Doris Memories   -   Precious memories of my childhood days
I recall a few precious memories of my childhood days, some of which happened when I was 5 years old or younger. 1 was very fortunate to have been born to such a loving, caring, and Christian family. Daddy would always ask the blessing before meals. He could use the biggest words, not to have gone to school. He more or less got his education by reading his Bible so much. We will always remember Daddy for his great love for singing.

In my early years, it seemed like Christmas would never come. I would look forward to it with great anticipation because Santa Claus would bring us stick candy, oranges, and nuts. Daddy always had a lot of good apples.

Mother was also so kind and good and she had a way of making you feel loved and so secure. Her main concern was her children, and always wanted us to put Daddy before her. I have eaten a lot of good meals, her light-rolls were my favorite.

I was less than 5 years old when Brodie went to Guilford College, but I can remember how sad 1 felt when he would come home and then leave to go back to college. I experience that sadness a lot of times, because I loved my brothers and sisters so much, and there were many different times they were leaving. While Brodie was in college, he brought two Japanese boys home with him. I can still remember one of their names, but I just can't spell it.

Ruth and Ura graduated from Boonville High School in 1930.1 was just 5 years old but I remember someone taking their pictures standing at the end of the porch, with their pretty white dresses on that they wore at graduation. How I admired them and it was so exciting what they had accomplished. Not long after graduation Ruth went to work and she got me my first store bought doll. I did not want her to go back to work and leave me. She did a lot of sewing for me too.

On 1/1/31, Ura got married. I vaguely remember her getting married, but I well remember her moving away to Bixby (which is less than an hour’s drive now.) It seemed like she was moving to the end of the world. I was 6 years old when Ura and Lola got married.

Lola want to work for a while; then she got married. She moved at least a mile and a half from home, and at that time she was my second mama. I remember the night she got married and how her wedding dress was made.

Lola, Ada Lee and Ben went to Union Cross School. I wasn't old enough to go but I got to walk with them a few times and how exciting that was. One time I remember going and when we got there some of the school girls ran up to me and pulled on one arm and some on the other arm. They got in an argument about who I was going to stay with. I did not know what to think of that. I wanted to stay with Lela and Ada Lee. One time I went and the school was having a picnic Mrs. Beatrice Shore was one of the teachers and she had some of those ‘big" sugar cookies.

Well Brodie went off to college, Ruth to Thomasville, Ura moved to Bixby, Lola left, then Lela went even farther than anyone. We went to Mebane to work it looked like I wasn't going to have anyone at home with me. One weekend Mother and Daddy let Ben and me go with Johnnie Bell to Mebane after Lela. That was a long ride at that time. One Christmas during the depression, Santa Claus didn't have enough money to bring me anything for Christmas so Lela made a new green outfit for my doll.

In 1932 we moved to Surry County, near Siloam. Daddy got a "big" truck to move us and at that time there was a ferry to cross the Yadkin River at Siloam. When the truck pulled on the ferry, they were concerned about it sinking, because it was loaded so heavily. Everything Mother and Daddy had was at stake, going across the river, even Ben was riding in the cab of the truck. Some of us stood on the Yadkin side of the river looking, watching and waiting. All I could think of was my dolls in the truck. In those days, dolls were just about the most important thing to a 7 year old girl. I remember saying, "and all my doll things are on there." The others standing there seemed to think that was funny, but I couldn't figure out what I said that was so funny.

Well, we got situated in the "Little Cabin in Gloryland." Daddy enjoyed living there so much, because the Pilot Mountain was directly east and in plain view of the house. No one loved the mountains as much as Daddy.

We had two cows and in the summertime it was my job to tie them out to graze and move them to different places until noon, them take them to the creek to get water. Sometimes Ada Lee would help me and if Ben didn't have to help Daddy he would help also. I thought of David the "Little Shepherd Boy" a lot of times, but no one ever came and said I would be king. I wonder if Ada Lee and Ben remember how much com and tobacco I chopped off when we were hoeing it? The sun sure can get mighty hot when you are "slaving" in the field at the age of 7 and 8 years old.

