pages 52-56

Singing at the exposition kept me from my afternoon horseback rides, which I would rather do than eat. It was a favorite past time to ride over the eighty and watch the fellow father had farming it. Out to the northwest corner of it there was an acre of pine trees. I used to just ride in and sit quiet like and smell the fresh pine needles and listen to the wind sigh through them and watch the red tail squirrels fly from limb to limb or so it looked because they jumped so fast. I would listen to the whippoorwill bird give out his last sweet note as evening drew near and the mocking bird, the brown thrush, the cardinal or red bird, meadow lark, the blue bird, a yellow bird who was first cousin to the canary, the robin, sparrow, catbird and so many beautiful birds. I loved to watch them and hear them warble or caroling. It seemed to make one’s heart feel good to see and hear god’s little creatures and the sweet note he had put in their little throats to gladden this old world. I would sit on my pony relaxed there amid the pines trees enjoying the big out of doors. Then I’d ride over to the persimmon tree and look up in its tall, high branches and see its fruit hanging there and feel the roughness in my mouth from the time when I didn’t know the ripe ones from the green ones. There was a big black walnut tree close by. I could see my stained fingers yet from trying to husk them before they were dry enough. When dry enough, they could be run through a corn sheller. That was the way my brother did. I’d ride on into the road south of our place and come on a slow canter down its tree shaded lane, enjoying it to the fullest. Then I’d swing north into the road going home and past the forty across the road from our place. The people that had come for their health had such a pretty flower garden. They both worked init so much. Then to the pasture gate, slop off the saddle and bridle and here, turn my pony in. Mother would have supper ready and I’d pitch in and set the table.
One of the things I liked best was to go to the garden and fill my apron with delicious ripe tomatoes, get a salt shaker and sit on the back porch and eat them. Food fit for a king. I used to think.
That fall just seemed to slip away too fast and soon it was time for prickly leaves and red berries. We were also using mistletoe, an evergreen plant that was a parasite. It grew on other trees but more commonly the dead oak tree. I have seen it growing on dead gum trees. It grows mostly on the high dead branches. Very beautiful when picked and made into sprays or bunches to be hung on doors or other parts of the room at the Yule season.
When I wrote to Frank and told him I caught my brother and sister in law kissing under the mistletoe, you can guess what he wrote back. But I was too busy and having too much fun at school riding the thirteen miles night and morning , to answer his letter or think much about them. Occasionally though, I would take time out to answer and tell him of all the happenings. One of his main questions each time was, did I have another boyfriend. My answer was always, “no”. He would write back and say he was glad and hoped I was still waiting for him. In one letter he stated he was sure he would never find another girl like me. I wrote back and told him to keep trying. I was sure he’d find the one and only someday. Well you can guess what he wrote back but that doesn’t matter here.
I met my sister-in-law’s niece, Ocie, that winter. She used to come out to visit her aunt and stay for a night or two and go back with me on the trolley to school. She just loved to come to the country to stay over night. She was about a year younger than I but we had lots of fun together. She would want me to stay over night with her and I would. They had a very nice home in a nice part of the town. But, town, no matter how nice, held no charms for me. I was a country girl at heart and loved the out of doors and the things that went with it.
Along toward spring my sister-in-law’s nephew, Jim, would come out to our place to go hunting. Not knowing it at the time when I met him, he was to be Jim number one in my life. A very nice boy about two years older than I with light brown hair and brown eyes. That winter seemed to speed by exceedingly fast. Jim came on weekends to hunt and sometimes stay over and would go to church with us. He would bring me boxes of candy and ask my folks if they objected to him coming to see me. I paid little attention to him. Sometimes I wouldn’t open the candy for days and when I did I would pass it around for the other to eat also. He complained to my sister-in-law about my attitude. She would talk to me about it too which I said, “I am just too busy with school work and I am too young to think of marriage right now.” I never wanted to be tied down. I just wanted to be friendly with all, but at that age love was out of the question.
