It's 1933, Bacon and steak sell for 11 cents a pound; you can buy a suit for 12 dollars at J.C. Penneys ( If one has the money ). Farm labor pays 50 cents a day ( If one can find work ). It's the time of the Great Depression.

Fifteen miles north of Aspermont Texas, just across the bridge crossing the Salt Fork of the Brazos, on the east side and 200 yards downriver, up a creek, ( in a dugout ) live Jim and Tomer Tarvin and family.
A few yards away Grandpa Jarid Jordan Mobley and Grandma Ora live in another dugout.

It's now around 1937..... I start to remember. A baby cries.. It's my younger sister Joyce. She's crying for a Christmas doll that Momma is nursing. The doll is (our brother Claude.)

It's 1/4 mi. to the spring and I pull my little wagon and fill a water jug with the gyppy tasting water. ( It's the only water around, except for river water ).
Somtimes I pull the wagon down into the river bottoms and Momma or Uncle Alby Mobley ( Jarids youngest son ) helps me fill it with wild plums growing there, but there's a price to pay. ( The river bottom is full of chiggers ! ).
Somtimes I pull the wagon to Farmer Check Smith's pea patch a half mile away and fill it with peas. The road is sandy and the wagon is hard to pull.

Next I remember being at Aunt Lola's in Paris Tex. She starts me in preschool. I am probaly around 5 years old. In preschool, I am fascinated with the pencil sharpner ( and not much else.)

I DISCOVER ASPHALT

She often sends me to the store 2 blocks away, and always makes me go by way of the road in front of the house; the other way is through the alley and a (long log across a creek.)
Today she tells me to stay away from the road and take the alley to the store. I am confused because she always spanks me for crossing the log at the end of the alley.

I decide to look and see why she wants me to stay away from the road. Oh! It's all covered with somthing black, and a truck is spraying more on it.
I am barefooted and decide to just walk a little ways on the new black stuff on the road.( Aunt Lola will never know ).
I wind up going all the way to the store and back on the road. Aunt Lola cuts a switch from a tree and (spanks me) and then soaks my feet in coal oil.
Aunt Lola buys me a pair of overalls and I wear them most of the time.
Later Mom and Dad wants me to come home to Aspermont, and Aunt Lola sends me on the bus. I have money pinned to my overalls, so the bus driver can buy me food on the trip.

BACK TO ASPERMONT

I start to school in Aspermont. We now live in a dugout on the west side of the River and Grandpa and Grandma live nearby in a small rock house.
Mother cooks hoecakes on an outside campfire, She also heats her wash water on the fire. I take the used wash water and pour it into gopher holes.
We have a brush arbor in front of the dugout, Its like an awning and it's cool beneath it.

We ride into town with Grandpa one Saturday and park at the courthouse. Dad and Mom go in and later come out with a sack of oranges. They are wonderful, Almost as good as the cool aid that comes in a little round tube, like a snuff box. But we don't get kool aid or oranges often. One time Grandpa bought me a hamburger at Crosse's Cafe in Aspermont. It was wonderful!!

WE MOVE TO NEW MEXICO

It's 1940 and Mom and Dad decide to move to Roswell, New Mexico because Uncle N.B.Oldaker and Aunt Velma are there. Uncle James Martin and Aunt Willie Mae are also there. Uncle Sam and Aunt Lela Mobley also move there from Oklahoma a while later.
Uncle Sam is Jarid's brother and Aunt Velma and Aunt Willie Mae are Jarid's daughters.
It is said the men can find work in Roswell with the W.P.A., a work program started by the government to put people back to work. It's digging ditches by hand for sewer lines, but at least it's work.

We ride in the turtle of an old coupe on the trip to Roswell. A long stick keeps the lid from falling. Mom rides with us kids in the turtle and Dad rides in the car with the driver.

We live way out on West Alameda St. in the country west of Roswell. Uncle James Martin and Aunt Willie Mae live nearby in an old house with a large basement, where we sometimes play. Dad and Mom find work at a place called simply The Gardens. It was out near the Air Base about 5 miles from our house.
Mom and Dad dig and process vegatables and they take us kids with them. I like it because they take scrambled egg sandwiches for lunch and I had never tasted them before and thought they were the greatest thing, until I discovered bologna years later.

WE MOVE TO NORTH HILL

I break my arm jumping off an old horse and it's in a cast for a long time. Later when the docter takes the cast off, I can't straighten out my arm and Mom makes me carry an old iron in that hand. It hurts a lot, but I carry the iron for weeks and my arm is finally normal. We have moved to North Hill across the street from Uncle N.B and Aunt Velma, and Dad goes to work for the W.P.A. digging ditches.