I was with Ada Lee more than the other girls and she helped me a lot. I know she remembers my legs hurt me so much and especially when I was in the second grade. My class walked and went on a picnic about 8 miles round trip. That was at Copeland School. One girls was selling candy at school and Ben would give me 5 cents everyday to buy me a Powerhouse candy bar, which was my favorite.

In the fell of 1937, we moved back to Yadkin County and I started in the 6th grade at Fall Creek. Soon after we moved back, I had the strep sore throat and almost didn’t make it. (How well I remember that.) Fred’s sister,

Ola, died with it that year, not long before I became sick.

After they were all married and gone from home, it was such a thrill to be looking for all of them to come back home on so many special occasions. Mother and I would start cooking on Friday, getting ready for Sunday dinner.

When I graduated from high school in Boonville, I was in the senior play. In the play, my Daddy got arrested and I really had to do some crying.

Mother and Daddy went through a lot of heartache especially when Brodie and Ben were in service. The day the war ended, Brodie was in Japan and Ben was in Germany. Daddy blew the car horn a long time. They were so happy and we all cried for joy.

Brodie wrote home from Japan and told about the boys finding a piano in a building that had been bombed and Brodie played "Home Sweet Home" for the Navy boys. He could play that and "Star of the East" so beautiful.

Ben Memories   -   Some of my memories
This is some of my memories as I remember them growing up at home. We had a Christian home with Papa the head of our family. Mama was a loving mother and wife. There were 6 girls and 2 boys. I was next to the youngest.

When we moved to Surry County, I went to Copeland School. I was in the sixth grade. Mr. Arthur Graham was the principal of the school. They didn't want to register me because I didn't have records from Union Cross Country School. They were having a perfect attendance contest for each room and the highest attendance got the flag for one week so I stayed home until I got my records; then I went back to school. When I went back, they were mad at me because I stayed out and they didn’t get to keep the flag for a week.

A bunch of boys learned to ride a bicycle over on Hwy. 268.1 always had to walk about one mile to the main highway to get a ride to the ball game. Then we would walk back at night. One night it was so dark, I couldn't see my hand in front of me.

When we moved back to Yadkin County in 1926, we had Sunday School conventions in different churches in the district. Each church had a program that would last for the week-end. Papa, Pies Caudle and his daughter, Eloise Caudle and me had a quartet. Doris Money Hobson played the piano for us when we sang at churches.

We went to Union Cross School beside Union Cross Church. When we had a revival meeting, they always had an afternoon service and the teacher would march us down there to the service.

The day when Papa stepped out and the snow went over his boots, they made me an A frame sled to drag the road over to Union Cross Church. We put a bail of hay on it for me to sit on. When I got home, I was so cold and covered with snow, they had to carry me in the house. I couldn’t walk.

I often did the milking. Papa said I was a very fast milker (Could this be so he could get Ben to do the milking?)

I was next to the last to get married and leave home. I went into the service in 1944-45. I went over seas for 6 months in the European Theater.

This was the way I remembered my childhood life at home. All worked hard and lived a happy life.

Ada Lee Memories   -   What I remember most about Papa and Mama
Papa was a devout Christian. He lived it every day. He enjoyed going to church and as long as he was able, he didn't miss. He liked to sing. I think he lived with a song in his heart. He went to school very little but he educated himself by reading. He had a good hand write and was a good writer. In his written work to the paper, he used very good English. A man with Papa's ability would go far in the field of writing today.

Mama was of the old school. She thought Papa was head of the house and family, and no one should question his decisions.

Her family was her life. She loved her children. She made Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter a special holiday for us. Not so much for the gifts she gave us, but for her love for each one, and for the happiness she felt; you could see it in her eyes.

Mama and Papa were good parents!

Lela Memories   -   Memories of my childhood
I would like to share a few memories of my childhood:

I remember Dada had so much love for singing. Ruth would play the piano, Dada the autoharp an all the rest would gather around and sing. He would take us to different places to sing.

