What are some of your childhood memories of your father?

 LIFETIME MEMORIES OF MY DADDY

My earliest memories of Daddy is of him reading Sunday comics to my brother, Billy Joe, and me every Sunday afternoon. We would go to church at First Baptist Church in Hamilton, Alabama. After lunch, while Mother cleaned the kitchen, Daddy would read the comics with Billy standing beside him and me in his lap. I was two years old.

Daddy and Mother went to church every time the church was open. That is the way I was raised (Thank God for this). Daddy was a deacon and he and Mother were active in all phases of church work. Daddy probably helped Mother and the other members get Sunbeams started. Mother helped in VBS when I was young. Daddy made sure we were at revival meetings.

One Sunday afternoon in July there would be a sacred harp singing at the courthouse in Hamilton. Daddy always went. He really liked this. His parents had always sung “old book” singing which is singing fa so la or the notes. It is beautiful.

My daddy was a Mason. Many people do not know that the Masons is a Christian organization. There are some folks who are members of the Masonic Order because they can benefit economically or socially by joining. They may or may not attend but flash their rings around for all to see and gain promotions by other members who do not work in the Masons. What my daddy did was always for God.

Daddy was also a volunteer fireman as a young man. He worked at the store in town and if there was a fire, he would leave the store in the hands of his work staff and go fight the fire. One time, he fell through a 2nd story floor in a burning house. We were watching the fire from across the street and it looked like he had fallen to his death. Mother fainted and had to be tended to so she did not see him get pulled back up to safety. His ring had hooked onto the hose and saved his life. I don’t remember anything else about his fighting fires.

When he was in high school, he worked as the janitor at the school and had a place to sleep there. I don’t know how long he did this. He was Valedictorian when he graduated and was awarded a $100.00 scholarship to Auburn University. Pa Davis was a sharecropper with nothing to give the bank as security so he could not borrow the 2nd $100.00 for Daddy to go to Auburn. Daddy studied all his life either by correspondence courses or attending conferences. He told us that we should never be satisfied with what we knew but strive to learn something new as long as we lived.

In previous stories, I have given information about his various jobs. After he sold Bill’s Rolling Store, he worked for Hodo Groceries unloading trains. Remember, we lived in Amory, Mississippi. With his history of back surgery, he did not do this long. That is when he and Mother sold cookware. He was a coffeeman delivering coffee to retail customers, a life insurance salesman, breadman delivery two times, worked at Bryce Hospital when they needed a manager for Partlow State School for the mentally retarded so he was transferred to the laundry and retired from that at 61 for health reasons. His heart could not take the physical strain any longer.

Daddy had so many heart attacks there was no way to count them. He was in his 40s when I worked at DCH as an EKG technician. He had a heart attack while I was on lunch break at their house and I rode to the hospital in the ambulance with him. Linda Parham,my coworker, did the EKG while Mother and I anxiously waited. He lived to be 66, had many heart attacks. He was in the hospital and had two heart attacks, a stroke and kidney failure. Dr. Hill said he would not live. He did live after that and remained active, teaching mother to write checks, balance a checkbook and anything else he thought would help her after his death. When he died, he was in DCH in a semi-private room. He had walked in carrying his suitcase and was just “to have a medication adjustment”. He went in on Thursday. He had never been in a semi-private room nor had he ever walked into the hospital! He had gone via either car or (more frequently) ambulance and spent all the time either in CCU or step-down unit. Mother drove them to the hospital that day. Sunday morning, he told Mother to go on to church and called me. I had bronchitis and we were going to church. He said for us to go on. We were planning to go that afternoon to check on him and he told us not to come. “I’m fine”. He did not want us to come. We had spent much of our married life seeing about them when either he or mother was in the hospital. So after church, we were going to take the children to the zoo. At 1:00 the phone rang and it was Mother. Daddy had died during Sunday School. Someone had called her out of SS and taken her to the hospital. We all felt that Daddy knew he was going home that afternoon to be in the presence of his Savior. He wanted us in church and he took that journey without the presence of family. That’s what he wanted.

Our great-grandson, Scott, was about 18 months old. Mother had made him a white shirt and tie and I made him a blue three piece suit. The vest was plaid. He went around and shook hands with the folks at Daddy’s funeral. He was adorable. He is the only great grandson we had at the time and was the only one Daddy saw before he died. He thought the world of Scott and apparently, it was mutual.

