My Life As I Remember It

BY;     C B  MOBERLY

 

Chapter One

Start January 1996— Finish

I was born C B Moberly Jr. January 17, 1926 at Millers Creek,Kentucky.

My Fathers name was Claude Byrdine Moberly  and my Mothers maiden name was Mattie Clay Scrivner  both born at Millers Creek, Ky. My father was born November 17, 1883  Died January 7,1976 and my mother was born January 23 1896  Died April 2,1981 They were married February 4, 1925 at Nichlosville, Ky.  I am the oldest of five children, Three girls and two boys. Other sisters and brothers are,

Etta Clay Moberly     Born June 20,1927

Madge Moberly        Born  October 1,1929 — Died May 16,1930

Margie Moberly        Born  October 1,1929 — Died  –        –  1953

Elmer Glen Moberly Born  December 18, 1932

 

Dad and Mother named me C B after my Dads initials. I have had a very hard time with initials for a first name. When I was inducted into the Army at Ft. Thomas,Ky. April 24, 1944 they gave me a hard time about having initials for a name. But I won.

Above the initials C B they would write I O meaning initials only. I gave those Guys fits every where I would go. I think I begin to remember things at about the age of five or six years old.  I used to go to the barn with my Dad and milk the cows. I would milk into a small can and drink the milk warm straight from the cow.

My Mother had given me a small can that baking soda came in from the store and that was what I used to milk in and drink from. The Brand Name was Clabber Girl and had the picture of a small Child on the label. I was born on a farm. My Dad and Mother lived on the farm of about 52 acres that his Mother owned and had been handed down through the generations, And when my Grandmother Agatha Smyth Moberly  Born May 8.1860 Died 1915 my Dad inherited the farm.

My Grandfathers name was Volentine C. Moberly  Born January 6,1859 Died December 30,1886.  He was killed in a hunting accident at about age 33 years. He was hunting with a muzzle loading shotgun, Stepping over a log on the trail the gun went off killing him and leaving a widow, my Dad, my Uncle Archie and an unborn son. As time bore out his name was Volentine (Vollie) Moberly.

My Dad was a very proud and honest man. He was about 6′ 1″ tall and walked very straight and upright. We were cash / money poor back in the Great Depression when I was born but we were rich in that we had plenty of food and a nice warm home to live in. I think this is a good place to tell you about  a  record that my Dad wrote before he passed away. I had asked him to write  what he could remember about   family history. He wrote the following,

 

“History Of The Descsndants Of Volentine Crawford”

About the year of 1800 Volentine Crawford came to this country from Scotland, England.  From a land company in Philadelphia through a patent deed, He bought 5,493 acres of land on Millers Creek, Kentucky, beginning at the mouth of Millers creek where it emptied into the Kentucky River.  It just about included all of the land on Millers Creek, extending into Lee county and both Big and Little Sinking Creeks. He built a home and lived where Mayme Moberly now lives at this writing. He married Susan Ray. To this union 11 children were born.

1. Susan Crawford married Amos McMonagle.

2. Nancy Crawford married Green B. Kelley.

3. Laura Crawford married Merl Benton.

4. Sarillda Crawford married Elihu Benton

5. Laurania Crawford  married Bailey Finney, (Later the Finneys drove through in a  covered wagon to Texas and lived there the rest of their lives)

6. Arminia Crawford, My Grandmother, Married John N. Moberly my Grandfather. ( He was born and raised in Madison County, Kentucky on Big Hill Pike near Kingston.)

7. Oliver Crawford married Delina Prunty ( No children) He served one term as Representative in the Legislature at Frankfort, Kentucky. (1845 to 1847)

8. Lee Crawford married Nannie Watson.

9.Marshall Crawford married a woman from Haddix in Breatthit County who was part Indian.

10.William Crawford was never married, (He drowned swimming a horse in the Kentucky River at the mouth of Millers creek)

11. Jeptha crawford died when young.

My Great Grandfather owned Negro slaves. I can remember my Grandmother talking about them. She was raised with them. She would tell me their names.

Ben, Clay,Beck Nan and Cinthia. Aunt Nan, (Negro) married George Hugley and raised a family in Irvine, Kentucky. At this writing, She has a daughter living here. Her name is Frankie Benton. Volentine Crawfords birthday was November 15th and as far back as I can remember Aunt Nan would get horses out of Elihu Campbells livery stable and ride to the old home place on Millers Creek and eat dinner with some of the Crawford descendants there. Every year on November 15th she would say, “This is old Marses (Masters) birthday” After dinner she would smoke her pipe and I would get as close to her as I could. I liked to smell the smoke. (She was the cleanest and nicest old colored lady you ever met) Susan Crawford, Wife of Volentine Crawford would take the Negro Slaves in the early spring and go to what they called the Sugar Bottom. The Negroes would dig wooden basins out of soft wood like Poplar and Lynn which would hold about 2 gallons of sugar water. Then they would carry this to Susan Crawfords and she would oversee the boiling in the 60 gallon iron kettles and made into Maple sugar and syrup. This sugar bottom  tract of land of about 12 acres was part of the land that Volentine Crawford deeded to Aunt Lou Finney.    (End Crawford)    George Smythe, my Grandfather was born May 27,1826 in Lee County Virginia near Jonesville. He was the son of ——————and ——–Orr Smythe.

About the year 1845 he left Lee County Virginia to come to Kentucky with $500.00  in gold in his pocket He rode horseback through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky and on  into the extreme eastern part of Estill County.There he bought several hundered acres of timberland on the headwater of Millers creek, near a place then called Dripping Springs. Now called Patsey, Ky.He cut, ruined and destroyed hundreds of dollars worth of timber, (then too  far from market to be of value) in order to cultivate the land for corn heat and grain. He built houses and planted an orchard of all kinds of fruit. I remember going there when I was about 10 years of age and eating the good apples and other kinds of fruit he had. I want to name some of the kinds of apples he had and you don’t hear of that kind today.The Bellflower,the Benham, the Pippen,the Virginia Beauty, Rome Beauty and the Russet. We called the Russet  rusty coat. They were the color of the hull of a Buckeye.

On Agust 31, 1854 he married Nancy Geen Cole, Daughter of James and Luvisa Tipton Cole.To this union four girls were born. Sarah, who married Green K. Snowden, Caroline, who married George W. Childers, Agatha, my mother, who married Volentine Moberly my father and Lou who married Sherman Robbins.

At this writing Aunt Lou is still living near Stanton in Powell County, Ky. at the age of 98 years. My Grandfather and Grandmother, G.A. Snowden and Sarah Snowden, G.W. Childers and Caroline childers were buried on the old home place that Grandfather owned, Known as the Smythe Cemetary near Patsey Post Office Estill County, Ky. After Grandfather got settled he went back to Virginia to visit his brothers and sisters. They came back with him and bought land and settled near his farm.

Their names were, James Smythe, Addison Smythe, Sally Smythe Jones and Polly Smythe. Aunt Pop as we called her was never married. Aunt Sally married a man by the name of Jones In Virginia. They had three children and separated. She came to Kentucky with her brother leaving the children with the man. After they all got settled here she hired a man and horse and rode through the Cumberland Gap into Virginia and slipped the children away from that man, Brought them back with her and raised them here. Two boys and a girl. Steve Jones, John E. Jones and Rebecca Jones. Rebecca married Luther Sheppard a Methodist  minister. They lived and died in Louisville, Ky.

