THE SMART-ALEKY BABY
That would be yours truly. Baby's first word(s) are usually "ma-ma " or "da-da". Not mine.! My first word was "curtain" at the age of 4 months.
I made my singing debut in church at age 2, singing "Jesus Loves Me". I continued singing in church from about age 8 or 9 until I graduated high school at age 18. Then it was off to find work and make my way in the world.
GROWING UP ON THE FARM
CATERPILLAR RIDE
I am not sure just how old I was, but I do remember living in this house and was very young but I grew up in my grandparents' house directly across the road. See photos below. The dirt road in front of the house there was being paved, or whatever you call making it a rock base road, and I remember standing at the gate watching. I was fascinated with the big machines, especially the one with the big "things" that moved round and round as it moved. One day, the man stopped that machine, and asked if I wanted to take a ride. He must have been reading my mind. He sat me beside him on the big seat, and we rode up onto the new road, and back around in a circle to where we started. A very short ride, but I loved it! I'll never forget that.
View from the road. The white car was parked in front of the gate and would be facing the house. Probably in the sixties. One of the buildings above the other vehicles (right) was the old chicken house.
<-------- Looking east from road in front of the Homeplace photo. 1997
Spiderweb background image drawn by granddaughter age 5.
This house was rumored to be haunted. Several people heard strange noises there at times.
I never really thought much about hauntings and such, but I did hear a strange tapping noise only once in all the years that I had stayed there. Like shoes with cleats tapping on the stepping stones. It seemed to be coming from the just beneath my window which was on the second floor.
The moon was bright, so I got up and went to the window and I saw nothing except the stones, but the tapping kept on. The strange thing about it was that the tapping was rhythmic, the same sequence over and over.
The butcher, AKA "Butch", who worked in my uncle's grocery store stayed at the house while he and his wife looked for a house of their own. One evening Butch came in with a shotgun and carried it upstairs to his room. My uncle asked him why; Butch said somebody had been walking up the stairs about every night. Being new in the area, he had not heard the rumor. My aunt didn't believe in ghosts, etc., but she heard crunching, like someone walking on her leatherbritches she had placed on newspaper on the floor of an empty room upstairs. She quickly flung open the door, but saw and heard nothing. Once she turned to speak to my mother who was following her up the stairs, or so she thought, but there was no one there. She wasn't even in the house at the time.
SNAKES
My aunt found one on the second step to the basement of this house in Rupert, where I stayed summers. She stepped over it to go get a hoe, put the hoe just behind its head, let it coil around the handle then took it outside and chopped off its head. She didn't want to get blood on the step.
At this same place, once when I went to get water from the spring, beside the path there was a bird with wings a-flutter in front of the snake; they both seemed mesmerized. Like snake charming. I'm not sure which was the charmer and which was the 'charmed'. I stood and watched for a long time. Things like that are fascinating. Don't bother them, they won't bother you.
One morning, I stepped on a blue racer on my way to the school bus. I thought it was a clump of grass; heard something, turned around and it was racing down the hill. I had to make a sharp turn, but the snake couldn't, and it went on into the creek. Snakes are no big deal when you grow up on a farm. Pop never killed black snakes, but the copperhead that got into the house did get the hatchet.
Another snake adventure: a big long black snake got into the house, and hightailed it (for lack of a better word) into the living room and took shelter under the davenport. It was trying its best to get away. My uncle, the "designated snake remover", finally got hold of its head and carried it outdoors. For me, it was more exciting than scary. Of course, I had been "educated" on which snakes were dangerous. Pop ran across a very large one, dead, and stretched it across the road. The head and tail laid over on both sides about a foot. Pop let the black snakes do their own thing. Said they were good mousers.
Mom and I were on the porch swing when a hoop snake rolled its way down the bank and into the creek. Mom told me to look, and I saw it roll about 3 times before it disappeared over the bank.