So Daddy was buried. When his garden was in need of weeding or things Mother could not do that year (it was the best garden Daddy had planted in a very long time) Thomas took care of it. Mother had many vegetables to freeze that year; the year was 1981.

What were you like when you were 30?

 WHAT WAS I LIKE WHEN I WAS 30?

The year I was 30, we had been in our home for three years. No more moves for the children and they went to the same school after our move back from Georgia when we were expecting Tera.

I work at Psychiatry Associates and Thomas works at Hayes. From then on, when he was on strike or laid off, I was working and we stayed in our house in Center Point.

Our church home is Center Point Baptist/First Baptist Center Point until we moved after 40 years to Good Hope, Cullman, Alabama.

Thomas makes a big garden every year. He has a shop at the back of the yard where he does carpentry and plants. He has vegetables and flowers of every description. We can and freeze all we can in the summer. We can green beans and tomatoes but freeze the other vegetables.

We have good neighbors. Barbara and Tommy Owens live next door and they had adopted Marc so Marc and Tera grew up as buddies (little brother/big sister). Barbara was OTC about everything but a sweet neighbor. They moved after that to Pinson, I don’t remember the year but we remained friends until her death.

Annie Lou Burkhalter (Ann Bankston now) with her family moved to Center Point Baptist. Ann and I graduated from Gordo High School together and that was a blessing to me. Ann and I are still good friends. She lives in Decatur now and I live in Smoke Rise.

Jean and Keith Sanderson spend a lot of time with us. She and her husband Tommy Sanderson are divorced. Jean and I were always as close as sisters. I try to stay in touch with her son, Keith and Terry but Terry still works and he has health issues. Their son-in-law, Shane Cook, is on disability for back problems. Their daughter, Heather, works and they have one son, Colton Blake.

Robert Hugh and Pat Mays come occasionally when Jean is visiting as does Jimmy Wayne Sanderson. I stay in touch with Craig and Kathy Sanderson. There is not as much time to contact them as I would like.

Week-ends when Thomas is not working, we usually go to Mama & Daddy Junkin’s house on Saturday and worship with them on Sunday. We go by Mother and Daddy’s on Saturday and back by for a few minutes on the way home. We usually have a load of vegetables or fruit in season and Mother sews for the girls. Aunt Evie makes cute clothes for Tera and Tanya.

With working, normal routine house duties before and after work, picking up the children from daycare and getting them to bed, etc. takes much time. I still make most of the children’s outer clothes and the girls' panties. If time permits, I sew until late. Thomas is working 3-11. Since I have to get up at 5:00 a.m. I have to go to bed before he gets home. He doesn’t get to spend much time with the children but spends quality time as much as he/we can.

Tim is 11, Tanya 10, and Tera 3. It is a wonderful time. Some of Tanya and Tera’s dresses are alike and sometimes theirs will match mine. We are happy and busy but life is so good. I am so happy to have my family and a husband who ensures that we have things we need. I have to be careful not to let him know I ‘want’ something. If we don’t have the money, he will charge it and I don’t like charging anything. My parents’ thoughts on that have been ingrained into my psych.

Would I want to be 30 again? No. I am blessed at this stage of life to be allowed to serve God and have wonderful fellowship with my sweet family. It is also a blessing to have the church family I have now at Good Hope Baptist Church where everyone is warm, loving and caring. We believe in prayer and God’s wisdom in granting our requests always; in HIS time and with HIS wisdom!

What is the best job you've ever had?

 WHAT IS THE BEST JOB I’VE EVER HAD!!

That would be difficult to answer. I have rarely had a job I was truly unhappy doing. I have had some jobs that did not have a good boss or administration. I have listed my jobs in previous writings but will list them once again in order to tell you the BEST job in my opinion.

My first job for which I paid into the Social Security System was with Sumpter Farm Stock Company (The Yellow Front Store) in Gordo. I was a check-out girl and was 14 to 17 years old, beginning almost as soon as we moved to Gordo (the next day or so). I recall I had to have a parent with me and meet with the High School Principal, Mr. Gibbs, to get a work permit. Daddy went with me and that Saturday, I began. In those days, we had a cash register that did NOT add the tax and tell you the amount of change to give the customer. The customer pushed their buggy full of groceries into a slot in the counter. The cashier unloaded the groceries, (no scanner) and keyed in the price. When all the groceries were tallied, she/he would calculate the amount of tax to be added, add it and give the customer any change due. It was all brain power, no technology was known that is available today. I am amazed at the adults who work in public businesses who do not know how to calculate the change due a customer without the computer giving the amount to them. Sad.