Grandfather had several first and second cousins who later came here from Virginia, bought land and settled near dripping springs. Their names were, William Smythe, John P. Smythe, Jonas Smythe, Tobias Smythe and Abe Smythe. There was so many Smythes here from Virginia they built a Church House out of hewn white oak logs. They named the Church (NEW VIRGINIA) Methodist Church. The first Sunday in September each year they would have an all days meeting there. Preaching in the morning, dinner on the ground and preaching in the afternoon to a very large crowd of people.

Dad ended his story here, I guess he just got tired of writing.

Family history is very hard to come by, As I find it  I insert it at the appropriate place. I was able to find a copy of the following letter from a Grandmother to her Grand Daughter relating to our family history.

“Copy of Sue Copes letter written to her grand daughter, Mary Louise Witherspoon on February 19, 1937 while living in Dallas Tx.”

” I was born in Estill County, Kentucky, in 1859-April 23, I remember well the day Abe Lincoln was elected President I remember several things happened that day. A negro boy by the name of Ike passed our house and hollered, “Hurrah for Abe Lincoln”

One of my brothers went out and was going to whip him but my Mother interferred.

My Grandfather Volentine Crawford, was an early settler on Millers Creek in the mountains of Kentucky. He and Daniel Boone fought Indians together. When my grandfather was married he was dressed in buck-skin clothes. He married a Miss Susanah Ray. I think she was from Madison County, Ky. She was dressed in white silk.To this union were born eleven children. Uncle Mart, Lee, Oliver, Bill, and Aunts Syrilda, Lourana, Laurenda, Nancy and Armina.  All were married and had large families except Uncle Bill, who died when a young man.

As each child married, Grandfather would give them a home on Millers Creek which ran into the Kentucky River three miles away. I love to think of my childhood days, things went just like clockworks. When my Father or Mother said GO we went. We didn’t stop to argue about it. We loved and respected our parents above all else, and obedience came first with them.

In those days the mountains were covered with large timber, such as oak, beech, pine, maple, cedar, poplar and chestnut. We had the paw paw and may apple, wild grapes, chestnuts, huckleberriy, walnuts, hickorynuts, blackberries and mulberries in abundance. We also had bear, deer and red and grey fox, squirrel and birds too numerous to mention. But not the mockingbirds The bald eagle was the most descructive of all. In the spring they would carry away the little lambs. We children would have to stay in the pasture with the little lambs to keep them away. I had white curly hair and I always kept my little checked bonnet tied very tight for fear the eagles would make a mistake and take me.

Among our stock Father liked colts best. I can see him as I write walking around looking at a newborn colt. Bay was his favorite color. He did not want one bit of white, black or any other color about it.

There were lots of fish in Millers creek, especially after the back water would come up from the Kentucky river. He would get in our boat, made from a poplar tree and row out in the deep water and catch them. But there was also many poisionous snakes,such as watermoccosin. There was one thing I was afraid of, That was leech. If you stood on a flat rock in the water they would crawl upon your heel and scatter dozens of little ones on your foot, and you could hardly get them off.You have heard the expression “Sticks closer than a Leech.” As much as I disliked them, they were very useful. I remember when my sister Nan was about five years old, a horse stepped on her foot  and I guess she had what Doctors would now call blood poisoning. My Mother sent for Dr. Daniels of Irvine and he had the boys go get a lot of leeches and he let them slide down her leg and foot, and we knew they saved her life.

(Page 2)

Mary Louise, I believe I forgot to tell you that my Mother had twelve children. Six boys and six girls.. She raised them all to be grown but one. I am one one of the lucky ones. I am a twin. My twin was a boy, and we are the only children now living. I like large families. Just one or two children always looks pitiful to me. My mother was the daughter of Valentine Crawford and Susanah Crawford, She was born in Estill County, Ky. in 1824. My fathers name was Bailey Finney. He was born in Virginia  in 1818. The twelve children born to this union were, Louis and Louisey (twins) Joe,John, William, Delina, Mary, Volentine and Susanah (twins) Nannie and Julia ward. She was named for old Col. Ward of Louisville, Ky. She was a baby during the Civil war and we called her “Reb.” One child died in infancy.

My father was a large man. He did not like to work very much, but had it done. I can see him with his hands crossed in the back, walking around to see that the work was done just right. He would not have any work done on Saturday afternoon. He liked to hunt and would often take us children with him. My Mother loved to work. She liked to weave beautiful linsey for our dresses. She would get bark from the trees and dye it all colors. She would have the most beautiful colors you ever saw. And how we would strut when we got on those new linsey dresses. She would knit us  pretty striped stockings to match our new dresses. We sure kept warm when we were children. As you know I still like wool. She also wove cloth for the men and boys clothes, and my Father was always so proud of his new grey suit. She wove bed blankets, flax towels and cup towels. Mary Louise, did you ever see a loom.? If not, Come to Dallas to the Centinneal this summer and you can see one, as well as spinning wheels and other things our Mother once used.

My Mother raised lots of turkeys, geese and guineas. The turkeys would go to the mountains and build their nests. The guineas would go to the clover fields. One day my Mother put me to watching turkey hens to their nest. She would always start off in the wrong direction then circle around to her nest. If she saw me watching her she would go back to the house. They liked to bury themselves in leaves. I once found a guineas nest in the clover with a half bushel of eggs in it. They lay and run about a hundred yards before they cackle. Where the clover grows tall, don’t watch the guinea but watch the clover shake.

We would have to keep the little goslings away from the creek on account of the turtles. They would get them by the foot and drag them under.

(Don’t know what happened to the balance of this letter or why it was never copied) The writer Mrs. J.W. Cope or Sue Cope passed away on February 15,1951 at the age of 93 years. Her twin brother had died some time before. She was the last of twelve children named above.

Source, Mary Louise Witherspoon-Etta Clay Hamilton

I remember Dad telling me a story about the slave Lady Cinthia. she had a slight mental handicap and she and other  young Negro people would go to dances held in the community. A man  of the family would walk behind them as an escort to keep the whites from bothering them. They would dance to the wee hours of the morning while he would sit on the front steps of the building. When they had finished dancing, He would escort them home. He also told me about  some deeds for Negro Slaves that he had seen one time. They were in Uncle Jim Moberlys trunk upstairs. After Uncle Jim and Aunt Mary died, Mayme wouldn’t let anyone near that trunk. (Not even Dad) So I suppose no one will ever know what happened to them. I’m sure there was a lot of family history in that old trunk.

I remember some of the old people that used to stay with our family when I was very young. Hermanine Vanderpool, She was an old lady with a wrinkled face and smoked a corn cob pipe. She wore clothes that was typical frontier style. She also wore a full bonnet and was of very thin build. She was a decendant of the Smythe family by kin or marriage. She had no home and was dependant on others for her livlihood. I don’t remember what ever happened to her. Another person that stayed with us from time to time was Uncle George Childers. He was Dads uncle. He was an old man when I remembered him. He would stay with us for a time and then he would  stay with uncle Vollies family for a while and he just seemed to fade away as I was very young then.

