Searching for History

Marvin's Day

It was a beautiful day and we were out in a flooded ditch swimming in the flood waters of the Southeast Missouri countryside. We were having a great time and we had found a boat just floating in the water. It looked like the boat was a little leaky but it would do for what we wanted it for. We didn't want it for any other reason but to play with. The flood waters were a little bit higher than they usually were. It had been raining off and on every day. Southeast Missouri had five flood ditches which drained the water off the farmer's fields. This controlled flooding allowed the ditches to keep draining water off of the fields and that helped to keep the fields dry. This allowed the farmer's access to their fields when they needed to be there. Another thing the flood ditches were good for was to swim in a hot season.

We were having a good time swimming in the waters which were a bright hue of brown and dirty water which we were playing in. We made good use of everything that we had. Whether we found it or bought it from a thrift store or whether it was given to us by Church people. Daddy had said that after we used something for awhile, it couldn't be used for anything else. Because we recycled whatever they gave us, if it did not fit one of us then we did it over until it did. Mom even made quilts from some of the stuff that was given to us by others. Today we felt extra lucky because we had found a leaky boat and we felt really blessed. We made good use of everything that was given to us by anyone. And we would make very good use of that leaky boat because we were special. There would be nothing left that anyone would want after we were done with it because there wouldn't be anything left of the article.

Now Marvin was also a good user like that. He put everything that he had into doing things that others could not do. If there was a way to do something Marvin would find it and do it. Marvin was good at working on cars. He could find parts or recycled parts or even make parts for cars. Above all Marvin was a smart boy. He made A's in school. He had no problems with math, science or any other subject. We did not think there was anything Marvin could not do. He was just that smart and we knew that he knew. That. Was why Marvin could make $36.00 a week just by picking cotton. He would pick each day except Sunday. He would pick three hundred pounds of cotton a day. By the end of the day he had three hundred pounds picked all by himself. He would pick a hundred and fifty pounds in the morning hours and one hundred fifty pounds in the evening. We also knew Marvin was smarter than us because he just looked smarter than us.

Ronnie Lynn and I liked to tease Marvin. We teased him because he was bigger than we were and because he wanted to chase us all over the yard. We liked Chasing Marvin like that. We were better runners than Marvin was. It'd be hell to pay if he caught us, but we were going to see that that did not happen to us. We just wanted to run and run we did. It did not matter what we called Marvin he would chase us and we loved it. We had many good times with Marvin chasing us all over everywhere.

But today Virginia was with us, and she was playing with us, as was Marvin and we wanted to have fun. Virginia and Marvin were older than me and Ronnie Lynn. But Ronnie Lynn and I would team up together against the other two. We liked to do that. That teaming up actually made Ronnie and I stronger than Virginia and Marvin combined. We felt exceptional in our abilities to do things together. Together Ronnie Lynn and I were smarter than Marvin and today we were going to prove it. We had a boat, we had flood waters, and we had a little assistance in the water and that would be Virginia. So when Marvin said "let's play King off the Boat" We readily agreed. We just knew who had to be the "King of the Boat" and it wasn't going to be Marvin if we could help it. Well the water was deeper today, and the top of the boat could be grabbed by little fingers looking for a good hand hold. But Marvin stood right up in the center of that boat and steadied himself against us. We didn't seem to be able to do any more than just simply rock the boat.

While that was o.k. it was not all right for we needed to unsteady Marvin, in order to throw him off balance enough to get him out of the boat. Our next attempt was to try and pull the boat over in the water so that we could get him unstable that way. So we grabbed both sides of the boat in order to get him unstable, but that did not help either. Marvin was still in the middle of the boat waiting for us to dump him over the sides. Ronnie Lynn and I along with Virginia were getting desperate to win. We were never going to be "King of the boat" like this. But then Ronnie Lynn and I made a joint effort. Both of us pulled on the sides if the boat and we managed to get him a little unsteady. Would you know, we tipped it a little more, and Marvin fell out of the sides of the boat?

Hot dog! We had it. We had tipped the boat enough to dislodge the big guy. Marvin was in the flood water with us and coming after us. We were trying to get in to the boat and away from Marvin. Because Marvin was quickly up out of the water and we felt like he was coming after us. He was laughing and rubbing water from his hair, but he was not standing still at all. We climbed up and into the boat. Then we stood and gave a yell oh, hey! Ronnie Lynn and I we were the " king of the boat." Then Marvin easily dumped Ronnie Lynn and me out of the boat. Then we let Virginia take a turn in the boat. When she went back into the water I came up laughing, and Marvin was laughing. Then Ronnie tipped Virginia out of the boat again and we just had a good time that day in the water playing in the leaky boat and just having a great time. We sure had a great time that day playing in the flood waters that day. I can remember it just like it was yesterday, but it was along time ago.

