8-15-08...THE HOUSE I GREW UP IN
When I was four month's old My Parents bought and moved into the house that became home. I grew up happy there. We had only lived in walking distance of the house as the crow flies. The people who lived in our house and we lived in theirs. Each family bought the houses at the same time and we just switched. Daddy wanted this house cause his sister lived just across the pasture. Brenda was 11 month's old then. Of course I don't remember this but was handed down the story. Anyway that was the start of a wonderful loving home. It still sits there today but I only went back one time and it broke my heart to see it. Just bears out the meaning of YOU CAN'T EVER GO BACK. Oh but I can go back in my memories any time I want to. My Daddy worked in the coal mines just up the track. The mine was at the crossing and sat there for many years after it was dug out. Anyway back to that great home. Daddy paid 500.00 fo it in 1944 and I guess that was a lot of money. He paid payments through his pay check at the no.2 mine. The man was a friend and that is probably the only way Daddy was able to pay for the house. Luke Parks let him pay when he could. The mine wasn't steady so Daddy was often not working. But he did pay for it eventually and that's where we stayed. Brenda and i started roaming around as soon as we both could walk and could always find something to do. Some things I don't remember but was told about later makes me wonder how we survived childhood. But this happened at that old house before Daddy was able to make any repairs, and it wasn't dangerous to anything except our backsides. Brenda spent a lot of nights with me. Her house was crowded with brothers and sisters and we liked it better at my house. The house was not much more than a hull very open and cold. Of course there was no indoor plumbing and no electricity. We had a outside toilet and it was not close to the house for obvious reasons. Catalogs were the toilet paper and you didn't want the colored pages, they didn't work well. At night we had a 'slop jar' yep that's what they called it. Kinda like a bucket with a lid and a bail for carrying it out. We could pee in it but nothing else if you get the meaning. If ya had to go at night you had ta go to the out house. One very cold night for some reason Brenda and I both had to go and not to pee. Oh lord Brenda I ainta goin' outside. Me neither she said, go ask your Mama if we can use the slop jar. You go ask her I'm not going to. Heck no not me. Well then what are we gonna' do? Hey I said, that ol' back room is empty, just an old wood floor and there is cracks in it. We'll just go in there and poop then we'll pee on it and it will wash down the cracks. NOT!!! Well here we went and let me tell you we may as well gone outside. Our bear feet were freezing from that cold floor and Brenda got a big splinter in her toe. She started to holler out and I got hold of her just in time. Shut up Brenda they'll hear us. Well we squated down there and did just what we started out to do wiped off best we could with our gown tails and hurried back to the big ol' feather bed and snuggled up. Clydene are you sure that will wash down the cracks. Oh sure it will! And sure it didn't!!! The first thing Mama saw the next morning was our gown tails all smeared. And I imagine she smelled us a little too. What in the world did you girls do she said. Whatdaya' mean Mama. We really didn't know. We thought she'd never know what we'd done. Now Mama would have gone with us to the toilet and we knew that but we just didn't like going in that dark thing at night. When we realized what a mess we were in we had to fess up. But Mama it washed right on through the cracks we were hollering and she led us to the back room. When she opened the door and led us in there it was in all it's glory,,, frozen to the floor!!! Oh yes, that room was cold as outdoors and we were not even supposed to open that door at all. Oh My gosh, what a mess. The floor sloped down and the pee had only ran down a distance before it froze. I can still see it now. It was hard for us to believe what we were seeing. We got our thrashing right there poopy gowns and all.. My Daddy scooped it up (more like scraped) with a shovel before he went to work and brought in the wash tub with water. Mama warmed the water on the old stove and sat it on the floor for our baths. Sloshed us in together and cleaned us up. When it was daylight she warmed more water in the scrubbed tub and put us in again. Then she sent Brenda home with a note and we both got another spanking from my Auntie. Times were hard then but somehow we had so much Love that we never knew how hard. I learned a lot in that old house. Had a lot of love and made a lots of happy memories. I can go back in my memories and it is fun. YEP!!!