Virgie and Galena told the story about Uncle George one time. On the farm we burned coal and wood in the fireplace for heating the house. One morning when he was staying with Uncle Vollies family, Uncle George got up and was  removing the ashes from the fireplace and placed them in the coal bucket. He had them all cleaned out and left the room for a few minutes before taking them outside to dispose of. My Cousin Park slipped into the room and dumped the ashes back into the fireplace to tease Uncle George. He came back into the room and seen the ashes back in the fireplace. Someone asked him how the ashes got back in the fireplace and he said, It was that infernal Park. Park liked to tease Uncle George and everyone had a laugh over it. We had simple honest fun in those days. Hermanine and Uncle George had lived a long life, Worked hard and had seen some hard times as they lived in a  very primitive time in our countrys History. I remember Hermanine. I was very young but I remember that old Lady sitting in our house smoking a corn cob pipe. I used to sneak into my mothers oven where she kept the good blackberry pie left over from dinner and her saying, T D you better get out of your Mammys supper.

Dad and Mother were both very good cooks and we ate very well.   My Dad and Mother were married late in life, He about age 43 and she about age 30. My Father lived with my Grandmother Agatha until her death in 1915.

 

Dad had several jobs before he was married, He was a guager for the Cumberland Pipe Line when there was a lot of oil in Estill county during the 1917 oil boom. He was a cook on Railroad Camp Cars for a man by the name of Andy Clouse who was a foreman of the section gang repairing the railroad that ran through the country at that time. He also taught school at Berea, KY for a period of time. He was a great believer in higher education. He insisted that (and I did) I repeat the 8th grade in elementary school so I would be better prepared for High School. I completed the 8th grade at Tipton School, And also at the Elementary School in Beattyville, Ky. riding the Black Bros.Bus to Lee county in the morning and returning in the afternoon. I remember graduating from Beattyville Elementary school. I didn’t have a suit to wear and Virgie and Galena let me borrow one of my cousin JTs suits and tie to wear. It was a green suit with a small stripe and that is probably the first full dress suit I had ever worn.   (I still have the diploma I received from Beattyville Elementary school, Signed by Edward Updyke)

Our life on the farm was very hard , We were up before light and to the barn for milking and feeding the stock and chores,Then eat a big breakfast that Mother had cooked and then it was off to the field to plow and do what needed to be done.

All of the work was done with mules. We had three mules. One was named Old Jim, Henry and I don’t remember the other name as Dad traded him off for a grey mare and he named her Kate. She was partically blind and I would with plow a  double shovel plow and Dad would use the big plow which we called a cultivator with two mules. After we had the corn crop in we would have to plow the rows three times and sometimes four to keep the weeds from taking the corn as we used to say. We didn’t have any weed killer like they do today. I would plow the short rows and Dad would plow the long rows as it was hard to turn the cultivator around in the tight places. We had a walking cultivator in the early days, But Dad traded for a riding cultivator and he didn’t have to walk as much.

The weather was very hot and humid in June,July and August and I remember coming in for dinner at noon and his overalls and shirt would be wet from sweating. He would hang them on the outside clothes line to dry and put on  dry clothes and we would eat a big dinner that Mother had fixed for us.  The mules had their noon feed while we ate and after dinner we would lay down for a little rest before we went back to the field to finish the rest of the day. Our life was geared to the passenger train schedule and to the bus line schedule.

The Louisville-Nashville Railroad ran passenger trains four times a day near where we lived and we could see the trains go by from  about a mile away. Their schedule was, One train went north at 10:30 AM and south at 2:30 PM in the afternoon. They also had a schedule at 8:00 PM North and 0ne South at 2:00 AM. So we could pretty well manage our time without carring a watch. Also the Black Bro’s bus line went right by our door and their schedule was, The bus passed South at 7:00 AM and North at about 7:30 AM and if one was a bit late they would meet each other near our house. The other schedule was 1:00 PM South and 5:00 PM so we had transportation even though we didn’t own a car. Dad never owned a car in his lifetime. He told me one time my Uncle Vollie tried to teach him to drive on the old Richmond Road and he ran it over the bank and  never drove one after that.

We had a large Sessions striking clock that was inside the house and when it struck the hour you could hear it all over the house. Dad used to say in the morning after a not too good nights sleep, I heard that clock strike from three o’clock on. By this time I had a sister Etta Clay, Born June 20 1927. I don’t remember when she was born. I was barely over a year old, But I do remember when my twin sisters Madge and Margie was born October 1, 1929. I remember them playing in their crib. Two little babys one blond and the other brunette. Madge died at age 6 months of whooping cough and Margie died at age 23 of luekema. Bro. Glen was born December 18 1933. We were all born in the farmhouse where we lived. Usally the Doctor would come after the baby was delivered and make out a birth certificate and see if the mother was fine and needed any care. When I was born my Mothers cousin Polly Howell who lived near by helped deliver me. My Dad would get on a horse we had early in my life,(Prince) and ride over to get cousin Polly and she would come over and assist. She would ride Prince back to the house and my Dad would walk.

I don’t remember who assisted with the birth of Etta Clay and the twins, But Lelah Howell who was a neighbor and good friend helped deliver Bro. Glen The Doctors who assisted  were Dr. B.S.Broaddus and Dr. Cox. They would have to come from Irvine or Ravenna where they lived. They would either have a horse and buggy or ride a horse. I still have my origional birth certificate signed by Dr. B.S.Broaddus and returned from the Commonwealth of Ky. in Louisville. The envelope has a 1926 post mark and is very yellow with age. As we began to grow older it was time to go to school. I think I was six years old when I started in the first grade. In those days if it was your first year in school you was in the Primer. At least that was what it said on the book.

Our school was a county school and it was named Tipton School. You could see it from where we lived but to walk by road it probably was a mile because it was winding. I remember my first day of school. Dad took me and when we got to the front   he called the teacher to the front door for a chat. He introduced himself and said this is my son CB and I want him to learn something. If he doesn’t behave himself you give him a whipping and when he comes home I will give him another one. My first teachers name was Lillie Newkirk. The next, Etta Clay started to school. We had penny pencils with a small eraser on the end that was good for about three mistakes and then you had to do the best you could. Our writing paper was of very poor quality but lined. It was called a tablet. There was a picture of an Indian Chief on the front cover. Some of the kids had slick note book paper as we called it, And they had big nice yellow pencils that cost a nickel with big erasers on the end.

We went barefoot during the summer and when the cold winter weather came our folks always managed to buy us a new pair of shoes to wear. Our clothes were hand me downs but sometimes we would get new clothes for school. We also wore patched clothes but they were clean. My Mother was strict about cleanliness, And sometimes when she would wash me behind the ears I thought she would rub the skin off. Monday was always wash day, And she would scrub our clothes on a wash board in a big tub of water using lye soap that would take the stain out of anything.

Some of the names of  kids that went to Tipton School were, Tipton, McIntosh,Noe,Estes,Howell,Neal,Beckly,Case,Broaddus and Moberly. Other Teachers who taught me at Tipton School were,Pauline Newkirk,Elizabeth Pendergrass and Betty Broaddus. Betty Broaddus became my Aunt later when she and my uncle June Scrivner were married. Uncle June was a brother of my mother. Aunt Betty was the best teacher I ever had in any school. They had two daughters, Elizabeth Clay who is deceased and Magaret Louise who now lives in Lexington,Ky. We  went to school from September until the end of May,And the work started. I would go to the field with  Dad and we would work from daylight until dark. Get up in the morning, Do the milking and feeding the livestock. Usally we would eat breakfast before we would start our work.

