This is a memoir written by my great grandmother, Emma Lee (Bradley) Thacker as given to me by my grandmother, her daughter. I believe my grandmother typed this from a handwritten manuscript, but I have not seen it.  I have made no corrections to either grammer, spelling, or punctuation. All [ ] are my own notations and references. Any ( ) is part of the original typed manuscript. This document may be printed for personal use in genealogical or other historical research, however, publication or distribution with out permission is a violation of federal law. 

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Feb. 28, 1971 Idalou, Texas This is a memo of my brother and my life together as I remember it, and the things I have been told, before I could remember.

By - Emma Lee (Bradley) Thacker


My brother, the dearest brother a sister ever had, was born Jan. 25, 1890, in Hopkins County, Texas.

I was born June 9, 1906 in what is now Boswell, Okla. Then it was Indian Territory, becoming a state in 1908.

Our Daddy was a drayman in Boswell and ran a wagon yard when I was born. He passed away when I was eighteen months old, in Feb. 1908.

When he knew he wasn't going to live, he called Mama and Bub to his bedside and told them to take his insurance money and go back to Texas. He was a Woodman. They had already lost two little boys, Charlie, age 11, just younger than Bub, and Alfred, age 5, who passed away when I was 6 months old. He told them we were all going to die if we stayed there. After our Daddy was down in the bed, Mama and Bub went to the woods and cut wood with a cross cut saw to feed us.

In the summer after he passed away, we left for Texas in a covered wagon. Bub, Mama, Mary, Una, Floyd, and myself. Minnie and Charlie were married and Amos was a baby. They had their own wagon and they come along too.

They said the Old Red River was high, muddy and rolling. We crossed on a ferry boat at about where Denison, Texas is. Every one had to get out of the wagons and hold to the sides of the boat. They said Bub held me and the team too, wouldn't let anyone else hold me.

Mary said she never was so scared in her life. Of course, I was too little to be afraid, anyway Bub had me and I felt secure. He said that I said, let me down Big Bub and let me wade.

The first night we camped, someone tried to steal our mules, possibly Indians. Bub and Mama stayed under the wagon all night watching. We made it to Olney, in Young Co. by fall. They picked cotton to carry us through the winter and bought feed and seed to make a crop on the next year.

The place was north east of Olney and I always heard it called the Anderson place. Homer was born there in Dec. of that year.

That was the first time I can remember anything, and Bub comes to mind first. We had a wagon sheet stretched around the porch for our kitchen. We were eating and he told me to look up in the corner at something, and when I looked back he had removed my glass of milk. I must have looked funny, for they all alughed. That is my first remembrance of anything, and Bubs face is still clear after all these years. The next year, Bub rented a place north of Olney, they called it the Uncle Dock Ledbetter place. I can remember a little that year. We had some guineas. Mama and I had been trying to find their nest, but couldn't. Bub come in from the field at noon and told us to look a the end of the garden. We found it that evening. I never saw so many eggs. Eggs everywhere, but of course, there might not have been as many as I thought. That was my first memory of Mama.

While we lived there, Mama and Mary were quilting a quilt. Bubs trunk was under it. I was playing around and decided to look in it. I did to my sorrow. I rubbed my fingers across his razor to see if it was sharp and sure enough it was. I nearlly cut my finger off, and still have the scar to prove it.

While we were there we went to some kind of school get together. probally the end of school. They took turns carrying me as they were walking. After we got there, Bub disappeared for a while. He come back to where we were black as a negro. I knew it was him, I knew his voice, but I wouldn't let him hold me. He preached a negro sermon. The audience just roared and I cried because they laughed at him.

That was the year that Mama decided to get married again. I never knew when Bub left, but it was sometime after the crop was made. He prbally left when I was asleep, so I wouldn't cry for him.

I remember the day Mama and Bill (Dickey) went to get married, but not when they left.

The first thing I remember is Una and me at a neighbors, south of our house. It come up a rain cloud. After the worst was over, she said we had to go gather the little chickens. We had to cross a branch that was running about waist deep to her. She carried me across, and then we ran. It had begun to rain, thunder and lighten again. When we got to the house, she put me inside and started gathering up wet chickens and putting them in a tub and told me to watch them. but I just stood in the middle of the floor and screamed bloody murder.

After the cloud was over and she had dried out the chickens and got us changed, we started for a neighbors a little ways east, to spend the night. Before we got there we met Mama and Bill coming back from Archer City where they were married. They tried to get me to go back to the house with them, but I wouldn't turn Una loose. I doubt you could have pulled me loose. We spent the night there, a stormy one. I would put the pillow over my head so the thunder wouldn't sound so loud and when I went to sleep, Una would take it off.

I don't remember when we went home or when Bill brought his kids over to live with us. I only remember one little happening. Bill was driving the mules in from the field. His little girl (my age) and I were stepping on the lines that were dragging on the ground. Una was coming on behind us, close enough to hear what was said. He told us if we did that again he was going to whip us with the lines. Una come on up where he was and told him he better not hit me, then or ever or she would kill him. I don't guess he ever did, I don't remember it.

I don't rmemember the trip, but we were in Okla. Bill, his four kids, Mama and me. That was when I started crying for Bub. In the evening late, just before sundown. I went to the chimney corner and cried my heart out, until it was so dark I was afraid. I wned in and finished by crying myself to sleep in bed.

I guess that went on every night we were there. By that time Bills kids weren't very good to me, so I never went out to play anymore.

I told Mama to write to Charlie and tell him to send me a nickel to buy me some candy. Una sent me two nickels. I remember getting them. I guess she must have told them how I cried. Bub had a wagon and team of his own and he told Minnie he was going after me and if manma didn't want to come she could stay there, but he was going to bring me back.