From there, I worked for Harris Clothing Company after school and Saturdays until graduation from GHS. I was responsible for price tagging items, display of merchandise and dressing the windows. And, of course, waiting on customers. Having been raised in a store where my Dad either managed or owned it made my skills better than had I been raised differently. Thanks, Mother and Daddy.

My next job (until I was 18) was in the Pickens County Registrar’s office. My job was to type court records from handwritten paper. I had to take fines for misdemeanors and took one from a great uncle of my future husband. Of course, I did not know that until Dr. Harris told me after the man left.

On July 4th, 1956, Thomas came home for July 4th. He had an interview for me at Birmingham Trust National Bank. I was hired and worked there for about 5 weeks when I had a wisdom tooth extracted and it formed a dry socket. We had been married for ten days and I was not able to return to work. Naturally, with no longer longevity than I had with them, they terminated my employment.

As soon as my health permitted (complications not related to the dental surgery), I found a job with American Life Insurance Company. My job was to change beneficiaries on insurance policies. I was there for a short time when miraculously, I got pregnant with my son. Two people could not have been happier or more dismayed. We were thrilled because I had been told I would never be able to have a baby. But we had only been married three months when the diagnosis was made. I wanted Thomas to go back to school but he was against the idea. Anyway, the matter was taken out of our hands as we excitedly began to plan for our baby. The only glitch (and it did not matter) was that when I told the insurance company that I was expecting, they had a policy that you had to be there six months if you worked during a pregnancy and I had not been. So I went home to our two room efficiency apartment and got ready for our baby.

When Tim was 16 months old, Tanya was born so now we had a great family, a baby boy and a baby girl. I was able to stay home with them until Tanya was about 18 months old and I went to work at Druid City Hospital as an EKG technician. It was a good job when an opening came up in the DCH medical technician school. I gave up my EKG job for a better paying job and the training program was just what we needed for our little family; training for a career in the medical field. I started working to replace a lady on maternity leave who did not plan to return to work. Unfortunately, her son was born with a club foot and in order for her insurance to pay for the surgery, she had to return. I was out of the street because I had not been in the new position for six months.

When I had gone to work at the hospital, I had interviewed for a bookkeeping job with Druid Drugs (later Harco Drugs). They were still trying to find a replacement for their bookkeeper. I applied and was hired. The job was running a bookkeeping machine, billing and filing. Ms. Harrison, Sr. was my boss (well, Jimmy Harrison was the pharmacist). I was able to organize their filling system so that everything that had previously been thrown in boxes or filing cabinets without any organization whatsoever into chronological and alphabetical order. When I had been there five months, Mr. Harrison, Sr. gave my assistant, Isabell, and me a five pound box of chocolates because that was the first time in years they had not had a statement returned by an angry customer. There was a fountain with sandwiches, sodas, cigarettes, etc. charged and there were two different sets of several names with no address on the charge tickets causing the wrong John Doe to get a bill that belonged to the other John Doe. I started (with their approval) a system that if a ticket came up without an address, the amount of the ticket was taken from that employee's pay that week. I was only there a few months when Thomas was called back to Hayes. He had been with Partlow State School for the mentally challenged for 18 months. That was not his type of work. He was wonderful with the patients but hated the job. We were glad to get back ‘home’ to Center Point.