Also there's a family named Looney across the street and there seems to be over a dozen kids there. They all dip snuff, Its odd to see little kids dipping, but the whole family did it. It's a wonder I didnt start dipping too

WE MOVE BACK TO McPEARSON CABINS IN WEST ROSWELL

A little later we move back to the McPhearson cabins on West Alameda Street. Dad is still working for the W.P.A. digging ditches. Aunt Willie Mae and Uncle James Martin and family move to Fresno Califonia. I walk to Missouri Ave. School 2 miles away and it's winter time and my feet and shoes are wet and cold. I knock on someone's door half way to school and ask if I can come in and warm my feet. They let me warm my feet in their oven.

It's summer time and me and Charles Oldaker are rolling old tractor tires and jumping on them and riding over when I hurt my left leg. My left knee hurts and swells up and turns a dark color. Dad and Mom take me to a crippled childrens clinic, and the doctor tells them I will have to be taken to El Paso and my leg amputated.

A Mexican couple living nearby gathered cactus and boiled it and showed Mom how to wrap my knee with it. After Dad came home, every nite for a week he and Mom would rub caster oil on my knee and then pull and push my leg.

I would scream and yell, so one of them would lay across my chest to hold me down until I passed out, then they could work on my leg with no interference from me.

What can I say? I still have my leg and it works perfect.

WE MOVE TO MONTANA STREET

Dad buys a lot from Willie Porter at 405 S. Montana, across the street from Grandma Oldaker, and the Hass Family.
We build a house, with Mom doing most of the work. Dad helps at night and weekends and I help when I can't get out of it.
Up the street a coupla blocks are the Dickerson Cabins where Robert and Jim Dickerson live, and at the end of the street lives Old Man Mills. He had a bike shop at his house and I was always bugging him for second hand bike parts.

Dad goes to work for Price's Creamery, and walks to work and back. It's 1 1/2 mi one way. He finaly buys an old chevy car, but it's not running most of the time. He has to drop the pan and adjust the rods and mains just about every other weekend.
About 13 years old I discover the golf course. Its the city golf course and about 2 mi from our house. Somtimes I caddy or go looking for lost golf balls to sell. I get my first old bike and I'm going everywhere, when not fixing flats or working on it!!

Me and Charles Oldaker and Robert Hass are together most of the time, but Robert can't go to the park with us, so me and Charles go alone most of the time to swim in the city pool and play in the jungle of huge trees around the park.
Spring River runs thru the park... It's not really a river, but has rock sides and we can go down into it and catch crawdads and cook the tails with a match and eat them.

Dad and Mom go to work at Walker Air Force Base, and us kids are going to school at Washington Ave School. It's still about a mile to school, and we run home for lunch and then run back. Mom leaves corn bread for us, and the milk man leaves milk, and we think we are in heaven. In summer time I go barefooted to school.
After school is out in the summer, I work for Charles Oldaker's father, George. I mix cement for plaster and carry it up a ladder so Mr. Oldaker can plaster it onto houses. One time I made 50 cents an hour, and I thought I was rich. I made 6 dollars that day, working 12 hrs, and the home owner bought our lunch, so I didn't have to spend half of my pay to eat.

When not working for Mr.Oldaker, I collect boxes from the alley in town behind Woolworths store and sell them to the bakery. On Sundays, I go to town before daylight and buy papers to sell on the street corners. I always go barefooted cause many times ladies will come along and buy a paper and ask me where my shoes are. I hang my head and mumble that I don't have any. Somtimes they'll say, "ohhhh, you poor dear!", and then take me home with them and give me shoes. (Oh, I'm getting good. )

I start to work at the bowling alley as a pin boy setting pins for a while, but it doesn't pay much. I would rather work at the golf course or for Mr. Oldaker.
Sometimes I gather asparagus along the farm ditches and go house to house selling them. Thinking back, it seems as if I spent my growing up years picking cotton ( YUK ).

Me and Charles and Robert always have a wrestling match most every morning. Robert has me in a scissor hold and he's crushing me. I have a spinning toe hold on him and tell him that if he does'nt let up I'll break his foot. He only grips me tighter, and I can't breath. With my last breath I twist his foot and break it. He lets go and I can breath, but I am so sorry I broke my friend's foot.

Mr. Hass finally buys a better house in a better part of town and they move, but I stay with Robert sometimes at the new house.
Charles Oldaker's daddy moves into the old Hass place across the street from us. Uncle Sam and Aunt Lela and family live 2 blocks from us on Sunset St. Uncle N. B. and Aunt Velma and family live west of town on the Old Tobe Brennaman place. Its on W. Second St. and on a little hill, and one has to cross a little wooden bridge to get to it.