Dada loved to go to church. He never missed many Sundays. He didn't have an education, but he could say lots of big words. He read a lot.

Mother went to church as much as possible, but with eight children she had lots to do to keep us all in church and school.

I always remember Mother with a big smile. She loved everyone of us. She didn't want us to do anything for her. She wanted us to do for Dada. After we got married and left home when we would come home, she would always want to give us something to take back. She just loved to do things for us. She had a lot of love for flowers. It seemed as if the flowers knew it. She could grow the prettiest ones I have ever seen. I know the day she went to the hospital (and never came back), she watered all of them before she left for the hospital We still have part of her Christmas cactus she had when she died in 1966.

I remember we had a spring about one hundred yards from the house which we would have to go to the spring three or four times a day to get buckets of water.

Mother had a wash house by the spring where we would wash our clothes. We had a big black wash pot to heat our water in. We built a fire around the pot to heat water to wash the clothes. Mother had a wash board to scrub our clothes on to get them clean. As we children grew older, we would do the washing. The spring water was so cold, as cold as the refrigerator.

Just above the spring there was a little stream Dada built a long box and set it down into the water. He made a hole in each end for the water to flow through. He put a lid on the box. The is where we kept our milk and butter to keep it cold. It really kept it cold on a hot summer day. Each day before meals one of us children would have to go to the milk box to get milk and butter to have for our meals. I remember sometimes it would come a big rain and the water would get up so high in the little stream and ruin our milk and butter. We wouldn't have any milk until the cows were milked again.

The church and school we went to was a little more than a mile away. We children would have to walk to school and sometimes through rain an snow. Our school had two rooms.

We had to hoe tobacco, com and our garden. We would be so tired when we came in for dinner, but we would wash the dishes for Mother. She had to work so hard cooking for all of us. I remember so well when my younger sister and I would wash dishes. I would wash and she would dry them. Sometimes I would be in such a hurry to get them done, I wouldn't get them real clean. She would laugh at me and put them back in the pan for me to wash them over. It would make me so mad, I would slap her. We would start crying. Then I would hug and pet her to keep her from crying so Mother wouldn't whip me.

After we would get our dishes done, (we had forgotten we were so tired from hoeing) we girls would go out to the woods and play in our playhouse. We raked a large place in the woods and put up stakes and tied string all around the stakes to make our house. We would have separate rooms To make our chairs and tables, we would put planks over the rocks. We would get lots of moss to make the beds and for the carpet.

I remember so well we had an eating table about 10 or 12 feet long. We had a bench behind the table and the small ones would sit on it to eat. Sometimes when we were eating, some of us would get to laughing and Dada would get after us and tell us to quit; but that would make us laugh that much more. Then he would make us leave the table.

When it would come up a bad cloud, Mother and Dad would make us sit and not be playing, talking and laughing while it was thundering and lightning. I well remember the summer 1932. We had a bad hail storm and it completely tore up our tobacco, com and garden. We had worked so hard in it. The tobacco was almost as tall as Dada. We were all sad to see our crop tom up. Dada was sad about it because of eight children to clothe and feed.

I was first married to Johnnie Bell Wiseman, November 17, 1934 at Hillsville, VA. On June 26, 1965, Johnnie was killed by a car while he was putting out a fire in a car that had wrecked at the crossing where his station was.

Lola Memories   -   Most precious memories
My most precious memories are of times we spent together as a family. In the summer, after supper, we would all go out and sit on the front porch. Daddy would play the autoharp and we would sing the old hymns. I don't remember exactly but probably hymns like: "Shall we Gather at the River?" "There is Power in the Blood," "Near the Cross," "Let the Lower Lights be Burning."

I also remember Mama singing while she did her housework. Sometimes I can still hear her singing these words: "How tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see! Sweet prospects, sweet birds, and sweet flowers, have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer sun shines but dim; the fields strive in vain to look gay; but when I am happy with Him, December's as pleasant as May.”