Minnie tried to stop him but he left anyway. Just before he got to the Red River his horses gave out and he had to stop and work and rest them awhile.

But in the meantime, I guess Mama had decided to take me back. It was our wagon and mules. Bill was working away from home. I remember his oldest boy loading our things into the wagon. Mama and I started out by ourselves, but I remember I was happy about it. Someone must have brought Bill and his kids to catch up with us, for they came back too.

When we got to Wichita Falls it was raining and we spent the night in the wagon yard. Men had been pitching silver dollars. I found one laying in one of the holes. I guess it was the first one I ever had. It looked as big as a wagon wheel to me. I don't know what happened to it, went to buy something to eat, I imagine.

This must have been 1910, for that was when Una got married. We settled just east of Seymore and she and Link come to see us. After she come, things began to look up for me. I knew Bub would be coming soon, and he did. It seems like Mama and me were home by ourselves. I think I was sick, for I was sitting up in bed. I had learned to say the alphabet, forward and backward. I told Bub I could say them backward, and he said if I could he would give me all the money he had in his pockets. I did and he pitched it on the bed. Nine silver dollars, I know, because he had taught me to count. It seems like he was there for only a few days.

I gave him back his silver dollars when Mama said poor Bub, doesn't have any moeny to buy anything to eat, and I couldn't take that. But when he was going, he told me if I wouldn't cry after him he would give them to me to keep. I remember Mama saying, don't ask her to make a promise she can't keep, for you know she is going to cry when you leave. I don't remember him leaving, but I had some of the silver dollars.

When I next saw Mary, she and Frank were married. Johnnie and Z were small. I thought they were the grandest things and have always loved them.

I can't remember when Floyd come back, but he did for a while. He and Bill's youngest boy were almost scalded to death by a train engine. We lived in Seymore then, by the railroad tracks where the trains were switching. A hose burst, almost scalding them to death. Only scalded on of Floyds legs real bad, but the other boy was sitting in Floyds lap and he was scalded real bad from head to foot. They thought for a long time he wasn't going to live. I can still hear his screams when they dressed or turned him over. Minnie and Mary came up and wanted to take me home with them, but I wouldn't go. I had Floyd back and I was afraid I would loose him again.

Along about that time Bub was gone for a year. No one knew where he was. He was down on the river in Arkansas working on a boat. He dicided to come home. He got as far as Megargel where Link and Una lived. He was sick and it turned out he had typhoid fever. Una took care of him through it.

That was the summer before Emmitt was born, Dec. 26, 1913. Mama and I had been visiting Minnie and was going home on the train from Olney. When we got on, there was Bub, coming to see us. We didn't stay at Seymore long after that. I guess Mama had already decided to leave Bill.

In a few days, he and Mama went back to Seymore after our belongings. I wanted to stay there and play with Amos and Homer, but I cried when they left me. I was afraid Bub wouldn't come back. But he assured me he was coming back to stay.

Minnie worried, she was afraid Bill would be home and he and Bub would have trouble, but he was still on the railroad working. They got the things loaded and started out. It come up a sandstorm and they spent the night with some neighbors we had lived by a few miles from Seymore, coming on the next morning.

We moved into the house where Homer was born. Minnie and Charlie had moved up into the big two story house on the same place, and lived there until we all moved to Dickens Co., in 1915.

The year we moved down there, things began to seem right for me, but Bub still had to keep telling me he wasn't going to leave me. He had worked in the harvest in the summer. It was a stormy year, seems like we spent a lot of time in the cellar, and I was afraid of it.

One night we slept down there. I woke up screaming bloody murder. I thought it was going to fall in. Bub got hold of me, telling me how good it was built. He struck matches and showed me how big the nails were. He said anything couldn't break them. I then felt secure and cuddled up to him and went back to sleep. But I always hated that cellar.

One afternoon, Bub and Floyd was working somewhere, and Mama and I were there by ourselves. It almost blew the house away. It was less than a quarter mile to Minnie's. I wanted to go there, but for some reason Mama wouldn't go. When Bub and Floyd came in that night, Mama started telling them she couldn't get me in the cellar and we almost blew away. Things were scattered everywhere. Bub told her she should have taken me to Minnie's when she saw the cloud gathering, that I would have gone with them. He told her not to be caught there anymore if they wasn't there. It blew down a huge mulberry tree at Minnie's.

That year after harvest was over, Bub, Mama and me went to Clarendon, Tex. on the train to Uncle Henry Henderson's. I wasn't very happy about leaving Floyd behind. He stayed at Minnie's. Bub told me he would send for him as soon as he got there and got a job, and he did. In later years he told me why we moved up there. Bill was trying to get Mama to come back to him. He was sending word to her by someone. He told Mama he would never give me up again, it would have to be Bill or me. So that was the reason he moved us up there. He sent for Floyd and they picked cotton that fall. I think that was the prettiest, whitest cotton I ever saw. I guess because things were right for me again.

Uncle Henry and Aunt Alice had two children. The girl, Bertha was about my age and they boy, Dee was younger. We played and had a lot of fun. I loved them and Aunt Alice was so good to me. She was a real large woman.

After the crops were out that winter we moved into Clarendon. I think Uncle Henry lived east just a few miles. The two Bubs got jobs working. It must have been a year.

Henry Whisenant come out to visit Uncle Henry in a covered wagon. Mama and I went back with them to Minnies. They were getting ready to move west as soon as he got his crop gathered.

