Glimpses from Life's Other Side: An Autobiography

Read an Excerpt

GLIMPSES FROM LIFE'S OTHER SIDE

AuthorHouse

Chapter One

I can't envision telling my story without first telling some of the history of my family; to illustrate who I am, and how I came to be the person I am today. During my lifetime I have been fortunate, to have been surrounded by family members, who ameliorate those around them. In addition to that, there is no way I would be here at all without family.

On my mother's side I inherited Native American blood. My mother was half Cherokee, as her father was full blooded. My mother's maiden name was Lowe, pronounced differently than most families with the name would pronounce it. The (E) is silent, and the (O) has the same sound the (O), would have in the word cow.

My mother grew up on a farm where she learned a lot about life, even though she only went through the 6th grade. She would tell me about her first job, where she ironed clothes all day for 9 cents an hour. I think the primary reason she told me that story, was to emphasize the importance of a dollar. She read a lot, balanced her check book, and never seemed to be hindered in any way by not having had more formal education. She took care of paying all of the bills for our household and was over all a very good manager. She knew how to stretch a dollar and was an excellent cook.

My grandpa Lowe was a farmer in southeastern Missouri, and I have no knowledge of where he may have come from as a young man, or of his ancestors. If my mother knew any of that information she did not share it with me, and I never thought to ask, as a child or in my later life. She would, I am sure, have been more than willing to discuss the matter, if only I had asked. She is gone now, as is her entire generation. So there is no one from whom, I could make an enquiry in regard to this topic.

I came to know my grandma Lowe very well before she passed away; visiting her house many times when I was growing up. I did however, know her by the last name of Bunch. She had remarried sometime between the early 1930's when my mother's dad passed and the period at which my memory evolved. I do believe however, that this union took place sometime after the Second World War.

My grandma and grandpa Bunch had a small house on the outskirts of Kennett. Mo. The first time I can remember going there I was six or seven years old. The only bathroom facility they had was the outhouse. It was located about twenty-five yards behind the main house. I can recall the cold wind blowing through the cracks in the boards on a frosty morning. There was no lighting inside of it; so if it was dark you had to carry a flashlight, when using the accommodations. During daylight hours, the light would come through the cracks in the boards. There was seating for two with the holes cut out of the bench like seat, but it would be best to know the other person, as it was close quarters and there was no privacy.

The house could not have been more than eight or nine hundred square feet. It had only a living room, kitchen, and two bedrooms, all very compact. The building sat up on concrete supports with a crawl space underneath. Their heating system was a pot bellied stove in the living room. They burned coal in it instead of wood as there was a large pile of it in the yard that, I do remember. They had running water in the house but only cold water from a pump at the kitchen sink. They had electricity for lighting, and a radio. I do remember them having a refrigerator that was electric. It was about that time when modern refrigerators were starting to appear in homes across the country. Those were the only modern conveniences in their house. My grandma had a sowing machine that sat to the side just as you went into the kitchen, but it worked by pumping the foot pedal, not by electricity.

This picture was taken of my grandma Bunch in 1966. She was 84 at the time, after she broke her hip she was never able to walk without her one crutch. she died in the late 1960's.

I can remember going there at Christmas two years in a row. At that first Christmas dinner my grandpa Bunch said grace at the table, and made a comment of how nice it was to have everyone together. He said how next year one of us would be missing. He was hit by a car and killed just after the first of the year.

He was crossing the road, on his way to the store only a few blocks from home when it happened. The following year everyone there returned, to the same table for Christmas dinner. Everyone was there except him; it was almost as if he knew.

He told my grandma that if he went first he would come back to check on her, and she swore he did one night. She went to bed but before falling asleep the covers floated up off her and levitated above the bed for a minute or so, before coming slowly back down on her. This is something I can't explain. She told us she was not afraid but knew he was watching over her. I got a chill thinking about it but never doubted her story.

From what my mother told me, the Lowe farm were she grew up was for the most part self sustaining in that they grew, or raised most everything they needed, and raised a cash crop to procure the things that they were unable to produce. They kept chickens for eggs and food.

I know they raised pigs, as my mother had a scar on her ankle she received for taking a shortcut through the pigpen, while playing as a young girl. Some pigs can be aggressive, and do bite. After that incident, she gave them a wide berth, and wisely so. They raised cows, because my mother talked of making their own butter when she was growing up, but it was never enough for the table with the size of family they had.

She said that as well as butter at the table, they also used bacon grease on their toast. It provided a good flavor, and meant no one had to eat dry toast. People back then had no idea, that it might not be good for their health.

