smart Person, he had lots of Money compared to most people, when I first met him he had a Shoe Store and a Jewelry Store in Iuka Mississippi, he also liked to hunt and Fish, he Bass Fished in Muddy Water, he liked for the water to be Muddy enough that you could see your Bait about six inches under the Water, about like a cup of Coffee with one Spoon of Creamer in it.

now he could have bought a Cabin Cruiser with out any trouble, but he fished in a 14 foot Aluminum Boat with a nine and one half Horse Power Johnson Motor, no he wasn't too tight to buyanything elses, it was that what he had was exactly what he needed for the way he fished.

I went down to visit one Day and I went to the Jewelry Store and he had two Chain Stringers on the wall and each Hook had a seven or eight pound Bass on it, I asked him how many he had caught so far this Year and he said 72, he told me why didn't I come and go Fishing with Him sometimes and I told him that I( would, so the next off Day I had I went down and we went Fishing.

we Put in at John Smiths Dock, it is the closest one to the Hi-way going to Mississippi, right there by the ala Miss Line, and we got into the Boat and we had two 9 foot Fly Rods and a litle Box with a few Baits in it, I hadn't ever Muddy Water Bass Fished so i didn't really know how to go about it.

We went up to the Railroad Trestle that you can see from the Hi-way and there was a big place there hat was muddy so that is where we Fished. we used a Black 3/8 oz. jig with a number 4.0 Hook and had Black Bucktail Hair and a black double tail Frog Leg trailer.

you had the Fly line and a 40 lb Leader on it and we would let out about 7 feet of line past the end of the Rod and it wasn't very long till he had 2 Fish in the Boat and I hadn't got a Bite, we would ease upto these Logs and gently drop the bait over to the other side and just work it up and down along that log and it worked for him but I didn't get a Bite, both of his was about 5 Pound each and when they would hit he didnt give them an inch he put it in the Boat.

oh yes Charles always would spray that Bait with Anise Oil and I asked him if it helped and he said that he didn't kno;w but that was the was that he had always done it and it worked so you didn't change something that worked, he would wear Green Clothes in the Spring and Brown in the fall when he was Fishing or hunting and it worked out for him fine.

Him and my Sister is both passed from this life now, but I can tell you what he took a lot of Big Bass out of the watear before he left.

The Truthfulness of the Blog

Out of Twelve Kids in the Family there is Three of us still Living, my Brother is 88, My Sister is 82, and I am 77. I called my Sister to talk to her and Eventually the Blog came up, so She told me that some of the things that I Wrote was not Accurate. I had said that a Tree at my Daughters place was 81 yrs old, but she said that she watched my Brother Plant it and it was Planted in 1934, well since I was born in 1934 that would make me and the Tree 77 Years old. and since I can't remember that far back I will agree to that. I don't remember just deliberately telling a Lie, it was just not a thing that we did, I don't like anybody that will Lie, and I don't think that God will hold anybody accountable for something that they say that turns out to not be true if they don't know that it is not true at the time they are telling it. Of course you can ask forgiveness for things like that, The Story I told was seen through a young Kid's Eyes, and to the best of my Recollection all the other things that I have Written is True, but when something happened 70 years ago it is not as easy to remember every detail as it is something that happened lately. I tried to Edit the part about Moonshine Stills and the more I tried the worse it got, so I finally said that that will have to do and quit.

We have a lot of Everything

Russellville is blessed with everything I reckon, what I am talking about is we have Banks and Branches everywhere, Downtown we have Six and out on the hwy 43 By-pass we have Eight, I reckon everybody has so much Money that we need that many, but Fourteen is a lot of Banks for a place no bigger than this.

Doctors, the same way, I am sure we have Thirty or more and these little Towns around us don't have any, we have three Funeral Homes and Boy you don't have any trouble getting Buried, there was a kind of funny thing happened about two or three Years ago, it was in the Paper, these two Men had a Wreck and it Killed them both, (that is not what I was saying was funny) well Akin Funeral Home beat a trail out there and got them both, and one of the Families wanted their loved one Cremated and the other one wanted theirs Buried, so Akin took the wrong one to Birmingham and had him Cremated, I never did hear anything about how that turned out but I suppose that it was a mess.

we used to have seven Furniture Stores and Seven Auto Parts Places, I don't think we have that many now, but we have a Mexican Furniture Store and about three Mexican Grocery Stores and no telling how many Churches, man we have it all.

we have all our Schools over here by me on the West side of Town, we have Four different Schools, and when School starts in the Morning and when it lets out in the Evening it is a Mad House, it's not safe to go down the Road, they need a six lane Hiway going into that Place, but it is rated right up there with the best, I know when these companys come down and build a Plant and bring a CEO from up North to Operate it, usually when the Company replaces him he stays here, they don't want to go back up North, too many mean People up there.

Pass the Gas Please

My Daddy was a short Man about 5' 9" or maybe 5'10" anyhow he was 52 inches around the Waist, in other words he had a big Belly, the reason was he liked to Eat, his Pants all had a Black place in Front from the Stirring Wheel of the Car rubbing his Belly, he would wear an old Felt Hat that he probably bought to wear to Church once upon a time, but Ya'll all know how they look after several years of every day wearing, well that is the way his looked.

after I got Married and moved to Russellville, every Year when the Christmas Season was approaching the City would start a S.T.I.R Program, and that stood for Save Trade In Russellville, for every dollar you spent the Merchants would give you a Ticket with a lot of Numbers on it and Christmas Eve they would have the Drawing and they would give away a new Car.

The Ford Dealer usually supplied the New Car to be given away, strangely enough the Ford Dealers Name was Ford Grissom, well this went on for several Years and finally they had a Drawing and they gave out the winning Number and it seemed like it took forever for somebodyto find the Ticket and claim the Car, people really had a lot of Tickets by the final Drawing, finally somebody hollered that they had it and came up to claim it and you guessed it, Ford Grissom the Ford Dealer won the Car.

Boy everybody was mad, and I think that that was about the last drawing they held Downtown, Wal-Mart came to Russellville and everybody loves them to Death, they are about the highest place around to buy Groceries but I go up there and buy mine because they have them little Buggys you can ride and a Basket on it and I get me one of them because I can't stand up very long.

well they had built a Four Lane By-Pass around Russellville Years ago and Russellville slowly dried up and there was nothing but a bunch of empty Stores Downtown because every body moved out on the Four Lane, then the Mexicans moved in, now they (the Mexicans) have several Stores Down town and what they didn't open as Stores they rented them to start a Church in, Russellville went Wet in the last Election, but we don't have to worry about anybody having a Liquor Store Downtown because you can't have one in so many feet of a Church and there is a Church on about every Corner.

I want to go back a litttle ways, one Day when they were having all the big Crowds for Christmas Shopping my Daddy came to town, he probably had on a pair of Overalls and that Hat and he said that he was Walking down the Sidewalk and there was lots of People around, and he met a man that looked as bad as he did and he said that just as the man got even with him, he passed the Gas, and my daddy said lots of People heard it, then the old man took two or three steps and stopped and turned around and put his Hands on both Hips and looked at him just like he was disgusted to death, you see he laid it on my Daddy like he was sorry and not fit to be around people, of course my Daddy just kept Walking but I thought that was a pretty good one.

I liked to Fish

I have always liked to Fish, never had caught anything big enough to Eat until I got Married, I rented a house on Marlin Street in Russellville, I remember the Rent was $30.00 dollars a month, I had a Brother in Law that liked to Fish and every evening when we would get in from Work we would grab that Car Hood Boat and go to number six Lake.

