"Old Jude" and Other Stories

I hope you are enjoying reading about my grandparents. I am going to share Number 5 from the Lincoln County map (see older post) with you today.

NUMBER 5
1924, Dad and mother purchased a small tract one half mile west of Lincoln, started planning construction of our house. We moved into the house on October 19, 1925, on mother's birthday. They had the lumber sawed by Mr. Bud George of New Hope. They built the house by themselves. I carried the nails, picked them up when dad bent them and threw them into the grass. The house still stands (1993). the property was purchased from Mr. Dunston, a neighbor up the road. In the fall of 1925, we moved to the Lincoln Mill Village in Huntsville, Alabama, where dad worked in the mill to earn enough to move back to Lincoln on March 26, of 1926, in time to start a crop and make payment to Mr. Dunston. I will quote from Dad's notes: "1926, made cotton crop for Tom Sims," it was across from Grissom's old store. I remember Mrs. Maude, Tom's wife, kept me at their house and played hully-gully with me using grapes from their vineyard.

An aside from the story...
I remember me and my brother playing hully-gully with my great-grandmother Blanche Marsh. She had this drawer full of buttons, spools, sequined items, brooches and other miscellaneous items that she had collected through the years. I remember sitting on the floor and playing "Hully Gully." It was a game where you would pick up several small items and hold them in your hands and say "Hully Gully...how many." You would then proceed to guess how many items the other person had in their hands. As you can see in the picture below, she was not afraid to get in the floor and play with me and my brother Timothy. What fun! This may sound strange, but when I see this picture, I can still "smell" how those buttons smelled. Funny how memories and your sense of smell are forever linked....

Melissa Edwards, Timothy Edwards and Blanche Marsh

Now, back to my grandfather's entry...

Dates from Dad's notes:
1927 - made crop on Bob Mansfield place. I remember hearing about Lindbergh flying the Atlantic. I kept looking up at the sky for him, we went the wrong way did he not?
1298-29 - made crop for Mr. Shantyfelt, a man from up north. His farm joined us on the north. This was later the Mooneyham home place.
1930 - made crop for Elmer Shelton (a good man).
1931-1932 - made crop for Zeke Mooneyham who had taken over the Shantyfelt place. Cold spells in early May could keep cotton seed from sprouting, which meant replanting a late crop, so I remember when we had cold snaps in May regardless of how cold, Mr. Zeke would come to church in his shirt sleeves while everyone else wore coats. He would not admit it was cold and killing his young cotton sprouts.

1933. Dad furnished himself, he bought "Old Jude" a cripple mare mule for $40.00 in Fayetteville on first Monday. Old Jude had caught her foot in a fence when a young mule and had incurred a bad injury that resulted in a big knot just above her hoof that made her lame. She was slow and would not bring a good price. She was slow but gentle. I plowed her a lot. Old Jude was the one I was riding to Kennedy's store at Lincoln one afternoon with a dozen eggs in a sugar sack, plan was to trade them for a tin of aspirin for mother. Old Jude hit a rock in the road in front of Mr. Burt Mansfield's house, fell to her knees, over her head I went eggs and all, results egg omelet a la dirt. We had no money in the house, mother needed the aspirin - what to do - try crying, which I did. Mr. Burt, who was a Latin and History teacher and later taught Helen and me at Flintville, saw my predicament. I told him the whole story while drying my eyes. Mr. Burt said I'll be back in a minute just wait, he came back and handed me a dime. I went on to the store, purchased the aspirin and never told mother. Needless to say I have always respected Mr. Burt. Hope Old Jude went to mule haven and Mr. Burt was welcomed by St. Peter.