The Life of Me | Page 5

aid of an efficient helpmate, continued to improve the farm. They built a big barn and shelters for cows, hogs, horses, poultry, a hack, buggy, harness, and other things. And the family continued to grow. George was born in 1900 and a daughter in 1901. George lived 26 months and died with the croup. The daughter lived only two weeks. Earl was born in 1902 and Joel in 1904. This was the state of the family in 1906, the year Grandpa died in his home, and the year I was born. Aunts, Uncles, and cousins lived on three sides of us, and Grandma lived in the big house a quarter-mile north of us.
My parents were getting quite a collection of children by this time. And it is not always easy to find family hand-me-down names for that many kids. So by the time the seventh one arrived they had to go outside the family for a name. I don't know how far out they went but they came back with what I have always thought was a "far out" name, Clarence Edgar, and they pinned it on me. I was born January 11, 1906, in Jones County, West Texas, in the middle of a large family. Frank was eight years old when I was born, Susie was seven, Earl three, and Joel 16 months. There were three others born later, Albert, Ollie Mae, and William Robert. So, as you can see, my parents thrived and grew rich--if you count children as wealth. There were ten of us, eight of whom attained full size and strength.
Five years after I was born, we moved to another farm about a half-mile east. Albert was born at the first place we lived and William Robert was born at the second farm. I know Ollie Mae was born sometime in between those two boys, but I don't know where she was born. I'm sure it wasn't between the two farms. Wherever it was, she became one of us and is still with us.
Mama told me that the $300 they paid Grandpa for the farm was the hardest debt they ever had to pay off.
Money was hard to come by for a young couple just starting out.
Mama also told me all about how her family had moved from Kentucky to Dallas County, Texas, then again to Grayson County, then back to Kentucky, then again to Dallas County, and finally to Oklahoma.
During all this time Mama's younger brother Hugh was trailing along two years behind her. They were seven and nine years old when they moved back to their old home in Kentucky. There were 200 acres in the farm, and these two kids had four years in which to explore the meadows, the hills, the streams, and the woodlands. There were three springs of water, acres and acres of wild berries, wild nuts, cherries, peaches, apples, and papaws. There were many kinds of birds as well as coons and skunks. And for delicious food, there were swamp rabbits and opossums.
I was a young boy when Mama first told me that Hugh was her favorite brother. It didn't mean much to me at that time. But after I was a grown man, she told in detail how she and Hugh had roamed together over the old farm during those four years, how they had picked wild berries, and how they had carried them to the store in Hodgensville and had sold them for ten cents a gallon.
Emma's older sister and an older brother had long since married and lived far away. Henry was still at home but he was older than Emma and too busy at other things to be interested in that kid stuff. No wonder Hugh was her favorite brother. They had played together, explored together, and had grown up together.
When I was young I heard Mama tell that her brother Hugh was shot to death one day while out on his horse. I didn't know whether the Gaddies were living in Kentucky, Texas, or Oklahoma when he got shot. When I heard how Hugh had died, I was old enough to know about Kentucky moonshiners, Texas cattle rustlers, and Oklahoma desperadoes. I wondered if any of them had played a part in his death, but I didn't ask any questions .
Mama told me later that Hugh was a cowboy, had gotten his pay and was riding home when a man shot him in the back and took his money.
I was sorry I had ever wondered.
Mama told me that her brother Henry and the blacks around Duncan were not very friendly toward each other. At least one time, the blacks held hands and formed a human chain across the road to keep Henry from coming by. But Henry whipped up his horses and drove right