I worked as a molder, I would make Molds all day and about 1 Oclock they would start that Old Blast Furnace and we had to carry the Metal from the Blast furnace over to where we had the Molds sitting and we would pour the metal into a Hole, we called it a Gate, we poured Cast Iron and it about 2000 degrees hot.

I made several different things, one thing I would make was Gas Burners. that molding will kill you, when I got off I was about too tired to drive home, but I did and then we would go Fishing.

we would go fishing just about every Evening and one day my Wife told me that this Fishing was going to stop, and I slacked off a little, we would go out there and the Bass would be Flopping and Rolling in the Water, and we would always catch a few.

I used a Devil Horse to Fish with and one Evening I remember this Bass came up under it and knocked it up above the water and then he rolled and slapped it with his Tail and knocked it about 4 or 5 Feet.

then a Man moved in next Door to me and he liked to Fish, so me and him would go about every Saturday, my Wife and his Wife were good Friends so she didn't say anything else about this Fishing is going to stop. we would get a hold of some of the strangest Boats, we would borrow the Car Hood Boat from my Brother in law, this was about 1965, then he got one made out of Plywood and had a 5 horse tiller Motor sitting in the middle of it and a shaft was fastened to the Motor with a universal Joint and this ran through a pipe out through the Bottom of the Boat, boy it made a Wave.

when me and him got in the Car Hood Boat there was about 3 inches of the side above the Water, and we would get so bored that I remember one day we went over and got the Boat and went Fishing and it was Snowing, we had to be Crazy, another time we went and caught 3 Fish and didn't have a Stringer so we had a piece of Rope and we run it through their Gills and tied them on and threw them out, we finished Fishing and loaded up and got nearly Home and I said "Buck did you put them Fish in the Boat?" and he said no, so I stopped and went back there and looked and we had dragged them down the HWy and there was three Fish heads and Gills was all that was left.

it got better, I finally bought me a semi-V bottom with a 25 horse Johnson, I would go to Wilson Dam and Fish and I could catch from 3 to 6 Catfish and they were never over 7 or 8 inches long, then in 1985 I bought me a real Boat, a wide Flat Bottom with a 35 horse Johnson, that is the best Boat for Fishing you can buy.

I decided I would get one of the "Brothers" to go with me and show me how to Fish, well we would go to Cane Creek and put the Boat in and go down the River to two Big White Rocks on the South Bank and we would fish.
we used mostly Chicken Livers, but then we tried Worms and that worked alright so we got to where we would bring 2 Butter Bowls and we would put in and go across the River and get out on the other Bank and where the River had been out of Banks there was Silt, and you could rake the Silt back and you could pick up 8 or 10 worms, they were about 4 inches long and you could have enough to fish all day in just a few Minutes. Rudy called the worms them TVA Worms.

One day it was hot and Rudy caught about a 2 pounder and he would let his hook drag the Bottom but I always fished straight down, let it down to the Bottom and then reel up 2 rounds, well Rudy stood up and reeled the Fish in and when he got it close to the Boat he lifted his Rod and was going to swing it in, well it came in and hit him and stuck one of them side Fins in behind his Knee Cap, man he got sick.

then I got another Man started to Fishing and I learned him all the tricks and we would go every Saturday, I remember me and him went 17 Saturdays in a row plus Labor Day, I only remember 3 times out of 5 or maybe 6 Years that we went and didn't catch Fish, it is all how you fix up and knowing how to use it, the most we ever caught in one day was 81, we couldnt shut the Livewell Door.


you go to the River and you will see these Boats running up and down the River and they don't catch anything, Me and Lowell were sitting along about the big White Rocks Fishing and there was another Boat close by and two men came up the River in a Boat and they stopped and talked to the men that was fishing there close to us and we could hear everything they said, so they talked awhile and then said "we are going Home and come back when they are Biting," Me and Him had 24, so you can Fish or ride, but you can't do both and catch anything.

we drifted down the River and we would go about a half Mile and Crank up and pull up and drift down again, stayed at the same place until Eleven O'Clock and go home, we would start at six in the Morning,it got to where we would give the Fish away, I had all I needed to last all Winter so we would give them away.

I finally got Old and had to have both Knees replaced and then I wasn't able to Launch the Boat and my Friend Died, and so I sold the Boat after keeping it twenty one Years and quit fishing, but my son ""Engineered Garden" took me and his Step Son fishing one day, he can't catch Catfish but he can catch Scaly fish and we got there at six AM and stayed until Eight Thirty AM and we had caught 15 that would have weighed I am sure 42 pounds or more. Remember it is the way you fix your Hook and Line whether you catch anything or not.

doing a good deed I thought

I Bought the House where I live now in 1964, there was only 5 more out here this side of Burns Nursing Home, and we have been here 46 years, and there is Houses everyiwhere now. I tell you there has been some trying Times in the last 46 Years, but I won't get into that.

anyhow one Evening in the summer I was Earing Supper and I saw a young Calf pass by the Porch, it wasn't very old because it was still Brown, there is a deep Holow behind my House and there was a Spring down there , and we had a Pump in it and that is where we got our Water, well the Calf went off down there, and in a Minute there was a Boy, I know their last Name but can't think now, anyhow he was about 7 , he opened the Screen Door and asked me if I would help him catch that Calf, well he went down that way and they both came up the hill and took off down the Road, J.R.Whitten had built a Lake down at the bottom of the Hill called Lake Leola and when I got done eating I got in the Car and drove down the Road.

got down to that lake and the Calf had jumped in the Lake and was Swimming across, J.R.Whitten had a house behind the Lake and he was down on the Bank on the other side, and he walked on Crutches and when the Calf got close to the Bank he got to waving a Crutch at it and it turned around and started swimming back across, meanwhile the Police had came by and stopped and Me and the Police and that Boy was standing over on the Road side.

I just thought, well this is where the little Calf Drowns, but it didn't , it Swam back across and got out on the Bank and it was really tired, so the Police helped us catch it.

I started to get into my Car and that little old Boy said "Mr would you take this Calf home for me" so I upped the Trunk lid and just picked it up and set it down in the trunk and shut the Lid.

well I knew where he lived, he had 2 or 3 Sisters and his Mama, the Old Woman had her Husband put in Prison about something, anyhow I got about a Block from the old House where they lived and the Boy said "this is far enough let me out Here", I told him "you just live right yonder". so I wheeled him up in front of the House and stopped and opened the Trunk and sat the Calf out.

the old Woman and the Girls were out on the Porch and she called him by his name and asked "Where did you get that Calf?" and he said "a Man gave it to me." I thought UH OOOO , me and the Police had helped him steal it. and they may just Eat it.

one of the Policemen was Tootie Akins so I called him and told him what happened, and he had known me all my life and he said "I know you wouldn't steal nothing like that".

I don't know anything else about what happened to the Calf, but the story got out at Work, I worked at U.S. Reduction in Russellville and they really had a time with that Story over there, I learned that it is best to keep quiet about some things.

I will try to do better

I will try to do better on keeping things in line, when Ya'll reach 76 Years old you will say, "I didn't know it would be like this" Everything in the World wrong with you, a lot of Aches and Pains, going to the Doctor, having Operations, have had 6 so far, that Fool that named them "The Golden Years" was off his Rocker, you do the best you can as long as you can and then you give it up.

I got back from the Army, Oh I would go with Girls but none I wanted to get interested in, There was two that worked at City Cafe in Russellville, I really wanted to go out with one but she already had a Boyfriend, so I went with the other one, we would Double Date, then after that when I would ask the one I wanted to date to go out, then she would say that she didn't go with her Friends Boyfriends.

