I remember one time Hodges and I were throwing rocks at each other on the railroad tracks. I hit him with a rock in the fore head and it started to bleed. I was so scared. He took off running and crying home and I ran into the house and got under the bed. Mama wanted to know what happened and I told her and that I was going to jail.

The mimosa ponies

During this time I remember songs that were playing on the radio. One was, “That Doggy in the Window”. That is Hodges in the picture.
Well Hodges and me became friends and played together all the time. We rode our horses all over the neighbor hood. We would take a knife and cut a limb off of a tree, not just any tree but a Mimosa tree. Uncle Jake had one in his front yard. We would cut it about four foot long and we would put a string on the big end for our reigns and we would carve the bark off some of it so it would be spotted. We named them every time we cut a new one. Mine was mostly named whitey. When the small end started wearing off some, we would take them down to the tar patch. As I said before the county yard was right behind our house and they had a tar tank, use for making roads. Well it must have had a leak in it because there was a ditch and it ran down beside the railroad track. That’s where we tarred up our horses tails to make them last longer. Today I bet if EPA found out about that somebody would be in big trouble. We would ride those ponies all day long all over the neighbor hood. We had hitching post all over and would tie them up when we got off. I can look back and see how 2 little boys must have been very tired at the end of the day, running all day long with a limb between their legs. At night I would have cramps in my legs and Mama would get up and put salt in a sock put it in the oven to heat it and put it on my legs. That was her remedy to making better anything that hurt. Especially an ear ache.

The county yard

The county yard was in the back of our house. It had a fence around it, probably 10 feet tall and barb wire on the top. We would play baseball in the back yard and we always hit a ball over the fence. They had a night watchman and when he came to work he would throw the ball back over the fence. He wore some type of clock that had a strap on it that hung around his neck. He went from place to place about every hour and put a key in another box and turned it. In later years we found a way to get it back with out him. Right behind the house was where they made the cement pipes for the roads. They had some type of mold and they would pour concrete in them. They would pour one morning and the next day, they would take them out.
When we move to Barnard there was no over pass on Cottonwood highway. But about the time we move they started building it. It was right behind the county yard. We would go over there and play on the piles of dirt as they were building it. After they got it built we would take cardboard and slide down the side of it. We even slid down on pieces of tin. it’s a wonder we didn’t get cut up. We would also go up under it and play. It was real cool up there in the summer time. This is me in front of the county yard tearing something up. I will tell what it was later.

Big Tent

There was a big field across the street from the house. We would play ball over there. One time a revival came to town and they must have rented the field. Anyway they were on big trucks and sit up a big tent. They also hauled sawdust in and put on the floor. They hired some of the boys in the neighbor hood to set the chairs up. We would have races around the big tent. Every year there would be straw that would grow up head high and someone would catch it on fire and the fire truck would come and put it out. They would always try and fine out who had set the field on fire. In later years we dug a big hole over there. We would build a fire and roast marsh mellows. That was a lot of fun. I have more to say about the field later, there was a lot that happened over there.

sandbed

The next three or four years seems all jumbled up to me. School was still a place I didn't like for sure. I would stay out every chance I got too. There was a boy that lived down on Selma St. His name was Gary Cain and was in my room at school. He lived in the house that Johnny Mack Brown lived in. We played a lot together. Hodges was a little bit older than me and we hadn't got to know each other. Me and Gloria Jean still played a lot. She had a bicycle (a girls) and I tried to learn to ride it. One day after I had been riding for a while I put a pencil in the handle bar for some reason. So I was coming down the street in front of our house. There was a sand bed in front of our house and I hit it and fell and the pencil lead stuck in my chest. For years I thought the lead was still there and I would show it to everyone, but found out it was just the mark of the pencil and not the lead.

School

Well we got settled in by the first of the next week. Mama enrolled me in school at Southside elementary. M.C. went to Young Jr., Betty rode with someone back down to Ashford, because it was her last year I think. Ellis was delivering groceries for a little store across the railroad track from our house (Carpenters). Louise was still working at Cash Drug store, Bud was in the Army and Sarah hadn't started to school yet.

Now it was time for me to start school. I don't remember how I got there but I was so scared. They put me in Gloria Jean's room, she was like a big sister to me. Our teach was Mrs. O'mary. Back then the elementary schools went from the first grade through the sixth grade. I really don't remember much that first year except that I couldn't tie my shoes and had Jean doing that. I do remember failing the first grade though. Never did catch up with Jean.

Neighbors

While living in the country we had no close neighbors. About all the people I saw was family. I didn't have any friends because there were none near by. Maybe a cousin would come on Sun. but other than that it was just family. I think that's what made me so shy when we moved. Because we had close neighbors, bunches of them. Living next door at 502 was my Mama's brother, Uncle Jake and aunt Nancy and my cousin Gloria Jean. Jean was 6 mo. older than me. I found out later that Uncle Jake played a big part in our move. Next door to them was the Hightowers, they didn't stay there long. At 506 were the Beasley's (Roy) and his wife ( don't remember her name and she died soon after we moved there. They had 3 children. Betty was the oldest and she had already married to Buford Fowler. They would soon move into the Hightower house. Mack was the son and him and M.C. became good friends. A daughter Sue, and she and Sarah were good friends. Next to them were the Armstrong's (Floyd) and his wife. They had a daughter name Elmeta (ms)and a son named Hodges. We grew up together and were best friends for years. At 510 were the Chancey's I really don't remember much about them except they had some girls and a son named Obe. They also had a television, the first one I had even seen.