Chapter Five: Fall and Winter, 1909-1910 Bring Halley’s Comet and Tragedy for Pearl and Her Family

At this time, there was great concern worldwide about the appearance in the skies of Halley’s Comet. Melvina’s, (Vinie in previous chapters, now Mama and Mother) mental illness seemed improved for a time, as Pearl notes her mother’s quilting interests. Billy was born in April, so now we are into September and onward with no serious behavioral concerns in Vinie. But, as Pearl remembers so vividly, some difficult days are coming. This narration is one the most crushing of all of Pearl’s autobiographical reporting, as those days arrived.  (RAN,ed.)

      It was in the year 1909 when all eyes were on the heavens as the famous Halley’s Comet was expected to make its appearance.  I remember well the evening that Mama and Papa scanned the skies in our yard on the west side of our house.  I was with them and heard them discussing the fearful possibilities of Halley’s tail sweeping across the earth.  No doubt newspapers were full of the stories and talk of the comet was on everyone’s tongue.  The experiences of this frightful evening in August or September of 1909 when I heard my parents discussing the horrible possible results of this Comet’s appearance have remained in my memory.  It was never sighted in our area but two English astronomers discovered it and photographed it on September 11, 1909, at almost the  predicted point that it would appear, proving that it did exist.  There was much superstition associated with its appearance and Mama and Papa even spoke of it being a portent of some phenomenal event, such as the end of time.  This may have been a recognized theory among religious people as a Biblical prophecy.  At any rate, it was an alarming prophecy to a four year old!

 

A souvenier spoon made to commemorate this frightening time.

      To refresh my knowledge of Halley’s Comet, I sought references on the subject, finding that the comet was named for Sir Edward Halley who “brought forward proof that the comet seen in 1531 and in 1607 moved in the same orbit as that observed in 1682.

      It appears four times every three centuries and often near the time of other important events in history.  At the probable passage of the comet, the tail long and beautiful, was feared to emit poisonous gases contained within it.  Other theories reveal that the odds are millions to one against a collision between a comet and the earth.  However, the earth did pass through the tail of Halley’s Comet on May 19, 1910 – with no effect.  But colliding with the Comets’ nucleus – Halley’s weighs 30 million tons – could be devastating!  (We’re glad we didn’t come in contact with it neither in 1909 or 1910.)

 

 

                          Melvina has talent in seamstress and quilting 

     Mother was a good seamstress and also made many quilts, for they were a necessity in the life of a family in that era.  No electric blankets – few blankets at all; just enough to put next to the sleeper for greater warmth.  Heavy quilts were our principal bed coverings.  In other years more and more quilts were being replaced with blankets when homes were better insulated from the cold.  After a time, home made quilts were almost erased from the domestic scene. Now, they have become beautiful works of art, made mainly for display at art shows or county fairs.

This is a “scraps” quilt from 1910 era. It is not one of Melvina’s (ed.)

But in Mother’s day quilts were a necessity so she decided to make some.  Generally, quilt pieces were cut from scraps of cloth left over from sewing clothing, and I’m sure mother had made efficient use of those scraps.  However, she wanted to piece more quilt tops, so she would ask Papa to buy lengths of calico (cheap cotton print) which sold for five cents a yard.  My size would probably have taken three yards with gathered skirts, mid-calf, and long sleeves and wide ruffles on the yoke.  But, at that, a new dress could be had for 15 cents, if you were a seamstress. Mother didn’t tell Papa she was making quilts, for some reason – maybe we really didn’t need them.  Just so he wouldn’t refuse her the material, she told him she was making dresses for me.  So he kept bringing the various colors and patterns of calico, and she kept piecing quilt tops.  Mother left four of these hand-pieced quilt tops for Brother and me.  She might have experienced therapeutic help from piecing quilt tops on those long winter days! Who knows?

 

            Melvina sculpted animals in clay with some  artistic additions.

Mother also had other artistic abilities.  Using some sort of clay (with a repulsive smell) she molded, to my delight, rabbits, turtles and other animal likenesses.  She used brightly colored buttons and beads for their eyes.  Water color tinting gave the clay animals a lifelike appearance.  They were life size too.  As Papa had expressed so definitely his displeasure at her childlike endeavors, she hid the animals under my bed to dry.  She cautioned me never to touch them until they dried thoroughly, but I would lift up the edge of the bed covering and look at them whenever I liked.  I hated the repulsive smell and I believe that to this day I would recognize that unpleasant odor if I should ever smell it again!

                             Four year old Pearl invents an “evil little game”.

As I have already said, Mama and Papa were both quite religious; consequently, we had religious books in our home besides the Bible.  One book which we children loved to peruse was one with graphic descriptions of devils, Hell, angels and Heaven.  These pictures were not meant for the eyes of four and five year olds, of course, but they were seen and questioned about to Papa and Mama.  Some vague explanations were given, I’m sure, because no answer quite fitted the picture of several red devils dancing with glee in the flames.  I spent most of my day near Mother, but when Papa was at home, I played alone.  During warm weather I played in our yard, which was fenced with barbed wire to keep grazing livestock away from our house.  A path led from the house to the front slatted wooden gate.  In the southeast corner of this  yard was a block or two of wood shingles, left over, I assume, from shingling the house sometime. 