I went with the second choice for about a year or longer, her People were Good People and finally the two that we were Double dating with decided they would get Married, so we messed around a little longer and just decided we would try it.

we got married on the 13thof November 1960 and I already had the House rented and She went with me and we bought the Furniture and two weeks later we got Married. I was 26 and she was 17, not hardly as bad as my Buddy who was 28 and 14. Back then all the Girls got married as quick as school was completed. and I didn't wan't one that was Divorced.

well Nov. 13th 2010 was our Golden Wedding Anniversary, we didn't get the first Little One until 2 years later, she was the Prettiest little thing I had ever seen, and two years later, here came another one, and she was Pretty as she could be too.

we wanted a Boy and we wanted one so bad that we would ask God to let us have a Boy, It worked for he sent us two Twin Boys, back then People didn't know how many and whether it was a Boy or Girl, you waited and was Surprized.

the Day they was born I was working the 11-7 Shift and it was Sunday May 12, Mothers Day, and I could have laid down on a Concrete Floor and have went to Sleep. She was already in the Hospital and I got over there as soon as I could Shower, and I wasn't there but a few Minutes until they came in and took her to the Delivery Room.

after they were gone I looked over at her bed and the Head was rolled most of the way up and I went over there and sat down and leaned back, and the next thing I knew that old Dr. shook me and said "I have never seen anything like this before in my Life" I had slept right through them being born, all you People who have worked the 11-7 shift know what I am talking about Don't you?

after awhile they came by with the Twins on a Gurney, and they were ruined, both of their Heads came to a sharp point at the back and the first thing I thought was "Heckle and Jeckyle" because of them very badly pointed Heads, and I asked the Nurse and she said that they would get round in a few Days and sure enough they did, and then we had two fine looking Boys to go with them two Girls.
We hadn't expected two and we only had one name, the next Day the Hospital wanted to know their names and we didn't have one yet, well we thought and thought but couldn't decide, the next day the nurse came by and wanted to know what we were going to name them and we didn't know, there was a woman in the other Bed and she said , Why don't you name them Jeff and Greg, we looked at each other and then one of us told the Nurse "Their Names are Jeff and Greg. and that settled that.
their Birthdays only comes around on Mother's Day on May 12th, every 17 Years.











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Another late entry

If I went back and added it to the early times back yonder People that have read it already wouldn't ever read it again.

this is about 5 or 6 years old, I was Scared to death of everything, they would tell me that there were Boogers in them Woods, and we did have some kind of Cat down there in a Den, don't know if it was a Bob Cat or what kind it was, but one day I heard that thing Hollering or whatever they do, anyhow in the Summertime them Cows wouldn't come up to the House for us to Milk them, so you know who got to go get them.

there was a Field over behind the Molasses Mill that they were in Grazing that evening late, and I had to go over there and get them and I was Scared to Death nearly, and all of a sudden I was walking along and Something Got Ahold of Me like Old Ray Stevens used to say, that like to have done me in.

Come to find out it was a pretty good sized Lizard and that thing came running down through there and right up my Back he went.

I got my Brother to bring that 16 Gague Shotgun back out there and one evening I took it with me and we had this Cow that she led a rebellion with the other cows and they were going to outrun me and go back, they didn't want to Walk all the way up there to be Milked, and She was far enough away that I didn't hurt her bad, but I just up and shot her with that Shotgun.

Boy they went to the House then, My Daddy asked, Did you Shoot that Cow? and I said yes Sir I sure did, but he didn't say anything else about it, she had Shot under the Skin, I think I had about #6 shot in it I could see a few Knots sticking up on her, after that when I would go get them they didn't cause any problem, they just went on so nice.

I want to insert this here

it is about the War and the Times back then.

everything was Rationed that you used and the Government put in place what was called OPA Ceiling Prices, in other words if a Store charged more than the OPA Ceiling Price they could find theirselves in a heap of Trouble, and they also gave everybody a Ration Book and it had coupons and they had Printed on them what you could get with it and how much,of course you had to pay for it , but they done that to keep Prices down, I suppose those People then were just as Greedy as they are Today, but if the Government told you something back then well you would do good if you paid attention to what they said,

anyhow most People would abide by what the Government would say, The average Person could buy 5 Gallons of Gas a Week , 1 Battery a Year, and 1 set of Tires a Year, that worked out pretty good for the average Man, because them mules didn't burn Gas and the Cars got 20 miles to a Gallon and we didn't have nowhere to go hardly, and if you was fortunate enough to have a Job at Reynolds there was some People named Stanley that had a Bus there at old Bethel and they would make three trips a day to Reynolds, to carry People to work and bring them Home after each Shift ended, we Called it the Work Bus and you paid to ride it, but I have forgot how much.

Then there was always the Black Market, you could always get stuff you needed but it would cost you more, it wasn't just the things that I named, it was everything that was rationed, one day Three of us Kids were walking down the Sidewalk in Leighton and there was a store that had Shortening, and this Man said he would give us a Quarter each to go in and get him 3 Cans, so we did, he gave us the Money to pay for it with and the Quarter for buying it for him. Back then a Quarter looked as big as a Wagon Wheel to me.
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After that the Brothers that ran the Bus built a Resturant right behind the Hospital in Sheffield called "The Woody mack", boy it was a popular Place, I think that it is still there, but I don't know what they call it now.

A little about Russellville

there was a little over 9000 People Lived here until they built a Chicken Plant and that thing has attracted Mexicans like Flies, they came over here and everytime one of them had a Baby our Government would put that Baby on Welfare, and they seen that they could make Money at the Chicken Plant and by Having Babies, got to where every Mexican woman would have 3 little ones following her and one in the Oven, so I don't have any Idea of the Population count of Russellville now.


we have always had a Vagrant, somebody that stayed on the Street all day every Day, looks like we are going to have to go somewhere else and try to get us one , I will tell you about this old Woman, I haven't mentioned my kids yet but I will tell you this one thing, there was this old Dried up Woman that Walked around Town all the Time with a Suitcase and my kids were little and they would ask me who she was? I would tell them that that was Delta Dawn, that song was Popular at that time and it fit perfectly so I would just say Thats Delta Dawn


we have also had Johnnie Wray, he was always out thumbing going somewhere, he would thumb to Muscle Shoals and then he would thumb back, he would Thumb you and if you didn't stop you could look in the rear View and he would be giving you the Bird, I heard one time that he would get at the red light at Mc Donalds and when cars would Stop for the light , he would just open the Door and get in one, he was in a Wreck and had a small Problem. He lived with his Sister, but I heard that She wouldn't let him stay there in Daytime and so he just Roamed from here to there all day long.


I was coming South from Muscle Shoals one Day and I looked over at a Bass Boat going North on the 4 lane and there sat Johnnie Wray in that Front seat of the Bass Boat with his legs crossed Puffing that Cigarette right along, the man pulling the Boat was making about 60MPH and Johnnie probably just crawled in at the Mc Donald Red Light. Johnnie got Sick and Died and we already had one to take his Place.


Bobby moved right in and never missed a Lick, he was in a little better shape than Johnnie was, Bobby always had a Big Beard for he never Shaved and I don't know if he ever got a Haircut or not,and he was so Brown from being out in the Sun that you couldn't tell if he ever Washed or not, Bobby didn't last too many Years until he Died, so we are Looking now.

