| My grandmother, sitting on the back steps of her house, had a
strange white bird as a visitor. It came toward her from nowhere and it tangled itself in
her hair. Also, she had a dream of seeing not one, not two, but three tombstones in the
cemetery. She told us that she always thought those were messengers to
tell her that great woe was headed her way. And indeed it was, for it was not long until
Neal also lay beneath the ground. His life ended when he was 29 years of age. This was
June, 1937.
She also told me all the men died within five years. Their family was the only
one that had taken any loved ones to that cemetery in that length of time. Her family had
made three trips to the cemetery to bury their three men.
Mommee related that all the men had died at an age that ended with 9. Also,
they had all gone to the hospital on a Monday.
Mommee was not superstitious but, for the rest of her life she just could not
make herself be admitted to the hospital on a Monday. She had 3 major surgeries, but never
would she go in on a Monday!
This left the four girls at home with their mom from 1937, until each one
married and moved. Chess left home and went to Bowling Green, Kentucky. to attend a
business school. When she came home on a Christmas break, she eloped with A. N.
"Mac" McKinney to Iuka, Mississippi and got married on December 26, 1937.
The story goes how Lois and Lester Strickland went with them and when the two
couples came back home, Ruth knew something was up. They hoped to just keep it a secret
and not tell anybody. But Ruth pushed them to tell the entire story.
Chess related the story and "the cat was out of the bag." Mommee
(Ruth) told Chess that since she was now a married woman she needed to go with her
husband. Mommee was also concerned about how the community would view her family if they
happen to see the young couple together and not know they were married.
So, Chess packed her bag and left to go with Mac to Bowling Green, Kentucky,
where he also was in school. Then the only ones at home were Ruth, Lorene, Lois and
Terrell.
I have heard stories of Bob and Terrell playing together and getting Bettye in
trouble with my grandmother by blaming her for any misdeeds like jumping on the bed, etc.
But my grandmother, being the wise and "all-knowing eye", would find out who the
real culprits were and whip Bob and Terrell both with a hickory switch.
Bob, "feeling his oats" one day, called Mommee a "hard headed
Billy goat" and received a switching, as told by Bettye, who was hiding behind the
door and frightened half to death. Funny stories have been told about those times.
Lorene and Ruth were partners in this quest to survive. Lorene made some money
with her teaching and Ruth saw that things were done right at home with Lois, Terrell, and
Neal's children.
Money was hard to come by. My mother told me that she and Ruth had one pair of
shoes between them. My grandmother would go, say to church or a wedding, and my mother had
to stay home because they owned only the one pair of shoes. |