When Charlies crop was out, them, Mama and me, Charlies dad and Dillard Jackson, Frank, Mary, Johnnie and Z all headed west. There were three covered wagons and a hack. I guess you would call it a wagon train.

Charlie rented the old Paul Lee Taylor place. Amos and I started to school there. (Foy was born there, May 4, 1920). They spent six years there.

Bub had bought a team of mules (wild ones). He and Floyd were going to pick cotton around Memphis, Tex. to pay for them.

After Bub and Floyd got the mules and wagon paid for they come and found us in Dickens Co. After the crops were out there wasn't any work. They found some grubbing to do west of Spur. I believe we stayed there until the next fall. Then us, Joe Henderson, Henry Whisenant and family moved up east of Plainview, Tex. In the spring the men worked on an alfalfa farm.

Floyd had typhoid fever while we were there. That fall after he was over the fever we all headed for New Mexico. Uncle Henry had already moved there, a few miles east of Santa Rosa.

The men did hauling, feed, onions and what not with their teams. When that was over we moved into Santa Rosa. I guess we stayed there until Feb. That was when we moved back to Texas.

We lived in a tent and at Christmas time or a few days before, I could smell apples. I knew they were around some place. Everytime they got out, leaving me by myself, I looked everywhere, I thought. Even digging in the ground. The smell seemed like it was over in the corner, but far from it. Bub always kept his mule collars and pads inside in the dry. That was where the goodies were, hid in the sacks and the pads just thrown over them. He sure laughed later when he told me where they were hidden.

While we lived there I kept wanting to make biscuits. It looked so easy for Mama to amke them. So she let me try and it wasn't as easy as it looked. Mama said I should have done better, as much as I had watched her. I was real disappointed she thought that, but Bub come to my rescue and said he thought I did real good for the fist try and I would do better each time. But she like to never got me to try again.

On our way back to Texas, we got caught in a areal sander that lasted about three days. We stayed in a wagon yard at Texaco, New Mexico. There was a family there with several children. We were sitting by the fire. The girl just larger than me was reading a book to me when her brother just younger than her fell to the floor with a fit. She fell down across him, jerking a spoon out of her pocket and putting it in his mouth, the smaller boy sat on his legs and held them down. Bub was sitting on the other side of the fire, he asked if he could help any. The mother thanked him and said the children knew how to handle him. Well, you guessed it, I lost no time getting over close to Bub. If he hadn't been there I guess I would still be running.

When we got to Dickens Co., Bub and Floyd grubbed and broke out some land to farm, what became the Lee Mim's place, living in a tent. That summer Frank and Mary come by headed to Boswell, Okla. in a covered wagon. They made the trip at least once a year. Link and Una lived at Megargel. Floyd went down there with them and found work.

By that fall, World War I was going strong. Floyd enlisted thinking they wouldn't take Bub, as he was our only means of support. But they did. The bottom fell out of my world again.

He left in the fall of 1917 for service in the army. Mama and I had no place to go but to Minnie's. Bub had the mules mortgaged to the bank, and they had to take them back, for we didn't make enough crop to pay off the mortgage.

That upset me badly. I heard Mama tell Chrlie to see if they would come get them while I was at school, for she knew I was going to have fit, and I did when I missed them. I don't know how I thought I could feed them. I just knew they were Bub's and I wanted to keep them.

I was awfully depressed after that. Bub sent me a box of candy and some songs that were popular then. Such as "Over There, Over There" and "K-K Katie". I don't remember all of them, but all the big girls at school copied them.

Two of the neighbor men, Mr. Murchison and Mr. Thannisch went to the Red Cross and put in to get Bub out. Mama had to go to Spur to sign some papers. Charlie found a way for her to go with some one that had a car but he charged her $2.50, that was the last cent we had. The Red Cross told Mama not to tell me they were trying to get Bub out, for if it didn't go through it would be to hard on me. But if they didn't get him out they would move Mama and me to Spur and see that we were cared for.

About that time we got word that Floyd had been wounded. it was several days before we learned how bad he was. So we were all upset.

January of that year Bub got out, we had a bad blizzard and snow storm. We lived nearly a mile north of the school. It come up after we left that morning. I don't know why Charlie didn't come after us sooner, but he didn't come until evening and by that time it was so bad we almost didn't make it. He walked and brought an extra coat for each of us. When we started out the wind was blowing so hard we could hardly walk. He held Amos with one hand and Homer by the other. He told me to hold Homer,s other hand and be sure I didn't turn loose, for we had to stay together. When we got to the gate going to the house he turned AMos loose to open the gate and the wind started blowing him the other way. he told me to hold Homer and hold onto the gate. My hands were so cold I couldn't use them. I just pushed him against the plank gate and held my arms around him. By the Charlie got Amos back, Homer and I were bawling, but we couldn't hear ourselves above the wind, I don't believe we could have made it to the house if Charlie hadn't gotten back. The wind was so strong and we were so cold and exhausted. When we finally got to the house he couldn't use his hands to open the door. Finally he made Minnie and Mama hear him by kicking the door. he was almost too exhausted to do that.

Talk about screaming, when they went to warming us up, you could really hear us above the wind then. I thought they would never let us go to sleep that night. So I guess that is the reason I never like snow.

That was really a hard winter. My clothes were worn out. I had got down to one dress, and it was thin. I wore it to school all week, taking it off as soon as I got home and donning a pair of old overalls. Mama washed, starched and ironed it on Sat. for the next week. My shoes were worn out, but I had to hang on. I had no tablet or pencil to get my lessons with. Mama had an old slate that was her brothers. I did my lessons on it until I learned them well enough to put them on the blackboard at school.