Fluke got Married

Yeah he got Married and left me all alone by myself, he was 28 and married a Kid, she was 14, now that was robbing the Cradle, well that left me all by Myself and somewhere in here I was called to the Army, I got a letter from the Draft Board that said, Congradulations! your friends and Neighbors have chosen you to represent your Community in the United States Armed Forces, and give me a date to report, In other words "Hey sucker you are going to the Army and if you don't have yourself here on the Day we said, we will be out to get you."


well I went to Korea and stayed 14Months and 21 Days and finally got out of that Nasty Place, you never seen a Korean that was Fat at all, Rice won't make you Fat, I did learn one thing over there that I remember, I found out what Hog Tied meant, one day I saw this Korean Man on a Bicycle and he had a Pig laying on the Luggage carrier and he had that pig which would have weighed about 30 Pounds and he had it Tied so many ways that it couldn't move anything, but it was Squealing every Breath.


my Buddy that married the 14 year old, they were Married 31 years and raised two Boys, and he came from a Family that had Muscular Dystrophy and he Died at 59.

at last the Love bug bit me

I was Eighteen I think , had finished School and had that $.80 cent an hour Job, back then unless you knew whose Butt to Kiss you couldn't get a Job that Paid anything, .and I surely didn't know, one night me and Fluke was over at Gladys's, She was Kin, and she shared an Apartment with a Girl, they both worked at What is now Helen Keller Hospital and I was Smitten by that Girl, it finally got so bad that I would leave Home and Drive to Sheffield to take her out on a Date and I was in a Daze, I didn't remember when I would pass anywhere.

now when you are that Serious about one, usually that is the one to Marry, but there was that Eighty Cent an Hour Job, she worked as a Nurses Aid and I don't know how much that Paid, but I know now that Money don't Matter, you will make it somehow, when Cecil my Brother Married he is 88 now, and he was making $21.00 a Week and they Rented a Place on Atlanta ave in Shefffield and paid $10.00 Dollars a Month Rent for it and his wife didn't Work, let me rephrase that, She was a Housewife. and they made it fine, I reckon I was afraid of Responsibility, anyhow after about a Year and a half, she started seeing other People, like to have killed me because I was Tru-Loving her and I finally found out that I would take her out and Spend my Money and show her a good Time and would get her back to the apartment about Midnight and as soon as I was out of sight a Married man would pick her up so that was the end if that ,
She finally Married an old Boy, and when I was 40 years old one day I saw Her Obituary in the Times Daily
said that they were going to Bury her at Railroad Cemetary in Florence, never heard of that Cemetary but that is where she rests now.

December 7th, the Day the Japs Bombed Pearl Harbor

I had a chance back yonder to mention a few things that I will talk about but forgot to, they say that "A Mind is a terrible thing to waste, well us old People didn't waste ours, it is more like Worn out, we don't remember things like we are supposed to, I remember when FDR said that this day will live in Infamy, I have heard that the Japanese don't ever say anything about the Second World War or neither their History Books says anything about it. I don't blame them in a way. every country we tore up, we turned around and rebuilt it for them after the war was over, every Piece of Scrap iron was important, there was a truck came around about once a week and we would look for Scrap Iron to sell them to build tanks, Planes and such, we would even save used Razor Blades and throw them in , I remember they would Paint Signs on the Plants, one especially said "Loose Lips Sink Ships" then Harry Truman finally dropped the Bomb and ended it. but that War was a Whole Nation thing, the Government would supply the Yarn and Belle Richardson got all the Ladies in the Community together that could Knit and knitted Socks for the Soldiers to wear, for Free, I am sure the same thing was going on all over the country,

Winter was a Miserable Time back then, Houses were not like they are now, they were Cold and Shabby, I don't remember People Painting them, we would Whitewash ours, my daddy would get some Sacks of White Powder and we would put water in it until he said that it was alright and then rub it on with Some kind of a Brush, it was not a Paint Brush.

they would build Houses out of green Lumber and our floor was made of green Lumber and when it had time to dry out it would leave a Crack between the two Boards you could drop a Pencil through, we could see the Chickens under the floor, back then everybody woud have a Water bucket and a Dipper and if you wanted a Drink of Water you just went and took the Dipper and Dipped you some and drank it. in the Winter the Water Bucket would be in the Kitchen at night and the water would be Frozen the next Morning and you couldn't get the Dipper out until you thawed it out,





but one Day my daddy went to Iron City Tennessee and came back with a truck load of Hard Wood Flooring, we put that down and that helped a lot, Never did put a finish of any kind on it, but it kept the Wind out


Had as cheapest Heater you could Buy and we would sit around it with our Coat on and Burn on one side and freeze on the other.



Finally all of them got Married but Me and Fluke, we both had us a Car and Gas wasn't but 29 cents a Gallon, I remember when it was 20 cents a Gallon and you could get 5 Gallon for a dollar, there was a Store right on the Franklin Colbert and Lawrence county line that had one of those old Gas Pumps with the big Glass Bowl, and that Bowl would hold 10 Gallon, and to fill the Bowl it had a Handle you had to work back and forward, Cigarettes were 20 cents a Pack, I remember Phillip Morris, Lucky Strike,Camel, Chesterfield and Sunshine. back to where Gas was 29 cents a Gallon, I remember one Daiy a Man saying that Oil was $2.80 cents a Barrel.

Moonshine Whiskey Still

I don't suppose that any of you have seen a Moonshine Whiskey Still, I have seen four or Five out in the Woods only one was in Operation at the time and the others had been Destroyed, Probably didn't Pay the right Man so they would destroy them. there used to be one about a quarter mile over behind our House, they have to have plenty of running Water, some are bigger than the others, they would find a stream of water and then they needed a Bank and they would dig a Hole in the Bank to fit their Pot. their Pot was round, constructed out of pretty thick Tin. some wouldn't hold much but I saw one on the Bank of the Tennessee River that I figured would hold 1000 Gallons, it was a Big one, this is when Raymond Wheeler was Sheriff over there so they didn't have to worry about somebody messing with them. Here is the way I think that it worked,' they would fill that thing probably about half full of Mash, don't ask me what Mash was because I don't know, I think it was different kinds of Grain, all I ever heard was Mash, and then a lot of Water, and a whole lot of Sugar. after a few Days the stuff inside would begin to Ferment and I have no Idea how long that they let it Ferment, but they knew when the time was right, When everything was right they would build a Fire under the Pot and it had a Copper Tube that was twisted round and around and sometimes they would put these in a 55 Gallon Drum and they called it a Worm. they had cold Water running into the 55 gallon Drum to cool the worm, and they would build the Fire under the Pot and get the Pot Boiling it would make Steam. and the top of the Pot was to where the only place the Steam could go out was through these Copper Tube, (the Worm) and the cold water would cool the Steam coming through them and it turned the steam into a Liquid, thus Moonshine Whiskey, and they had their Gallon Jugs to catch the Liquid coming out of the end of the Copper Pipe and I think that that, was about like they worked, we never owned one but Like I say I have seen them and that is my version of how they work, you would run up on them out Hunting. Oh the Sheriff would find one and they were made with Tin, wide Sheets about like you use for Valley tin on the roof of the House, instead of light Sheet metal like I said, that made them Lighter to move, but the Sheriff and his Deputies would either take an ax and cut a lot of holes in the Pot or Dynamite it this is a True Story, I have been living in Russellville 46 Years and I have heard this Story and read it in the Newspaper, one Day the Sheriff and his Deputies came across this Still that they had working and this Man was sitting on top of it watching the Still and reading the Bible. all the People that I call their Name in this whole Blog are Dead many years ago, except my Immediate Family, I used to know people for miles around, but I can go back to the old home place and I don't know anybody, all them People aren't alive anymore, in fact just about everybody I used to know are not here anymore, as far as I know there is only 4 People besides myself that finished the 9Th Grade with me are still here. the reason they quit making Moon Shine Whiskey was back when we had the Supposedly Gas Shortage in the early 70's everyone else saw that if you would only create a Shortage you could name any Price you wanted to, and there for a good while Sugar went up a little over $4.00 for five Pound, so this done the Whiskey Business in, at the time they were making Moon Shine I think you could buy 5 pounds for 39 cents. so Sugar never did go back low enough for them to start back. the Shortage Bug even got into Jar Lids, my Wife and myself would have a Garden and Can Beans and stuff and behold right about canning time there was a Shortage if Jar Lids, but the Price started to rise and then when it reached the right place there was Plenty.

finishing up Jr High

Well I don't remember anything worth Writing about happening through the rest of Jr. High, by the way at La Grange we went thru the ninth Grade and after that we started the 10th Grade at Colbert County High.