BUD
My cousin, from the city. Nutter Fort, near Clarksburg. Bud came to stay with us for a few days, and being from the city, he was not savvy about country living. At least not about fishing. We got our poles and some bait, and were sitting on the footlog waiting for a bite. We were needing a snack, so I went up to the house to get it. I was almost to the back door when Bud screamed to high heaven, so I turned around and ran back. He was still sitting on the footlog, holding up his pole with something hanging onto the line. He snagged a turtle, and was terrified. I got him calmed down and explained what it was, and that it wasn't going to hurt him. We had a great time during his stay, though. No more turtles, but he didn't want to go fishing any more. He was about 3 years older than I (I'm guessing) and we must have been 8 and 11. I stayed in town with him and my great aunt for a week, which turned out to be a bit longer. I got the mumps. Funny thing....Bud would sit on the bed and I'd read to him. That scoundrel never, ever got the mumps!
HOUSE OUT BACK
The Farmer's Library
Actually it was up the hill a bit and to the right, not far from the barn. We didn't have inside plumbing until I was 11 or 12. I didn't mind the outhouse, and never really thought about snakes there, although there could have been, since they were very good mousers, and would hang around the barn which was right next to the outhouse. In the winter, it was very refreshing, and I didn't spend much time reading the Sears, Roebuck catalogue then; or whatever catalogue was there. My great-grandparents had a two-seater which was kept as clean as their house. That's another story on another page on this site, titled "Avon".
FARM ANIMALS
There was one cow, Jersey (we called her Jers), a pony, Prince, some hogs and many Rhode Island Red chickens.
And then there was "Foghorn", the big beautiful Leghorn, the attack rooster. He was meaner than a snake. He liked to jump on my back and pick at my neck. For absolutely no reason....in fact, he did it while I was gathering eggs or even feeding his onery beak! I finally had enough, and one day I decided we would have it out, once and for all. I found a good sized stick, my "equalizer", though maybe a bit overdone compared to his size, and went to gather eggs. Before I got into the chicken house, he followed me into the wash house. Sure enough, he jumped onto my back and started. I shoved him off with my hand and with that stick, hit him so hard that he fell over. I thought he was dead. He was Mom's pride and joy, and if he was dead, I knew I would be in a world of trouble. But in a few minutes, he started to move, stood up, staggered around a bit, and went on his way. I have heard people say that chickens are dumb. Well, that was one chicken that was not, because he never attacked me again. And since he did survive, I never told anyone. Shhhh.
MORE ANIMALS
The hogs were interesting beasts, but I never got close to them
Of course, I had cats, one at a time. First was "Tom", a blond tiger-stripe. Not allowed inside the house, but once he sneaked in, and not knowing, I went to check on the little bird I had been nursing in a makeshift cage in the living room. There sat the empty cage, Tom beside it, licking his chops amid the feathers, scattered everywhere. Later on, one summer when I was in Rupert, he got rabies and Pop had to shoot. I did understand.
Next, a little black furball with white paws, all four, hence he became known as "Boots". When he disappeared for quite some time, we learned that a neighbor down the road got a bit too involved in his target practice. Boots never came back.
I spent 13 summers in Rupert, and one of those years, I was adopted by a little white girl. She was gentle and cuddly. This was in the fifties, and the only name to give her had to be "Jole Blon". Any country music lover will know how that came about.
PARACHUTING PUSSYCAT
My uncle Glenn loved to take my cats on adventures. Over the bank there was an old natural gas rig. He would take the cat, put it inside his shirt so his hands would be free to climb. He climbed to the top of that rig, tie a large handkerchief around the cat and drop him. It worked like a charm, floating ever so slowly down to the ground. Then it was time for an encore, and there was a lot more scratching and clawing going on the second time around. I fussed at Glenn, but the cat wasn't harmed, and he did take me places, my favorite being the stock car races. The "real" cars. It was where I saw a Viking for the first time. Bright red. Boxy.
It was at this rig that I got a bad sting from a wasp. On the side of my nose. Hurt like the dickens, but I didn't go back to the house, just kept playing. It was pretty swollen for a while. Like my best friend, Bevy, and I. When she would visit for a week or so, we would climb the outside ladder to the attic door and jump to the ground. Mom would run out and tells us to stop before we break something. When she went back inside, guess where we went.
LAID-BACK BOVINE
This gentle lady is standing by the barn in Rupert. I still couldn't get the hang of milking, so my aunt took care of that.
