The Very Special Red Dress

For some reason , I don't remember why...I was chosen with three other young 2nd graders to sing at a program the Haven High School was having.  They made us some very pretty red crepe paper dresses with little ruffles.

Mama kept it hanging in her closet for me.  Every once in  a while I would go and admire it.  This day when I went to admire it, the hanger was empty.

I ran to the kitchen to find mama. Instead there was Eudora with red drops of water running down over her hair.  Her hands and face were red and she was crying.  There were strips of red paper on the floor and table.  I started yelling, mama came in.  Yes, that was the end of my red paper dress. Eudora decided she didn't want to be a red head. 

Well, I forgave her eventually, and we laughed about it, that was around 20 years later.

Country Living

After Billie Ruth was born, I can't  remember life changing very much, if any for me.  I walked to school with LaVerne and Wiley.  I think we all liked school.  Our friends were the dear Amish children.

On our walks home, Wiley and I walked with Ida Mae Yoder (a chubby little girl with sun tanned skin, long braids and a happy smile.)  And a boy named Kenneth Baitman, another name for trouble.  Sometimes, Wiley and Kenneth would throw their lunch pails over the fence into the pasture and then they would say "Ida Mae, you go get them".  And she would.  So one afternoon we were walking along alone, Ida Mae and I.  Suddenly I threw my lunch pail over the fence, "Ida Mae, go get that."  She looked at this stupid little girl beside her and said,  "Go get it yourself."  Which I did.
    
Our teacher's name was Miss Lewis, she lived with her parents on a little farm about 10 or 12 miles  from us.  She was a friend of my sister, Eudora. One night Laverne and Eudora wanted to go to a dance. They got permission by saying she was going with them.  They drove dad's little old car.  It looked a green box and our goat use to run and climb clear on top of it. Well, after the ball was over and they were driving home they let Miss Lewis out, then about 4 or 5 miles from home, it stopped and they had to walk home.

Next morning, LaVerne, Wiley and I started to  school.  About a mile down the road, I decided it was Miss Lewis's fault and I wasn't going to walk to school.  So, I walked back home just as daddy was coming out of the door to go after the car.  He turned me around and marched me right back down the road.  When he got the car started he dropped  me off at school.  Now you would have thought Miss Lewis would have taken part responsibility for my tardiness.  No, no way, imagine this...she kept me after school for one half of an hour because I was tardy, for no reason, she said.

A couple of weeks later, maybe her conscience was hurting her, whatever, she invited me to go home with her and spend the night.  As I said before, she lived with her old parents.  They were so happy to have me.  It seems they had another daughter, she had died when she was about my age.  Well, much to my horror, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis spent the evening showing me pictures of the daughter.  From her baby pictures to school, to the pictures of her lying in her coffin.  All of her keepsakes, her dolls, and dresses...more pictures.

I do remember before the ghoulish stuff started, we had a delicious meal.  And to this day, I remember  the dessert.  It was barlett pears from a can.  Now at my young age, I had never had fruit from a can. Only what mama had canned and (God Bless, Mama) it wasn't fancy.  But those pears seemed so fancy, so I don't know why, they just made such an impression on my young mind.  Now, I know them for what they are.....bland, slick and tasteless.

Mama's Suprise

It was summertime...Daddy, Eudora, LaVerne and Wiley were gone.  I think they went someplace to help with harvesting.  Mama and I were left alone.  It is such a nice day....mama gets the house picked up.  We have a little lunch.  It is such a nice treat to have mama all to myself.  After eating mama says she has a surprise for me.  We go into the house  and in her bedroom.  Mama shows me a big trunk.  Then she opens it....smiling she picks  a little baby gown.  And a baby blanket, I don't understand.  The trunk is filled with little baby clothes....Mama smiles, hugs me, then says, "We're going to get a new baby."  I grabbed the little gown and ran around the house laughing and singing.  A new baby!
    That was in July....then came August, September...October.  One night in October...daddy came and said, "You kids get up, you have to go in town to grandma's."  We all  dressed and drug ourselves out to the little old car. Wiley and I crawl in the back seat....just as we see a car drive in the long driveway.
       We knew we were getting our new baby.  But why were we going to grandma's?  Dr. Anspaugh walked around the front of the car's headlights.
He had his black bag in his hand.   I was so excited...is that what he has our baby I in?  (Yes, I was that uninformed).  By the time they get the car started, daddy comes out...."Never mind he calls to us. Come on back to the house.  See what your mama has."
      When we get to the back porch, our neighbor lady, Mrs. Popp had come with the Doctor.  She tells us to be quiet and come in the bedroom.  One by one we nervously open the door.....Mama is laying in bed, and right beside her is a brand new baby.  Mrs. Popp says.  "Come see your new baby sister."  I am so happy...for a little while.  Wiley won't even look....he wanted a little brother.   Then I decided maybe a new baby sister wasn't such a good idea....I was being displaced. Then, Mrs. Popp being the understanding lady that she was...She went in the kitchen found a cod liver oil bottle..Washed it, filled it with milk, put a nipple on it...handed it to me, "There now", she said.  I was pacified and happy.  ( Later I remember the bottle and nipple must have been the one we fed the baby goat with.]  
   We were all very happy with our new little baby sister this is the true reason of her name.  Eudora was having a party at our house with her friends from school.  One of their games, or whatever was to name the new baby.  Before of after, I don't really remember.  Anyway, they put up names and they voted on "Billie Ruth".  Daddy threw a fit. "That's a boys name." I don't know how or why.  Maybe mama was the final vote.  Anyway our new baby was named "Billie Ruth Ferrell".

