Chapter 39: Summer, 1924–Back Home to Tillman County Family

                                                                                         Chapter 39

                                                     Summer 1924- Back Home to Tillman County Family

Mandy and the kids were all happy to see us.  We had notified them of the day we would come,  but they hadn’t waited up for us. But they got out of bed for us!  So, we all rejoiced together at the reunion, even though we were away only a brief time.  The family joke was that “this was the shortest time a family ever lived on a rented farm”.  Frank would always top it off with the remark that “it rained twice in the two weeks we were there, but didn’t rain a drop; it hailed both times!”

     Frank made the final arrangements for the trip with Mr. Hogan’s harvest crew.  Meanwhile, Austin and Frank were transacting business, or at least planning for the future.  Austin had a 25-acre field of cotton that needed hoeing out, so if Frank would get it cleaned out, it would be his to harvest.  He hired the Noel sisters and brother to hoe it out as he prepared to leave for the harvest.  Also, Austin was on a deal to buy out the man whose lease joined him on the east.  He would sell out his present lease to Frank if his deal went through, allowing Frank to repay him at harvest time the following fall.  That was generous of Austin and good news for us, as we were in doubt as to what we could do for a home. 

This modern photograph of rows of cotton in Oklahoma shows the plant leaves up close.  This field is irrigated, but, of course, the 1925-era farmer did not have that option.  Weeds were rampant among the younger tender cotton plants, so “hoeing” the weeds was very important to allow the cotton plants to reach maturity, and the cotton bolls produce the wonderful fiber, which is processed into what we enjoy as “cotton”. 

 

     Before Frank left on harvest, Frank and I got an appointment with Dr. C.C. Allen, who formerly practiced out of Grandfield but now had set up an office in Hollister, some ten miles west of Grandfield. According to his examination, the pregnancy was going well, so it was safe for Frank to be gone for four to six weeks.  

                Ed. note:This photo shows the1920s era wheat threshers pulled by a tractor which we learned about in past chapters. Frank would have been working with one of these on his commercial wheat harvest.  

Interesting observation: Frank (Daddy) went on this harvest at age 30.  He made commercial harvesting a part of his overall business during most of his farming life, hiring out to harvest many neighbors’ wheat and other grain crops near our home without traveling far from home.  I grew up still doing this with my brother, Rusty.  We went from southwest Grandfield, Oklahoma, “where the harvest begins”, up to Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska every summer during my high school and early college years on “the wheat harvest”.  Rusty continued this into his later farming career.  This was a family tradition!     RAN   

Frank left for the wheat harvest, and we heard from him a few times by letter, but his crew’s whereabouts were uncertain.  So much so, that it was doubtful that a letter from us would overtake the crew.  Depending on communications from him, we could locate him if it became necessary. Frank left for the wheat harvest ard from him a few times by 

Everything went smoothly at Mandy’s home while Frank was away.  Oleta, Austin’s and Lillie’s daughter, going on six, spent much time down at Grandma Mandy’s.  And Mildred, going on three, enjoyed her very much.  She would visit across the road with Oleta sometimes, as they played with her little brother, James and attended him.  He was almost two years old.  Oleta said “Mama” for mother.  Mildred picked up the term from her.  So, “mother” was not my designation anymore!

 

                                         Noel and Thornton Names and Relationships Map up to 1924 

This scheme attempts to give some clear kinship links of the persons mentioned by Pearl in Chapter 39.  Curiously, two generations before Frank and Pearl, there were four Williams as heads of each of these families:

      William/ Narcissa Noel    William/Hettie Long           William/Elizabeth Thornton      William/Melvina Watts

                            Jim Noel m 1893    Mandy Long                         Peter H. Thornton m 1899-Melvina Watts

                                                  /                                                                                                       /

                                    Frank b. 1894                                                                           Pearl b 1905

                                     Austin b.1896                                                                          Billy   b 1909

                                     Oma   b. 1900                                                          (Melvina-asylum 1909-1965 d.)

                                     Viola.  b. 1904                                                                    ————

                                      Lona.  b.1906                                                         Peter remarries—-Betty Savage m.1913 

                                      Lavada b.1908                                                                             /

                                      David b. 1910                                                                 Arthur b 1914

Jim Noel dies 1911, leaving Mandy widowed with five children.  Frank, oldest son, is responsible for their support, with full support of his two year’s younger brother Austin.

 Frank marries Lola Colyer in 1917.  Lola, while pregnant, dies of Spanish Flu-Feb. 1920.