There were many ponies around, since my uncle Chick was a "horse trader", and one of the ponies, all white with a glass eye took a liking to me and I to him. Not a real glass eye, just a condition, not terminal, that horses get. I called him Toby. No particular reason, and he was my baby. I fed him in the barn. I was standing near the barn looking at the ponies, and the beautiful white stallion came toward me at a gallop and snorting. Toby ran between us, headed him off and kicked him until he turned tail and ran. Toby saved my life, and it broke my heart when Chick sold him and some others. The buyer backed up the truck to load them, but Toby would not get in with the others. I heard Chick say, "I know what to do", and he called me over and told me to get onto the truck. Toby followed me. I felt 2 inches tall.
Her Highness
There were two dogs in Rupert, a dalmation and Lady, a Blue Tick.
One day she came lickety-split toward the house, barking and yelping.
Rethie and I came out on the back porch, and Lady didn't slow down. She
leapt right through the door screen. Left a big hole. I don't know
what she saw, but she was coming from a wooded area. It more than likely was a bear.
I have no picture of the Dalmation.
ABOUT PATSY
Back on the farm, we had Pop's Patsy, a great fox hunter. Many a night he would turn her loose and off she'd go. By her bark Pop would tell us what she had found and was doing. She was a loving creature.
TRIP TO RUPERT
When school was out, my Uncle Chick, the horse trader would come with his cattle truck to transport me to the "summer" house. Well, it was my summer house, except one year when I attended Rupert High School there my junior year. They lived there all the time. We went via old route 60, the beautiful scenic way, full of hairpin turns and steep grades. The only bad thing about it was sometimes coming up behind a log hauling truck, and being a 2 lane highway, and the many curves, it was not easy to pass, so it was a slow-go when that happened. The fresh mountain air got fresher the closer we got to Rupert, and the wood smoke aroma all along the way from small cabins by the road. The time we started very early in the morning, the fog was so thick that Chick had to stand with his left foot on the running board, right foot on the gas feed so he could see the white line markers. I kept very quiet.
MORE ABOUT PRINCE,
THE WONDER PONY
He amazed everyone. I often said he must be half human. If you know about animals, you know to keep them away from the extra food usually stored in large barrels inside a shed or barn. Prince knew how to open the wooden latch on the barn door by nudging it with his nose. He would sneak in and eat all he wanted, never foundering himself. A mischievious rascal he was, but he got the best of the two mules that Chick was boarding in the pasture. This domain belonged to "his highness", and the mules seemed to love teasing and chasing him. The pasture was uphill, and a fence at the bottom just before the steep dropoff into the yard of the house. During the chase, Prince kept in front of them, and just at the fence, he made a sharp turn and the mules just sailed right over that fence. Luckily, they weren't hurt.
One more antic by his highness, my favorite: The cellar house door opened into that pasture. Pop made wine every year and kept it in the cellar house. When he heard a commotion up there, he opened the door and there stood his very inebriated highness, chewing a cork and watching himself in the mirror of a dressing table. Pop sent him out, and he proceeded to stagger to the dog house and kick it around a bit.He was such a nice fellow, although a bit mischievious. He lived to the ripe old age of 20, and Pop was digging the grave when I got off the school bus. I draped myself over his body, and didn't move. A neighbor came over and pulled me off of him and took me to the house. Sad day.
VIEW AT THE TOP
The apple orchard was at the top of a steep hill behind the barn. From there, I could see Good Hope, 2 miles away. I went there often and enjoyed the delicious tree-ripened apples. Come fall, we had apples by the bushels, also, hickory nuts. (Photo below).
SUNDAY PICNICS
Many Sundays were spent in the cool mountain areas, near Elkins eating at picnic tables in wooded areas beside the road. When we went to Hawk's Nest, my Uncle Jimmy would shoot home movies with his 8mm movie camera. I remember that like yesterday. Such good memories of those times.
RODEO
Seeing as how I was a cowgirl, the rodeo was a favorite for me. At home afterward, I would get a piece of rope and do those rope tricks I had seen. Got pretty good at it.