Off to the field and work until noon. Eat our dinner and back to the field, Work the rest of the day until about 5:30PM, Feed the stock and milk the cows and then we had our supper. After supper we go out and sit in the yard and cool off during the summer. I remember sitting in the yard and it was very quiet in the evening, So quiet you could hear the one cylinder engine running in the oil field at Fitchburg. The lightening bugs were lighting all around us and we used to run and catch them and wondered what made them light. We were usally in bed by 8:00PM at night because we were so tired and get up the next morning to do the same thing over again.

We did everything the hard way. We didn’t have any modern tools, In fact no one had modern tools where we lived. We were better off than a lot of people that lived in a one mile radius. Some people worked at the refinery and earned wages. The refinery was at Pryse,Ky. and was an oil refinery owned by the Texas, Co. There, They would refine gasoline from crude oil through stills as they were called. Also road oil and coke for burning and heating. People who had jobs there could earn money in addition to farming. The dollar was King, But  Dad worked exclusive on the farm so we didn’t see many dollars except when he would sell a baby beef or some hogs for cash. We had a cream separator on the back porch of the home. We would take the warm milk after milking and run it through the separator and it would separate the cream from the warm milk and it was very rich cream.

The people that worked at the refinery would stop at our house and buy this rich cream by the pint. They called it whipping cream and we could get a few dollars from the cream and they used to buy fresh eggs and Dad would dress a nice hen or turkey for them. That put a few dollars in our pocket for school clothes and shoes. Or we may splurge and my Mother would send me over to Bryan Samples’s General store for  a loaf of Honey Krust bread and a can of pork and beans. That was a real treat after eating soup beans and cornbread for supper.

My mother did a very good job of feeding the family. She would make cobblers from blackberries,peaches and apples which grew on our farm. We also had a strawberry patch and I can remember we could hardly wait for the berries to turn red after the bloom and there was green berries on the plants. She could make the best strawberry pie you ever ate topped off with some of the rich cream she would whip. I remember the cream can we had,It held about seven gallons and we would pour the rich cream in the can every morning and night until it was full and then Dad would set it up by the road and a truck would pick it up and take it to Lexington. After the can reached Lexington it would be put on a train and sent to Cincinnati,Oh. to Swift and Company. After about a week a small check would arrive in the mail for a few dollars for the cream and the can would arrive soon all washed and shiny on the outside and we repeated the process. Just a note, The trucking company that picked up the cream and took it to Lexington was W.A.Gilbert and they were located in Eastern Ky.at Beattyville.

We raised lots of chickens and I can remember gathering sixty to seventy eggs almost every day. These eggs were kept in a cool place until we had gathered quite a few eggs and Dad would put them in a large hickory woven basket and sometimes ride Prince to Irvine and sell them at the A&P Store or the Kroger Store. Sometimes he would ride to Pryse and get on the train and ride to Irvine and sell the eggs to the same stores. The train left Pryse at about 10:30 AM and another train would arrive at Pryse at 2:30 PM so he had time to sell the eggs and do some shopping catch the train and arrive back at Pryse. Get on Prince who he left hitched to a hitching post and ride home early in the afternoon. When we seen him coming we would run out to meet him to see if he had gotten us any candy.

In those days the Railroad Agent would feed and water your horse until you arrived back to  take him. I remember the Agent  at Pryse in those days was Jim West. He and my Dad were very good friends. Mr. West loved Coca Cola and had one in his hand just about all of the time. Sometimes Dad would take me with him to Irvine and we would stop in a restaurant and he would buy me a Coca Cola, It would be very cold and I can remember burping and my nose burning from the seltzer.(They don’t make them like that anymore) Times were tough during the Great Depression, The people who lived out on the mountains had it pretty rough. They were on relief as we used to call it. On certain days of the month the Government would send a truck load of food to Irvine and the people rode the bus, Hitch hiked or went to Irvine to get the Government food.

They used to stop and leave some of the non-perishable food at our house for a few days as it was too heavy to carry up the mountain at one time. We used to trade meat eggs and other food stuffs that they did not have and we was glad to get green cabbage,grapefruit and other food that we didn’t have. It worked out for everyone. Before I was old enough to be of much help on the farm Dad used th hire big strapping boys/men to help him on the farm. He would pay them $.50 a day and their dinner( Noon) Man, I never seen fellows eat like that. My mother would cook for three extra hands and she would cook a big pot of beans, Many skillets of bread cole slaw and lots of good food. That was probably he only square meal they got that day.

Later on a man moved in not far from my Dad and they got together and the man was a regular who worked on the farm. His name was Elmer Townsend. Later in life after things got better for all Mr. Townsend told Dad this. He said, Mr. Moberly if it had not been for you we would never have made it through the Depression. Day after day Mr Towsend would work hard on the farm and carry his wages home in a cloth bag. A piece of meat, a portion of butter,a gallon of milk a dozen of eggs maybe a bag of corn meal. And he was glad to get that to feed his family. My Dad and Mother were very kind people, They were willing to share with the poor if they could. During the Depression a lot of people lost their job in Ohio and other places and would go back to their homes or stay with their relation in Eastern Ky. We lived by the highway and people would stop and ask to stay over night. They would have little kids and Dad and Ma couldn’t turn them down.

They would get up in the morning and my Mother would fix them a big breakfast and they would go on their way. I remember we used to wonder where they were the next night. One day my Dad said, Son I am very busy today do you think you can ride old Jim up to Everett Stewarts and get a turn of corn ground into meal?.My eyes got big as I had never gone that far from home by myself before. He said old Jim knows his way up there and back so he tied a bushel of corn on the saddle so it wouldn’t fall off and lifted me up in the saddle and pointed old Jim toward Fitchburg. I had been to mill with Dad before so I knew my way and I new Mr Stewart.

I arrived at his grist mill and he lifted me down and took the corn and ground it. When it was finished he tied the sack back on the saddle and put me up and old Jim and we started for home. When we arrived home Dad took the sack off and lifted me down and I thought I was a BIG ONE. When I was about eight years old I developed pneumonia and was very sick. About the only thing I can remember was that my cousin Earsel, Who was my uncle Archies oldest daughter would sit with me and keep me covered with blankets and keep me warm. I would sweat under the cover and put my arms out and she would put the cover back over me and say, We have to sweat it out of you.

After a time I remember Dr. Raymond Snowden who was my Dads cousin and Dad sitting in the room talking.I had put my hand on a chair by the side of the bed and was raising my right fore finger up and down. Dr Snowden seen what I was doing and said to Dad, I think the worst is over.In a few days I was up and recovering fast.

We kids used to play a lot in the yard when we weren’t working. We always had a dog on the farm. This one dog I remember was named Jack. Ole Jack as we called him would go everywhere with us kids. He was very protective of us children and was very gentle. I remember one time Etta Clay and I was playing in the yard and we got in an argument and was making a lot of noise. Dad came out on the front porch to see what was going on, And decided that Etta Clay needed a spanking.He started to spank her and I thought he shouldn’t spank her so I said to ole Jack,Sic em Jack. That dog took off after Dad and he had to run in the house into one of the rooms and proceeded to spank her and she was crying and screaming. Jack put his paws up on the window pane standing there barking and trying to break the window to protect her. Needless to say when things quited down I got mine.  I remember after that when he was going to whip us, He always took us in the big room to do it.

