Ruth Memories

Our family was a very special one. Mother and Daddy were married June 6, 1905 by Rev. Lucy Vestal. Daddy and Mother never wanted to miss Sunday School or preaching. Mother always went when she could. They both loved us all so very much. Daddy would read some scripture and ask the blessing at breakfast time. He and mother read their Bible so much. No one loved singing any more than Daddy. He lead the choir at Union Cross Friends and Union Grove Baptist Churches for several years. I remember when we first got our radio, Daddy would turn it on every morning and we would hear the song, "Ere You Left Your Room this Morning Did you Think to Pray?”

I remember when I was about seven years old, 1 enjoyed Daddy building our new kitchen, dining room, and big screen porch with a room for our canned fruits and vegetable. Mother always canned so much.

Mother loved us children and I especially remember her singing, "O Come Angel Band and Around Me Stand." I remember how sweet it sounded.

Mother and Daddy would parch coffee and grind it to make coffee for breakfast. Mother always made a big pan of hot biscuits along with meat, gravy, eggs and homemade butter and jelly. I remember when we got our big blue cooking range and it was so pretty. It had a warming closet and a water tank on it. It took lots of trips to the spring to fill it. It was so good to have hot water for baths.

When we were small, Mother would take us over to Grandmother Brown's with "Lize" hitched to the buggy. Grandmother Brown would help unhitch the mule. I also remember us going to our Aunt Lydia’s (Daddy's sister) in a covered wagon and we enjoyed it so much.

In the wintertime, we would have lots of apples to eat. They were wrapped in paper in a big barrel. Also we had sweet potatoes, pears and pumpkins. Our smokehouse was full of meat and wheat bins full and a big barrel of molasses. Daddy always had a cane patch and we would help get it ready to make molasses. Daddy would have his corncrib full of com.

We had two big milk cows and we always had plenty of milk and butter. I remember we had a milk box in one of the springs. That was where we kept our milk, buttermilk and butter. They kept so good and cold in there.

We had a shelter down at the spring where we washed our clothes. Daddy made a big boiler with a partition in it to put on a furnace to heat our rinse water. We also had a big black pot to boil our clothes in.

When Brodie was about 10 years old, he had lots of different colored rabbits and they were so pretty. We had wire fence around the straw stack where they stayed. Daddy fixed it for him.

Grandma Money loved us all so much, but she dearly loved Brodie. One morning before breakfast, Brodie was stranding by the fireplace where he was reading and suddenly fell. Grandma saw him and it scared her so bad, she hollered real loud. I saw Brodie fall and heard Grandma holler.

My first day at school, mother walked part of the way with Brodie and me. I couldn't stand to see her turn around and go back home. She had to go back to Ura, Lola and Lela, the baby. We went to Union Cross School. All the school children would march out to the church for the day service during the revival.

I remember Ura and I, Sadie and Gurtie Parker taught at Bible School at Union Cross Church. We all enjoyed it so much.

Daddy saved up 100 silver dollars and put them on a piano that he bought for us. Daddy and mother enjoyed our playing and singing. Brodie could play "Star of the East" It was beautiful to hear him play that song and the others too.

Daddy and Brodie fixed a little flower garden out from the porch on the southeast of the house. The little wooden fence was pretty and also made a little gate. It had to be fenced in because of our cows that would graze in our yard.

One time Ura and I were fixing our hair upstairs, heating the curlers with a lamp. The oil caught fire in the lamp and Brodie happened to be in the house and heard our hollering. He came up there, got the lamp and threw it out the east window. I think that was the last of our curls for a while. We had always enjoyed staying at home most of the time. We had so many interesting things like our little chickens, ducks, calves, pigs and Brodie’s little rabbits. I remember Lola tending to the little chickens and she enjoyed it so much.

Daddy would play his autoharp and wanted us to guess what he would play. Lela could guess them first.

We had some sad times too. I was 13 years old when Grandma Money passed away. After that, three of us had to go to the hospital with ear trouble. Lola at 8 years old and Ada Lee at 5 years old. I remember the doctor had to come to see Ben when he was very sick. When Ada Lee came from the hospital one day she had such a high temperature Brodie went down to the spring and found some ice. He brought it to the house in a bucket. Ada Lee put her hand in it and ate the ice. It tasted so good to her as she was so hot. It brought her temperature down.

