WEEKENDS AT STURGIS

by

Billy Whitehead

During the summers of 1954-1959 I spent many weeks at my grandparents out from Sturgis Mississippi. There I would play with Charles and Cotton. Many times the first things to do were to walk to Uncle Punk’s to see what was going on there. Sometimes Paul Henry would be there so we knew that he would join us sometimes. Then maybe David, Dewayne and Jimmy Dale might be there for part of the summer. Paul and David were younger than us but the more the merrier.

Then we would stop by the barn to go into the hayloft. There we would place hay-bales around to make tunnels. Over the week we would have tunnels all over the hayloft.

One week I got to see how these bales were made. I do not know who the bailer belonged to but all grandpas’ mill workers were there to lend a hand to baling the hay.

The hay was cut earlier in the week. It lay there for a few days then the hay rake was brought to gather the hay in bunch-piles. The baler was pulled to the pile of hay where men were ready to fork the hay into the hopper. A large square ram pushed the loose hay into the baler. Whatever took place inside that baler; I did not know but at the back, square bales of hay came out, falling to the ground. A flatbed truck came along and the bales were loaded onto the truck. When the truck was loaded it was driven to the barn. The hayloft was above the stalls where the mules were kept and fed. I think there was a stall for milk cows on the other side.

At the ends of the loft was an opening with a door. This door was opened. There was a pulley over the opening. Sometimes there was a rope in the roller which was used to pull hay bales up but this time Uncle JW just stood on the hay and threw it to the opening. Someone inside the loft stacked the bails along the walls until that half of the loft was full. After it was full the other door was opened and hay was put in from there. In the end the hayloft was completely full. Maybe some hay was put in one of the stables but I do not remember that.

Then there were trips to the woods. We would go all over the woods visiting the pool for a swim. There was a section of pine saplings which we would climb. Near the top the sapling would lean over. From there we would move to the next sapling. By doing this we moved over the area without getting to the ground. Sometimes we took the wagon to the pool. We would roll it into the pool and dive from it. When JW fussed at us for having the wagon in the water, Cotton told him that all he was doing was swelling the tires. JW told him that it seems he was swelling the tires a lot lately.

One day we made our trip to the hayloft, to the pool to the trees then walked along an old wood road to Uncle Punk’s house. However this one time Charles jumped over something. He yelled, “Watch out, Spreading ‘Outer’.” I now know that this was a spreading Adder! This road was not very wide but to me it looked like this snake spread completely over the road. It scared me to no end! We looked for it so we could kill it but it hidden in the leaves.

When it was raining we would play in the house until we were told to get outside. We played on the porch for a while but then went to the old garage. In there was an old International pickup truck. It would not run but we drove many miles in that old truck. Sometimes we would take turned behind the steering wheel and talk. “We are not going 100 miles per hour!” “This road is really muddy.” “We are now stuck, you get out and push.” I think that old truck had more miles on it parked than it did while running!

There were several boys. Charles was the youngest, and then there was William who we called Cotton, Sam, and Harold who was called Tarp, JW, and Buddy. Tarp JW and Buddy were married and Sam was old enough to have other things to do such as looking for girls. One Saturday Grandpa was gone and told everyone not to go anywhere in his truck. Saturday morning he ask who took his truck out. No-one knew. As it turned out he knew who had because he saw the tracks but more because he had marked the dirt where the tires were. Saturday morning he saw that the tire marks were not where they should be! He was slicker than the boys thought!

I was not there when this happened but Sam said it happened.

Sam wanted a car so he found two Ford Sedans of the same mode. One had a good engine but the body wasn’t much. Sam changed the engine over. While at it he drained the transmission oil, which came out in globs! He changed the oil and drove the car. The transmission made so much noise that he swapped to the other one. Sam decided to sell whatever he could. He sold the old body rather quickly. He put the engine in the paper for $25.00 with no calls. Grandpa told him that his price was too cheap and all figured it was no good. Grandpa finally convinced him to put $200 on it and he got three calls the next week!

One time I was there it was time to clean the cistern. A cistern is a large tank in the ground which holds water. This one was lined with brick. There were metal troughs running from the tin roof of the house into the cistern.

To clean it all the water must be drawn out. Then someone had to go inside and dip the remaining water out. Then with a stiff brush, every inch was scrubbed. After scrubbing, water was lowered into the tank in a five gallon bucket where it was splashed onto the walls. All this water was then dipped out. After a thorough cleaning then a wash-down with bleach, a tanker truck loaded with water brought from Sturgis was piped into the tank until full. After several weeks, one of the boys caught a catfish and put it into the cistern to keep mosquito larva out. Someone checked to make sure the catfish was still there every day because it was tempting for some boys to catch it when the fish had grown bigger!

During winter around Christmas holidays I would spend a few days there, mostly for a week or so. We would make the same routine as in summer except for swimming in the pool and sometimes even that was tempting! Sometimes a truck tire was fun to roll. Then there was times when we would roll the tire to the top of the hill, someone would get inside and someone started rolling the tire with the passenger down the hill. Generally he could see where he was and when close to the house he would lean to make the tire roll off the road to a stop. Once Sam was inside. He started rolling downhill but wanted to see how far he could co. He rolled past the house driveway on toward the bottom which was about ½ mile; except that he did not see the car he was headed toward or maybe he just could not stop or turn. The car stopped and Sam ran right into the car. I do not think there was any damage to the tire or the car but Sam was some skinned up.

In the cold winter the fireplace was going all day. At night the fire would die down or maybe go completely out. One of the boys was assigned to have the fire burning when grandpa got up. If he was knowing, he would build the fire late at night with a big backlog so that the fire would be easier to start the next morning. A bucket of coal oil with some pine kindling in the oil was set by the fireplace. About five in the morning he would get out of bed onto the cold floor and run to the fireplace to throw wood into the fireplace then pour some oil onto the wood and light it. He would then run back to bed. Once Cotton forgot to set his clock to get the fire going the next morning. When grandpa got up and the fire was not burning, needless to say, Cotton did not forget then next time!

On Saturday night it was rummy night. A large table was set up in the front room. About 6:00 people would arrive. Most of the time there was Grandpa and Grandma Ford who were Grandma Kent’s parents, Uncle Punk and Aunt Willie, and sometimes Uncle JW and Aunt Nell. With the Emerson Electric radio set in the window it was tuned to the Louisiana Hayride. After it went off the radio was changed to a Nashville station to listen to the Grand Ole Opera. As the grownups played rummy we kids would listen to Hank Snow, Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline and others sing and play instruments to tunes we knew. Then we would laugh at String Bean’s joking.

Sometimes the card game was more fun to listen to. As they played, grandma would get excited arguing who had won the hand. Or she would try to convince others that it was she who should have won the hand. The card games would wind down around 9:00 or so. All would leave for home and the adults would go to bed. We younger ones would turn the TV on to see what was to watch. Most of the time we just curled up in a big chair and talked about what we had done that day and planned what we would do the next day.

Things were simpler for a kid in 1960’s. We knew our limits and we knew the results of disobedience. If we did wrong, knowing it was wrong, there was a belt as payment. No questions asked. With all us boys I remember not one time that we got other than a scolding not to do that again. If we were told not to go there, we did not go there!

Grandpa Kent died in 1960. The house was sold and grandma moved into a smaller house across from her brother just up the road from the home place. She died in 1870 at the age of 69. Both are buried at Antioch Cemetery in Winston County, Mississippi.