School Days

In the morning, we would all rush around getting ready for school.  Wiley had chores to do.  The girls helped with the breakfast dishes and I tried to keep out of the way.  Some how we always managed to get out the door and on our way.  Daddy took Eudora to Haven where she went to High School and he worked on the Railroad.  Wiley, LaVerne and I had a walk of a little over a mile to school.  We weren't the only ones....all the kids walked.  There were 32 students in the whole school....It was one room, eight grades, one teacher, Miss Lewis.  Some of the older boys were getting pretty big.  Because, although we only had an eight month school year, the older Amish boys stayed home in the spring to help with plowing and planting. Then in the fall they stayed home to help with harvest.  There was one young boy in about the 5th grade, his name was David Petershine.  He was such a pretty boy, so kind, so smart.  One spring while helping with the planting, somehow he felt off or beneath one of the big machines and was killed. 
I never will forget the sadness of those last few days of school that year.

First Years

I first met this beautiful lady..many years ago.   I loved her at first sight.  She smiled and took me in her arms, as the nurse handed me to her.  I was her fourth born. The year was 1926.

Nine years before me..my sister Eudora Lucille was born.  Then 2 years later, mama gave birth to another little girl, and named her Anna Laverne.    Four years goes by then mama and daddy were blessed with a boy.  He was named Wiley C..  Just that. His middle name was C.  

I don’t know why, but daddy and mama decided to go to California…..mama’s sister, Lizzie, her real name was of course, Elizabeth.  And her husband, Hobart was going with them….All going to seek their fortune.   What mama got was me.  Mama seemed happy about it.  Well, things didn’t work our like they planned.  A lot of other Okie’s had the same idea.  So, finding no pot of gold….They headed back to Oklahoma.  They stopped at different places…to work.  Mama picked cotton….in Texas.  I didn’t know they had cotton in Texas.  Daddy got odd jobs.  To pay for gas and food.  At that time in America, people didn’t worry about motels…I don’t think they had any and if they did, not many people could afford them.  So, the story is, they camped along the road and….anyone read “The Grapes Of Wrath?”  Get the picture.   Here I was just a little baby, so whatever I say is hear say.  Well, we stopped off in Phoenix, Arizona.   My aunt Annie and her husband, Sol Weeks lived there.  He had some kind of construction job, so he got daddy one.  Aunt Annie had 2 daughters, Ruthie named after mama and Edith.   And a boy named, Thurston.  Thurston was deaf.  He became quite an artist.  Many years later, I remember him sending mama his paintings…They were beautiful, mostly desert scenes.

Why we didn’t stay in Phoenix, I don’t know.   Daddy was working…Eudora and LaVerne were happy to be with their cousins.  Mama had her sister Annie…But daddy wanted to go to Kansas.  That is where his mother lived.  She had been a widow after my grandfather was thrown from a horse and hit his head on a stump of a tree.  She had married a man named Mel Stoffer.  He had some kind of business.  I really liked our Grandpa Stoffer…He was a great big man.

Here we were back in Kansas.  By the time fall rolled around, I was 6 and in the first grade.  I have to say I loved school.  I was a good student.  One problem….we had rented a house, right across the street from daddy’s brother.  They had a girl same age same grade as I was.  She was big, pure white hair and I mean pure white hair…blue eyes and hair so white with pale skin.  Have you ever heard of an albino?  I think she was one.   She was big for six years old.  I was little for six years old.  As far as school went we didn’t get along…she would beat me up on the way home.  So mama had to tell the teacher to keep me   a little while so we wouldn’t be going home at the same time.  But on the weekends we played together. And as we got older and lived farther apart we became friends. 

The next summer we moved out to the country, to a nice big farm house.  We had a big barn, a horse water tank where we swam in the summer.  We had a windmill right in our back yard. The water ran cool in the summer…there was a big crock like container at the bottom where the cool water came out. Mama kept our milk and butter in this cool water and daddy kept his home made beer. 

This was a wonderful place for our family.  Mama raised chickens, we had a cow.  Raised a garden. Life was good.  LaVerne, Wiley and I went to a little one room schoolhouse.  Most of our classmates were Amish.  Great neighbors, great schoolmates.  Our teacher’s name was “Miss Lewis”.  We had to walk to school, of course.  I think there were 32 in this one room school.  We had a great big furnace in the back. Our drinking fountain was a galvanized bucket in the cloak room.  Right by the back door..  We had one dipper…yes, that’s right a dipper.  I don’t think I drank much water. .   Eudora rode to town to High School.  She was very popular and she was very pretty.  She could really play tennis.