Brodie went to Guilford to school. Ura and I were still in high school. When Brodie was in high school, he was the janitor.

We stayed at Mr. And Mrs. Rider’s. One time it came such a big snow, that we didn't have school, but Brodie got out in the snow and went to the school to see about the furnace that burned coal. Ura and I would go from school 'A a day to wash for Mrs. Rider and 'A a day to iron for her.

I remember one time Daddy had Brodie, Ura, and me to take Lola, Lela and Baby Ada Lee to the field north of the feed barn to look after them for a while. When Daddy called us back, Aunt Tiney met us at the door and told us we had a little brother, Benjamin Junior.

When Lola was about 8 and Ada Lee about 5, Ben about 3, they were taking a bath in the big tub that we all used. The tub was in the kitchen. I was in there helping mother, I heard Ben say, "Wash on the side next to the spring," when they were giving his bath. When Ada Lee was a baby and we got her in bed, Lela would have to have some butter and molasses. We always got them, but the woman staying with us thought it was unnecessary that she have them, but Lela always got her some. The woman that was staying with us would make bread for breakfast and it was always so yellow (with too much soda.) Daddy, nor any of us liked it. We were so glad when mother could make our bread. When Doris was born, Ura and I were in high school. I could still make her little caps and dresses. I enjoyed sewing for all the family. Mother still made al the little babies’ booties.

The memories of our family are precious to all of us. We had love-perfect love - His kind of love for each other.

When Ura and I finished high school, Ura and Lola had a job in Boonville. They got married soon afterwards. I was staying at home. Grandma Brown was sick and mother was over there. I went over there one day and Geneva was there. She wanted to bring Grandma over to our house. I came on home to get some things ready for them to bring Grandma. She lived 6 more weeks. It was sad for mother and all of us when she passed away (It was around 1931.)

I went to mothers cousin, Navada’s house, to stay a little while to look after Marybell while she worked. She and Carl were really good time. When I came home, Aunt Tiney was sick so I went and stayed a while with her. She got able to do her work so I came home.

In 1932 we moved to Surry County in Daddy's cousin's house. We all worked on the little house to get it looking real good. The country was still in a depression; no one had much money then. Soon after we moved, some of the young people around Stanford Church came to see us. Fred, Glen, Ola and Ruth Whitaker, Alene Sapp, and Dean Ring all came. Fred said after they left that he told them he thought I was good looking; and I told mother after they left I thought Fred was good looking because he looked so much like mothers brother, Uncle Gurney.

I loved to go see him and Grandma Brown. Pretty soon Fred and I saw each other at Pine Hill Friends Church and at the Methodist Church just down the road. That started our romance together. We married on Thanksgiving 1934. Since then, Fred and I have lived near Siloam. Glen thought Ada Lee was such a pretty little girl and he soon fell in love with her. They married in 1936 and little Bruce was born in 1938. Our little baby had just died and I loved to help Ada Lee take care of Bruce. Lela and Johnny Wiseman also married in 1934. We missed mother, Daddy, Ben and Doris when they moved back to Yadkinville. Brodie started teaching at Siloam School soon after he and Mabel married in the spring of 1934. He taught a music school at Stanford Church for a while.

Faxton Taylor came and wanted us to tend his land and Mr. Whitaker wanted Glen and Ada Lee to stay with them and help them farm. I surely missed them though we were not so far away that we could not walk back to Mr. Whitaker's. Fred and Glen got them a job in South Carolina in 1941. Glen got real sick an the doctor said it was CIA fever. He never got other that. It was very sad to all of us to see him go. Brodie was teaching school at Siloam. He would come up by Mr. Whitaker's and he had to go to Pilot and take Mr. Whitaker with him. He loved Brodie as well as the rest of the family. I have more good memories. After Fred's daddy died, Fred's mother stayed with us at night after Ruth got married. When Mother and Daddy came over here to see us, Mother would stay with Fred's mother at night and they enjoyed it so much.