By Carolyn Stephenson
June 18, 2021
Today is June 18, 2021 and it’s a Friday. Sometimes thinking back in the past can make you laugh, other times it can make you lonely for family time when we were all together, and sad for the ones who have passed on. People who have never done without, really do not know the sacrifices that are made during hard times. I’m not saying we sacrificed a lot, we just had to do without because there was no money.
Daddy was a cotton farmer and did the best he could. We were all happy as kids. We all had food to eat, sometimes it was scarce, but Mom would come up with water gravy and water biscuits. Sometimes that’s all we had to eat until Daddy got paid. We couldn’t afford to buy clothes so Mom would make Linda and me dresses using flour sacks and the boys shirts using flour sacks. The boys would wear patches on their jeans. I don’t remember anyone of us complaining. Money for our school lunches was very slim; sometimes a nickel or a dime if you saved your nickels. Sometimes we had salad dressing sandwiches, or peanut butter sandwiches, no fruit nor dessert.
We lived in many places, sometimes just for a few months or maybe a year, because Daddy was always moving from one place or another looking for work when he couldn’t make money from farming. That was my childhood life, not able to stay in one place long enough to make friends in school. Growing up we had no inside water not even a toilet. The outhouse was a ways from the main house. I didn’t mind going to the outhouse during the day, but it was scary going by myself at 2 or 3 ‘Oclock in the morning. We lived out in the country away from any neighbors or town. Nothing out there but coyotes, snakes, skunks, possums, raccoons and any other wild animal a young kid could imagine. We saw them all. Sometimes I could get Linda, my sister to go with me but many times she said no. I hurried as fast as I could. During the winter, we had a bucket under our bed when we needed to pee. Now, if you had to do the other, you better go outside or you would stink up the whole house.
We always lived in small houses so it didn’t have for to go, before anyone noticed. We didn’t have any electricity either. We had coal oil lamps or kerosene lamps. Jenk, Linda, and I did our homework using a lamp when we lived at McAdoo in 1957-1958. I don’t remember if we had electricity when we lived in Swenson, near Aspermont, Texas. I remember an old cistern that caught rain water as it rolled off the house and into the well. We would use that water to wash our hair. Sure made our hair shine. The first time we ever had a bathroom in the house was when we lived at Paducah, Texas and electricity. I was 12 years old. I loved that house and all the open space. No mesquite trees near the house. We had a cattle lot down the hill where Jenk and Daddy would brand the cattle. We also had a hay barn that stored our alfalfa. But if not careful that alfalfa could catch fire because it builds up heat when it is stacked. City folks don’t know that. I think at one time we did have a fire in the hay barn but it was quickly put out.
We moved several times after that and ended up living in Lubbock at 308 Sumac. That address doesn’t exit any more, but the house still stands. The city changed the address. Daddy had an old house with broken windows moved onto that property. After much work to the house and putting in new windows , we moved in. We had a water well that provided water for us. It was very good water. But we had no heat. Daddy brought in portable stoves connected to gas lines. I don’t think we had any heat in many of the houses we lived. We would just strike a match and turn on the gas line to light the stove. I had to be careful, because after turning on the gas, if I waited too long to get the match to the grates in the stove it would make a big “poof” and make me jump. We would light the stove and close the door to the room to get it warm. I did that many times going to school. I liked getting up early so I would wake about 3 or 4 O’clock, run to get a match and light the stove and run back to get in bed to get warm. We had several blankets on our bed to keep us warm, because there was no heat during the night. It was so cold at times we could see our own breath. After a couple of hours I would get up and get dressed in a warm room to get ready for school. We all took turns getting dressed in the warm room.
Jenk was in the army during that time and when he got out he moved to Canyon to go to West Texas State University to get his Masters Degree. We had no heat when we lived in Swenson. It was so cold, daddy tried building a fire in the house. That was a BIG mistake. All it did was smoke up the house and burn our eyes and make us cough. So he built a fire outside burning what he could with a bunch of tires. We all stood outside in the very cold temperatures around the fire to get warm even though the temperature was below freezing. Mom stayed in bed with David since he was only 3 or 4 years old to stay warm. She didn’t want him outside around the fire. We all survived and all of us kids graduated from High School and four of us started college but only two of us graduated. Tom was attacked while working at Safeway, a grocery store, and spent 3 months in the hospital but he never went back to Texas Tech to get his Business Degree. Linda lacked a year finishing Texas Tech, but chose to get married and moved away. She had 2 wonderful children Jason and Julie. She always regretted not finishing. She loved sewing and made many of her kid’s clothes. Linda passed away 2003 and Tom passed away 2009. I miss them terribly.