I can barely remember when  the road was built by our house. Dad had given the Highway Department a Right Of Way through his property to build a road. The road, Which is KY. 52 runs from Booneville,Ky. to Lebanon, Ky. and served a lot of people from Eastern Ky. Bus service and truck traffic as well as automobiles used the road. A lot of coal was hauled from the mines in Eastern Ky. to Richmond and Lexington. In the early days when the road was being built, Dad worked on the road with a team of mules and scraper.I don’t remember very much about those days as I was pretty young. But he used to tell me stories about it. He would take the pair of mules and a scraper and move the dirt where it needed to fill in the low areas and level off the road. I remember the old scraper.

The scraper was like a big scoop about the size of a wheelbarrow bed made from metal. It had a handle on each side like a wheelbarrow and as it was being pulled to fill it you would lift up on the handles and the front of the scraper would point down and bite into the dirt and fill up. After it had filled you would push the handles down and haul the dirt to the place it was needed and pick up the handles and flip it foreward and over and it would dump. (What a way to build a road) Thats how it was done in those days.

The road was very muddy when it rained and was only passable be Buggys, Team and Wagon or Horseback. But at least we had a road. The Formans name that supervised the road building was Hodge Hockinsmith.  I don’t remember what was used to travel before the road. Next, The Highway Department would put gravel on the road and it began to get a harder surface and a few Model T Fords began to use the road.

A few years later the road was surfaced with Blacktop and we had a very nice road. I remember some of the men who worked on the road. My uncle Harry Scrivner who was my Mothers Brother. Mont and Norman Williams and Herb Cole. Jack Crawford and others I can’t remember at this time. Uncle Harry had an old Chevrolet Touring Car. It had a full front seat and a full back seat with a full cloth top that kept the rain out and the sides were open,But there were roll down flaps with little plastic windows so you could see out. In the hot summer Uncle Harry would come over to see us and we would all pile in that old Chevrolet and take a ride to cool off. He  called the  car OLD SANDY RIDGE. Soon the top rotted away and the interior was exposed to the elements. The rain had loosened the wood steering wheel and it came apart. He would drive it with the steel cross arms as the round wood parts were gone.

I remember that at the end of the work day those men would go to the Reed Shoal  after a hot day of working on the Highway and go swimming. Reed Shoal was a place where there was a large pool of water in the creek and it ran over gravel for about 500 ft. before it started to get deep again. This creek was called Millers Creek and joined one edge of Dads farm. It also joined Willie Samples farm. This was a place where we would swim during the summer and a lot of other people from around the community would swim there also. I used to swim there with a lot with other boys my age as I got older. Dad had cows grazing in the pasture below the house and we had what we called the milk gap. That was where the cows would gather in the evening and we would do the milking. In order for the cows to get water we had built a watering gap at Reed Shoal. We would put a post out in the water sink it in the gravel and then fence it in so the cows could walk out in the stream a way and get water.

One day I seen Uncle Harry, Mont, Norman and Herb driving to the Reed Shoal in Old sandy Ridge. I knew they were going swimming so I started running down the cow path which ran diagonial across the field to the Reed Shoal to watch them swim. I would sneak down by the watering gap and peek around the post and watch them. One day Uncle Harry saw me peeking around the post. Now these were big men. Mont was a big man,he was fat and Norman was big also but not as big as Mont and Uncle Harry was pretty good sized and Herb was the smallest of them all.  When they stripped down naked it was a sight to behold, At least for me. Uncle Harry said to me, CeeB come here and let me take your picture. Since he was my uncle I ran over  near where they were and he bent over with his butt pointed at me and ripped a big one. I turned and ran. I got out of there and went back to the house. I could hear all of them just roaring in laughter. Until his last day, Every time I would see Norman Williams he would say to me, CeeB, Didn’t Harry Scrivner take your picture one time,? and he would have a big laugh. He never forgot that.

As I grew older there were four children in the family. My two sisters Etta Clay, Margie and my brother Glen. There were more mouths to feed and Dads small farm was pretty small  and we started to rent parts of other farms to suppliment our livelihood. Dad had rented several acres from Brown Pendergrass. Mr. Pendergrass had a good job at the Texas Co. Refinery and his sons did not want to farm so some of his farm lay idle. We would plow in the fields and raise corn and when we gathered the corn we  would put part of the corn crop in Mr. Pendergrasses corn crib. So you could say we were share croppers for his land. We used to raise some of the best corn on his farm because it had lain idle for a time and had become fertile with all of the weeds and foliage rotting in the soil.

We had some bad years too. I remember one year we had the crop in and Dad and I were just finishing up a bit of plowing and we seen a black cloud moving our way. The rain started falling and we unhooked the traces from the mules and ran to Hester Muncies garage near by. We never got back in the field to work after that. The floods came and washed all of our crop away. After the water receded we went in and carried our plows out. the hot sun came out and ruined the corn. We hardly gathered any small ears off of that crop. We had worked all spring and summer for nothing. That flood happened in July. I thought, Boy when I get a chance to get out of here I am going. But I was still living with my Dad and too young to get a job anyway. So on we went with our life style of farming.

I remember working in that field when we did get some great crops. We would eat our dinner under a big Elm tree at noon where there was a lot of shade. We would feed the stock and my sisters Etta Clay and Margie would bring us a hot meal. My Mother would cook and fix our dinner and the girls would walk and carry our food in a large pail to the field. I remember how good the food tasted. The girls would start for home,They had to walk about one mile each way in the hot sun. The field we worked in was below a garage that a man named Hester Muncie ran. He would sell gasoline and did mechanic work on cars. He also had cold pop and candy bars and we used to hang out there when we had some idle time. (which was not very often) When it rained we would also run to his garage with the team until it quit raining. Usally it would be too wet to start plowing again and we would go home and turn out the team and find some other work to do.

Dad had an uncanny way of finding jobs to do. In wet weather we would clean out the stalls or repair them and move hay in the loft for the new crop that would be coming along soon. Never a dull moment. We did have some good times too. We always rested on Sunday. Dad would never work on Sunday other than milk the cows and feed the stock. My Mother would fry chicken and we would have mashed potatoes and gravy and cole slaw sliced tomatoes and usally strawberry pie or she would make a cake. Always a desert. Dad always like something sweet after his meal. If there was nothing sweet on the table, He would take some butter and mix some sugar with it and put that on a piece of bread or a biscuit.

We had plenty to eat, I can’t ever remember being hungry for the lack of food. In the fall of the year when the weather got cool, Dad had two or three hogs in a pen that he had fattened during the summer for butchering. We called it hog killing in those days. When it came time to kill the hogs a  fire was built under a big  vat full of water and you could see the steam rising off the water.So you could tell when a neighbor was killing hogs by the big cloud of steam that would rise. Killing hogs was a three or four man job. You usually traded work or if you was lucky you might hire a man to help you. Usually Elmer Townsend helped with the butchering as he was still working on the farm.

It was a great time when we killed hogs. Fresh liver for supper that night. I didn’t like it very well then and neither did my sisters or my brother. So Ma would fry us a piece of tenderloin. After the meat had been blocked out and carried under the floor, it was placed on a large table and salted while it was still warm. The salt would penetrate the warm meat and it  was important to salt it while it was still warm. Dad would rub the salt into the meat and let it cool overnight. After it had cooled he would trim all the fat off and put it in a large tub. The hams and shoulders were handled with care and after it was trimmed he would hang it up to start the curing process. All of the fat that had beened trimmed off was cut in small pieces and rendered into lard.