But in the Ninth Grade we had a Basketball Team that nobody could beat, we had a Principal that was so Lazy you could tell it when he talked and he would teach the Ninth grade, and if any of us Boys got to where we couldn't stand it anymore we would just go in the Cloak room and get a Basketball and go outside and Shoot Basketball until we got tired and then we would come back to the Classroom and sit down and listen some more to that Jerk.

C.C. Smith wasn't too far over in Lawrence county and we would go over there Twice a Week and Play them. they would beat us most of the time, I knew all of them but one and they could run like Deer, everytime we went over there we came back dead tired from running so much, winning in Colbert County was what mattered and nobody over there could beat us, and we Won the County Tournament that year, I remember on Monday after we had won it Friday night we had the Trophy out passing it around looking at it and somebody dropped the thing and broke the Man with the Basketball off of it. boy that was a Bummer.

Funny the School Bus Driver and a teacher they had hired, she was kinda Plump always took us over there and once the Game started we never did notice seeing them anymore, but after awhile they would show up, and we went on and Graduated and the next year we all went to Colbert County and all five of us that played on the Great Basketball Team Didn't Pass.

well the other Four Quit and I decided I would give it one more try and I Passed that Year and went on and Played Varsity Basketball in High School, but you see these Bothers now will Jump so High that their Elbow is up even with the Rim? couldn't any off us even touch the Rim, that Food then just didn't any Jumping Power. White Men can't jump anyway.

I also Played in the Band, Boy I liked that, I played a Baritone and I got good on that Horn, we would play in Parades and we even went and Played in the Madi_Gras Parade in New Orleans, Sho Nuff, marched right down Canal Street and those Pralines sure did Smell good. I am not finished with this but I have to go to bed.

alright I got up and wrote my little Heart out and Posted the rest of it and I had lost my connectionand then it was gone, I hit restore and it restored up to where I quit last nightso Later

it's a wonder we all lived through it.

There were Six Boys and Six Girls, in our Family and how we all lived through it? I don't know, about all I ever remember taking for Meicine was Calimol Tablets, and if you had a sore or got cut it was Zinc-Oxide that is all my Daddy knew, if you were Sick he would say "that Boy is Billious, give him some Calimol Tablets, now what Billious was I have never found out yet, Calimol was a Pink Tablet and just to take it made you want to Gag, and I guess we might have had Paregoric, don't recall.

anyhow anybody could go to the Druggist there in Leighton and tell him what was hurting and He would give you some Medicine for your Ailment, he knew as much about it as the Doctor.

the Doctor used to come to your house to see you, I remember getting Pneumonia and the old Doctor would drive the 8 miles out there and give me a shot of Pennicillan, boy I hated to see him pull up out there I was going to get a shot, but it didn't take but three.

but way back before that I got Colitis, a lot of Little Babies would die from Colitis, they didn't know what to do for it, anyhow the Dr. would ride a Mule out there to see me then, this was before he got a Car, and I was Bad, and Mom had been cooking Cabbage that Day, and the old Dr. come up on his Mule and she told him that "this Baby has been crying for some of this Cabbage ever since I started cooking it " and he told her to give me some that I was going to die anyway.

so She gave me some and I started to getting better right away, I have thought about it a lot, that if there had not been any Cabbage I would be an Angel now, but I reckon God had a plan for me and he spared me, I haven't figured out what the plan was yet but maybe I have done performed what he wanted me to do and I just didn't know it.

One of my Sisters got her Clothes on Fire at the Fireplace and Burned her Hip pretty bad and the old Doctor would ride the Mule out there every day and he would make up some Medicine using Vaseline, Household Lime and Carbolic Acid and brush it on her with a Feather and it healed it up.

when I was working at U.S.Reduction I would get a place burned and I would make me up some of it and use it and one Day the Foreman asked me, Ed how do you get these Burns well so fast? I told him, and he said "well it sure is good".

At the End of the Road

there at the end of the Road that came out from where I lived and joined into Hwy 48 was a Busy little Place, everyones Mail Boxes from both sides of the Road were there and some of us had to walk a little over 1/4th Mile to get the Mail and to catch the School Bus.

there were I guess 8 or 10 Kids were out there every Morning to catch the School Bus, and there was this one Girl, she was a Moreland, that thought that she was really it, and she was, she was Pretty and had a nice build and she would Prance around while we were waiting on the Bus wanting attention, and I have mentioned before that I was very Bashful, so I didn't say anything to her unless she said something to me. anyhow she was Hot Stuff.

Years later I saw where her Mother died and was going to be at the Funeral Home here in Russellville, so I decided I would go to the "Visitation just to see Her, I hadn't seen her since we met the Bus on the side of the Road, I was in my early 40's I think and when I got there I didn't see her anywhere, so I asked where she was ? and they said that she was in another Room in there, and they went and told her that I wanted to see her and she came out and I was Shocked, she was Wrinkled until I wouldn't have known her If I had just met her not knowing that it was her, and to my knowledge I haven't seen her since.

at 76 I am not Wrinkled but very little, I tell People that I don't have enough Sense to worry abouth anything, I don't know whether that has anything to do with you Wrinkling or not, but there is very little that I worry about, I have seen People who I think are Professional Worreriers, it gets you nowhere, so why worry?

finally a Man that owned the Property there built a little Cinder Block Strore in the corner of the road, and he was making the Money. I should have mentioned this a lot earlier since this happened before I started to School, my Mother Loved me very much since I was her Baby, and she didn't have the Nickel for a Popsicle, so she would give me two Eggs and tell me to go to the Store and get me a Popsicle.

I would walk out to that little Store and go in and lay my two Eggs on the Counter and get me a Popsicle and go back down the road Happy as could be, I usually got a Chocolate Covered one, them was the best kind. those Mamas are Great, so if yours is still Living make sure she knows that you love her, because once She is gone you will wish you had.

A Mule named Ader

We had two mules and one of them was named Ader, we referred to as old Ader, well Ader was a good little Mule to Plow the Garden with, she would kind of do what you told her to, for most of you who don't know Mule talk I will tell you a little, you would say Giddup when you wanted them t go, Whoa when you wanted them to stop, and Gee if you wanted them to go to the right a little, and haw if you wanted them to move to the left, some Mules would do what you would tell them and others would act like Dummies and just kept Walking, Oh they all knew what Whoa meant, well you had lines that fastened on to two big Rings of the Bridle and the Lines reached back to where you were behind the Plow and if the just kept going you pulled on the line and the line fastened to the Big Rings on each side of the Mouth then there was what is called a Bit that went through the Mouth and the two big Rings were on each end of the Bit .

