Part 10 (2/2)

But it hasn't always been that way About the sahbor faency brake while they jacked up the car to put the spare on Then when they got going again, they forgot to release the brake and drove about a half-mile with the brake on Later, one of the boys in that faed that their car was so powerful it went a half-ot rid of his ht a Grant auto It had a reputation of having great power They said you could run the front buh power to sit there and spin the wheels on dry land That was a lot of power for that tihly of the Grant said he knew a e to lock it in, drove it out by his hog pen and chained it to the pen That night some thieves came, cut the chain and stole the pen

But before cars made it so handy for farmers to drive into town to buy supplies, peddlers were already plentiful, bringing supplies to the fars were apt to pull up at our farht want, from kitchen utensils to medicine; hardware to veterinarian supplies; needles and thread and blue denim You name it-they had it-even horseshoes and nails

With the new prosperity carows so do her cities and towns And as towns prosper, they breed violence

I was only a kid but I heard soot shot in Haot off one good shot, which proved to be effective enough The h the store and out into the alley, up the alley a few doors, then ran back into a drygoods store There he crawled under a counter to hide and died That's how I remeot shot nor why

During all this ti up too Frank was alrown man and Susie had fallen in love When she was born, they na till her Aunt Annie nicknamed her ”Sookie” She hated that nickname ever- so-et serious about having Dode Sanford over to our house for supper quite a few tiht Then she began asking us kids to call her Susie She even gave us a penny now and then to do so

Fifty years later she ain-to Susan Soive thein with And she's probably right, Jones County didn't start keeping records until four years later

Anyway, Uncle Ji for Uncle Jihbors I think that was about the ti sweethearts was all about

Well, the long-awaited day finally arrived and Susie and Dode got married I don't remember much about it all In fact, I never did know h about it to knohat kind of questions to ask to find out ht, it seems they just drove away in the car one day with Papa, and when they returned, so; they looked the same as ever to me I was told they went to see a preacher but I didn't knohat for

Even at that early date, the county began to need better roads Farmers were allowed to work on the county roads so- their taxes The road work could be done at a time most convenient to the individual farmers This was not a matter of welfare handouts to farether to improve conditions in their community and still keep their money at home

If a man was unable to do his share of the road work, the county would collect tax money from that man and use it to hire another man to work in his place

Papa did his share of the county road work But with that work added to all his regular farm work, he had to search for faster and better ways to do so proble kids who could use a spoon right well at the dining table, but were too little to use a feed-heading knife in the field

There just wasn't enough time to head our feed in the fall Papa had a row binder hich to bundle the feed But he wanted feed heads in the barn to feed his work horses

So he bundled the feed with his binder and shocked it up to dry While it was drying, he built a large knife, somewhat like those paper cutters you have seen in print shops He bolted the cutter to one sideboard of his wagon Then he would drive the wagon up beside a shock of feed in the field, and while he placed the heads of a bundle across the lower knife blade, one of us boys would bring the upper blade down and cut the heads off the bundle When the heads were cut off, they fell into the wagon

The cutter worked quite hen Papa had the proper boy operating the knife, but sometimes he had to use s together Cutting heads off bundles was one of those things Al his hand off was another

One day Papa was placing the bundles into the cutter and I orking the upper knife I thought he was ready for otten his hand back out of the cutter It looked to retted what I had done, but I guess it wasn't cut very badly because he wrapped his bandanna around his hand and ent right on with our work

Papa was always and forever doing things that fascinated ht us to use our heads and develop our skills

When we had used all the hot water washi+ng our feet at bedtih water for Papa to wash his, he didn't seeet a wash pan of cold water, set it on the hearth and put in live coals of fire until his water was hot enough We kids liked to hear the hot coals sizzle in the water

There were times when the kitchen was too cold for co table was in the cold kitchen Well, Papa would take an open-top, five-gallon can with about four inches of ashes in the bottom and a few shovelfulls of hot coals on top of the ashes and set the can under the dining table That would warm our feet while we ate breakfast And it would also help warm up the kitchen

So, it was there at the Exum place that I spent six of the best years of my life They were years of fa, exploring, wading in the creek, hunting rabbits with air rifles, going to school; gathering eggs, feeding chickens, feeding cows and horses; playing in the barn, playing in the cottonseed, eating peanuts in the barn loft, wading in puddles after su the war our feet by the war betar every minute of it

CHAPTER 7

DRY YEARS ON THE TEXAS PLAINS