One evening toward spring, my sister Sallie, came home and said, “I am going to marry a Montana cowboy and stockman and go out there and live on a ranch in a log cabin.” We all looked aghast and wondered what she was talking about. She hadn’t brought any young man from Montana to our home to get acquainted with the family. That was the rules in our family. My folks had to know from where they came, his folks and especially of the young man’s character. Before she ever knew him she had met a relative of his in Norfolk, in fact , she worked where my sister did. One day she happened to start talking to Sallie about this young man from Montana. She said he was visiting relatives at the time in North Carolina. So this lady got up the bright idea of having him to write to her and send her his photo. So . . . A few days after she came home with the story of going to live in Montana a letter came with a picture in it from this young man. Of course we all had to see the picture of her Western cowboy. With one look we began to “ah, he’s handsome.” she in turn, after several letters had been written back and forth, sent him her picture. Then he was ready to come after seeing her photo. It all happened out of a clear sky. It was along in April or May before he came, after a lot of letters had passed between them.
I never forgot the day he arrived. It was on a Sunday morning. We picked him up at the depot in Lynnhaven after Sunday School. My sister asked him if he’d like to go to church or turn to go home, I pulled the rein that started the horses for home. Sallie was saying very little while he continued to tell of the country as being very pretty. They were sitting in the back and my sister, Wilhelmina and I were sitting in the front seat. I could see she was keeping up her share of the conversation. She was very nice looking and was an attractive young lady as she had several boyfriends. Sallie used to say, “I wouldn’t more than get a nice boyfriend and she would take him away.” I thought, “Oh! Oh! Sallie’s going to lose out again.” But not so . . . The gentleman seemed to prefer the one he’d been writing to even though he did chat a lot with the other one. My sister Sallie was nice looking and always looked well in whatever she wore but never considered herself quite up to her sister in looks.
I whipped the horses up and soon we were turning into our place. He asked, “is this where you young ladies live?” We said yes. In the heavy Montana brogue he replied, “you have a most beautiful spacious home.” It took us some time to get used to his Western talk. Of course, you know, we had that southern way of speaking.
Being a cowboy he jumped out ahead of us and proceeded to help me unhitch the horses. He then helped turn them in the pasture. As we entered the house father and mother met us at the door and gave the young man a very cordial welcome. Then Sallie made them acquainted by introducing him, saying, “mother and father , meet my friend, Mr. Felton of Havre, Montana. Of course, being in the Southern states only on a visit, our folks invited him to be our house guest for awhile. After dinner my father really enjoyed visiting with him, in fact we all did. I especially did for I was a westerner at heart even though I had never gone West. That had been my father’s one desire too for some years but mother hated to give up her Southern home and friends for she had always lived in that part of the country.
The next day my sister (Wilhemina) got her usual letter from Sidney. He was the one that came that Sunday afternoon with the older man looking for real estate to buy then stayed for supper then went to church with us and back to Norfolk on the late trolley. She didn’t seem quite as enthused over it this time as she had always been. She had most generally answered it right off. Instead she came into the parlor and began talking to our house guest. Finally he asked her to play and sing something for him and she did.
While this was going on, curious as I always was and knowing where she kept her letter, I did something I had never done before. Instead of putting it away she had just left the letter lay. In it he said he had found the place he wanted and the house on it was real nice. He planned to furnish it and wouldn’t be long now until they could plan the day. At that I heard foot steps and got away as fast as I could. I slipped away to where mama was and told her what I had read. She reproved me for doing it then she thought awhile and said, “I guess she doesn’t know whether she wants to get married right now or wait a few years.” we could still hear the singing and playing coming from the parlor. I turned to mama and said, “there’s your answer,” for my sister had accused her of taking her young men friends, but in this case it didn’t work. The one he wrot to and came to see was the one he was sticking to.
When things didn’t go as she had figured, she sat down and answered Sidney’s letter with a longer one than usual. What was in the letter , I didn’t know. There were also two extra nice boy friends there in the neighborhood that took her places like church, parties, and etc.
Our house guest proved himself to be extra nice and a fine gentleman as well as good looking. He had been to Norfolk visiting some of his relatives there for about a week and came back out to our home on the four o’clock trolley that I came home from school on.