 Austin marries Lillie Colyer ~1917, Lola’s sister. They have Oleta, now 6 and James, 4.

                                                  Frank m Jan.1921- Pearl Thornton  

                                                                       /

                                                Mildred Viola b Dec. 1921

                                                Calvin Wayne b Nov. 1924

                This Family Relationship Scheme-birth and marriage years are approximate. Purpose to show relationships of the individuals Pearl is writing about in this section.  Ed.

     My folks lived a mile away, so Papa and Mama Betty visited us; also, Papa came and took us home with him a few times.  He was a proud grandpa, and Arthur, going on ten, enjoyed playing with Mildred.  Billy, now fifteen, was the big uncle but didn’t have much time to spend with a two-year-old.  He did make a scientific prediction concerning his niece.  One day, he observed that Mildred was the exact height of the oak table on the porch.  He got the yardstick and measured the distance.  He told us that Mildred would be five feet tall when mature, as the height of the table was two and one-half feet.  Science, he said, told us that at two years of age, a woman’s height was one-half of her mature height.  My height was 5’2”, so we assumed that she would be as tall as her mother, at least.  Once grown, Mildred was two inches taller than me!   

 

 This 1924 early summer photo, used in the last chapter,  helps relate to the individuals mentioned in the above paragraph.  Can you pick them out?   Hint: left to right: Mama Betty, Pearl, Arthur, Billy, Papa, and Mildred.  Frank is sitting on truck cab in a Stetson hat. Ed.

     The summer harvest passed, and Frank was home, busy helping Austin with his chores of feeding and caring for the stock and anything that needed to be done. 

     When the school opened at Rita (pronounced “Right-ah”) School, Laveda, 16, and David, 14, started school, and Oleta started with them.  She would be six on November 2,  but in those years, by Oklahoma’s school law, if a child was six years of age before January 1, he/she could begin school in September.  So, that was a red-letter day for us all.  Lillie had sewed and otherwise provided Oleta with all the wearing apparel to fit her out neatly and stylishly, as that was their way.  Oleta’s Colyer grandparents were aging, but they came over from Davidson quite frequently as they doted on Lillie’s children, for she was their youngest granddaughter.  

Second Baby Comes

     Our second baby was due to arrive in early November, but Dr. Allen, upon removing his office to another town, left us in the care of Dr. Foshee, with whom he had shared offices in Grandfield.  Dr. Foshee was a quiet, easy-going man with a dry humor.  He came readily when we called him on the evening of November 11, 1924.   He was recognized for his cleanliness and his thorough scrubbing before touching his patient each time.  He made the necessary examinations and told us that it would be a while, yet.  He gave me medication to increase labor and sat quietly with the expectant father, making little conversation.  He went to his car for several minutes (he may have had a smoke), came back to tell us how cold and frosty the air had become since he arrived.  After scrubbing again and seeing that enough hot water was in readiness in the kitchen, he came back to see if he could be of some help to the mother.  Mandy was still not strong on her leg, which she had broken two years ago, so she was limited in helping out.  She supervised in the kitchen mostly and asked the doctor questions, I’m sure.

     Around 2:00a.m., on November 12, 1924, our first son was born.  Our first child, a girl, weighed nine pounds.  This boy weighted ten pounds! Quite a big fellow!  

     Everyone was up bright and early at the morning light, getting a glimpse of the new baby.  Mildred, in her third year, was the most excited of all.  She had to be watched very carefully or she would hurt him by “loving” him and giving her attention fully to the baby.  Viola suggested “Calvin Wayne” for his name.  We jokingly asked her if she named him for the president!  Calvin Coolidge was the current president of the United States.  

     The baby grew and all was well with us both.  He was fifteen days old on Thanksgiving Day, and Austin and Lillie invited us all to eat with them.  That was Calvin Wayne’s first visit away from home.  Other visitors were there also: Lillie’s parents and a niece of her brother’s wife.  The niece was named Bryan (nee Carrigan), and her husband was Jasper, whose last name was Hayes.  They had a son a few months old who was their first child.  Bryan was one to keep up with currently popular songs and we heard for the first time “The Wreck of Old 97” and “The Prisoner’s Song”, a double on a disc recording.  I don’t know the artist.  We were to sing and appreciate the songs for many years to come.