A Fall Day

We were cleaning the yard early that fall day. We had worked an entire morning, and part of the evening, digging the hole for the trash and cleaning the yard. We had dug a hole in the yard for the refuse, and had it nearly full. We had found trash near the basement of the house, and out in the back yard as well as tree cuttings, and debris that had blown in from all over the area. Dad and mom were raking the yard, as we picked up the trash, and it was looking really good. We lived about seven miles outside if Kennett in the countryside of Missouri.

We had a large house with four bedrooms, but you needed that with twelve children of varying ages and sizes. We also had an upstairs in the house, but the floor wasn't covered with wood floors. All of its flooring was just rafters, and among the rafters was electrical wiring for the house. Ronnie Lynn and I could walk across those rafters almost as easily as if we had floors. But you had to watch because the ceilings of the rooms downstairs were there as well. You could easily fall through the rafters to the downstairs below, but we were careful. Mom had told us not to be playing up there in the rafters of the house, but sometimes we did.

So we played mostly in the yard. There was plenty of room outside for us to play in. We had more than two acres with the house. We had room for a large garden which we planted every year, and also we had lots of Cottonwood trees to play in that suited us very well. In Cottonwood trees the leaves were huge, and you could make hats or even shelters for yourself in the rain. We also had chickens, which lived in their own coop out in the back of the house. Even though they had their own coop, we would search high and low for their eggs in the evening hours. And we had one dog. Dad said that he could not keep but one dog, because he couldn't afford to feed him very well.

We also had a storm cellar. There weren't very many storms in our area, but they did come around us sometimes, and Dad wanted us to be free of severe weather. We had lived in Arkansas, the year before we moved here and dad was still afraid of tornadoes. The last one we had lived through had taken the roof off of the house that we lived in. Dad did not want to be a part of that again. You see, we had no television, we lived way out in the country, and the only thing we had as a weatherman was our dad. But he didn't really want to be a weather man at all. He just wanted to live in a tornado free zone. That wasn't quite where we lived at all. We'd had several local storms in the area. But there were only a few severe storms which happened from time to time.

Anyway, our storm cellar was concrete. I don't know how they made it, but the roof was covered in concrete too. It had a small window in the back, and it even had a door. It was large enough to accommodate all of us at once. And it did not flood in the storm cellar. Water did not stay in the storm cellar; it drained out through a hole on the middle of the storm cellar. We were pretty happy about that.

Sometimes Ronnie Lynn and I would play mail carrier. Ronnie Lynn would ride his little tricycle up and deliver mail to me. He would come up to me with a piece of mail and say "here is your mail today" "he would also ask me, "how I was doing." We would also play house, Ronnie Lynn and I would be mom and dad and set up our little house in the storm cellar. Sometimes, when I was in the cooking mood I would make mud pies, and plates of food for Ronnie to eat. We made mud biscuits, and mud pancakes, and everything that we could think of in our little playhouse. It was the nicest and best place to play.

There was a small hill on the hilltop, and we really loved having that hill to play on. Sometimes, we would just put a stick inside of a rubber bicycle tire, or a car tire and just run with it to see how far we could go. It was lots of fun. Other times we would get our bicycle out. The bicycle had no chains on it, no pedals, but an iron bar on which to stand. We would stand on one side of the bicycle and ride down the hill on that bicycle. It felt like we were going thirty miles an hour on that bike just rolling down the hill.

But today Ronnie Lynn and I were jumping across the junk pile. We were using our rake and broom handles to jump with when I jumped across the pile. I didn't make it across the pile. My foot went down inside the junk pile and I crossed a can lid with my bare foot. I knew immediately something was wrong with my foot, because I had felt the sharp slice on the instep of my foot. I quickly pulled my foot up and looked at it, but Ronnie wasn't looking and I quickly walked to the inside back door of the house.

I found an old shirt that they were using for rags, and I covered my foot up with it, trying to stop the bleeding. I just sat inside the house wondering what I was going to do now. Well, after about thirty minute's mom and my sister came in. They had found me where I was at by following the bloody trail that my foot had left. They asked me what I thought I was doing there by myself with my foot bleeding. I did not want to tell them I was watching it bleed. But I told them I was doing nothing, just sitting there.