I am not sure if they raised beef cattle, for food, without having any refrigeration available to them, I know there are other ways to preserve meat, but I am unaware of what means they may have employed. I do know they had a smoke house. They smoked their own hams, and bacon on the farm; I am sure they ate a lot of pork.

They planted a large garden every spring that provided plenty of fresh produce when it came in season. As the saying goes though, you eat what you can and what you can't eat you can. I know my grandma did a lot of canning, as mom told of how she had to help with that chore. The homemade canned goods then helped to feed the family over the winter.

Their bathroom facilities on both the Lowe, and Lee farms, were the outhouses a hundred feet behind the house. As for toilet paper, it was the old Sears catalog, but my mother told me it was sometimes dried corn cobs that had the corn kernels removed. How lucky we are today. As far as I know both of my parents grew up having electricity on their farms.

I don't remember ever hearing anything about reading by candlelight.

Other than possibly a radio and lighting though; I don't believe they had anything electrical in their houses like many of the things we have today.

They grew cotton as their cash crop, as it was the predominant one for the region. My mother reminisced with pride of being able to pick 200 pounds of cotton in a day. She did this while dragging a large sack behind her that held up to 100 pounds when full, and bending over to reach the cotton bowels. As a child she may have been much shorter, than when she relayed the story to me. I assume that is why everyone wanted to be, picking in high cotton, as the song goes. With less stooping and bending it was much easier on the back. As I recall, the whole story of harvesting cotton, was not a fond memory for her.

My mother was born in 1923, in Hornersville, Missouri on a farm.

She was one of twelve children, having nine brothers and two sisters. Her eldest sister my, aunt Dolly was a half sister, from a former marriage of my grandpa Lowe's. His first wife died young, leaving him with a daughter to raise by himself. Life was hard back then, and people did not live as long. Medical care was not as good, there were fewer doctors, with a lot less knowledge available to them, and fewer hospitals in the rural areas.

Her other sister my aunt Iva, was old enough to have offspring of her own, by the time my mother came along, making my mother, an aunt from the first day of her life. She had two nieces close to the same age as her, and they grow up together. I know they were very close, as they lived, only a short distance from each other, and were able to play, and go to school together.

My mother on the left with her signature hand on hip pose. The other girl in the picture is one of her nieces a daughter of my aunt Iva's. This picture was taken in 1939 when my mother was sixteen years old.

My aunt Dolly moved to California sometime around the start of World War II. There her and her husband owned and operated a small grocery convenience store at the edge of town. I can remember being there and seeing the store in 1952. It was sometime after that her husband died but she continued to run the store by herself for many years.

I was there onetime after I joined the Navy; finding she had a new location for her business. She eventually sold the store to retire buying a house in town.

My aunt Iva stayed near the place where she grew up, never living any farther away than in the neighboring state of Arkansas, She died at the age of 102. I had the chance to see her, on many occasions as I was growing up, and also in my adult life. I don't know how old she was, when she became widowed, but every time I saw her, she always told me the same line, she was looking for a good man. Did I know of any, and if so could I fix her up? At first I thought she really meant it, but as time went on I came to the realization that she was just jesting with me.

I believe that my uncle William was my mother's oldest brother. He was one of the family, who stayed in the Southeastern Missouri area, for his entire life. He had his own farm, that he owned, and raised his family on. Over the years I know he did some commercial fishing as well, with traps on the Arkansas River, On one occasion, when I was visiting him, he showed me one of his traps. It was not an elaborate affair, homemade from chicken wire, it was about 5 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 2 feet high.

When placed in the river it would sink to the bottom. It had a rope tied to it, making it easy to find and pull up onto the bank. It had a door that could be swung open on the top, to remove the days catch, and one end had a gradually narrowing funnel like opening, that would allow the fish to enter, but once in they would not be able to find their way back out.

The State required a metal license tag affixed to each trap that identified the owner. Of course there was an annual fee for each license tag, on traps a person put out. My uncle told me that he would check his traps, two or three times a week, emptying his catch, which he would then take to town and sell. He said he got 50 to 100 pounds of catfish each time. He did this in the 1940's and 50's when the fishing was good, but by the 1960's he did not get enough fish to make it worth the effort.

My uncle William with two catfish taken out of the Arkansas river. The two fish totaled 85 pounds. I believe the other person in the photo was his son, who would be a cousin of mine I don't ever remember meeting.

Of my mother's other brothers, I know Robert was the youngest. The rest of them fit somewhere in between, him and my uncle William, in age.

I am unable, however, to list them chronologically in the order of their birth.