Not to long after that snow storm, Mama received ward from the War Department that Floyd was fine, was just wounded in the hip and elbow. Then come word that Bub was getting out, and would be home soon. I wouldn't hardly go to bed, afraid he would come while I was asleep. he come late one evening, so sick and having chills. How scared I was. It turned out he had pneumonia. I remember Mama sitting up with him and ever time I woke up in the night I got up and Mama would send me back to bed. I guess I thought just being there would help.

When he was up, he was so hurt that I had no clothes and nothing to get my lessons with. He gave me a cedar pencil and sharpened it real good for me and gave me part of a tablet. The first day I took it to school, one of the teachers pets that sat just behind me, got the pencil while I was at the blackboard. I told the teacher about it. The girl lied like a dog so she got the pencil. I wanted that pencil so badly because Bub had given it to me. When I got home I slipped around and told Mama. She said don't let him see the pencil or tell him about it for it would cause trouble. I didn't tell him until the last time he come to see me before he passed away. The teacher was dead by then. Sis, he said if you had told me I would have jumped him out about it, I don't care how long it had been.

I guess they must have paid him a little when they discharged him, for when he was better and able to go to town he got me a pair of shoes and material for two dresses. I'll never forget how proud I was of them, I remember the material just as clear as if it was yesterday.

That was in 1918. Bub rented a place from Mrs. Mattie Edwards. The bank let him have his mules back, extending the loan until fall. He broke some land for Mrs. Edwards, I imagine for money to live on.

It was stormy that year, so Bub dug us a cellar. That one I wasn't afraid of. He put a top on it to suit me. He said, now will you be afraid of this one? I told him no I wouldn't. We didn't get much rain, just thunder and lightening. We lived in a one way shack, so Bub said a cellar would be safer. By the time we got to cotton chopping time the money for groceries had just about played out. Mama and I would go out a little ways to a prairie dog town and twist out a cotton tail rabbit, if we were lucky enough to find one, and we would have a treat. I walked a mile ever day to Mrs. Edwards for a gallon of milk. Then one of her cows went dry, so that played out. By the time we started cotton chopping we were down to cornbread and water. But told Mama he wasn't going to make me work on that. She told him he wouldn't have to, just pick up you hoe and start and she will be right behind you. Well, I didn't fatten on it, but we survived and were together. After we got the crop laid by, Bub heard they were going to gravel the road east of Spur, of course the did it by wagon and team then. So he got a job on that. Mama and I went to Minnie's and stayed. After they finished the one down there, they then graveled the one east of Dickens. Bub and Charlie both walked on it.

It was so dry that year we only made two bales of cotton and some left over for a remnant. Mack Allison (Mama's nephew) made a real good maize crop, and his cotton crop was fair as he lived in the sand. He wanted to go to Clarendon and work helping bale feed and later shipping a lot back to sell. He hired Bub to gather his crop, head feed and help his kids pick and haul the cotton to Afton to the gin.

It come a big snow. Bub and Bud Allison was going off somewhere horse back. He told me to stay in out of the snow, as I had a sore throat. Lora, the twins and I had a stove in the cellar, so she and I decided to slip down in the edge of the field and get some peanuts where they were stacked. Well, wouldn't you know when we got back, there was Bub. He took off his belt and walloped me a few licks, which hurt my feelings worse than my seat. It was the first time in my life he had ever whipped me.

The year was 1919, he rented a place from Dillard Jackson he had just bought, which joined the one we lived on in 1917. That was a good year. He made a lot of feed and 21 bales of cotton. We got a good price for it. Floyd come back from France that spring. There wasn't much work around so he went down Megargel way, working and sending a little money to help Bub get the crop finished up. That spring Mama had a bunch of little chickens. bub come in from the field one day and told me to go put out some water for them. I was setting the table, so I went off mumbling to myself, but I did so a little to loud, he heard me. There was a little board laying by the door. I had just stooped over pouring the water in the trough and didn't hear him until he landed on me. That was the second and the last one I got. I was a little more careful after that.

We had a big watermelon patch and the finest melons. Bub was getting his wagon ready for the cotton haul and had the bed off. Homer and Amos were there. He told them if they would just lay some planks on the running gear they would go get some melons. He had bought another team. One of them Old Doll, the bay mare that became one of the family. The other was a spit fire, always wanting to run. When Amos got off to close the gate coming back, Bub said hurry I can't hold her, she wants to run. Amos ran and jumped on the end of the boards, causing them to pinch Bub. You can guess the rest. Amos still laughs about that yet. He told me to be sure to write this in for that was the funniest thing, and he was afraid to laugh around where he was. Bub had trouble sitting down for a few days. Things can hurt some one so bad and be so funny to kids.

That fall Jess gave Floyd a team and wagon. After the crop was out, The Morris family come out west with Frank and Mary to pick cotton. They picked for Charlie and then on to help us finish up. Floyd and Dixie were married on Jan. 25, 1920.

That spring as Mary and Frank were making their annual trip back to Boswell, Floyd and Dixie went as far as Megargel. Mildred was born there in Nov. 1920.

Bub rented a place in the sand about two miles from where we lived, owned by Ebb Hash. he made a good crop that year. That was my first year to head maize, and I sure got a working out. I heard Bub tell Mama that I could beat most men, but I didn't like the scratchy stuff. Some of it was higher than my head. That was before they started planting the dwarf kind.

Bub decided not to farm the next year. There was some railroad work going on down at Graham, so we loaded up two wagons and headed east. Mun Gage (Mama's nephew) hed the Arkansas fever, so he loaded his two wagons and coma along with us us far as Seymore.