WASH DAY
At Rupert, with no inside plumbing, wash day was an all day job. We carried water from the spring around the hill back to the wringer washer outdoors in front of the shed. There was only one thing wrong with that...my aunt had to wash the laundry twice. The only way they could get clean, according to her. The whites would blind you. That bluing sure did work! Then, the ironing. Everything was starched and ironed- bed sheets, tablecloths, even Chick's boxer shorts. I never could figure that one out.
Below, Rethie taking my picture. :0) Behind her is the wash house. We put the wringer washer about where she was standing.
CHURCH
The old church is no longer there. I sang solo in that church almost every Sunday after I got my guitar. Started in 1945 age 9. I was told that I sang Jesus Loves Me when I was 2 years old. I don't remember that. I do remember hearing my daddy singing at WMMN, a Fairmont Wva radio station. I remember him singing "Daddy's Little Girl.
The church was built in 1871, or thereabouts, and I went back in 1997 to see what had happened on the creek after the strip mining. I'm glad I got the pictures. I've seen an aerial view and a new church was built beside the old one. We lived just west of the church, short walking distance, and Mom and Pop were the last to sell to the mining company. Mostly deserted from the church and on up, It was heartbreaking. The Murphy farm just up the road from where I lived was still there, and I think it still stands. Seems the mining was done on only one side of the road.
I remember cake walks and picnics in the open field across from the church.
SCHOOL DAYS
Girls being naughty....four of us girls "borrowed" Bert M's car and went for a joyride one day while he was eating lunch at the little diner on the school grounds. We didn't go far, and all of us put in money to replace the fuel we had used. We didn't use much...fifty-cents filled it up.When we got back, there stood poor Bert, looking around and scratching his head. He was a good sport. No hard feelings, and we all had a good laugh and promised never to do that again.
And then there was the
TALENT SHOW
. . . .in the school auditorium. My best friend and I were good at writing song parodies, and we "wrote" two after school in the Home Ec room one afternoon when we were straightening up the room. Let Me Be The One #2 (Lonzo and Oscar), and South Of The Border #2. One of us would recite a line, the other would finish it. Mary K and I performed Let Me Be The One on the talent show. And then, I and two other girls sang another "original" - to the tune of My Wild Irish Rose, called "My Wild Irish Nose". What the audience didn't know was that one of the girls had a few raisins in her hand, and one line was "my wild Irish nose you can hear it when it blows" and on cue, she tossed one into the audience, first row. Fun times.
We also performed at Pruntytown. They wanted us to come back, but we never did. If you're from West Virginia, you know what that is. Back then it was a boys reform school in Pruntyown Wva. Now a state prison, Pruntytown Correctional Center.
OTHER FUN THINGS
THE COPPER KETTLE
One of my favorite chores was stirring apple butter and ketchup outdoors over an open fire. The best I ever tasted. Store-bought just didn't measure up and it took quite a while to get used to the difference.
That kettle was used inside the "warsh" house to heat water for the washer. The drum was square, made of aluminum. I liked using it, and once got my arm caught in the wringer, almost to my elbow, but I hit the release bar. No harm done. The dryer was a rope or wire tied to trees or poles. Laundry was line dried all year, no matter the weather. Some of it was starched, and had to be sprinkled with water and ironed. Back then, some people ironed bed linens, tablecloths, etc.. Bluing was used for the whites. I wondered how this blue liquid could make them whiter. But it worked.
The smokehouse was in the wash house off to one side, a narrow section for storing cured hams, bacon, and fatback (salt pork).
QUILTING BEES
Mom had a quilting frame that took up half of the living room. Friends and neighbors would come to help and I was allowed to get in on that fun too. I must have been 4 or 5 years old.
TAFFY PULLING
Another fun event. We greased our hands with butter, chose a partner, and started pulling. I believe it took quite a while before it was ready but worth it.
THE CELLAR
Canning was an annual thing. The lids on the Mason jars were made of zinc lined with porcelain. They are not considered safe today but we survived.
At butchering time, even meats were canned. She always made mincemeat and I never acquired a taste for that. When I asked the ingredients, I knew why.
I recall canned pigs feet and chicken feet, and didn't even try those. I didn't think there was much meat on either.
The cellar was well stocked with garden vegetables, ketchup, apple butter, jellies, jams. My favorite jelly was elderberry. There were elderberry bushes all over the property.