But Ader Obeyed good and everybody around would want to borrow old ader to Plow the Garden, so, every time we needed her my Daddy would tell me to go to Eli Glantons, or Cleve Stanleys or some of the other Neighbors and get Old Ader, Seemed like I spent a lot of time going to get our Mule.

well one Day it was Hot, in August and I was going to get the Mule and Wess South lived across on La Grange Road and Farmed the Land between him and Us and he had a Watermellon Patch and there was a Cornfield right by it and they were Ripe, now Wess south would have Give me 5 Watermellons if I had just ask but I Snuck down them Corn Rows and Stole me one, Bursted it there in the Corn Patch and it was Hot inside and I ate all the Watermellon I wanted, they taste better if you Steal them, so then I went on my way and got Old Ater and went Home

I think I have learned something

you know in 2 more Months I will be 77 Years Old and it is terribly hard for something new to soak into this Grey Matter that I have between my Ears, you see I didn't know a thing about a Blog, so my son Engineeredgarden, said why didn't I write all I could remember about my Childhood where all the Kids and Grand Kids could read it if they wanted to, and I am Retired with nothing to do so I decided to give it a try, He Lives right next to me and they say you can't live by your Parents and get along with each other, but we do, I have had both Knees replaced and still have to use a Cane to Walk, it keeps me up off of the Ground, I tell you that falling hurts, and I can take my Cane and touch his Porch from my Porch, so we never have any Trouble, anyhow I was putting a Number by the Title of my Post where anybody would know which one to read next and he would remove the Number, so tonight I noticed over there on the side where it lists the Posts it tells the Day of the month they were Posted, and I thought AHA! so that is the way you tell which one to read next, since I was trying to tell a story and keep the posts straight, Smart as the average Bear I think, I will get back to the School days maybe Tomorrow.

starting to School

Well I finally got old enough to go to School, and I remember my first Day very well, it was all I could do to keep from Crying, some of the Kids did but I was determined that I wasn't going to Cry, my First Grade Teacher was Mrs Neal, I liked her alright, I had a Second Cousin that was in the same Grade with me, he was nearly a year older than I was and his Name was Edward Oneal Vandiver and when I was born my Mama said nothing would do but I was going to be named Edward Keith Vandiver, this was my daddy's Idea.

well when I was two Weeks old all the Clan went to La Grange School to a Play and there was a Character in that Play named Punkie Dunk, well my sister Ruby got to calling me that, and it finally boiled down to Punk and when I got Married and moved to Russellville I got away from that terrible Name almost, nobody around where I was raised even knew what my real name was, and the other Edward Oneal Vandiver, somebody hung Fluke on Him and he was Kin to the Harrisons and they had a boy older than us two and somebody had hung Flop on him, so it was Fluke, Punk and Flop,

I live in Russellville now and every once in a while I will hear somevbody say "Hey Punk"! and I know without looking that it is somebody from down at Old Bethel, Flop and Fluke are both Dead and I know Punk will pop up every once in awhile till I die, I know how that boy felt in the song Johny Cash wrote "Boy named Sue".

in the 3rd or 4th Grade I had a Teacher named Gussie Keenum, and she was an Artist with a Paddle, Boy when she Whipped you, you knew that you had been Whipped, having no Kids of her own I believe she enjoyed it, one Day it had Rained and there were some Big Puddles of Water, so I caught Maxine Hall and Edith Waldrep passing one of them Mud Holes and I ran and jumped in it with Both Feet, this got muddy Water on their Dresses and they made a B-line to Gussie Keenum, and she had me to go in the Cloak Room and I had to get up in an old Desk to see out the Window and she made me show her the Puddle I jumped in and then she Lit up my Life, Man that hurt, I can still remember how it hurt, A Teacher Whip a Kid Today like that and they would go to Jail, I'm not saying I didn't need it but not that Hard.

I was in the Army and Home on Furlough, and one Evening I was Passing her House and Her andCheck (that was her Husbands Name) were sitting out on the Front Porch , and I just Wheeled my Car in the Driveway and spoke to them and told her "well I have come to get even with you for all them Whippings that you used to give me". I had her worried too, then I laughed and She knew I was Kidding.



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My !ST SHOT 10

We also had a Store at the end of La Grange road where it comes out on Hwy 48 now, the Name of it was Hardens, and one day they told me to get in the Car, we were going over to Harden's Store, the County Nurse was going to be there at a certain time to give Shots and I had to have one, now I knew that this was going to Hurt, but they were a lot bigger than I was and very soon I found myself over at the Store looking at a Big Fat Woman with a White nurses Uniform on and her little White Hat, She was eating a Chocolate Bar of Candy and I hated her the minute I laid my eyes on Her , and she said she would be done in a Minute and she Would give me the Shot. too soon She was through and she got that big old Needle and stuck me and you talk about Hurting.


I reckon that that was the first Shot that I had ever Had and it hurt bad, you know the Needles used to be Bigger than they are now, and they are Sharper now so they don't hurt as much, Back then you would go into the Dr's Office and there was a nice Chrome Shiny thing and it had Boiling Water in it and the Needles and Syringes were in the Boiling Water and if they gave you a Shot they would take a pair of Tongs and get them one out and let it Cool and then they would fill it up with Medicine and give you a Shot, it sure is better now.

Random memories

I was always so bashful as a kid, and would hardly look at anybody unless they were part of the family. I think that one reason for it was because back during the time that the road ended at our house, every old man that came along and stopped, the whole bunch would go out on the porch to meet them if it was warm weather. We didn't get to see too many people and when somebody did stop, everybody wanted to know what he had to say. Well, I would get behind my momma, hang on to her dress tail, and just peek around at them. Then, that old man would say "give me that boy and I will cut his ears off." He would bring out a big old knife and that would nearly scare me to death. So, I went through my early years so bashful that I hardly ever said anything. Remembering my first school pictures, I had my head down and looked up at the photographer (you know - similar to having on a pair of glasses reading something that was laying in your lap, and looking up over the glasses talking to somebody). That was how the picture looked, minus the glasses of course. I finally got over that when I reached about 16 years old - except toward the girls, of course. I still didn't talk too much to the girls.

There were some other people that people would speak to, but I think that some of them were scared of them just like I was. There was a man named Emmet King, and I reckon he was alright - but he had a brother whose name was Junie. Junie walked around with a double-bladed axe across his shoulder, and we didn't know if he was all there or not. So, if I ever saw him, I would go somewhere else. Me and my much older brother Cecil (88) were talking about Junie here awhile back, and I brought up the axe. He said that Junie carried it because people would often hire him to clean up a place that had become grown up. No matter - I stayed away from him.

Then, there was an old woman that would roam around all over the country. She lived somewhere around Wolf Springs (a community about 6 miles ENE of Old Bethel), and her name was Dilcy Dawson. She carried a tow sack (also called a croaker sack, if you don't know what a tow sack is), and I don't know what she had in the sack, but she jabbered about something all the time. She would pass the house every once in a while and stop, and my daddy would go on at her. Also, there were two other women that lived together down the road toward Leighton, which were sisters. They were commonly referred to as "old maids."

Of course we had a mail man, and he lived at Leighton. People would say that the two old maids were struck on him, and would bake a cake, then leave some in the mailbox for him. Sometimes he would come by our house an hour or so late, and somebody would say "Yeah he's been down at those old women's house." I don't know where he actually was (and didn't really care), but people had to talk about something.

Sometimes, we would get up in the morning and around 8 O'clock they would start ringing the bell in the steeple of Old Bethel Baptist Church. Everybody knew what this meant, as the signal was used to indicate that someone had died. They would ring the bell, and some of the men would gather and dig the grave. I remember making the statement one time to somebody, that "old so-and-so was so sorry - they would have to hire somebody to dig his grave." Of course now you have to hire them all dug....

Courtland Air Base

Around 1940 the Air Force built a base at Courtland, Alabama to train people how to fly those great big bombers. I think they were called B-26's...anyhow, they were some great big airplanes, and had 4 big propeller driven engines (the Jet Engine had not been in production yet). I would be out in the field hoeing cotton and couldn't get anything done for watching those big airplanes lumbering around up there. Anytime you looked up, you could see 2 or 3, and there was a steady drone of those big motors. They never done anything like... make a bombing run or anything - just flew around, but I still had to watch them.