We had a large kettle made of iron that set on three legs and a fire was built under it. A little water was added to the empty kettle to keep it from breaking under the heat and then all of the small pieces of fat was dumped in the kettle and it started to boil. Rendering lard was an all day job and had to be watched so that it didn’t get too hot and scorch.It could also turn dark with too much heat. This lard had to last us until hog killing time next year or we had to buy some. My Mother used the lard for all of her baking and frying food that didn’t have any fat in it.

When the lard had rendered and the cracklins had turned a brown color it was ready to be removed from the kettle. The hot lard was dipped from the kettle and strained into a large stone crock, covered and left to cool and the next day it was moved under the floor. Under the floor means, We had a small room under the floor of the kitchen that served as a food storage place. Dad could not stand up in there because he was too tall and he had to work stooped over. We stored all of our food stuffs  there. My mother and the girls would can vegetables and fruit during the season so we ate pretty good through the winter months.

We didn’t have electricity or inside plumbing. If you needed to go to the potty you had to go to an outside toilet out near the barn. So we all did our duty before we went to bed at night. If you did have to get up during the night,You had a long walk in the dark or you would short cut it somewhere in between. We used kerosese lamps to read by at night and do our school lessons by lamp light. Moving around the house at night was done by lamp light or we had a lantern for outside activities. Milking at night was usually done in the barn by lantern light in the winter time when the days were short. Then we brought the milk to the house and run it through the cream separator.

We didn’t have a radio, having  no electricity. Uncle Vollies family had a radio and also electric lights in their house. They had a Delco generator that would charge a bank of batteries and would supply electricity for lights and their radio. On Saturday night Uncle Vollie would drive around to our house and we would all get in his Model A Ford and go around to his house and listen to the Grand Ole Opry. I remember listening to Minnie Pearl, Uncle Dave Macon, Red Foley and Roy Acuff to name a few. I would go to sleep on the floor and wake up on Sunday morning in my bed wondering how I got there. Uncle Vollie was my Dads youngest brother and he and his wife Mattie Thacker Moberly lived on a farm that he had inherited from the same generation that had owned my Dads farm. I don’t remember Aunt Mattie very well as she died when I was very young.

They had ten children, Virginia, Galena, Taulby,James Travis,Claudie, Park, Zelma, Robert, Vollie And Wilma Jean. Five boys and five girls. After her death the older girls took over the Motherly duties in the household and help raise the younger ones. Uncle Vollie had a job at the Texas Co. at Pryse as well as Taulby and J.T. as we called him. Park could never get a job there because of a slight high blood pressure problem. I remember the large orchard that Uncle Vollie had planted the years before and it bore a lot of good fruit. I also remember that if we wanted to go play in the orchard we had to ask Uncle Vollie and he would let us go but he would tell us to stay away from the Virginia Beauty Tree. That was his pride and joy. It bore large deep red apples and he didn’t want us kids climbing up in that tree and breaking off the limbs.

Bob and I are about the same age, His birthday is in October and mine in January, So he is about three months older than me. That gives you an idea of the ages of the children. I used to go around to their house and stay over night a lot. We used to sleep upstairs and all three of us, Bob Jr. and I would all pile into a large bed and sleep. It was a very large room that had not been finished except Uncle Vollies room. That room had been finished and was in one corner of the upstairs. Beds were positioned around in different areas so that you could get the maximum privacy. Taulby, JT and Park had their own beds and all of the girls slept down stairs.

I was a pretty light sleeper and during the night I would hear one of the boys talking in their sleep. Pretty soon a couple of the fellows would start answering each other in their sleep. I would raise up to see what was going on. They would snore and talk but I didn’t get the jest of the conversation. At breakfast the next morning Virgie and Galena would ask me if the boys were talking in their sleep last night and I said, I thought I heard them talking to each other. They said, Those Boys talk to each other in their sleep all the time. Our family depended on Uncle Vollies children a lot because they had a car and we didn’t.

If someone was sick in our family Dad would walk around to Uncle Vollies and ask if one of the boys could take him to Town. Taulby and JT would be working at their job at the Texas, Co. and Park was the only other one to have an operators license.

Park would be plowing in the field and Galena would holler to him.  Park, Come here and take Uncle Claude to Town. They would go to Irvine and back and sometimes I would go along. Park would let us off at our house and Dad would give him a dollar for gas. The car was a 1929/30 Model A Ford with four doors. I remember it always growled in second gear. I think all of those Fords growled in second gear. Park went to the Army in 1939. I remember riding in that same Ford car when we took him to Irvine to leave for the Army. I don’t remember who was driving that day. I was 13 years old in 1939 and I didn’t see Park again until 1993 when I was in Anaheim Ca. on business. Ironic, The dates are transposed. 39/93.

When I was about six or seven years of age, Dad would hire Gardner Birchfield to haul his fattened baby beef  calves to the market at Richmond, Ky. Mr. Birchfield dealt in buying and selling cattle and would haul your cattle to market for a price. Dad used to hire him to haul the calves to Richmond and sell them direct at the market.

He may get a few dollars more than just selling them to Mr. Birchfield, Who would sell them for a greater profit. After we had loaded the calves into Mr. Birchfields truck, I would sit in Dads lap and we would drive to the market in Richmond.  remember sitting in the bleachers in the Auction area and listening to the Auctioneers  auction off all of the cattle going through the market that day. We would wait until Dads calves had gone through and he knew the price they had brought, Then we would go to a small Restaurant and get a bite to eat. I used to get a hot dog and a Coca Cola, Boy that was good. We used to call Coke a Coca Cola. The Coca Cola then was much better than it is now.

After we had our lunch we would  go back to the stock Yard Office and Dad would pick up his check for the calves that were sold. Then we would be on our way home with a few dollars in our possesion. Kinda makes you feel good to have a few dollars to fall back on. So I know how Dad felt then. But in those days I didn’t know the difference. I remember when we had oil wells on our farm, The oil drillers were about to bring a well in, So they stayed late and brought the well in late in the night.

They were drilling through the shale in the well and knew they were about to strike oil. You could smell the natural gas and they pulled the fire away that was burning in a 55 gallon drum to keep us warm. Before the well came in we had roasted hot dogs on the fire for our supper Dad and I was there because he wanted to see how strong the oil well was going to be. Jim Durbin, Who was managing the Lease for the Collins’s who owned the Lease had brought Weiners and Buns from Ravenna for the drillers supper. I was there with Dad and was invited to have a Hot Dog. Man they were good.

Eb. Richardson and Sam Canter  were the drillers and the well came in and everyone was very happy to see the Black Oil come up through the bailer that had been put down in the well to see how much oil was there. I’m sure everyone slept well that night. I remember how good those hot dogs were.Dad had about ten oil wells on his property around 1936/37/38 and those Oil Wells suppliamented the income on our farm for a few years. We sure didn’t get rich, But they put a few Dollars in our pockets to buy  exra things. I got a Aviators cap with goggles and a pair of high top boots to wear to school. I don’t remember what the Girls got but we were happy to have all the extra things that Ma ordered from the Sears Roebuck Catalog. After Ma ordered our Goodies I remember I couldn’t wait until the Mail carrier brought the package. I was looking every day for that package to arrive.