They were however, my uncles, Marvin, Everett, Ray, Cecil, Vernon, Franklin, and J.C. I never saw J.C. written out, and as my mother told me once that was his name, just the initials. But most of the family just shortened even that to simply J. This is one of the little anomalies of living in the South, it is possible to have just an initial for a name. Another thing the South is known for is using, both the first and middle names together all the time in referring to someone. Many people go by their two names all the time, and when you hear it, you just know they are from Dixie.

My grandpa Lowe passed away when my mother was just 10 years old, and she told me that the night he died, his old hound dog sat on the front porch and howled all nightlong. In some ways animals must be smarter than us, I don't how, but I guess they just know, when something is about to happen.

When grandpa passed on most of my uncles were older than my mother, and all of them knew how to run a farm. It was still early in the Great Depression and the farm at least offered some security. The times were hard but at least there was food on the farmer's tables; that was better than the long soup lines of the day. The factories of the North were not exactly begging for workers; there were no jobs to be found.

To the best of my knowledge the Lowe boys continued to run the farm, until around the start of World War II. It was the war that ended the Great Depression, and put everyone to work. If you were not in the military, you would have been working building ships, planes, bombs, or ammunition.

There was still farming to feed our country, our military overseas, and our allies. Everyone left at home was encouraged to grow what was called a victory garden to help out feeding themselves and their neighbors.

Many women also went to work in the factories on the war effort. With so many of the men off to war, and so many jobs to fill, both genders of our society became equal parts of the Greatest Generation. It was our factory production output, as much as our military that won the war.

I know my uncle Franklin was in the Army, but do not know in which theater of operation he served Atlantic, or Pacific. I know also that he was wounded in the fighting; spending sometime in a military hospital recovering. I have heard the story of how on his return home; he walked up to the front door of my grandma's house. It was at that point he went ballistic upon seeing the Red Cross sticker, in the living room window. It seems that during his stay in the hospital, the Red Cross was very helpful to him, providing everything he needed to write home, pencils, paper, envelopes, and stamps. When it was time for his release from the facility however, he was presented with a bill, listing every single item they had given him, down to the three cent stamps. He could not see his mother supporting an origination that would do something like that to our wounded vets.

Another interesting story about my uncle Frank, told to me by my uncle Vernon onetime, was of an incident occurring soon after the war.

He was going with the women, who would later become my aunt Lucille.

They were at a party when he became a little too much under the influence of strong beverages, and a little too disorderly. The local sheriff was called to settle him down, but I am sure it must have been somewhat of an embarrassment to the sheriff when my uncle took his gun away from him.

I guess it all worked out in the end though, as when he married my aunt Lucille, the sheriff became his father-in-law. It seems that she was the sheriff 's daughter.

My uncle Frank may have raised a little hell in his younger days, but in the early 1950's he became the first in the family to graduate from college receiving his degree in theology and becoming a Baptist preacher. He had a church until the day he died, all the while running a successful electrical contracting business, he had started shortly after the war. His church and business both were located in Southeastern Missouri, so after the war he never strayed far from where he was born. I always called him Uncle Frank, but I know some of his brothers just called him the Preacher. I always felt they meant that in a good way, and not to be at all disrespectful.

My uncle Vernon served in the Navy, I believe in the Pacific theater of Operation. I do not know what ships he may have served onboard, or what job he might have had. My uncle Robert was also in the Navy as a Seabee in the South Pacific theater. I know this because I still have a picture in my possession, of him taken on the island of Saipan in 1946. I always thought when the war ended, our guys came home in a matter of days, but know now that was not the case. It was months before many of them returned to the States, staying overseas, to provide stability to the region, until things returned to normal.

The rest of my mother's brothers, I don't know that much about, some of them may have also been in the service during the war, But I do not know the details.

The man I knew as my dad also came from a large family, and my agnate relatives included one half brother, two half sisters, four brothers, and three sisters. That makes eleven of them in all. My grandpa Lee was also widowed young. Between my grandparents, on both my mom's and dad's sides, they had 23 children, to feed, clothe, and raise. Somehow they managed to do this, while living through the Great Depression, in a time before welfare or, food stamps were ever thought of. That is what made America great, the people who preceded us.

My dad was born in North Dakota, but when he was little they moved to Minnesota and the farm where he grew up. From what I was told, it was much like the farm my mother grew up on, in that they were as much as could be, self sufficient. They raised all of the animals for food, chickens for food and eggs, and had the big garden every year. They did the canning, and preserved everything they could. My dad did tell me how they had refrigeration, but it was not quite like what we have today. They had what they called a root cellar. It was dug into the side of a small hill and had a door that sealed tight to keep the cool air in, and the heat out in the summer.

(Continues...)

---

Excerpted from GLIMPSES FROM LIFE'S OTHER SIDE by Richard Lee Copyright © 2012 by Richard Lee. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Read More