Along towards the end of the war (when they invented the P51 Mustang), I got to see one of the P51's fly over every once in awhile. Boy, those things were fast, and had a prop jet engine. I'm sure most of you have seen them on airliners - they just go faster, and have a different sound to them. Those things were really pretty.

It was murder, but she got away with it

Right up at the NW corner of our property there lived some people, and they were just ordinary people. The man got a job at Reynolds when they first built it, and I don't know how long he had been working there, but they had the first TV set in the community. They had a girl that was a year or two younger than me, which was spoiled rotten. Well, one day 2 or 3 of us passed by there, and she asked if we wanted to see their new TV. Since none of us had ever seen one, we went in and looked. There were only two VHF stations in Birmingham, and there was so much snow on the screen that we couldn't tell what they were doing. So, we lost interest in that pretty fast. Then in the late 1940's, they bought a new Buick automobile. Well, it was a 1949 Buick to be exact, with a Dynaflow transmission. I think it only had a forward and backward gear, and you could really hear that thing coming down the gravel road. It had a kind of roar about it, and we all knew who it was. But, we would still all run to the door and watch her go by. Sometimes she would wave, and other times just smile. Well, everything went along well for some time, until somebody got her hooked on dope. That was the first time that I ever had heard anything about dope, and her old man would come home and she would be stoned out of her mind. Since everybody had wells to get their water from, he would just go draw a bucket of water and pour it on her. I don't remember how long this went on, but I do remember one day in January they got into it, and he ran around the house to come in at the back door and she met him there with a shotgun. She shot him through the screen door right in the mouth with that shotgun. I remember one time telling somebody about it and they asked "did it it kill him?" Well, I suppose it blew his head off, but never did hear for sure. He was a good man, and she had some kin folks and a neighbor's son that made him out to be the sorriest person in that part of the country. They all lied until they got her off scott-free. She tried to keep living there, and even had a street light put up. But, she finally moved to Iowa to try to get away from it all. She lived out there for a few years, but eventually came back here and married another man. Years later, she had a stroke and couldn't move anything but one hand. I heard that she was in one of the nursing homes in Russellville, and I didn't live very far from it. One day I was passing by there, and decided I would just go in and see what she looked like. The nurse warned me not to get close enough that she could hit me, or she would really lay one on me. She finally died ,and was buried in the cemetary at Old Bethel Baptist Church. I think that some of the people objected to her being buried there, but allowed it anyway. The old house still stands there to this day. The front porch has fallen off of it, but the house itself is still standing. So you see - she paid for her sin even before she died.

My love for airplanes

I have always been fascinated by airplanes since a kid, and our house at Old Bethel was located in a direct-path from airplanes traveling between Muscle Shoals and Birmingham. Almost all airplanes that went to Birmingham passed right behind our house. This must have taken place before 2-way radios, because the Govt constructed beacon lights from Muscle Shoals to Birmingham so the airplanes could find their way at night. We could sit on our front porch and see the light go round and round at night, and was a pretty powerful light - as you might expect. The beam shined up into the sky at about a 45 degree angle, and it would turn so the pilots would know what it was. They were spaced far enough apart that you couldn't see but one, but I am sure the pilot could always see the next one up ahead. So, they just followed the beacons from Muscle Shoals to Birmingham. The light visible to us was located at Flat Rock, and if you know where Flat Rock is - well you know more than I do. I would ask my brothers where Flat Rock was, and they would say that it was "up yonder in the prairie". That is another thing I never knew, where it was at "The Prairie", but it was somewhere between C.C. Smith School and Hatton. There used to be a 2 Engine DC-3 airplane that would pass over our house at 9:15 AM every morning going to Birmingham, which I never did see coming back. Anyhow, I would hear those engines and nearly tear that door down to get outside and watch the airplane go by.  There were also some old, single-engine planes that passed, but none was as pretty as that shiny aluminum DC-3 in the morning. We called it the mail plane, but I don't know whether it actually carried the mail or not.

One day our school class went on a field trip, and one of the stops was at the airport. We were going to have the opportunity to watch that pretty thing take off (the aluminum DC-3), but it was raining that morning. So, we pulled up to the airport in the school bus, and it was really raining hard. I remember somebody telling us that the plane wouldn't be going today because of the torrential downpour. Boy, that blew my whole day.

I want to tell you a little bit about the first rabbbit I ever killed, and then I will let it rest awhile. There was a wooded area down in a low place, which was good for rabbit hunting. So, my brother had a beagle hound and a 16 gauge, double-barreled shotgun, and he would bring both of them to the house and leave them. Me and that dog done some serious hunting. Anyway, one day after school we went hunting and she jumped a rabbit. It took her a way over yonder, and then circled around and was headed back. The dog would bark a little along, and finally I saw the rabbit that she was chasing. It was a long way ahead of the dog, and it came down my way, stopped, and jumped over to the side of where it had just come down. Then, it went back about 15 feet and would jump over again, and come back down. After doing that 3 or 4 times, the rabbit stopped along farther and came to a bush that was in front of me. This bush was not too far from me, and the rabbit just sat there a while resting. It seemed to be waiting on that dog to figure out all the trickery it had pulled off earlier, so finally I just raised the shotgun and shot into the bush. I walked over there, and there it lay - dead as a doornail. I grabbed it up and ran all the way home to show everybody what I did.

Going to the Cotton Gin

When the cotton had opened up pretty well, school would let out for a few weeks for us to pick it. Back then, school was out twice a year - once to hoe cotton, and again to pick it. I think that it took about 1200 pounds on the wagon to make a 500 lb bale of ginned cotton with, because there was a lot of seed in the boll. My brother said that we would get $25.00 for the average bale of cotton. The evening before we were going to the Gin, we would pull that wagon into a pool of water so that the wagon wheels would swell. It was an iron-tired wagon, and this helped keep the iron tires from coming off while going down the road with all that cotton. If that had happened, it would have been alot of trouble. We would keep an eye on the wheels, and if a tire even got over to one side a little - we had a hammer that we would knock it back on with.

Finallly, we reached Leighton (where the gin was), and my daddy gave me and my sister Doris a nickel each. So, we went downtown while he waited in line to get the cotton ginned, and me and her went to this store ran by two people who were deaf and mute. They sold candy and cigarettes, and I don't know what else. Anyway, we bought 5 cigarettes that were a penny each, because they had packs that were opened and would sell you one or ever how many you wanted. So, we took our 5 cigarettes and would walk up and down the sidewalk smoking like we were really something. But, we knew not to let my daddy know that we had bought cigarettes. Finally, we got our cotton ginned and made it back home.

The big Tree

Everybody knew what you were talking about when you mentioned the "big tree". We had an old log house on our property that was rented out to people, and standing about 60 feet in front of this old log house was the biggest tree in this part of the country. after talking with my remaining Brother and Sister we have decided that the Tree was 5 foot through . The limbs were about 18 to 20 inches through, and most were about 25 feet long. Once the old house got to where nobody would live in it, we kept all of our plow tools under this tree. If my daddy ever needed anything like a plow point, clevis, or something similar, he would tell me to run over to the "big tree" and get whatever was needed. I suppose that tree was every bit of 200 Years old. what happened was that the inside Rotted and it was Hollow and my Brother says that even the Limbs were Hollow, and that weakens the rest to the Point that it is easier Broken, anyhow Lightening was what finally brought it down.

One of my Daughters live at the Old Home Place, and my Brother Beryl Planted a little Water Oak there by the Pump where we got our Water and this we agree on was 1929, and it always has had plenty of Water and Today it is 81 years old and is approximately 4 ft through and has Big limbs and you can see this one Today for it is still Standing and Healthy looking and I don't believe it has ever been hit by Lightening yet.