Since Thomas had only helped me with the children and not ever any housework, I had lost 20 pounds the last two weeks of employment with the drug store. I was exhausted from lack of rest and told him that he had to help me or I was not going back to work. “You can hold down as many jobs as you can, but I’m not going back to work and be too tired to care of the children,” I told him. I was not kind, I was tired! Well, he was either on strike or laid off and I went to work at temporary work with Kelly Girls. What a learning experience! (Thomas could clean and was an excellent cook. He could also do laundry and iron. I didn’t know he could boil water.) From then on, if I had to work, he helped me out and when we bought our house, he did all the yard work. I did what I could at home, worked for Kelly Girls and learned so much in the way of office work that I had not known. Fortunately, it was not long until Thomas got on with Lockheed in the Atlanta, Georgia area. He and six other laid off men from Hayes rented a house there and he worked there all week and came home on weekends. We would have all day Saturday and Sunday as a family and get up at 4:00 a.m. Monday, meet the men in Irondale to ride back to work in Georgia. Sometimes I would bake a cake for their lunch that week. One week I baked a lemon pound cake and had to take it out of the oven too soon. It fell and looked like a horse shoe. Thomas said it didn’t make it to Atlanta. The smell lured the men and it was eaten in the car. After five months, Thomas was so homesick and we were missing him all week. After they got back to Atlanta, he had gone house hunting again for a place to move. He called me and said he was ready to come home and just quit. He could not stand being apart any longer. The next morning, I took Tim out of school with his teacher’s permission, got my children up at 4:00 a.m. and put them in the back seat (fixed like a station wagon) in their pajamas. I was 24 years old and had never driven past Irondale but I drove to Atlanta stopping just inside Georgia, dressing the children and asking directions at a service station, arriving at the house he lived in, knocking on the door and asking for Thomas. With only one other stop for directions, I had driven from Center Point to Atlanta and arrived at 7:00 a.m. I was so proud of myself !! Well, pride does indeed go before a fall. When Thomas got to the door, he said, “Well, I guessyou know you have to go home. There is no place for you and the children here.” I burst into tears. We rented a 4 room motel for $10.00 a night for two nights and would look all day for a place to move and he would go to work at night. We were not successful and the children and I went home. He seemed to make that week better. When school was out, we were able to find a duplex to rent and had a great seven months there. I was able to get a job as a replacement for the EKG tech who was on maternity leave until she returned. Then I worked in the Administration Office. When Thomas was called back to Hayes, we were both glad and sad because we had really enjoyed our stay.

When we got back to another duplex in Center Point, we were ecstatic to learn we were expecting another baby. Tim was eight and Tanya was seven when Tera was born. We were so happy to be back home. When Tera was two months old, we bought the house we lived in for 40 years. Oh, how we loved our old red house! We had a large yard and Thomas had flowers and flowering trees. We eventually had apple, pear, and fig trees. Thomas planted a magnolia tree, golden rain tree, camellia bushes, yellow bells, hydrangea bushes and blueberry bushes. He made a large vegetable garden every year until his health failed. I still miss having a garden.

It was great to stay home with my children. Our yard was large enough for the neighborhood children to play in it. The back was fenced. We had outside dogs and one cat. We went back to Center Point Baptist church.

The next lay off came when Tera was about 18 months old. I was able to get a job at UAB as a key punch coder. Other employees interviewed individuals all over the Birmingham area and I would take the booklets they had completed from the interviews and code it for the key punch personnel. After two years, the grant was not renewed. I was so naive, I did not know I could apply for transfer. With all the building of the expanding campus made parking blocks away from work and walking rain or shine frustrating. I said I would NEVER work there again. Dr. Raffel, my boss, understood. My car had been moved in the parking lot and I could not find it when I left work one day. That required me to return to the office to call security to help me find my car. I had found a job close to home that had close parking.

Oh, yes, two years of medical transcription in a psychiatric office. I enjoyed it, worked very hard and was terminated at the end of that year because they were building a new hospital and had to let the newest employees go. (I was the only one and my immediate supervisor, Dr. Don Silbernan was unaware that I was being terminated. Shortly thereafter, he left and went back to UAB.)

I found a six month stent as secretary to a surgeon. Dr. John Whitehead needed a temporary person while his secretary had surgery. While I was working for him, I was looking for a permanent position.