Mr. Robert Willams and his wife Mary D. lived near us. They were the parents of Mont and Norman Williams. Mr. and Mrs. Williams had four children. Birdie Williams Kelley, Lelah Williams Howell, Norman and Mont Williams. Birdie married Robert L. Kelley, Lelah married Earl R. Howell. Norman married Hazel Cheney and Mont was single for many years. He married a young Girl whose name I don’t remember. Mont used to drink a lot. He owned a model A Roadster and when he would get a little too much to drink he would drive the Model A upon a big pile of gravel that was stored beside the road for repairs and go to sleep. I remember walking by him on the road while he was snoozing on top of the pile of gravel and I would walk very quitely so as not to wake him up. Mont was a very kind man, He used to pick me up when I was walking along the road and drop me off at my destination. He would buy me a hamburger when we were in Ravenna. I liked him a lot.

One day when the Backwater was up, He came by our house while I was standing in front. He stopped and said, Lets go up the road. I jumped into his snub nose truck and we started on our way. We were looking at the water height and how far it had backed up the creek. We drove to Crystal and on to Sandfield to see the flooding. Pretty soon Mont pulled out a pint of Moonshine and handed it to me. I took off the top and took a snort and handed it back to him. He said , There are some apples in the glove compartment you can use for a chaser he said. We drank just about all of that pint and I began to get sick after a while. I was dizzy and sick. Soon I upped everything and was sick most of that day. Thats the first time I had ever gotten too much to drink.   And you can bet I didn’t go home until I was on my feet. If my Dad had known he would have skinned me.

Mont and Norman used to hang around with their First Cousins who were, Herb Cole, Dink Cole, Oscar Cole and another fellow named Carl Stewart. They used to hang around together and drink. When Mont and Carl would get loaded they would always fight. One time they got into a fight near their home and they were really going at it. Someone had pulled a knife and was threatening the other. They were making a lot of noise cussing and yelling.Lelah heard them and came running out where they were. She moved in between them with that knife flashing and broke up the fight. Those big men separated and scattered. She had a lot of courage. They knew better than to take her on.

I remember one  time Mont and Carl got into a fracas up on the Mountain at the spring. The spring was a place where the water came down the Mountain and ran through a pipe into a trough. It was located about half way up the Mountain. The State of Kentucky had built a nice trough from stone and people would stop by and get a cool drink and fill the radiators on their cars. One day the gang was at the spring drinking, Mont and Carl got into a fight. Mont picked Carl up and held him over the trough and said. Carl, I baptize you in the name of Happy Chandler and he dropped Carl into the trough of cold water and held him under. I guess that broke up the fight. Everyone laughed about that for weeks. Happy Chandler was running for Governor at that time.

One time Mont was driving up the road in his dump truck and he approached Jiggs stamper who was walking along the road. Mont stopped and said to Jiggs, Get up in the back and I will give you a ride up the road. Jiggs climbed into the dump bed of the  truck and they started on up the road. Pretty soon Mont pulled the lever to start raising the dump bed and was trying to dump Jiggs out of the dump bed. Jiggs was hanging on for dear life. Of course Mont did that in front of a lot of guys and everyone got a big laugh from that.

We sure had a lot of fun in those days and we didn’t hurt other people. There wasn’t much to do in those days and we had a lot of fun playing pranks on each other. Jiggs stamper was the son of Red and Nettie stamper. They lived across the creek from Uncle Vollies family. They had five children, Everett, Jiggs, Ada, Rolla Mae and Tom. Jiggs was not his real name but thats what we all called him. My cousin Jr. used to make up little dittys about the Stampers.

Here’s one, (Everett, Jiggs and Ole Red Stamper tore down the stove and threw away the damper) They were poor people during the depression and Red worked for my Dad on the farm to put food on the table. They called him Red because his face was always red and he just had a red faced complexion. He used to drink a bit when he had a little extra money to buy whiskey. Mrs, Net as we used to call her, Had a large goiter on her neck, A few years later she had it removed and it affected her vocal cords. she could only talk in a low raspy voice.

She and my Mother was good friends. she used to come and visit my Mother and stay for dinner and they used to talk all day. Sometimes they would work on a quilt. They would sew and tack quilts on a quilting frame that belonged to my grandmother. I used to set the quilting frames up. There would be two horses and two stretchers that would be set to make a frame. The quilt would be rolled around one of the stretchers and as they tacked the quilt they would index the frame for the new sowing. When I got married,Mother gave me a new quilt for a wedding present. That was the custom in those days. When I was married September 8, 1950 she gave me and my new wife a  quilt. I still have it , but it is worn beyond use.

I remember one time Ma and I went ot visit Grandma and Grandpa one day, There was a man who was a pilot of a small plane who came into the county and was taking people up for a ride for a fee. The only place that he could land the plane was on Shelt Neals pasture. We didn’t have runways in those days and he would put down in a pasture that was large enough for him to land and and take off. Shelt Neal was a neighbor of Grandpa, And owned a large farm that adjoined Grandpas farm. We were sitting on Grandpas porch watching the plane take off and land taking people up for a ride. Planes in those days were very scarce and to see one up close was a real treat.

Pretty soon Grandpa said, CB lets go down and see them take off from close up. Boy, I was ready to go. We walked through the pasture and to where the crowd of people was that had gathered. It was on a Sunday afternoon. There was a lot of people there. We were watching some of the people take a ride and land. I dont remember the little boy that was going to take a ride, But I remember when they landed and the little boy got out of the plane he walked right into the spinning prop. The Pilot had not turned off the engine and was waiting for another passenger to board.

The little boy was about 10 years old and he just walked into the spinning prop without knowing it. I  remember the shock that fell over the crowd. It was like if lightening had struck the field. I remember Grandpa going over and picking up parts of the little boys skull and brains that was scattered all over the ground.. He put them in a small brown paper bag that someone had given to him.

He was about the only one that any of their faculties left. He was quite a man. Needless to say that was the end of the plane rides for that day. When an inquest was held the plane went on its way and we never seen him again. I guess the pilot felt so bad he decided not to come back again.

Grandpa was a witness at the inquest and it was ruled an accident. So the pilot was clear of any wrong doing. (Not by todays standard)  Uncle June  would work the fields with Hargis Richardson and Mr. Bill Gilbert during the summer and harvest the crops They would mow the hay and rake it into windrows as we called it. If they were going to bale the hay they would put a hay baler in the center of the field and pull the shocks of hay to the bailer and pitch the hay into a machine and large bales would come out of the baler. It was hard work.

The bales would be about two feet square on the end and about three feet in length. the bale would be tied with baling wire that had an eye in one and was straight on the other end. As the bale moved through the baler, A block of wood was put between the bales and tied. This block of wood would  separate the bales and you could control the size of the bales. The bales weighed about eighty pounds each and after a day of handling hundreds of bales, You knew you had done a days work The bales were then hauled to the barn and stored for winter feed for the cattle and the farm animals.

The corn was gathered in late September and early October. It was snapped off the stalk and hrown into a wagon with high sides and hauled to the corn crib to store for the winter. This is how we fed the farm animals during winter as we didn’t have much money to buy commercial feed. we would also grow soy beans for hay and feed it to the animals during the winter. The soy bean hay would make the cows produce lots of good rich milk as it was high in protein. I always liked to go to Grandpas for a visit. He would always let me play in his hay loft. It was different from ours at home. It had hay piled to the roof and I used to play on the high stacks of baled hay in his barn.