Well mom wrapped my foot up really good. We left for the doctor after mom and dad had applied kerosene onto a rag to clean out the cut and to stop the bleeding. They took me to the oldest doctor in town. You know it took seventeen stitches to sew my foot back together again. I had a scar for a long time, but you can't tell now that it was ever cut like that. They said I was lucky to have my foot still on since I had nearly cut it off. But I thank God, my mom and dad knew how to treat it.

Mom and dad finished cleaning up the yard that night but it was late when we covered the hole. I never did go back to the doctor to get the stitches taken out, Dad asked me if I wanted him to do it and he cut out the stitches for me. He cut the stitches right out with his scissors. I was healed and happy three weeks later. I went back to doing all the things I wanted to do again. Sometimes, I think I want to go back and see it again, but then I think no, I don't think so. I like my life now.

Worms at half-Time

It was in the early summer of 1965. We had cleaned a half field of cotton that day, by chopping the rows of a field of cotton. We were taking two rows at a time to make an honest effort to clear this field. We had another field, the owner also wanted to be cleared before the beginning of next week. We were on a time schedule and we knew it. Daddy was at home today with Mom. The two of them were making plans to go to a church singing that night. A new singer was in town at the Baptist church and they wanted to go and meet them and of course to hear them sing. We were busily working away at the grass that grew along side of the cotton plants. We were working to separate the grass plants away from the little cotton stalks that were growing in the grassy field.

We agreed that today for lunch time, we would send one of us to the country store in Peach Orchard to get our dinner for us. It was getting close to lunch time, and we were ready for a break in the cutting field where we worked. The little country store, omigosh was about three miles from where we were working today. We knew that it would take a little bit of money to get us our lunch. I believe that a soda's cost was a dime apiece, and we needed enough for seven of us, so that would be seventy cents and a candy bar would just be a nickel. So seven times five in thirty-five cents. There were seven of us in the field working, so we would need $1.05 for our lunch today. So we chose Gerald (the oldest son with us)to go and get the soda's and candy bars for our lunch that day. Right about twelve o'clock, Gerald left the field for the country store to get our lunch that day.

Eugene was keeping us occupied by singing loudly, "I got a Gal, her name is Sal." "singing Pooly Wolly Doodle all day," "oh, I went down South, to see my gal singing Polly wolly doodle all day." "Oh, my Sal, she's a spunky gal." "Sing Poly Wolly doodle all day." "He was having a good time trying to get us to sing in harmony with the song as we chopped cotton that day in Peach Orchard.

Time was moving on and lunch time, was passing us by, when Gerald returned with the sodas and candy bars. We were more than ready for them; a good cold drink was just what we needed on that very hot day out in the field. It was about 95 if you were in the shade. We were all standing there in the field, drinking our soda and eating our candy bars, when I looked down at my own little half of a candy bar. I turned my candy bar, over a little nonchalantly, and what I had seen turned my face turn green indeed. Well, what I saw was just what I needed to see right then. There were two lowly worms lying on the half of the candy bar that I had not eaten yet.

Oh my gosh, I thought, did I eat the other worms? Were there two other worms? Oh, my gosh, did I eat the other worms? Were there two other worms there? I did not know. I didn't remember if I had tasted the worms or just enjoyed the chocolate of the candy bar. I didn't know whether I ate the worms, or if there were other little worms on that half of a candy bar. Stunned and speechless, I turned and showed my older brother (Eugene) the worms. I stood there and I watched him silently, as his face turned from questioning to starting to grin, then he just started laughing at me. My face felt green, and then my stomach turned bad and sour. I could just barely stand up using my hoe as a leaning tool. I couldn't think of anything except that there might be some worms missing on the candy bar. I tossed the candy bar away. I wondered if I did I eat them. I didn't know if I had or not.

Eugene, by this time was holding his sides, until he couldn't stand still any longer, then would you know he rolled down into the cotton rows giggling at me and pointing at me. Oh how I wished I could just slap him and make him stop laughing at me and my ill felt stomach. I still felt very ill. My face had gotten white; my stomach was turning, and Lord I thought I would lose all of it. But I didn't. However, I did resent my brothers having such a good time laughing at me at my own expense. I thought, oh my? What a way to learn what it is that your brothers will laugh at.

• Previous Posts:

• Marvin's Day
• A Fall Day
• Worms at half-Time
• Meeting our Cousins
• Mama's Prayer
• The Marion Tornado
• Fast, Easy ways to make extra money
• My Dad told Stories

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