Ruth Memories   -   Our family was a very special one.
Our family was a very special one. Mother and Daddy were married June 6, 1905 by Rev. Lucy Vestal. Daddy and Mother never wanted to miss Sunday School or preaching. Mother always went when she could. They both loved us all so very much. Daddy would read some scripture and ask the blessing at breakfast time. He and mother read their Bible so much. No one loved singing any more than Daddy. He lead the choir at Union Cross Friends and Union Grove Baptist Churches for several years. I remember when we first got our radio, Daddy would turn it on every morning and we would hear the song, "Ere You Left Your Room this Morning Did you Think to Pray?”

I remember when I was about seven years old, 1 enjoyed Daddy building our new kitchen, dining room, and big screen porch with a room for our canned fruits and vegetable. Mother always canned so much.

Mother loved us children and I especially remember her singing, "O Come Angel Band and Around Me Stand." I remember how sweet it sounded.

Mother and Daddy would parch coffee and grind it to make coffee for breakfast. Mother always made a big pan of hot biscuits along with meat, gravy, eggs and homemade butter and jelly. I remember when we got our big blue cooking range and it was so pretty. It had a warming closet and a water tank on it. It took lots of trips to the spring to fill it. It was so good to have hot water for baths.

When we were small, Mother would take us over to Grandmother Brown's with "Lize" hitched to the buggy. Grandmother Brown would help unhitch the mule. I also remember us going to our Aunt Lydia’s (Daddy's sister) in a covered wagon and we enjoyed it so much.

In the wintertime, we would have lots of apples to eat. They were wrapped in paper in a big barrel. Also we had sweet potatoes, pears and pumpkins. Our smokehouse was full of meat and wheat bins full and a big barrel of molasses. Daddy always had a cane patch and we would help get it ready to make molasses. Daddy would have his corncrib full of com.

We had two big milk cows and we always had plenty of milk and butter. I remember we had a milk box in one of the springs. That was where we kept our milk, buttermilk and butter. They kept so good and cold in there.

We had a shelter down at the spring where we washed our clothes. Daddy made a big boiler with a partition in it to put on a furnace to heat our rinse water. We also had a big black pot to boil our clothes in.

When Brodie was about 10 years old, he had lots of different colored rabbits and they were so pretty. We had wire fence around the straw stack where they stayed. Daddy fixed it for him.

Grandma Money loved us all so much, but she dearly loved Brodie. One morning before breakfast, Brodie was stranding by the fireplace where he was reading and suddenly fell. Grandma saw him and it scared her so bad, she hollered real loud. I saw Brodie fall and heard Grandma holler.

My first day at school, mother walked part of the way with Brodie and me. I couldn't stand to see her turn around and go back home. She had to go back to Ura, Lola and Lela, the baby. We went to Union Cross School. All the school children would march out to the church for the day service during the revival.

I remember Ura and I, Sadie and Gurtie Parker taught at Bible School at Union Cross Church. We all enjoyed it so much.

Daddy saved up 100 silver dollars and put them on a piano that he bought for us. Daddy and mother enjoyed our playing and singing. Brodie could play "Star of the East" It was beautiful to hear him play that song and the others too.

Daddy and Brodie fixed a little flower garden out from the porch on the southeast of the house. The little wooden fence was pretty and also made a little gate. It had to be fenced in because of our cows that would graze in our yard.

One time Ura and I were fixing our hair upstairs, heating the curlers with a lamp. The oil caught fire in the lamp and Brodie happened to be in the house and heard our hollering. He came up there, got the lamp and threw it out the east window. I think that was the last of our curls for a while. We had always enjoyed staying at home most of the time. We had so many interesting things like our little chickens, ducks, calves, pigs and Brodie’s little rabbits. I remember Lola tending to the little chickens and she enjoyed it so much.

Daddy would play his autoharp and wanted us to guess what he would play. Lela could guess them first.