Sometimes when I was there, He would let me go to the barn with him and feed the stock. There was square holes in the side of the barn in the loft, And I would throw hay down through those holes to the stock below. They would be scurring around to get their feed and I would throw hay down to each stall where there was an animal. We would go back to the house where Grandma would have supper ready. We would wash up and sit at the table and our supper by a kerosene lamp. They had a little kerosene lamp mounted on the wall beside the table and another one setting in the middle of the table so we could see to eat by. After supper we would sit around the fire and talk. I used to listen to Grandpa tell stories. After a while we would all go to bed. Before retiring, Grandpa would fill the coal grate full of coal and cover the fire with ashes to bank the fire for the night. The fire would hold heat for the night and he could start a fire quickly in the early next morning.

I remember Uncle June and I would sit up a little later after Grandma and Grandpa went to bed. We would be sitting in the same room as where they slept. Pretty soon after Grandpa would get in bed he would bust one and Grandma would say, Eb you stop that. Pretty soon Uncle June and I would go upstairs and go to bed. We slept over the kitchen where the heat had gone up into the bedroom above but it would still be cold. I remember durning the night, He would get up and sit on the side of the bed and roll a cigarette and take a few puffs and lay back down and go to sleep. I was a youngster and wondered why he was not sleeping. I had many good days at Grandmas house. I always liked her food as it was a bit different than we had at home.It was always a treat to eat at Grandmas house.

Grandpa always used a cane. He would make a nice cane from the young hickory sapplings that grew on his farm. He would take the green hickory and bend the crook in the handle, Let dry and finish it to his satisfaction. When we would be sitting on the porch, He used to hook the crook of the cane around my neck and say, Come here Hoss. He would pull me toward him with the cane He always had a good pocket knife and he would let me whittle with it. I probably always got it dull as it was always very sharp. He used that knife when he change the animals on the farm and also the animals of  other people.

Down below the house there was a mulberry tree beside the little creek that ran through his farm. I used to go there and climb the tree and eat mulberrys until I would burst. He would say, CB dont eat the stems  they will give you a belly ache.We used to fish in the creek that ran beside Grandpas farm. He would say to me, Go get the grubbing hoe and dig us some worms and we will go fishing. He would tell me where to dig for the worms in the garden . I  would go uot and dig in the leaves and find the large worms and put them in a tin vegetable can. I would take the worms to show Grandpa and soon we would be on our way to the creek to fish. He would put a worm on the hook and say, When the floater goes under give it a big jerk. He taught me how to fish.

Some of the poles were from the large cane patches that grew on his farm.the other poles were small poles that he had cut from young sapplings that had grown very tall. We used to catch a few fish and take them home.He would clean them and Grandma would fry them for supper.  Some times when Uncle June would be plowing in the field, I would walk behind him in the furrow and pick up worms from the fresh plowed soil. He would be plowing the soil for planting in the spring. He he used Grandpas team to work with. The mules names were Dick and Ellen. Grandpa always had about the best team of mules in the countrty. Uncle June liked to work fast and Dick and Ellen would really move out over the fields. If there was two teams plowing the field and Dick and Ellen caught up with the other team, Uncle June would pull out and get ahead of the other team and start plowing again. Pretty soon he would go all the way around and catch up with the slower team and repeat the process. He really worked hard, When he started a job he worked like he was fighting it.

My mother was like that also,Before she was afflicted with arithitis she and I would work in the garden. Dad would work in the field and she and I would plant the vegetables and weed and hoe the plants. Usally we would do this early in the morning before the sun got so hot. She would work hard and fast and the sweat would be running off of her forehead. When the beans got large enough, Dad would send me to the creek where there was a cane patch to cut canes for sticking the beans. I would tie a rope around the end of a large pile of canes and drag them to the garden where I would strip the small branches off and put them in a pile. Dad would stretch a wire the entire length of the garden and tie it to two posts on each and pull it tight over the two rows of beans. We would then take the canes and carefully stick the end of the cane in the ground so the bean vines could climb up the canes and that would keep the vines from running on the ground.

The canes were crossed at the wire and we would tie them to the wire where they crossed so they wouldn’t blow down. Soon the bean vines would start climbing the canes and that was a pretty piece of architecture. I would pick green beans every morning for our dinner at noon and they sure were good. Ma knew just how to season them with a piece of pork to make them taste good. She would tell me to pick some full beans also and we would shell out some beans from the hull and that made the younger beans taste better.

Dads favorite stick bean was Kentucky Wonder, They would grow up to six and eight inches long. We would grow a row or two of bunch beans also. The bunch beans grew on a low vine and the vine would hold the beans up off of the ground. The vines were almost like a bush. I don’t remember what his favorite bunch bean was. We also grew leaf lettuce, cucumbers, Potatoes, beets radishes,sweet corn and  many other vegetables. In the fall after the garden had been harvested he would plow a portion of the garden and sow a turnip patch. The turnips were a late fall vegetable and after they stopped growing you could leave them in the ground all winter and take what you wanted whenever you wanted a mess of turnips. They also would stay nice and fresh in the ground. The only danger was, If we got a very cold spell and the temperature got below freezing for a period of time they would freeze in the ground and it was all over until next season. I didn’t care for turnips anyway.

We also had several hives of honey bees and in the early spring Dad used to rob the bees and we would have fresh honey to eat for breakfast. we also sold some to the people who worked at Pryse at the gasoline refinery. They liked the fresh honey.

Since the Mount Tabor Church was getting old people in the country decided that they needed a new Church in the area. Meetings were held and a site was selected. B.J.Pendergrass donated a site near the garage that Hester Muncie ran. It was located about 200 feet from that business and had good access from Ky. Highway 52. You could drive just off the highway and into the small parking lot on Church property. Many people didn’t have cars and walked to Sunday School and Church so there was no parking problem. The site was graded off and and a foundation laid. The work was done by donated labor except a man named Coly Lynch was paid since he was a carpenter and supervised the construction. to name a few men that worked on the project was, Mr. Bob Williams, Fayette Howell, Hood Barnes, Bob Coomer, Vernon Thacker, Bob Kelley, Dad, Earl Howell, Willie and Jimmie Samples, Henry Powell, Clearance Tipton, June Scrivner Nelson McIntosh, John McIntosh Will Broaddus and many more I can’t remember. Earl Howell hauled the lumber and material in his truck to the site. After the Church was finished it was time for the dedication service.

What would the Church be called? Many names were discussed and finally a name was selected by Mrs. Lennie Pendergrass wife of B.J.Pendergrass.  Mr. Pendergrass had deeded the property to build a Church and they named the Church, Mount Sinai Christian Church. People came from all over the country to attend Church. They would walk for miles on Sunday morning to attend services. There would also be revival meetings held for a week during the evenings and the church would be packed. Some of the Preachers were, Bro. Warner who had been a preacher for many years and had preached in about every country Church in the county. Also Bro. Estes and he was the regular preacher for a long time.

In those days they  preached Fire and Brimstones and they could burn you sitting in your seat. People would squirm in their seats at some of the sermons as the preacher was getting close to them. As youngsters we went to Church and Sunday School and attended many of the Church events. Since almost all of the people were from a farming community, No one worked on Sunday except to feed the livestock and do work that was related to the well being of the farm animals. If someone worked in the fields on Sunday it was scorned upon. Dad would never work on Sunday, He said, If you work on Sunday it will rain on Monday and he always lived by that rule. Meaning he wouldn’t be able to work  and loose a day working in the fields.