Frank had bought a model T car to make his trip to Boswell in this time. Mama waited and come in the car with them. It took us about four days in the wagons. They waited until the last day and got there just ahead of us.

Mama and I stayed at the Lovern's for a while. Bub, Floyd and Dixie went on down where the work was. Later Mama and I went down. By the time the railroad work was over, the wheat harvest was in full swing. The Bubs, Mama and I went to Olney and they worked through the harvest. Dixie and Mildred went back to Dickens Co. visiting her folks until Floyd worked the harvest, then going on out to where they were.

After harvest, Bub got a job hauling for awhile. In about August we headed back Dickens way. He had sold one wagon and the old one eyed mule I had driven down with Old Doll tied up beside her.

On our way back, between Benjamin and Guthrie, a storm hit us. The wind was blowing so hard the horses were trying to run. Bub told Mama and me to get out at the back of the wagon and lay down in the ditch. I got out and got Mama out. Just then the back wagon bow broke and the sheet was about to blow off. I grabbed it and held on. Mama was holding to the end of the gate. I knew if the sheet blew over the horses Bub couldn't hold them. If Old Doll hadn't been so good to mind him, he never could have held them anyway. We was talking to her and she was doing her best to hold them back.

The wind beat me against the wagon wheel. I was black and blue all over, but I would never have turned loose until it beat me to death. After it was all over and he got the horses calmed down, he said Sis, I guess you kept them from running away and maybe tearing up the wagon, but I was afraid you would get hurt. In the storm he lost his hat. He told Mama to get back away from the wagon, I could hold the horses and he would go look for it out in the pasture a little ways as he saw which way it went, but he didn't find it.

After it was all over we had a good laugh about who was the most scared. A few miles down the road we camped for the night. I think I shook all night and ever little while I would look to see if it was coming up another cloud. Bub finally told me to go to sleep, he had been watching the cloud and it had gone around us. The next I knew the sun was shining, Bub was watering the horses at a tank and Mama was cooking breakfast. Everything smelled so good after the evening before, but my, how sore I was. Bub asked me if I had any broken bones. I said no, I guess I'll live, but don't think I could stand another one like that today. We made it to Charlie's that night.

Up in the day, when the sun got hot, Bub's hair was standing straight up. I got tickled. I told him I thought he was still scared. Feel of your hair, it isn't very smooth either he said. I felt the top of my head and mine was standing up too. He said now who is scared?

Bub rented the Mack Allison place that fall for the next year, or most of it. That year was 1922.

Bub did all the plowing that year, but I hoed, milked the cows and did all the odd jobs to help him out. Besides the cooking and washing. Mama wasn't well that year. I also picked cotton that fall.

That summer I wanted to go down and spend a day or two with Floyd and Dixie. The only way I had to go was horse back. We had a little bay mare I liked to ride, but she was so afraid of cars that Bub wouldn't let me ride her, I might meet a car. He said you will have to ride Old Blue. She was as clumsy as an ox. But rather than not get to go I decided to ride her. It was ten miles down there. About noon the sun was getting hot, so I decided to lope her. She started to stumble and I couldn't hold her head up, I jerked my feet from the stirrups so i would fall free of her. When I hit the ground I threw out my hands and slid on the edge of the road in the grass burrs and gravel. She went clear over, but didn't hit me. There was only one person that saw me, Mrs. Doc Drennan. I got up and found no bones broken so I brushed myself off and went on my way.

The Loverns come out that fall and picked cotton. Link decided he wanted to farm. Bub sub-rented him some land and sold him a team. That was in 1923. He stayed long enough to get his crop up and got dissatisfied. Bub bought him out. That winter in Feb. we had the flu. Charlie and Minnie's family had it first. Foy had pneumonia. Mama went over and stayed with them until he was better. She come home and sent me over to take care of Foy and cook, as Minnie and Charlie both were sick by then. I had been there about three days when Amos and Homer both took down. They were milking three cows and had a pen full of hogs to feed, besides the horses. Charlie told me just to milk one cow and turn the calves with the others, and just feed the hogs and horses once a day, but cook up ever thing I could find, so if I got sick we would have enough to make out on. And believe you it was cold enough to keep food without an ice box.

They were living on Mattie Edwards place. Link rode over ever day that it wasn't too cold, horse back to see about us. He had a Model T, but it was hard to crank when it was cold.

Bub took sick next. Mama milked our cows once. He told her not to do that anymore, as she was a young cow and a little handy with her horns, she might hook her. So she turned the calf out with her. I took sick about three days later. About three in the morning, with a hard chill. I called Minnie and asked if she had anything I could take for my head. she gave me an aspirin or something. I wanted to stay up and sit by the fire. She said no, go get in the bed with the boys and maybe when I got warm I could go back to sleep. I made Homer move over and got in his warm place, but I shook the rest of the night. Amos said he was sure the bed would fall down any minute.

The next trip Link made over to see about us I was real sick. He come on horse back. I wanted to ride one of Charlie's horses and go home when he told me how sick Bub was, but Minnie wouldn't let me, said I was too sick. But the next day Link come in the car, with quilts for me to wrap up in. Mama told him Bub was real bad and had called for me all night and if he couldn't get his car started to get one of the neighbors to go get me, no matter what Minnie said. By that time Charlie and Homer were a little better and could manage. The Lovern's were the only ones that didn't have any sick ones.

