Chapter Six: Moving, measles and meeting new family in Oklahoma.

Soon after Pearl’s mother was taken from them, her father took Pearl, five years, and Billy almost one year old, to stay briefly with Vinie’s oldest sister, aunt Delia, in Graham, straight north of Comanche about 100 miles on a railroad route that stretched another 75 miles north to Oklahoma. After an illness, Pearl looks toward “new horizons” as they travel by train to discover new adventures in Oklahoma.

NEW HORIZONS

 I had been exposed to the measles, of which we were unaware, as Papa had the disease too.  I don’t recall Brother having measles – perhaps they kept him away from our sick room.  At any rate, I must have been quite ill because I was unconscious for some days due to an intense fever.The tender care of my Mother’s sister and others during my illness will never be forgotten.  Regaining consciousness before they were aware of it, I discovered that I had soiled my bed.  I was so concerned, I was afraid to let them know, but as soon as they discovered that I was awake they all gathered around my bed, smiling happily. 

 Still feeling fearful and alone, I was disturbed for not seeing Papa, but they assured me that he had measles, too, but would see me soon.  Aunt Delia and Aunt Julia (not my real aunt, Uncle Sam’s sister) were there, also, my cousin Mamie, three years my senior.

 I finally summoned courage enough to tell Aunt Delia of my plight, and they were all too willing to take care of the problem.  Aunt Julia, a dear soul, who made her home with Aunt Delia and Uncle Sam was blind.  I never knew the cause of her blindness, but her large eyes were open (a fact that caused me to wonder why she did not see) and they were red as though they were irritated.  As she felt her way around the house, she frightened me as her appearance was unsightly and repulsive to me as a child.  But she was kind and helpful, always, so I became more tolerant of her looks after awhile.

       Papa’s bout with the measles was very severe apparently.  Papa told and retold of the severity and discomfort of his illness through the days and months ahead.  He always added zest to the story by giving Uncle Sam’s joking observation that “Papa must have caught the disease from a ‘colored person’, as he had always heard that measles transferred from a black man to a white man was extremely severe.  Well, Papa really had no idea of where he caught the malady; it seemed to be an epidemic and anyone could come down with it.

  After the measles was past history for us, and we were strong enough to travel, Papa, Brother and I boarded a train for Oklahoma.  The stop at Aunt Delia’s was helpful as well as comforting and soothing but it was, in reality, only a leg of our journey to Papa’s folks where he would find help to care for us children.

BACK TO OKLAHOMA

More bewilderment and confusion for me now as a new set of relatives was introduced to me.  We landed at Uncle Bob’s and Aunt Lula’s home three miles north of Randlett, Oklahoma.  Grandma Thornton was there, whom I had heard Papa speak of lovingly, as I was too young to remember the months we had spent with them at the homestead of Grandaddy Ware.

 Apparently, Grandma and Uncle Charley had been making their home in Uncle Bob’s house since the loss of Grandpa Thornton just a few weeks earlier.  It seemed the next day after we arrived, maybe a few days later, that a man came representing the U.S. military service.  He was there to talk with Grandma and the sons about erecting a marker at Grandpa’s grave.  As Grandpa was a veteran soldier, having served in the Civil War, he was entitled to a government marker, displaying his company, his regiment of the state from which he served.  The man was seeking only the necessary information which would be engraved on the head stone.  Having buried my sister so recently, this was a depressing experience for me.  Of course, I kept very quiet, as all of the other children did, each of us thinking our own thoughts.  The day was dark and cold and as the afternoon wore on, the room became dark and dreary.  I wondered, in my troubled mind, how they could even talk of such depressing things as burial grounds!

  We made our home at Uncle Bob’s for some months, for the most part a joyful time for me.  Virgie, five years my senior, was a sweet caring cousin, who amused and pleased me with a set of paper dolls she had cut from mail order catalogues.  We took them from a neat cardboard box.  I will never forget my impression of that very secure box that had a top as deep as the box itself.  I had never seen a box with such a top!  We spread the paper dolls out on the dining table, arranging them in families, did walking and talking for them, which provided much joy and pleasure for us.  This game of paper dolls was new to me, in fact, I don’t remember ever seeing paper dolls before!

 As we became better acquainted, Virgie discovered a habit I had; that of stammering.  I don’t know just how nor when this happened to me – no one had ever spoken to me about it before.  I suppose it could have begun due to the awful trauma I had experienced over the past months.  Virgie began by asking me to stop stuttering “just go ahead and say it!” she’d say to me.  But I couldn’t seem to overcome it.  My cousin determined to rid me of the habit, began to mimic or mock me every time I stuttered.  That made me furious of course, but that method worked!  I was soon over the stammering.

         Another day when we were playing paper dolls on the table there was a terrible sandstorm!  The sand came in around the closed window by the table, covering the table and our dolls.  Through the window the sky looked threatening as the sand obscured the sun from our view.  Of course, we in Western Oklahoma are familiar with such days, but that was the very first sandstorm I ever saw.

