Mimi’s Journey
Living in the Country, 1937 to 1945
Minnie began her journey as a tenant farmer’s daughter in south Texas on July 14, 1937. The family was poor but the children didn’t know it because they were rich in relationships and were happy. “The house had no electricity or running water, but it was full of love–love for the Lord and love for each other,” Minnie wrote in her little cookbook, “Breaking Bread Together.” (p. 5)
Minnie’s memories of those early years were pleasant and exciting. Her parents worked very hard and the children learned to also. But there was time for play and time for each other. “Living in the country without electricity or running water limited what we could do,” she wrote in her journal, “but I never remember being bored. We played kick the can, let Rover come over, hide and seek and racing each other–and when Mother wasn’t looking, we would get on the barn and jump off. And climbing trees was great fun.” (Journal, p. 3)
Minnie described herself as being “very thin and tall” with “big brown eyes” and, she said, “I was very shy.” She certainly had lost her shyness by the time I met her! But her “big brown eyes” were just about the first thing I noticed about her and I always thought they were so beautiful. You can see how cute she was in this picture taken in 1945 when she was 8 years old. Minnie’s cousin Hazel wrote that “she was blessed with lots of freckles and pretty red hair. Her mother kept her hair in pig tails and she was ‘cute as a bug.’” (Letter, 2-23-2010)
Minnie’s family lived in the farmhouse with “a widow who loved us and treated us like her grandchildren.” (J. 4) “Aunt Minnie, the widow who owned the farm that my dad farmed, claimed me as her favorite of the 5 children. I was her namesake. I was born at home, in her house. She often took me into her part of the house for special treats. She would let me hold Abby, her old china doll that hung on her wall. . . . After we left the farm she sold it and rented a small apartment from my aunt and uncle. When we visited them, I would spend time with Aunt Minnie, drinking coffee with lots of milk and eating biscuits. She would let me dress up in beautiful old clothes she wore as a girl. She died when I was in high school.” (J. 12)
Engraved in the porcelain on the back of this doll is the date she was made: December 7, 1880. Minnie made her beautiful dress many years later. Abby was given to Minnie by her namesake,
Aunt Mint (Harraminta Lynn).
This second picture is Minnie holding Abby in 2009. She told Jeannine that she wanted to give Abby to her as a family heirloom. The doll was 129 years old then.
Minnie had one sister, Patsy, who was two years older than she. Minnie described her as always being “very responsible and serious.” Her three brothers, Buddy, Billy, and LH, were younger than she was so she and her sister often had to take care of them when they were small. Both parents usually would be working in the field and the girls then took care of the smaller children so they learned to take responsibility at a very young age. They also learned to cook on a wood stove and they had to get water from their well. They used kerosene lamps at night. The girls also learned to sew on a treadle machine when they were 7 or 8 years old. They made a dress for their mother when Pat was 9 and Minnie was 7. She later wrote, “I am glad I learned a lot of things at a young age.” (J.61)
The family would begin the work day by all helping with the many chores that needed to be done and then have a big breakfast of biscuits, gravy, eggs, sometimes bacon, sausage, or ham, and potatoes. Minnie’s chores would include going to the woodpile to pick up wood chips to use to start the fires. They had a wood-burning kitchen stove, a fireplace, and a wood heater. She also gathered eggs and was sent to the garden to get ripe tomatoes and other vegetables. They left the farm when Minnie was 8 years old so she was doing these things when she was 6, 7, and 8. And she helped in the kitchen, too, and learned to cook while they still lived on the farm. She made both cornbread and biscuits by the time she was 10 years old. (J.61)
“Wash day was very busy. We had a big black pot that mother build a fire around to heat the wash water. She would often boil the white clothes to keep them white. We had a bench outside with those tubs on it. The first tub was for washing with a rub board. Then we would wring that water out of the garment and put it in the first rinse tub, lift it up or down several times, wring it out and repeat this in the third tub. Then hang the clothes. Doing the weekly wash took a complete day.” (J. 21)
“Supper was always good!” Minnie wrote, “Often a big pot of beans and cornbread. We also ate a lot of greens of all kinds. In the summer we ate fresh veggies and in the winter we ate veggies that my mom had canned. Mother always had a big garden and the local farmers brought her fresh produce to can.” (J.15)
Minnie remembered that during her early years on the farm her father was young and healthy. “He loved horses,” she wrote. “Much to my mother's dismay, he would agree to break a horse for $20 or $25—a lot of money in those days. I can remember watching him talk to the horse, stroke it, and finally give it a treat, put the bridle partially on and lead the horse around. I would stop watching when the horse started bucking. Mother didn't like for dad to do this, but he never got hurt and still did it after he had cancer.