Homemade ice cream all year, but I wasn't fond of the strong vanilla taste. In winter, it was made with snow.
FOOD
Back then, there were three meals a day, called breakfast, dinner and supper. Food was put on the table in large serving bowls, and passed around. You ate what was put out. It wasn't a restaurant. In fact, that's how we ate in grade school. A large table, passed food around. Food was cooked with lard and butter. We drank fresh milk from our cow (GASP!), and from that milk, thick cream which we used on cereal, dry or cooked. A favorite breakfast treat was cornmeal mush, sliced and fried, with gravy or syrup. My favorite is gravy. Coffee was made in a percolator on top of the stove, and that aroma was out of this world!
SPRING WATER
Our well was on the back porch. Water was drawn with a long cylindrical bailer and poured into the water bucket with a dipper that hung on the rim of the bucket on a small table by the well. Freshly drawn, it was ice cold. Everybody drank from that dipper. Again, we survived. Nobody got sick or died. Imagine that!
THE WAY IT WAS
Simpler times back then. I had plenty of toys to keep me busy. I remember a scooter, tricycle, and a swing simply made of rope and a piece of wood in the big tree in the corner of the yard. The tree was close to the embankment and I would swing as far out as I could. Had I fallen, it would not have been pretty. But, I had no fear.
Being a tomboy of sorts, I had 2 six-shooters, with caps to make them go "bang", holsters, fringed skirt and shirt outfit, boots and the hat. I was Dale Evans. My hero was and still is Roy Rogers. I probably saw every movie he ever made. Every Saturday, there was a western at Moore's Opera House and/or the Orpheum. Of course there were other cowboys.... Gene Autry, Lash LaRue, Sunset Carson, Hopalong Cassidy, Johnny Mack Brown, Bob Steele. Bob Steele would mount his horse from behind from a running jump and I understand he did it himself, no double. Interesting to watch.
My friend who lived down by the church would sometimes play cowgirls with me. And across the field the creek there was deeper than up by my house. We had a "rowboat", made by her dad. He cut a 55 gallon barrel in half lengthwise. We got a pole and went "boating". Sometimes we would just wade. Tried to catch minnows (minners, as Mom called them), and sometimes a little water snake would swim by between our feet. Across the road from her house was a cattle scale. We would climb all over that, on the rafters, and they must have been 8 feet high. No fear, but now I don't like to climb a stepstool.
Just around the church and up to the old house, a lovely lady, Ida Caynor, would let us come in and play her Victrola upstairs.
Sometimes we played until dark, but it was quite safe to walk home alone.
MY TREASURED COUNTRY MEMORIES
Sitting on the front porch swing at night
Gas lights on the wall
Hand cranked wall telephones
Zinc bath tub
Outhouse
Croquet games in the yard
Reel type lawn mower
Wire recorder
Hair curled with rags
Wind-up wrist watches
Penny candy
Quilting bees
Catching lightning bugs
Wading in the 'crick'
Watching silent movies with pianist (live) at the local small town hall
Listening to shows on radio, the only form of entertainment at home
Dirt roads
Haystacks
Fresh eggs and milk
Family picnics in the woods
Eating rabbit and squirrel, sometimes turtle soup
Wringer washer, hanging laundry outside, any weather
Spring water from the well
No 'snow days' off from school
Making apple butter and ketchup outdoors in a large copper kettle over an open fire
Rug beating
Churning butter
Sitting on the porch with a folded newspaper fan and a/or a flyswatter
Hanging flypaper
Wallpaper
Mustard plaster
Live pine trees at Christmas
Shoe repair shops
Shoe store clerks
Paper cup walkie-talkies
Flying kites made of newspaper and string
Tree swing made of rope and piece of wood
Planting gardens
Night sounds - frogs singing
Night creatures, music of the crickets
June bugs
Praying mantis
Walking sticks
Staring at the Milky Way - there is something very peaceful and amazing about that -it's a view you don't see if you're close to the city lights
Catching lightning bugs, putting them inside a jar; releasing them before going inside for the night
Going to bed and hearing nothing...I think I know what deafness is like
Chewing spearmint leaves off the little plants by the creek
My cousin, Jimmy and I playing, outdoors or in. He is more like a brother since we grew up together with Mom and Pop. Sometimes we were "cowpokes" and sometimes I was his secretary in an office or we would just play in the sand pile and whatever else we dreamed up. He was Mr. Jefferson, but I have no idea what he did for a living. : ) He was quite young, and he pronounced it Mr. "Jepshon". We did have fun and got along very well. Jimmy in front yard, below.
