The Life of Me | Page 5

by it on our way
to church and there was always something fascinating about it to us
kids as one or more of us would point to the old dwelling and say,
"There's where Mama and Papa used to live."

During the two years my parents farmed away from their own farm,
they spent many days of hard work driving back and forth, building a
house, clearing some of the land, and building fences on their land.
And of course they had to have a well drilled and put up a windmill and
water tank.
At the end of that two years, they took their two children and moved
into their new house on the first farm they had ever owned. And Papa,
with the 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,