“Another love of his was to barter and trade. He traded our first car for a horse. The horse would not pull a plow. Mother watched from the kitchen window. When he came in all hot and sweaty, my mother said, 'Well you sure did good.' My dad made the remark that became a family joke. 'Woman, if you can't think I done good, just don't think at all.' Well after several more trades we ended up with another car.” (J.8-9)
“I remember seeing my dad plow with a plow pulled by a horse as well as with a plow he pushed. I saw him using a hoe to get weeds from away from the plants! He raised watermelons and peanuts. I can remember helping turn the peanut vines. When the watermelons were ripe, daddy would hitch the horses to the wagon and take it to the field and he and Mother would take the loaded wagon to town and sell the watermelons to the buyers who gathered on 'Watermelon Street.' Farming with horses, plows, and hoes and wagons is hard work!” (J.67)
“We had an ice box. Daddy would buy a big block of ice when he went into town on Saturdays. When it melted, we couldn't keep anything cold, so we would try to cook just what we needed for a meal. Life was harder and we loved going to town where our relatives had plenty of ice for tea!--and we could eat jello or cold banana pudding!” (J.21)
“When I was very young, I loved the evenings. In the winter we would have a fire in the fireplace. The complete family would be in front of it. Mother often made hot chocolate which we loved. The summer evenings were also special as it cooled off. We would play outside until dark. Then we would sometimes sit on the porch. I can remember our parents telling us stories about their childhood. Sometimes we would read from the Bible or Daddy would tell us stories from the Bible.”
“I also loved for relatives to visit. We had many cousins near our age. Playing with them was fun. We liked for our ‘city boy’ uncles who were my age and Buddy’s age to come. We felt they were soft because they knew nothing about country life.” (J.22)
Busy as they were with the farm, her parents were very hospitable and always welcomed family who would come see them. “They may arrive hungry, but they won’t leave hungry,” is the way her mother put it. “One of my early memories of my mother was seeing her on the porch at about 10 AM looking at the wagon coming down the dirt road. She said to my dad, ‘Company is coming. I’d better go kill a chicken.’ So she did. About that time my dad said, ‘Honey, it’s Pat and Edith and it looks like they have about 8 of the kids in the wagon.’ So mother said, ‘I had better kill another chicken.’ This she did and plucked the feathers of both and got them ready for the pot. Then she made a big batch of dumplings. Company was always welcome and we shared what we had.”
“From my mother I learned that God wanted us to be hospitable. She always talked about the fact that what we did for others was like doing it for Jesus. As I grew up, it was natural to want to fix meals for people, so this is a great heritage and something I want to pass along to my children and grandchildren.” (“Breaking Bread Together,” p. 5)
Her cousin Hazel remembered her mother’s hospitality. She wrote that “the whole West families spent lots of Sundays together and every holiday. The women gathered in the kitchen preparing the lunch, and the men sat on the porch or somewhere and discussed the Bible, oh my, such conversations went on among the 6 brothers (uncles). I remember going to Uncle Bode and Aunt Ruth’s house for Sunday dinner. Aunt Ruth would have the best meal and it was so delicious. Nearly everything she prepared came from her garden, sometimes fresh or canned. Aunt Ruth was a jolly person. She was always pleasant even when things were rough.” (Letter 2-23-2010)
The children walked three miles to school to a little country school house with 15 students, grades 1-8 with one teacher. The kids talked a lot as they walked and Minnie remembered that when her mother’s younger sister, Dorothy, visited, she would take them to school on a horse. Minnie rode in front of her and Patsy rode behind her. (J.49)
She wrote, “I loved first grade as I so wanted to learn to read. Pat could read well and would read to me, but I wanted to read for myself. . . . The two eighth grade girls did most of the teaching of the three little girls in first grade. We all learned to read and loved to read to each other. We also learned a lot when the teacher taught the older students.” (J.41)
Minnie later wrote in her journal, “We had to cross a wooden bridge over a creek. The older boys (grades 4-8) would stomp on the bridge and tell me I was going to fall into the creek. I would be so frightened that I would crawl across the bridge. Sometimes Pat would throw rocks at them so they would leave me alone. That left me with a fear of bridges. When I was in my 50's I was telling my mother about how the boys scared me on that big bridge. She laughed and said that it was a very small bridge. I insisted it was large, so we drove out to see it! I was amazed at how big it was in my memory but how small it really was! (J.40)
This is a picture of Minnie's “1st Grade bridge”
at Caddo taken in June, 1983.
“When I was in 3rd grade we moved into Stockdale as my dad had cancer and could not continue to be a tenant farmer. The bigger school scared me—and I was afraid I would be behind—but I soon realized that we had learned more in our little school with 15 students.” (J.41)
The family also went to church in the country. “Like most of the folks, we went in the wagon. The church had a circuit preacher, Brother Briar. We never knew when he would be at our church because he had so many other churches also to look after. So Brother John Rice, a local farmer, was always prepared to lead a total church Bible study. We had no nursery and no Sunday School. The children didn’t know that the King James Version was hard to understand or that they needed something different than the adults. We loved to hear Brother John read the Bible verses and then to hear all the adults discuss the passage. The children could ask questions and add to the discussions. We had the best time. We all sang and praised the Lord together. These are rich memories of worshiping with the country folks. No one had more than a high school education, but there was a lot of Bible knowledge and wisdom.”