The link below is for Hank Snow’s recording of “The Old Ninety-Seven”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNo0cGi1xZU

     Through the remainder of the fall and the month of December, plans were completed for Austin’s family to move to the lease a mile and a half away.  Frank and I shopped for furniture; first, a dresser, as we had let our dresser go when we left Frederick for West Texas.  It was a handsome piece of furniture, massive, with a beautiful square bevelled-edge mirror.  We sold it to a furniture dealer in Frederick.  I remember a terrible accident just after we sold it, when the dresser flipped over and the beautiful mirror slipped out of the frame, shattering into a thousand pieces on the sidewalk!  Such a loss.  From our West Texas trip, we had a small dresser plus an iron baby crib for Mildred.  She had always slept in the same room near us.

      Well, upon Calvin’s arrival, as we attempted to move her into Grandma Mandy Noel’s room, she would wake in the night and cry for Mama and Daddy.  Mandy told the story many times of how Mildred stood on the foot of her bed, looking back at her grandma with her large eyes filled with tears.  I had made her flannel pajamas, rose-colored, in a sort of heather pattern.  So, she reminded Mandy of a big Teddy Bear, as she stood there in Mandy’s dim lamplight.  Frank would go and get her and try to keep her on his side of the bed, as we feared she might get on the little baby, on my side of the bed.  So the plan to sleep with grandma never succeeded very well.  With our move, Mildred had her own little bed of which she was not very pleased at first.  Finally, she was consoled as she couldn’t get out of the bed’s high sides.  Also, we were sleeping in the same room with her which made a big difference.

     Mildred was loved and doted upon, but she is remembered as a tot who poured her Aunt Viola’s face powder out more than once.  Upon another occasion, she tried her small scissors on Aunt Viola’s new sheet which she had just put on the bed, cutting a slash twelve to fourteen inches across the end, just below the pillows.  We were all so upset, but the damage was done!

     One day as the Christmas holidays were approaching, Viola and Laveda were grooming their fingernails, using fingernail polish.  Out of the blue, “That Smells Like Christmas Cakes” Mildred said.  We never quite understood that Christmas cakes smelled like nail polish. Nor why she would recall the smell of cakes at that time of the year! 

 Baby Calvin-Pneumonia

     I have no particular impressions of Christmas of 1924, but I recall an experience in February, 1925, that I shall never forget.  It was a dull cool day-not really cold, but skies were partly overcast on that short winter day.   I was doing my wash out on the north side of the house where Lillie had always set up her wash tubs when she lived there-we had moved to Austin’s former home by then. Mildred was probably across the road at Grandma Mandy’s.  Calvin, three months old, sitting where I could talk to him and keep him happy, but he wasn’t so happy toward the end of the wash.  He was in a baby buggy with a top that sheltered him from the northeast wind, and as he fussed and cried some, I noticed that his cry sounded hoarse.  I soon finished washing and took him in to feed him before hanging out the clothes.  He didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects from sitting out on that winter day, but by the next evening, his hoarseness increased and he began to have a fever.  He was feverish and uncomfortable throughout the night. 

                             This early 1900s wicker baby carriage is an example of choices for parents in Calvin’s infancy.       

      So, the next morning Frank went to a neighbor’s telephone and called Dr. Foshee.  Grandma Mandy insisted that we bring him to her house, so she could help care for him.  Dr. Foshee came out later that day, examined Calvin closely and diagnosed a congestion in the bronchial area that bordered on pneumonia.  The medication he left seemed to help keep him comfortable, but he still had a hoarse cry and some fever.  Mandy, who now had raised seven children, remarked that a baby’s illness usually develops rapidly, and the cures seem to work in the same way.  Dr. Foshee made another visit in a couple of days and found the congestion considerably improved.  He cautioned us, however, to take care to keep the baby away from cold drafts and exposure to the winter winds, as he could have a relapse.  At that visit the doctor told us that he did have a light case of pneumonia.      

     Those were anxious days for us.  In my inexperience of treating or caring for the sick, and specifically, a sick baby, I felt totally helpless.  I could only pray, as I depended on the Higher Power to intercede.  I was impressed to make a promise to God at that critical time, that I would give my son to him to use in his work.  I have been convinced that throughout Calvin’s life, God’s Spirit has dwelt with him in marvelous ways!  So, my feeble dedication at that time was not a vain petition!

Ed. note: We are seeing this growing Frank and Pearl Noel family. What comes next is more rural life, a visit to Mineral Wells, TX, to Crazy Hotel for treatments for both Mandy and Frank in the Summer of 1925. Stay tuned.