We were walking along together from the depot at Lynnhaven to home. It was a lovely spring day. The birds were singing and farmers were out plowing their fields, the fruit trees were all in bloom and the scent of the blossoms filled the air. All the while we walked, I continued to ply him with questions of the West and a she answered them he would add a bit extra each time of the wonderful West and things that happened there. All this fascinated me and so entertaining. About that time I heard footsteps and someone about out of breath running . It was Ethel. She was trying to catch up with me. I slacked a bit and told Mr. Felton I would wait for her and for him to walk on. He did and started walking as though he wanted to see someone he hadn’t seen for awhile.
Ethel had so much to tell me, as she always did. As we neared their place we could see her brother trying to get a calf tied up but it was running in circles and would soon have the rope wrapped around him. We ran over to where he was and helped him out of the situation.
As I left and continued the walk on home alone, I was reminded of a predicament I had gotten into when I was about eight or nine. I was told to go change and water the calf. I was barefooted and it was along in august. As I tried to untie it, the calf started on a dead run around my legs several times. By the time I had untied it. Then it took off throwing me down, rolling me over and partly dragging me as the rough rope was pulling and stinging from around my legs. It took the skin and meat with it. I wore the circle s from the scars around my legs for months, yes, years and to this day some of the scars are still there. There is also a nick or two n the right shin bone from the rope cutting in at it was pulled violently from around my legs. Mother, hearing my cries, ran out to where I was and helped me to the house. That though wasn’t the worst part of it. There was to be a party at the school house that evening and mother had bought for me new stockings, new patent leather slippers and had made a new dress for me. In fact , all three of us girls had been decked out. I went around on the north side of the porch, after mama had doctored and bandaged my legs and cried and cried. I had even eaten my supper because I figured I couldn’t go and would be left home alone for my parents were going also. Mama heard me and came to my rescue. She said “come with me. I believe we can do something about it.” by that time my legs were so sore I could hardly walk on them. We went into the living room and I sat on a chair. Mama took off the old bandage, the blood had stopped, then re-doctored my legs and proceeded to re-wrap them with much thinner bandages of only one thickness. Later when the time was drawing close for the party, she carefully put my stockings on over it. Next went the pretty patent leather slippers. My heart had lost its heavy weight and I was feeling better already. Then she washed my face again in nice cold water, combed my hair and re=made my curls for my hair was naturally curly. Then on went my petticoats and over that the lovely ruffled pink, organdy dress with the wide sash that went around my waist and made a large pretty bow in the back. All the time I was sitting, then mama helped me to stand. My legs started giving away and I began to cry. She held me and helped me to the mirror where I could see myself. I saw the tears were spoiling my face and did not help my looks or the large, pretty , pink bow that held three curls on top of my head. I grabbed hold of a chair back and said, “mama, I am not going to cry and I’ll be alright.” What I had seen in the mirror had changed everything. Mother had fixed me up too pretty to spoil it now. Then I sat down again and mother dabbed my tear stained eyes with a cold wet cloth which seemed to make everything right.
Soon it was time and all were ready. I never saw my mother look lovelier for her light blue dress with her blond hair and blue eyes made her look like a princess to me. We were just going across the road to the little country school but no matter where we went, our folks always wanted us to be well dressed and look nice in every respect. Both of my parents took my hand and as they did I finally took courage to look at my legs. They did look a little bulky with the stockings over the bandages. Mama saw mw and said, “just forget them. No one will notice them after night for the lights we had in those days were coal oil lamps. Our folks furnished a freezer of ice cream and a cake. We had an ice house and made ice cream often for parties and other occasions. It was just one of those country get together affairs. My brother looked nice in his new suit and outfit. He was stepping as proud as could be in front of us. My father, in a dark suit , white shirt and tie, his curly black hair and dark blue eyes and an affable way was always genteel looking. Soon in the school among the crowd. The fun we had that night has never been forgotten. It was just one of the many neighborhood affairs and when we got out there playing all those different kinds of games, my legs were completely forgotten. Before the evening was over young and old alike were playing games and having fun. Until all were tired out, we left the scene around midnight for home and bed. This happened at our old home place in Norfolk county where we four children were born and raised.