“When the preacher did show up–about once a month–we were delighted to hear a real sermon. And once a month the church had “dinner on the ground” and singing. We loved it. We would drop quilts on the ground and eat together. Then the children would play drop the handkerchief, kick the can, Rover, Rover, let Minnie come over! When the play stopped, we went back with the adults.” (from Minnie’s talk on Worship at Heart & Hand, Sequim Bible Church, Sequim, WA, October 9, 2003.)
Minnie wrote in her journal, “Both of my parents were born again Christians. They were both baptized in the creek in Caddo.” They attended the Baptist church in the country, but there was also a Methodist church where they would go to Vacation Bible School in the summer also. “I can remember my dad reading the Bible to us in the evenings. I also learned a lot hearing the adults talking about things of the Lord.” (J.60)
As a small child Minnie had one traumatic experience that she never forgot. She said, “When I was 6 or 7 years old we went to Cuero to visit Aunt Estelle, Daddy's sister, Uncle Ernest, Hazel and Buddy. We had an old car. One afternoon Daddy and Uncle Ernest piled Patsy, me, Buddy, Billy, cousin Buddy and Hazel into the old car to go to town. I remember going to a grocery store and then to a 5 and 10 cents store. Daddy went to get the car and Uncle Ernest was to take the 6 kids out to the corner for Daddy to pick up. Somehow I got left behind. They got part way home before I was missed. Daddy asked me how I liked Cuero—no answer, so he asked again—still no answer. Then he realized I wasn't in the car. He turned the car around and drove too fast back to the corner."
“Meanwhile, I was looking at little toys, then I looked around and all the family was gone. I went to a clerk and asked her if she knew my cousin, Hazel. Of course she didn't, but she realized I was frightened, so she started asking me questions. Then I remembered that my uncle had said something about all of us going out to the corner so we could get in the car when Daddy came. She took me out to the corner and told me to stay there as he would come back to get me. She assured me that she would watch from the window. Sure enough, it wasn't very long until they came back—Daddy was so glad to see me that he didn't even scold me!” (J.33)
Many years later her Aunt Hazel well remembered that incident from the vantage point of an eyewitness in the car when Minnie's father suddenly realized that “Pill” wasn't in the car! “He turned that little grey car around and headed back as fast as the little car would go. When we got back to where we had been parked – there stood Little Minnie on the nearest corner just as calm as could be, watching the people pass by. Uncle Bode jumped out of the car & run & grabbed her and loved her & said 'Pill, were you scared?' And she smiled a big smile and said 'No Daddy, I knew you'd come back and get me.'” (Letter from Hazel Meyer, Feb. 23, 2010)
Minnie told me once again about that incident (I had heard it several times through the years) not many weeks before she died and she told me what her father said and what she said. I wonder if she thought about that in relationship to what Jesus had promised to His disciples (and through them to us), “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:3 That was one of her favorite verses and she had every confidence that just as her Dad had come back to get her, so, too, would Jesus come for her when His time came. And He did.
“In the summer “when the watermelons were ripe, Daddy would hitch the horses to the wagon and take it to the field and he and mother would load the wagon, then Daddy would take the loaded wagon to town and sell the watermelons to the buyers who gathered on ‘Watermelon Street.’ Farming with horses, plows, and hoes and wagons is hard work!” (J.67)
“My great-grandparents lived on a farm several miles out of Stockdale. Their house was built on a hill and there were lots of shade trees. When we would go to visit, there were usually other relatives there. A vivid memory is a screened-in back porch with wide ledges. There would be fresh pies on those ledges. She made a green grape pie that I liked as it was tart.” “At lunch time, all the kids would eat food fixed on tin plates. My cousin tells me they were old pie pans. We would all sit on the back porch and enjoy whatever the ladies had cooked. This was always a fun time as we didn’t see Mother’s family as much as we did Daddy’s. Both Grandma & Grandpa were sweet people–both were small!” (J.26)
Minnie’s father seldom owned a car so they did not go to town very often since 8 miles is a long way in a horse-drawn wagon. When Minnie was 8 years old in the 3rd grade, her father became ill with cancer and had to give up farm work and move into town, Stockdale, Texas. The house they were living in burned to the ground and that precipitated their move as well. That was in 1945. Minnie's father died in March, 1949, leaving a widow with five children and no insurance or social security so the next four years were occupied with caring for him and helping to support the family and helping take care of her younger brothers and with the housework and cooking. Minnie was 11 when he died and he was 39. (J.13)
Living in town, 1945 to 1955
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