SUMMER STORMS & ENTERTAINMENT
SUMMER STORMS
I'm not afraid of storms, thanks to Pop, who taught me to respect them. I learned a lot from him, and during the thunderstorms, he would say "somebody upset the 'tater wagon". When he said "time to go in", meant it was getting too close.
He was a great weather forecaster. I trusted his judgement more that the radio weathermen. He would go outside, look around, and forecast the weather. He was always right. A very smart man. In his era, most boys graduated in the eighth grade. Have you ever seen an eighth grade arithmetic test? Unbelieveable!
HUNTERS- LAND AND WATER
Of course, every year, someone went hunting, whether rabbit, squirrel or deer. I remember eating rabbit, and probably squirrel, but I don't remember that. There were catfish in the creek, and we used a rod cut from a willow tree and string. Worms were bait. First time I fished there, the catfish I caught was so big and heavy, Pop had to help pull it out
KEEPING BUSY
I was an only child, but later, my cousin Jimmy came to live with us. We grew up together, we are like brother and sister. We found a lot to do to keep busy. He was playing a banjo when he was in the first grade. It was a small one and he was a quick learner. Later, he learned to play guitar, as did I when I was 9 years old. Glenn taught me three chords just before he went to Japan, and when he came back, I was playing lead for him in our family jam sessions at the house. Pop gave me an electric guitar, which I still have. Almost everyone in the family played an instrument or sang. Mom played the 5-string banjo, Jim, uncle Glenn and I, the guitar. My aunts would sing with me, and taught me a few songs.
For Christmas one year, Pop gave me a wire recorder. That was helpful in learning songs from the Grand Ol Opry, which we listened to every Saturday night. Also, my uncle was a comedian/tenor banjo player on the WLS National Barn Dance in Chicago.
I recorded songs on the recorder, copied them in shorthand, typed them and put all into a big notebook. The recorder was a console with a radio, so it was easy to record.
RADIO
No television back then, just radio and your imagination showed you the picture as you listened to the story. I actually prefer that, and still prefer black and white movies.
There were comedy shows, radio "sitcoms" so to speak, lots of soap operas, talent shows, and the news was the actual news, not long drawn out sessions of different people harping on the same subject with their opinion.
The newscasters were just that..... newscasters, journalists, for real. I remember Edward R Murrow, Gabriel Heatter, H V Kaltenborn, Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Douglas Edwards, Harry Reasoner, John Chancellor, John Cameron Swayze.
RADIO DRAMA
Mom loved the soap operas. She would hurry and get the morning housework done so she could listen to the soaps. Ma Perkins, Life Can Be Beautiful, Stella Dallas, The Guiding Light. There had to be complete silence when they were on, so I heard them too. I didn't dare move or even speak. :D
Another sideline Mom liked to do was eavesdropping on the telephone party line. She demanded silence then also. Most everyone did it. The telephone, wall type with a crank. Our ring was a long and four shorts.
DO-SI-DO ....
Turner's Hayloft in Bridgeport, West Virginia, was the place to go for square dancing and and a good time. My first visit there was when I was a teenager, I don't remember my age. The owner was a friend of the family, and asked me to bring my guitar and sing a song that night. The band manager said I needed a "stage name", and for that night, I became "Texas Sally". Enough said about that. I did not use that name for the few weeks I sang at a small, local radio station in Clarksburg. It was fun, but I never got over "mic" fright. The stage performance was a bit different, so I was calm and collected there.
ALLEMANDE LEFT...
This was the old time square dancing, not Western style, so there were many dancers in the ring. When "allemande left" was called, some gentleman there slipped in and made sure he grabbed me for the "promenade home" call, so, having never square danced I was quite surprised when my partner suddenly became another person. He explained what he had done and introduced himself as we promenaded home.
To be continued, probably.