One day while I was mixing cement for Mr Oldaker to plaster our house on Montana St., Uncle N. B. Oldaker whips up in his "chevy coupe" which has had the top completely cut off and sprouts a wooden bed on the back. He's drinking and hollers, "George, come on...let's go whup them Mobleys!!" Well, he called them a few more things too....
Grandpa Jared and Grandma Ora Mobley and my uncle, Tayler Mobley had come to visit them and they got to drinking and scuffling and as Grandpa and Uncle Tayler were very quick to fight, Uncle N. B. had gone for more Oldakers to help. I think everyone sobered up and cooled off, as I never heard anymore about it. Besides, they couldn't have whipped the Mobleys.

I save money up to buy a new bike, but it's a victory bike and because it has rubber tires, Me, Mom and Dad have to go before the ration board. Once they give me the permit, we go to the bike store. I also had to get a social security card
I put Charles on the handle bars and we have wheels now.

The second day I have my new bike, it's stolen from in front of a movie house while me and Charles are in the movie. We start looking around town and finaly catch a guy riding my bike in an alley behind Woolsworth.

We jerk the guy off my bike and start to whup up on him until his brother rides up. He tells us that his brother ain't right in the head and since they are both bigger we let it go at that, after all I have my bike back.

Charles gets an old bike from somewhere, and we ride all over town.
One time we decide to bike to Loving, where Charles's sister Pearle and her Hubby, Old Johnnie Gieovingo have a farm on the river.

Charles has a bike and I have a bike, but Robert rides on my handle bars. Off we go peddling like crazy, Until we get to Dexter, then we decide, it's too far, and go back home. ( It took all day to get to dexter and back )

Then one day we bike to the Bottomless lakes 6 miles east of Roswell, After spending a few hours swimming we bike to the top of Comanche hill.
As we look at the view of Roswell in the distance and at the mile long downgrade, we begin to wonder if we can make it down without wrecking our bikes and killing ourselves.

There's only one way to find out and we take off down Comanche Hill
Wheeeee I bet we were doing 70 miles an hour by the time we got to the bridge. Halfway down, I would have liked to stop and get my nerve up again, but there's no stopping as we hit the bridge and finally slow down by the time we are across it.

Its a wonder Charles and me are still friends after the things we went thru, like the time he was on my handle bars and I was comming up to main street and looked down and seen a 20 dollar bill, I leaped off backwards and left Charles and the bike go on across main street, never thinking about the traffic. But at least we had 20 dollars to spend. ( I know he would do the same thing for me )

THE WAR IS OVER

VJ day. HOORAY THE WAR IS OVER.
I am riding my bike in downtown roswell in front of the Yucca movie house, when the news breaks. Downtown is going wild. A man walks up to me and ask's if I will sell my new bike.
All the trading I had done in the past helps me hold out for a good deal. There is not much food at home, and Dad and Mom had been laid off at the Base. I hold out for 25 dollars. The man paid me and I walked 2 miles home, but not empty handed.

I went to several little country stores on the way home. Now most of the stores were allways sold out as they just couldn't get anything to sell, like lard and canned cream and flour and margarine, also corn meal and rice. And besides one needed ration stamps to buy certin items.

Well...I knew where the stores were that mite have what I wanted, and on the way home I bought as much as I could carry in a toesack. I made Mom happy with the sack of groceries and money left over from the bike sale. But, she was very sad about me selling my new bike. Ohh Well, I bought or traded for an old bike later on, and I liked the older ones better anyway.

note:... N.B. Oldaker is Jarid's son-in-law. The Oldaker's had come out of Arkansas and for a while they settled in the river bottoms near the Mobley and Tarvin dugouts. I remember Mom saying they called it Tent City!!. Grandma Oldaker was head of the clan, and they made willow funiture and peddled it.
Uncle N.B. met Aunt Velma there. Also Uncle James Martin met Aunt Willie mae and my Dad meet my Mother there too.

Every one except Grandpa Jarid and family moved on west to New Mexico and beyond. The Tarvins being the last to move.

One last thing before we go to part two.

About Grandma Oldaker. She wasn't any kin to us, but she seemed to always be there for any of us if we were hungry or needed a place to sleep. And manys the time I woke her in the middle of the night when I needed a place to sleep in her back bedroom.
Many times I rode the bus to town with her, She liked to shop, but she was on two crutches and needed help getting on and off the bus.
That didn't bother her if we made her mad. She would whop us with one of the crutches so fast we couldn't blink before she had us.

My Uncle N. B. Oldaker was her Grandson and he told me she broke her legs in a car accident and with the settlement she bought a new car and had him drive her all over the United States.
Bless her heart...She was over a hundred years old when we knew her, and I heard she was 113 years old when she died.

By the way..N. B. Oldaker is really ( Napolean Bonaparte Oldaker )
In later years I jokingly referred to him as my drinking uncle as he was allways drinking every time I was around him. I have had many a drink with him and he was my favorite uncle.
The last time I seen him alive he and Aunt Velma were living at Colorado City Lake, Texas, ( He was having a beer and still making willow furniture )