At any rate, I invented this evil little game.  I picked up Papa’s penknife somehow, maybe from the keg which I mentioned earlier, and opening all three blades, I proceeded to pretend it was a devil.  One blade was his head, one was his feet and the one opened straight out was his hand.  I took him out to the block of shingles and had him dance in glee (while I witnessed him in glee!) in the imaginary flames!  I don’t recall ever playing this game with anyone else, but I still recall the evil that welled up in my small heart as I made the little penknife devil dance in evil glee!  Nor do I remember any other such distinctly evil thoughts or games entering my young developing mind throughout the years.  Now, while the older cousins were coming and going during Mother’s illness at Brother’s birth, some of them may have done this while I observed; I may have been only mimicking what I had seen and heard.  Well, I did slip the knife from its hiding place!  Some young boy may have used his own penknife.

      Melvina experiences some unstable behaviors in months following. 

A brief incident which stands out in my memory was of Mama’s driving us to church in the buggy!  Where the buggy was from and to whom it belonged has always been a mystery to me.  I never recall being in it again, but perhaps I was, under calmer circumstances.  One evening just as Papa drove in, Mama announced that she was going to church and was taking me with her.  Papa objected to her driving, although the Zion Hill Church  was just down the hill, across the creek, and up the hill on the other side.  Perhaps their plans were made for us all to go to that service, and Papa had worked late.  There was probably a series of meetings, a revival in progress.  I assume it was August because another entry in the books of the Zion Hill Baptist Church was that Papa and Mama joined the church by letter in 1909.  There were likely other evenings when we all attended together under more peaceful circumstances, but on this night Mama was determined to go, and following quite a brisk argument with Papa, she won.

She put me upon the buggy seat and then climbed in and sat beside me.  As she untied the lines, although I was small, I still remember how lonely Papa looked standing there in the twilight, as Mother wheeled the buggy around and we sailed down the slope into the darkness.  We were crossing Duncan Creek, through very little water, shaded by a cove of trees which formed a tunnel of darkness as we passed through

              Increasing concern for safety of children in Melvina’s care

Mother grew progressively more unstable and indications of violent acts became more frequent.  I’m sure Papa feared for mine and Brother’s safety while he left us alone with her.  I believe that she was aware of being observed and suspected that she would have to enter an asylum.  This was a dread and fearful term in those days for without the therapeutic treatment, counseling and use of medications of our day, a mental disturbance was a hopeless condition.  Papa and Mama may have discussed her need of hospitalization which gave them hope of an improved condition when she could return to us and help Papa to bring us children up in a happy home.

In her religious fervor, she felt the need of much prayer.  I would hear her in  a plaintive voice begging for mercy in her illness and for the Heavenly Father’s care of us children.  I saw her a few times, as she knelt by the side of her bed and interceded for Brother and me, realizing in my childish way how troubled she must have felt.

Mother wrote cards, beautiful picture post cards, of Easter and other symbolism, but these were never mailed.  She had addressed them to relatives, telling them of Brother’s birth and proclaiming to them that he was born to be a great prophet (or preacher) such as men in Bible times or even in her day.  These cards were found in her trunk among her personal effects, along with other picture cards that they had received from friends and relatives.                                                                           She also wrote out vital statistics           concerning her mother, her father and herself and her three sisters on the back of an enlarged picture of her mother.  Mama’s and Papa’s marriage license was also stored in  back of this picture.  She had copied, almost verbatim, the words of the license, adding that if the license was ever lost, this was what the “instrument” contained.  I’m sure that in her unstable condition she felt cast aside, and therefore, was suspicious of every move Papa made that might be against her.  She was aware of the worth of the marriage license as a bond between them, whatever happened in the future to keep them apart.

         The “enlarged picture” of Melvina’s mother, Margaret Melvina Gray Watts,  right above, painted in 1893 when mother was 33. She died in 1899, age 39, when Vinie was 16.  This imposing portrait, which hung above Pearl’s  father’s trunk, absent the large frame; back surface of the “picture”, right lower, on thick artist board while in the frame with her writings on it as described by Pearl. The writing is upside down from the picture. (Ed.)

                   

 

 

 

                                    “Mother’s departure for the asylum”

I know nothing of the preparation of my Mother’s departure for the asylum; although, I’m sure that Papa and maybe Mama, too, had told me that she would have to go away for awhile, I couldn’t comprehend how the going would be.  So the first real impression I had was when the two doctors, or attendants, came to get her.  I saw Mama standing by Papa’s shaving mirror over the high shelf while one of the attendants lathered her arms with Papa’s shaving brush and then shaved them clean.  Papa was standing close by, too, but I don’t recall any other persons present.  Mother was neatly dressed and was wearing a fancy apron with a pocket in which she possibly had a handkerchief and the silver thimble.  When they were ready and started out the door Mama tried to get me to come to her and say goodbye.  But I was so hurt, frightened, and bewildered, I wouldn’t go to her.  I just began crying, venting my anger and my pain, disappointment, plus other emotions all rolled into one!  I ran outside to the east side of the house beside the chimney.  Walking between the two attendants down the path toward the gate, Mother turned back and called “Pearl, come and get this thimble.”  But I was all the more furious and threw rocks from around the chimney at the doctors’ backs as they went out to their buggy and drove away.

This is the main building of Austin State Hospital, in Austin, Tx.  Husband, Pete Thornton with Pearl and Billy, traveled by train from Oklahoma to visit Melvina a while later.

Following Mother’s departure, needless to say, our lives were thrown into a turmoil.  In reflecting upon the circumstances, I question whether Papa wondered what would become of us, or on the other hand if he experienced a certain relief from the fear of harm that could have come to us at the hands of our distraught Mother.  Naturally, Papa could not take care of us alone for he must work to make a living.  So we went first to Aunt Delia’s at Graham, Texas, traveling by rail with only our trunks and Papa’s blue-gray valise.  (Aunt Delia is Melvina’s older sister, ed.)