I had been home about twenty four hours when Mama took with a chill and high fever. We sure were sick for about three weeks. Bub tried to wait on Mama and me but ever time he got up he had a chill. We ran out of aspirin and lemons. He told Mama he was going to Afton to get some and something to eat. Mama tried to talk him out of it, but he went anyway. He saddled old Brownie. He knew she would make it faster, and if he could hold on would bring him home. he was so weak he couldn't pull himself up in the saddle. he got up on a stump in the yard to get on her. I guess I cried all time he was gone. It was seven miles over there, but he was back in record time, frozen half to death. He just slipped the saddle off and turned old Brownie loose at the house, leaving the saddle laying there.

We had two beds in the room where the fire was. That night some time, Bub took a hard chill. He called me and asked if I was able to get up and fix a hot greasy rag for his chest and get him some aspirin. He had pleurisy so bad he couldn't get up. I did and after I got back to a chair beside our bed, I guess I passed out. Mama woke up and found me sitting there laying over on the bed. She said I was so cold she thought I was dead. She finally roused me enough to get me into bed. I sure was sick for several days. Bub began to improve some and went back to milking the cow so we could have milk to drink. Mama finally pulled out of it enough to get up and help us a little. That sure was a hard winter,. Spring come and clouds come up ever night. The Loverns come up and slept at our house as they didn't have a cellar.

When they decided to go back to Megargel, Bub said, Sis you are going to have a plow from early to late if we are going to work this place by ourselves. I told him I was ready. I had already been plowing some.

The Loverns had a man that did trucking to move them back. They loaded the night before, spent the night with us. He said he wanted to leave about three in the morning as the man wanted to make the round trip that day. That night I had to sleep on a pallet with Emmitt. Getting up at three and getting breakfast was no picnic either. Bub and I left for the field about the time the sun come up. We were knifing the cotton with go-devils. But had always said watch them blades, Sis or you will get a foot cut off, always step behind them. About three that afternoon I was so sleepy I propped my feet up on the lever and was resting my head in my lap (I was driving Old Doll). I dropped off to sleep and wouldn't you know I would hit a stump at that time. It threw me about three rows over, missing the blades. Bub said he had just looked back a minute before and saw me slumped over, and said to his self, she will tumble off in a minute. He then looked back in time to see me hit the ground. He yelled "whoa" and the horses stopped.

He come back to see if I was hurt. He said, Sis, If you are that sleepy lay down in the shade of Old Doll and go to sleep and I'll wake you up when I make a round or two. I told him I thought I had the sleep knocked out of me and I could make it if he could. He never quit laughing about that, but I got mad ever time I thought about sleeping on the pallet and having to get up so early.

We finished our cotton and then what we had bought from Link. We were almost finished with it when a cloud started building up. Bub said whip them up and lets see if we can finish this. I think it is going to rain tonight. We finished, and it did rain. Hail just beat that patch of cotton into the ground. But there was time enough to plant over and make a good crop.

One Saturday after that rain, Bub had gone to the blacksmith at Afton. he come riding in, in a hurry and said we have to catch them out (meaning the horses) to get ahead of this sand or we will loose the rest of the cotton. We had two harrows with just board to stand on. He told me to catch Old Doll and another big bay mare that I called the spit fire. He told me not to try to hold her back but to make Old Doll keep up with her if I could and if she tried to run and I couldn't hold her to just step off and let her go. The wind sure blew and the sand rolled but we saved the cotton. We sure was a sandy looking two when we went in that night.

There was an old dead stump straight on the way from the house to the lot. I don't think I ever missed stumping my toes on it. Bub said, Sis, If I couldn't miss that stump I would dig it up. I think he could miss it the darkest night there ever was. I didn't take it up, but justkept hitting it without a miss.

That summer after the crops were laid by, Bub said, I want to make a trade with you. I told him o.k. He said we can't all go off at once. There is too many live stock to take care of. I will go over to see the Hendersons and Whisenants for about three days and then you and Mama can go to Stamford when I get back. It's a deal I said. He was telling me things to do. He said when you feed the horses at night, when they finish eating, run them out fo the lot and close the gate. Old Doll is so mean to fight the others she might break a leg for one of them. Now don't forget it. Well, I didn't forget the first two nights, but the third I did. Sometime way in the night Old Doll woke me up squealing and kicking. I knew in a second I had forgotten the gate, and I forgot the stump until I hit it. I didn't have time to get my shoes, so I lost the top of three toes and almost the toenails. They turned black and come off later. But I made it in time. I was so mad at Old Doll I could have killed her. I ran the rest out of the lot and closed her up by herself. She didn't let me sleep any the rest of the night for her running around and knickering for the other horses. But I wouldn't have slept anyway for the throbbing toes. After I got them washed and doctored, I went to bed and enjoyed my revenge on Old Doll. I was still mad at her the next morining when I went to feed them and milk. After that, Mama said, you better not tell Bub you kept her up last night. I told her I was so mad I didn't care if he did know, but I didn't tell him.

After breakfast I got the axe and grubbing hoe and went to work getting my revenge on the stump. That evening when Bub come in he went to the lot and unsaddled his horse. I knew he would miss the stump. He come back to the house grinning, and said, you forgot to close the gate, didn't you? I told him yes, but I wouldn't stump my toes on that stump anymore. He said, I knew you were going to get it sooner or later if you didn't get it up, for you never could miss it. I couldn't wait until wash day so I could burn that stump under the wash pot.

There was a cistern at the house we used just for drinking and one just outside the yard that we used the water for washing. The top of it was open. I had seen Bub bring the rope and bucket from the house and step up on the sides of the cistern and hang it up. He was gone one day and I was going to wash. We had had a lot of rain and the cistern was almost full. I got up on the sides and just about had the bucket hung when a foot slipped off. If it hadn't been for the planter tongue that was propped up on the cistern I might still be in there, but as I went down my dress tail caught on the tongue and I grabbed the sides and pulled myself out. I sure didn't tell Bub that, but I didn't try it again.