We had some sad times too. I was 13 years old when Grandma Money passed away. After that, three of us had to go to the hospital with ear trouble. Lola at 8 years old and Ada Lee at 5 years old. I remember the doctor had to come to see Ben when he was very sick. When Ada Lee came from the hospital one day she had such a high temperature Brodie went down to the spring and found some ice. He brought it to the house in a bucket. Ada Lee put her hand in it and ate the ice. It tasted so good to her as she was so hot. It brought her temperature down.

Brodie went to Guilford to school. Ura and I were still in high school. When Brodie was in high school, he was the janitor.

We stayed at Mr. And Mrs. Rider’s. One time it came such a big snow, that we didn't have school, but Brodie got out in the snow and went to the school to see about the furnace that burned coal. Ura and I would go from school 'A a day to wash for Mrs. Rider and 'A a day to iron for her.

I remember one time Daddy had Brodie, Ura, and me to take Lola, Lela and Baby Ada Lee to the field north of the feed barn to look after them for a while. When Daddy called us back, Aunt Tiney met us at the door and told us we had a little brother, Benjamin Junior.

When Lola was about 8 and Ada Lee about 5, Ben about 3, they were taking a bath in the big tub that we all used. The tub was in the kitchen. I was in there helping mother, I heard Ben say, "Wash on the side next to the spring," when they were giving his bath. When Ada Lee was a baby and we got her in bed, Lela would have to have some butter and molasses. We always got them, but the woman staying with us thought it was unnecessary that she have them, but Lela always got her some. The woman that was staying with us would make bread for breakfast and it was always so yellow (with too much soda.) Daddy, nor any of us liked it. We were so glad when mother could make our bread. When Doris was born, Ura and I were in high school. I could still make her little caps and dresses. I enjoyed sewing for all the family. Mother still made al the little babies’ booties.

The memories of our family are precious to all of us. We had love-perfect love - His kind of love for each other.

When Ura and I finished high school, Ura and Lola had a job in Boonville. They got married soon afterwards. I was staying at home. Grandma Brown was sick and mother was over there. I went over there one day and Geneva was there. She wanted to bring Grandma over to our house. I came on home to get some things ready for them to bring Grandma. She lived 6 more weeks. It was sad for mother and all of us when she passed away (It was around 1931.)

I went to mothers cousin, Navada’s house, to stay a little while to look after Marybell while she worked. She and Carl were really good time. When I came home, Aunt Tiney was sick so I went and stayed a while with her. She got able to do her work so I came home.

In 1932 we moved to Surry County in Daddy's cousin's house. We all worked on the little house to get it looking real good. The country was still in a depression; no one had much money then. Soon after we moved, some of the young people around Stanford Church came to see us. Fred, Glen, Ola and Ruth Whitaker, Alene Sapp, and Dean Ring all came. Fred said after they left that he told them he thought I was good looking; and I told mother after they left I thought Fred was good looking because he looked so much like mothers brother, Uncle Gurney.

I loved to go see him and Grandma Brown. Pretty soon Fred and I saw each other at Pine Hill Friends Church and at the Methodist Church just down the road. That started our romance together. We married on Thanksgiving 1934. Since then, Fred and I have lived near Siloam. Glen thought Ada Lee was such a pretty little girl and he soon fell in love with her. They married in 1936 and little Bruce was born in 1938. Our little baby had just died and I loved to help Ada Lee take care of Bruce. Lela and Johnny Wiseman also married in 1934. We missed mother, Daddy, Ben and Doris when they moved back to Yadkinville. Brodie started teaching at Siloam School soon after he and Mabel married in the spring of 1934. He taught a music school at Stanford Church for a while.

Faxton Taylor came and wanted us to tend his land and Mr. Whitaker wanted Glen and Ada Lee to stay with them and help them farm. I surely missed them though we were not so far away that we could not walk back to Mr. Whitaker's. Fred and Glen got them a job in South Carolina in 1941. Glen got real sick an the doctor said it was CIA fever. He never got other that. It was very sad to all of us to see him go. Brodie was teaching school at Siloam. He would come up by Mr. Whitaker's and he had to go to Pilot and take Mr. Whitaker with him. He loved Brodie as well as the rest of the family. I have more good memories. After Fred's daddy died, Fred's mother stayed with us at night after Ruth got married. When Mother and Daddy came over here to see us, Mother would stay with Fred's mother at night and they enjoyed it so much.