         I recall one evening as we sat eating supper, one of the children asked for some milk.  Aunt Lula told him that the cow was dry (stopped giving milk), and there was no milk.  She added that we needed milk to eat with our fresh cornbread she had baked.  Then we all began to realize how deprived we were by not having milk!  I had never been so hungry for milk in my life, and the rest of the children had the same experience!

Uncle Charley and Grandma must have been at home with Uncle Bob’s family for some time, as one day while we were out playing in the backyard I picked up what I thought was just a strip of cloth.  “Throw that down,” someone said.  When I asked why, they said it was Uncle Charley’s “stall” for his sore toe!  In inspecting it further as it lay on the ground. I saw that there was a pocket in one end of the strip of cloth and that the length was in two parts.  I was satisfied in my mind what a “toe stall” was.  I saw many of them in later years, as they were used to cover stubbed toes!

Elbert, about thirteen, a few years older than Virgie, and Herbert, age four, a year my junior, constituted their family.  While Virgie, age 10, was helping Aunt Lula about the house, Herbert and I played outside.  There were three escapades that we engaged in as four and five year olds do.  One of these caused embarrassment to me when reminded of it in later years.  We climbed into the barn or bin where Uncle Bob had stored his cottonseed.  Herbert decided we would undress, probably, because the cottonseed was getting into our shoes and down our necks.  So, here we were “naked as jaybirds” jumping and burrowing in the cottonseed when Aunt Lula sent Virgie out to see where we were.  We heard her calling and began trying to get into our clothes, but not in time!  Needless to say, we were a laughing stock for months because of this incident.

(ed. note: Cotton was raised for the fiber and for the seed. Cotton seeds were used for planting the crop, and pressed for cottonseed oil. So, commonly the farm barns had a storage bin of the fuzzy seed. So, jumping in a bin of fuzzy cotton seed was delightful. And it was not dangerous for children.)

   Elbert had made a bird trap that he set over in the pasture in a draw, near a clump of trees.  The trap was a pyramid shaped slatted affair about twelve inches square at the base.  This trap for birds was quite simple: a stick some six inches in length was used to prop up one side of the trap.  The stick was fitted with a long cord which led away from the trap site, and out of sight of the birds.  The bait of grain or bread crumbs was sprinkled under the trap, tempted birds that stopped by searching for food.  The trapper resting out of sight several feet away, watching for his prey, jerked the cord, removing the stick from the trap and, Wow! A trap full of birds! What fun!  Unless a couple of kids came wandering along and began to examine it.  Herbert had seen Elbert build the trap and, therefore, knew the mechanics of it.  He proceeded to explain it to me by taking the prop from under the trap.  So far, so good; I was informed.  But, we couldn’t get the stick back under the trap, regardless of how much we tried, so we left it un-set.  Soon, Elbert went to check on his trap and, there it lay, closed, feed still in place, but no birds of course.  Guess who got the blame?  He threatened us with all kinds of dire results if we ever went near that trap again!

Adventure to “Mexico” for 5 year old Pearl and Herbert

In the time frame of the year, 1910, it became popular to discuss going to New Mexico to settle by filing on a claim.  In 1909, the Enlarged Homestead Act provided for entries up to 320 acres of non-irrigable land in certain Western states, and New Mexico was one of these; New Mexico became a state along with Arizona in 1912.  Four and five year olds are often ignored, considered rather insignificant, in a household of grown-ups, “little pitchers have big ears!”  Consequently, Herbert and I were not missing out on the conversation about going to “Mexico to homestead”.  We had our own version of it of course.  In spite of the hardships of drought, sparse settlements and other discomforts in a new land, the pictures that would-be settlers envisioned were quite attractive.  Some hardy souls stayed through the hardships, I’m sure, but I do know of a few settlers who stayed long enough to prove up on their claims, only to sell or trade the land, and return to Oklahoma, Texas or another native state. 

 Herbert and I, after hearing the tales of “high adventure”, decided to go to “Mexico”.  We expected to become hungry before very long, so we found an empty “flour sack” among Aunt Lula’s dish towels, put in a few cold biscuits left over from breakfast, and started on our way.  We headed south, although we had no idea which direction “Mexico” was located from our home.  The long strip of grass pasture provided easy walking, as we glanced behind us occasionally to see how far we were from the house.  We reached a barbed wire fence which divided the farm lands; we wondered how we could get through, but then, we looked toward home we saw Elbert running toward us across the quarter-mile stretch of pasture.  Well, I had decided that Mexico was too far away, after all; perhaps, Herbert had, too, but it was his idea to go, so he wasn’t really ready to give up the venture, I suppose.

I don’t remember any spankings for these antics, but my Uncle Bob and Aunt Lula were delightful persons who were inclined to laugh the matter off instead of inflicting punishment.  Probably, the reason for my vivid recollection of these incidents was that Aunt Lula was so amused at them herself.  She told and retold the stories, amusing her hearers each time they were repeated.  Uncle Bob was a Baptist preacher and no man I ever knew was kinder and sweeter than he!

In Chapter Seven, Pearl describes the poignant visit to her mother at the Austin State Hospital. And life following that in her young life. See you soon.