Old Blue had a little colt that year. Bub went to the blacksmith shop one Saturday and had to wait until long after noon before he could get his work done. I knew he always milked Old Blue at noon every day. So when he didn't come home I told Mama I was going to milk her. She just said you are going to get your head kicked off someday. I went on and found the colt half under the fence. I caught him by the hind legs, but he sure kicked like the mule he was. I got over the fence and pushed him back. Blue didn't like that but she did let me milk her. Bub come in later, and said Sis, did you milk Old Blue? I said yes, and he said sure enough did you? Mama told him I did and I was going to get myself killed if I didn't quit trying to do everything he did.

About the time Mama and I were getting ready to go to Stamford, two of Mama's sisters come. One had a daughter my age, the other had a grand daughter a few months younger. The girls loved horses, but as Bub put it, didn't know one end from the other. They pestered Bub ever day to ride with me to the mail box, a mile away. he told them they might get hurt and he didn't want to be responsible. They said if I could ride they could ride too. He said no, Sis was raised up with a lot full of horses and mules. That didn't stop the youngest of the two from pestering him. He said, Sis, don't ever let Ila get on a horse if I am not here. I promised him I wouldn't.

Then he come up with an idea. When we were miling one morning, he said, Sis, when you go to the mail box this evening, ride Old Doll. Don't put the saddle on her. I am going to let Ila go with you. When you get across the yard onto that sandy spot, reach over and thumb in the shoulders and yell at her. If she throws you in the sand it won't hurt you or be the first time she has done it. I followed his plan. I thumbed her and grabbed a hand full of mane. She sure got with it. I almost forgot to holler soon enough. We almost got thrown. Bub was wathcing us, so was Mama and the aunts. Mama asked Bub what was wrong with Old Doll. he said I guess she is just feeling good, since she don't have to work ever day. Ila worried all the way down and back. She sure did hang onto me. When we got back she asked Bub why Old Doll acted like she did, said she didn't when I rode her. Bub said she didn't like to ride double. She was always rode by just him or me at one time. I guess that satisfied her, it also stopped her pestering him to ride everyday. Bub sure got a laugh out of that little joke. It served its purpose.

We had a little blue mare that was a dream to ride. She had been run at a race track and was quick to run. Bub wouldn't let me ride her very often. But that summer we got food poisoning. Five of us. I wasn't as sick as the rest. Bub said, Sis saddle Old Murl and go to the Frenche's and call Dr. Haney at Afton. It was seven miles to the Frenche's. then it was a mile to the nearest phone. He told me to stay until I knew if Dr. Haney could come. Then come straight back, for he wanted to know if I was o.k. He said if I got too sick, just give Murl the reins and hang on and she would bring me home. The Dr. made it and got us all doctored up. We sure were sick for several hours. Poor Bub was the sickest of the five. That afternoon around four or five o'clock I was sitting on the door step, crying, wondering how I was going to care for the stock, feed the hogs and milk three cows, the way I felt. Bub got up to get a drink of water and saw me sitting there. I didn't think he knew I was crying. He said, you better get your face straight, I see someone coming around the filed and I don't think you want him to see you like that. I got up and washed my face and combed my hair.

It was Joe Edwards. He come on up to the door. I sak him to come in. He said he heard at Afton today you were sick, so thought you might need some help. I know you have a lot of live stock to care for. Bub told him I could sure use some help. We put the horses to the wagon and drove down in the filed, cut a load of feed, with me driving and Joe doing the work. Just before dark we were finished with the stock and the cows milked. Joe ate supper with the ones that were able to eat. I thanked him for his help, but said I thought I could manage, as we had a big load of feed and I wouldn't have to cut that. He went on his way. People were neighbors then, even when they lived four or fives miles away.

When everyone was gone after that little episode, Bub, Charlie and some other men were going up around Amherst to see about buying some land. They would be gone three or four days. I had an idea rolling around in my head, so all week I was on my best behavior. Did everything Bub told me to, just right. Of course, he read between the lines, all the way. The morning they left, he got to the door, turned around and told me something to do, and then he said, don't ride Old Murl while I am gone. If you do it will be too bad when I get back. There went all that work I had done for nothing. Well, I wasn't licked yet.

A few days after he come back, he was over in the field picking up wood. No so far he couldn't see me at the lot saddling up Old Murl. I put the saddle on her and led her to the house. Mama said, I guess you know what you are letting yourself in for? I said, Oh he didn't say not to ride her when he got back. She just said all right its your hide. I made it to the mail box and back in record time. When I got back to the house Bub was there. I got down to open the gate and all he said was,I hope you are satisfied now. I was real happy about that ride. By then it was maize heading time. Bub was working at it ever day, but one morning he didn't go to the field, just waited around the house and went to the lot a few times. I noticed he didn't turn the horses out of the lot, but didn't think much about it.

I was cooking dinner and Bub was sitting in the kitchen when I saw a wagon coming around the field. I told him some one was coming but I didn't know them. Bub said it might be some one just passing by. They come on up to the house and stopped. Bub went out and talked a few minutes. He and the two men went out to the lot. By that time I had an uneasy feeling that something was going on that I didn't know about. I guess Mama knew, for I saw her watching me. Bub and the men were gone several minutes and come back leading Old Murl and the little blue mare that matched her. I fell all to pieces, for I knew he had traded Old Murl off. The man said wait a minute, If this is her pony I won't take her. Bub said, no take her on, she is just not safe for Sis to ride. That settled it. He sat down to eat and I was still upset. Bub laughed at me for crying, but he said, Sis I am going to get a new car when we get the crops gathered. Anyway, I told him i wouldn't feed or water the mules, and I didn't care if Old Doll killed them. After dinner he went off to hed maize driving the old red mules, so I had all evening to get my crying over with. Mama just let me alone.