Where I live now, the house is about 800 feet from the main road. Lightning struck a pretty big tree one day, and when it got done with it there remained only a piece standing about 15 feet tall - disentegrating the rest of it. There were a few limbs lying around, but no bark at all was left on the tree. It was laying in a circle around what was left standing, and that was certainly a very powerful bolt of lightning.

Farming and making a living

We, like most other people around us, farmed for a living. We had a 1-row Allis Chalmers tractor, and it had a one-disc breaking plow that would turn about 12 inches of dirt. It would take you forever to get the land broke up to even start anything else. I would ride that thing all day long - every day, and had the habit of looking back to watch it plow. This caused my neck to stay sore all the time, but finally after about a month I would get all the ground broke that we were going to work. Then came the harrowing to break up all the clods. We had a disc harrow, and it was probably ten foot long - so it didn't take a long time to cut the clods up. Once that was completed, it was time for planting crops. Mules were used for this task, and the fertilizer was applied to the soil first. Then, another person would come along and plant what we were going to grow with a planter.

After all of the hard work was completed, it was up to the good Lord to give you rain and plenty of sunshine to make it grow. Once everything came up and grew to about 3 inches high, we had to go through with a hoe and cut out over half of what had came up. You see, we didn't know back then that stuff would grow thick like they plant it now, and probably wouldn't have because the fertilizer was much different. We also had to keep the grass hoed out of it, because it would use up the fertilizer that was intended for the crop being grown. After hoeing it twice - then plowing it 3 times, the first of July arrived and we would lay it by and just wait for it to make corn or cotton - or whatever you planted.

I don't remember this, but my brother was telling me about it.... It was getting terribly dry, for there hadn't been any rain in quite some time, and the crops had began to suffer greatly. The plants began to wilt, and the people were getting extremely worried about it. You see, if you didn't grow anything, then you didn't eat. So, a few of the men went over to preacher Billy Harrison's house for a visit. He preached and farmed too, and was the most humble, best man I have ever known. Anyway, they went over there and asked preacher Bill to pray for rain. He did, and it wasn't very long until it came a good rain, then everything was alright.

Things were starting to look up read 2nd

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.

My life begins read 1st

I was born to Mr. and Mrs. John Vandiver on February 11th, 1934. Being right after the Great Depression, times were extremely hard, as you might imagine. There were 12 of us children because people back then had to have a lot of help to raise a crop. However, I don't remember there being but seven at home at one given time, and we lived just like the Amish people do now, the only difference being that they have money and we didn't have squat. I remember we would go to church in the wagon, and they would wrap me up in a quilt because I was the baby. Of course this was only done in the winter time, because it was extremely cold.

We lived 8 miles south of Leighton, about 2 miles from Old Bethel Baptist Church, and about 2 miles from LaGrange School. For years, there was just a dirt road that led to our house, which turned off of what is now HWY 48. Of course the road ended at our house and if we ever seen anybody coming, we knew that they were coming to see us.

There were a few houses back in the fields, but the people that lived there either walked or rode a horse to get where they were going. I remember there was a man named Waldrep that lived up there in the field and he would pass by our house frequently. He sipped on the bottle pretty often, and if he ever came by and was drunk, he would stop and want to argue about the Bible with my Daddy. For the record, we went to the Church of Christ.

Like I said, we were dirt poor, but at one time had 200 acres of good farm land. Daddy sold some of it, and all I ever remember us having were 114 acres. We would farm it and make about 15 bales of cotton each year, raised a lot of corn to feed the cattle with, horses, pigs, chickens, and of course food for own own use, too. There were probably about 50 acres of timber on it. There was a man there at Old Bethel that had a Grist Mill, and he would grind meal from your corn to make cornbread out of. So, every Saturday morning we had to shell a bushel of corn and take it to have it ground. Fortunately, we had a corn sheller for this task - or it would have taken us half a day to shell that much corn. After it was ground into meal, he would take so many scoops for grinding it - for we had no money to pay him with. In the winter, we would have to go cut enough wood to try to keep warm with until the following weekend. That was me and my sister's job after we got in from school. We had to get that crosscut saw and cut enough firewood to last until the next evening, and then it was the same thing over again the next day. We had a rack to put the wood in to saw it up, and I would have to sit on it while they sawed it up into sticks. When spring came, things got a lot more busy. I think I take this up later - we also had a Molasses Mill, and my daddy could make the best molasses you ever tasted. Everybody in the country would bring their sugar cane for him to make molasses with. We fired the cooking pan with wood, so everybody would bring about 5 wagon loads of wood to fire the furnace with. They would cut it just like fence posts, you couldn't tell the difference and then they would haul in the sugar cane. This happened in about August or September.

This thing was built on kind of a hill. The cane grinder sat up on a flat place, and then the juice would come out of the grinder and go into a barrel. From there, a pipe would go underground - say 30 feet to another barrel, only this barrel was down lower than the one at the grinder and the juice would would run into the top of it. I really enjoyed catching some juice in a glass, then drinking it. Children can be expected to do such things - even back then. Then there was the cooking pan, and you could unplug the bottom barrel and run more juice into the pan to cook. By the way, the cane grinder was pulled by a mule, and it was fixed where that mule would go around in a circle. This mule walked all day long, and there was always somebody there feeding the sugar cane into the grinder.

Usually my daddy would take so many gallons for making the syrup for the customer, and as you might expect - we had it everywhere. Needless to say, we never ran out of home made syrup.... After awhile it would turn to sugar and looked alot like ice cream salt. The only downside was that it caused our teeth to rot out, but we would have molasses, eggs, ham, and lots of biscuits for morning meals. The ham had usually been in the salt too long, and was so salty that you couldn't eat it. Of course we had a smoke house and a meat box for storing 2 or 3 hogs that were killed each year, and we would salt them down to cure so they wouldn't ruin. The only problem was, daddy just didn't get around to doing everything when it was supposed to happen, and the meat was left too long in the salt, which made it too salty to eat. There was a store over at Old Bethel and he would sit over there and talk all day. The fellow that ran the stores' name was Bob Ware, so naturally everybody called it Bob Ware's Store. Stores back then had a smell about them that smelled good. They had some things in bulk - which had a pleasant odor to it. Coffee was one thing, and sugar was another. They also had what they called "rolling stores", but we called them the "Peddler". Boy, it had a good smell too.... He would come down the road and start blowing that horn in time for you to get out and stop him.

We finallly ended up with a T Model Ford, and I would slip around and crawl up on the fender, raise the side, and play like I was working on it. All cars back then had a crank, and a T Model Ford had a Magneeter. (at least that's what I remember it being called) Anyhow, you would have to turn the crank to where that thing (magneeter) would buzz, and then you give it a turn. Sometimes it would crank, and sometimes it wouldn't. Sometimes it would kick backward like a mule, (i'm talking about the crank kicking backward).

My mother's parents lived at Waterloo (which is west of Florence), and it was around 50 miles from our house to theirs. Every so often, we would all load up and go to see them. I can barely remember 1 trip, we would leave our house about sun-up, and would get to theirs about 2 in the afternoon. The reason being - we had those old synthetic tubes in the tires, and because of the heat - you would always have a flat tire on the way. Of course everybody had tire tools and a pump, and also a box of patching on board. So, you would jack it up, fix the flat, and ride until you had another one. Sometimes, the patch would just get hot and come off and let the air out, but you could expect a few flat tires when traveling that far. We would get to Waterloo and where the road forks, we would go to the left about a block, and we would have a good old time. We always left for home early the next morning, and it was the same problem with flat tires all over again.