Left to Right: Ruby, Doc, Lena, Inez, Gus is standing

Lena Mae: 1959

My mother told me the sad story of how little Willie struggled to overcome diptheria, but lost the battle and passed away at the age of two.  My second mother was my older sister, Beatrice Inez.  Although she was only seven years older than I she helped take care of me and the other younger children, and we really looked to her for help.  Inez did her best to help Mama keep us fed and clothed.  I remember Mama said to me one day, "Whether you have one child or a dozen, you are busy twenty four hours a day," She was speaking from experience too, for she and Papa brought fourteen healthy children into this world, demanding to be fed, clothed, and loved.  In order to meet this great demand, Papa and Mama always lived on a farm, therefore our living came directly out of the soil, by the sweat of our brows.

The first seven years of my life we lived on a big farm about one mile from Yardell, Arkansas.  There was plenty of work to b done.  At the age of five, I was milking cows with the older children, carrying water from the spring, and doing many other chores.  

My first day of school was a big experience for me, and my older sister Ruby Jane too.  I expect she will never forget how she held my little hand all the way to school, because Mama told her not to let me stop and play in a mud puddle.  I saw some big full puddles and could have made beautiful mud pies if Ruby had been a little more understanding.  She was only two years older than I, but she acted like a mother to me that first day of school.  He patience seemed to never end.  I don't think she learned anything herself that day, because she was too busy helping me. How else would my teacher, Miss Winnie Shinn, have known my name if Ruby had not been there to tell her.  I was too bashful to say anything to Miss Winnie, much less repeat my funny sounding name to her.

In 1925, Papa hitched the horses to the wagon and packed it full of furniture and three babies (Molly, Irene,& Garland) and moved us to a farm about two miles north from the old home place.  This farm had belonged to Grandfather.

I was only seven when we moved to our new home.  We entered the Western Grove School, and it seemed so big compared to Yardelle's one room school.    By the time we were finished with  all the chores and walked three miles to school, it was time for books.  When school was over for the day, we started on our long journey home.  

Mama always had a hot supper cooked.  After eating, we started doing the chores again.  Sometimes we lingered too long at the table and had to milk by latern light.

In the summer we picked blackberries and sold them for spending money.  In 1930 Papa bought a big  ton truck to haul cattle and hogs to market.  When papa and Mama went to Western Grove to get the corn ground for meal and get groceries, we twelve children would jump in the back end of the truck and make the trip too.

There were so many snakes on our farm that almost everytime I would go to the spring to get a bucket of water there would be a snake in the path.  My brother, "Doc" had a habit of catching blue racer snakes by the tail and slinging them around and around then popping their heads off by hitting them on the ground.  One day he went to school with a tiny blue racer inside his shirt.  He wasn't satisfied to just scare everyone on the school ground, so he took the snake in the school house-then is when the teacher took charge. "Doc" brought no more snakes to school.

One might wonder how our parents managed to feed and clothe us 12 children.  We had a truck patch of tomatoes, cabbage, melons, in the springtime.  Then in the fall, we had another of peanuts and sweet potatoes. We sold the produce from the truck patches for money to buy the necessities of life.

We had the only molasses mill in our neck of the woods.  I loved sorghum making time.  People from miles around would bring their cane stalks to make into sorghum.  The smell of sweet sorghum cooking was one of my fondest childhood memories.