November 26, 1984

Mable gave me this note book on my 88th birthday and ask me to do my autobiography. The one thing I hate to do is write, and my knowledge of words and phrases is very limited, but I will try to write a few things that have happened in the last 88 years.

I was born in Bartow County, GA on Nov 18, 1896. My mama said it was one of the coldest days in history. I was the second child in a family of eight children. My sister, Ruth, was just one year older than I and was a sickly baby, so I was always the leader in the work field.

We lived in the country and believe me, there was always plenty of work to do. My father was a carpenter by trade, but we lived on a farm in order to grow our own vegetables, and we had a cow, raised hogs and chickens. Papa kept a black family on the farm, and we planted cotton, corn, grain, and peanuts.

Believe me, I always did my share of the work. I have chopped cotton, thinned corn, tossed hay, picked cotton and peas. I loved the country and still do, but I am so glad we don't have to work so hard today.

I sometimes wonder if we didn't enjoy life back then more than we do today. It seems we have so many things to worry about today that we did not have then, and another thing, we did not know the word "bored," you hear that so much today among the young.

My mother made a train trip to Fort Worth, TX with four little girls. It was the year 1901 and I was five, Ruth was six, Ada was three, and Lucile was one and a half. We did not get a sleeper, we rode a day coach for two days and nights. We had fun, but our poor mother was exhausted when we reached our destination.

I learned to cook at an early age. I was eleven years old when my youngest brother was born. There were now seven in the family. I cooked three meals a day for two long weeks. I was so glad when Mama took over.

Church was about all the diversion we had from our daily chores. When we played, it was most always going to church and baptisms. We had a creek running through our farm, and although we were Methodist, we would baptize our play members in the creek. We really had a good time.

I am so thankful that we grew up in a Christian home. We had family prayer every night and never missed church and Sunday School. We only had preaching twice a month; every second Saturday and Sunday. The preacher's home was in Kingston, about 12 miles from our church. Our preacher and family would come up on Saturday and stay until Sunday evening at our place, which was where they stayed most of the time.

I joined Best Chapel Methodist Church when I was 12 years old, and I still enjoy going back there to the annual homecomings.

The little schoolhouse, where I attended school, was just one-quarter mile from our home. It was called Five Forks School. We only had five months of school during the year; three months in winter and two in the summer. My father was one of the school's trustees, and we always had the best teachers in Bartow County. I finished eighth grade and that was it so far as school goes.

My sisters, Ruth and Lucile, took courses in teaching and both were teachers in Bartow County. Teaching was far from what I wanted to do, and my father and mother thought that was all a nice girl could do outside the home.

When I think now how little it took for us have a good time when I was a teenager, I can't believe it. Our biggest social affair was a pound supper. The way that was, each person that was invited brought a pound of something good to eat. The hostess would have a table set up for all the goodies. We would have an hour for all the fun games we played then, and after the games, we would choose partners and eat supper.

We were never allowed to stay out after ten o'clock. There were lots of dances in our neighborhood, but Papa and Mama would not let us go, which I have always regretted, for I just love dancing and never danced a step in my life.

My courtship and marriage was a little unusual. I dated several boys my age, but was never serious with any of them.