A few days later Bub was going to Afton. Mama told him I needed a new pair of overalls to wear to the cotton patch. Bub said, no, Sis isn't going to pick cotton this fall. We are going to have to board some hands. I wasn't very happy at that announcement. That meant besides cooking for the boarders, I would also do all the chores. That was a pretty fall. The crop gathering went along fine. We boarded four men and I thought I was cooking for an army. These men didn't know the story about the red mules until one night after supper. Bub was leaving for the gin (they were real crowded by then). He said to the men, take care of my mules. I may be gone two or three days and Sis won't feed or water them. After he left, the men asked what that was all about. Mama told them the story about the red mules and did I ever get kidded the rest of the fall, but I still didn't feed them.

Late that fall, Homer Allison had a Model T Ford touring car he wanted to trade for Bubs red mules. So good riddance I thought, but I didn't like the car either. It had no starter. When it was cold, I would throw the chain harness on Old Doll and pull the T Model for Bub. It seemed like we pulled it further than we rode in it. It got to where I could put the harness on Old Doll, lead her out the lot gate and she would walk out to the car and turn around ready to pull it. She sure had horse sense.

About three weeks before Christmas, Mama and I got our trip to Stamford to visit Uncle Levi, as we had finished the crop gathering. All but some scrapping of cotton. We had a wonderful week. Maude, Uncle Levi's daughter, a year older than me was a lot of fun. Pete pestered the dickens out of us. We usually slipped off from him in the evening and went to the picture show. Pete come home with Mama and me, to help with the last of the cotton. Bill Wright and a couple other men also helped.

I had seen the boys riding one of the mules. So one afternoon the men were loading cotton in the field. I was going to go to the mail box. The lot was full of mules and horses, so I thought, why not ride the mule if I could catch him. The boys saw me in the lot. They told Bub, she is trying to catch a mule, you had better whistle at her. She will get throwed. He said, hell let her, then maybe she will let them alone and not be trying to ride everything that comes along. Anyway I don't think she can catch the others. As luck would have it, I cought the right one. just got on bare back and took off. That night, Bub said, why the mule riding this evening? I said, oh, I just wanted to see if I could. He said, well you found out, so stay off. That ended the mule riding.

The crop all finished, the men all gone, Bub, Mama and I all settled down for a nice long sandy winter. And that was just what it was. With nothing much to do, Bub mended his harness and plows when it wasn't too cold. I crocheted, pieced quilts and what ever I could find to do for pastime.

In the early spring before cotton planting time, the Mun Gage family come down with the measles. Mun and six of the children, all in bed at once. Ella was the only one that had already had them. They lived on the Mattie Edwards place about five miles from us.

Bub heard about htem all being down at Afton. The Dr. had been over to see them. He come in and told Mama. She thought he should go over and see about them. Bub said, Sis, why don't you go over and stay a few days and help out. You could cook, help with the kids and do the outside work. I knew they milked two or three cows and had a lot of stock to feed. I said, no thank you, you are not going to work this one off on me.

I did go with him to see about them. Bub asked them what he could do to help them. Ella said if he would go to Afton and het her some groceries, she could make out, as the Edwards boys were doing the milking and tending the stock. We got the groceries, so I got out of that job, thanks to the Edwards boys.

A few days later, a family just down the road a half mile from us come down with the measles. The mother and three children. The man had already had them. The mother and one little boy were real sick. One of the nieces come over from Spur to help out. She took a real bad cold and was feeling so bad, I went down to help out a day or two, and it turned out to be about five days they were so sick. When they were better and I could go home, I think I slept for most of a week.

1924. In the spring of that year, Nathan Thacker came into my life. Croton school was having the last of school plays, which was most of a week. Bub and I worked hard in the field all day. By that time he had a new car, a Star touring. We would come in a little early from the fields ever evening to have time to get ready to go. He and Mama would go on and Nathan would come for me.

One evening he was a little late getting there. I was sitting in a chair, my head laying on the bed asleep. he said he knocked and I didn't stir, said he thought he was going to have to come in and shake me to wake me up, but didn't want to scare me. I was glad when that week was over, but wouldn't have missed the plays for anything, for there just wasn't many things to go to them days. Maybe a show now and then.

That summer, Mary Porter, Gladys Hash, Bub and me went to a carnival at Spur on Sat. eve. We sure had fun. Sam Hemphill and I were riding the ferris wheel. All at once my head started to swim. I thought I was going to faint. I looked down and saw Bub, Mary and Gladys waiting for us to get off. I thought, oh well, Bub will get me. I got a few breathes and hung on, but I didn't ride that thing again that night. We had a wonderful time.

All through that summer, we got together over the community for parties or ice cream suppers. Then crop gathering time again, and they were good.

The Loverns were back to pick cotton. I didn't pick, but that didn't mean I didn't work. The Loverns lived in the small house they had lived in before.

Floyd and Dixie and the babies were staying with us. Dixie wanted to pick. I told her I would keep the girls. Juanita was just learning to walk. I did the chores and cooking. Mama kept Juanita, and Mildred followed me ever step I made outside. Juanita cried after me when I come in the house. I had a pretty full time job.


(This is where Mother stopped her story. Mother and Daddy were married that fall, Oct. 18, 1924.)