Ura Memories   -   The first thing I can remember
The first thing I can remember is Daddy taking me on his lap and showing me the gold and sliver cup I got for being named "Bliss." My Grandma Money sold Bliss Native Herbs Products and they were giving a gold and silver cup to anyone that was named after the company. I would guess I was somewhere around three years old or less.

I can remember us going to Union Cross Church in a buggy and we sat in the foot of the buggy. I remember going to visit Daddy's sister, Aunt Lydia Ligons, in a covered wagon. We spent the night and came back the next day. It was about 12 or 14 miles. I can remember Ruth and I walking over there and going over to Geraldine Brown's and spending the night. It was about two miles over there.

I remember Mama fixing so many meals to take to the church. We had quarterly meetings, Sunday School Conventions and big meetings which were always on the first Sunday in November. Daddy was song leader a long time at the church.

Grandma Money lived in the house with us. I remember when she died. Ruth was sick and didn't get to go to the funeral. Grandma died one day and was buried the next day. Ruth had to go to the hospital the next day to have an operation. Mama went with Ruth and Daddy stayed with the rest of us.

Daddy played the auto harp and in the summertime, he would go out on the porch and play and sing. We would sometimes sing too. Later on Daddy bought a piano and his sister, Aunt Tiny, taught us how to play. Ruth did a good job playing but I never did play much. I could learn the music but just couldn't play much. We did a lot of playing and singing. Daddy taught us some music too. He knew music.

Daddy wrote letters to the Ripple and after I got married and left home, I met a lot of people that said they enjoyed his pieces in the paper.

When I was a little girl, I can remember Mama fixing apples some way. She called them smoked apples. I have never heard of anyone else fixing apples like that. We would peel them and cut them in slices and she would smoke them. They were put in a big jar and covered up. We would fty them whenever we wanted them. They would keep all winter. They were just as white as they were when we cut them. I wish I knew just how she did it. We would can apples and dry apples too in the tobacco barn. We always had plenty of fruit of all kinds. One year we picked 100 gallons of blackberries. We canned one half gallon cans of berries and sold the rest at Wade Adams’ store. We, Ruth, Lola and I made enough money to buy us some material to make us a new dress for the Sunday School Convention.

I could keep writing things but I guess this is enough

Aunt Ura remembers - 2005

Grandma Mary Money named her for the "Bliss Native Herbs" she sold. If you named your child "Bliss" you got a silver loving cup and Ura still has the cup she received.

When Brodie left she help her dad a lot with everything even plowing with the mules, Sam and Lize. Since Ruth was sickly and almost died, she helped in the house. Ura knew about farming but not much about cooking when she got married. When her mom went to the hospital to see Ruth she would keep Lola and Ada Lee. 

She remembers visiting Grandma Brown a lot when she was little. Grandma Brown died March 10, 1931 close to when Ura married January 1, 1931 but she didn't get to go to the funeral because she lived so far away.

She remembers Uncle Billy singing tenor in church. Uncle John would bring candy when he came. His daughters were Mildred and Rose and were older. They lived in Yadkinville. It was a long way to go with the transportation so they didn't see them much. Ura believes he might have been a magistrate. Uncle Coon ran a roller miller that made flour and built furniture. They lived nearby. Aunt Tiney lived where Doris and Charlie now live. Aunt Lona and mother weren't able to visit much.

Ura boarded at the principle's home with Ruth and Brodie to go to high school in Boonville. Ruth helped with the cooking and children. Brodie was the janitor and got the boilers running. Ura would sweep. They would go home on the weekend. She graduated valedictorian of her class.

She met Lester at church after graduating. They would sing around the piano while Ruth played. They married at home and lived in Courtney.