One of the nicest doctors with his wife interviewed me at one of our leading restaurants at the time. They were looking for a replacement for the bookkeeping position in his private practice. His wife was a registered nurse and office manager. They could hold the position for me until I completed the time with Dr. Whitehead. And, that is how I FINALLY got a job lasting over two years. I worked almost all of the 1970s with Dr. and Mrs. W. B. McDonald (Bill and Doris). After I had worked there a year or so, we began to occasionally celebrate our wedding anniversaries together. They married in August 1946 and we married in August 1956. It was great fun. We went to their lake house with them and went for boat rides with them. Doris and I embroidered shirts for our children together when we didn’t have patients. Mrs. Harmon and Mrs. Barnett taught me to crochet when I didn’t go out to lunch. I was close to home and usually went home for lunch. You can accomplish a good bit of work in the hour and a half that I would have at home which gave me more time at home with my family. With Thomas working the second shift the majority of time (3 to 11 p.m.), it was important for one of us to be home. I was usually home by 4:30 each day. It was just the four of us there so I would prepare something for us to eat. Tim and Tanya were in high school and Tera was in elementary school. Tera was in a nursery after school until the older two were her ‘babysitters’. We say Tanya is her second mother because she really taught her a lot of stuff that a mother usually tells her young daughter. They were really good kids. Tim went off to Montevallo and Tanya followed one year later. They had always been a year apart in school, but when she started to Montevallo, she had tested-out of Freshman year and began as a Sophomore. They were both in the school of business and she was his fraternity little sister. After her first year, they each rented apartments with roommates. Tim was working at a Moore Handley hardware store and on his recommendation, she was hired at the same store. Her first year at the store, she worked 64 hours a week and took a full course load in school. Before she could make herself sick, we advised that she take the next year with a reduced work-load and graduate at 20 instead of 19.

Dr. and Mrs. McDonald took care of my family as part of my benefit package. One day we were at the office and they suggested I take the summer off to be with Tera before she started high school. They were not going to work many more years and wanted to be sure I had a good job before they left. They gave me my pension and profit sharing monies, a letter of recommendation and a lifetime of friendship. I spent the summer as they advised me, with Tera and looking for a job.

About the time for school to start, I was once again hired by UAB in the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology. I transferred four years later from University to Hospital in the Adult Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory to type cath reports. I did that for the next 14 years. During that time, I processed all adult cardiac reports and the first year Kirklin Clinic opened its cath lab, I did their reports. Finally, my friend, Jo Kahler was hired to process the reports for Kirklin. I knew all the cardiologists, dealt with cardiology fellows and cardiac surgeons. I set up both the daily report filing system and cardiac archives. The cardiac transplant patients invited me to have dinner with them. Tera was working for Dr. Katholi and was also invited to meet with them. When the young man who was the second cardiac transplant patient, Eric Boyd died, the entire lab staff cried. We all knew and loved him. He was the youngest patient to receive a heart and was 18 years old when he died.

After 18 years with cardiology, I was told that I would never get a raise in salary. I was nearing retirement and with the two years that I had bought back from my earlier employment at UAB, had 20 years but I was not 65. I applied for a transfer and was able to go to work in Rheumatology. I will not name the woman I went to work for. She is not worthy of mention except to say she was evil. She hired and they quit four more replacements before she was allowed the secretary that she wanted to keep. Ella had quit until the doctor could promote her with an increase in pay before she would quit interviewing. I heard that was her plan.

I was most fortunate when Dr. Winn Chatham stopped by one day when I was alone and said, “Robbie said you needed to move and that you could do medical transcription”. I told him, “There is none better”. He hired me and I stayed in the same division and was promoted three times before retiring. When I retired, he gave me a fantastic party with a live band. It poured rain but my family was all there and we danced, had marvelous food and the friends and co-workers who came to tell me ‘bye’ were numerous. I can say with all sincerity that I have had two of the best jobs I could have ever asked for. All of my co-workers for all my jobs were great. Administration was for those chosen few. Clerical was not included. Dr. W. B. McDonald and Dr. Winn Chatham were the best bosses anyone could have.

Included below is part of Thomas' life after he became ill. The reason will be made clear at the end of this story.

Thomas’ had a root canal and got Staph infection as a result. He spent the very first night of his life in the hospital at 61 and he was there for 10 days, receiving IV antibiotics. We may have been told it was Staph but if so, it didn’t register. Later, he had a knee replacement and that procedure reactivated the Staph. From them on, he was in the hospital many times. He was diagnosed with asbestosis and had to use a Bi-pap at night because of his difficulty breathing. He had a surgery (UP-3) and hemorrhaged at 4:00 the next morning (at home). I drove pretty fast to the ER, passed two police cars but had my flashers going and horn blowing and they ignored me. There was the colonoscopy with removal of polyps with resulting hemorrhage the next morning. Same as before - fast drive to the hospital. He had his right knee operated on so many times I lost count. Nearly every time, despite heavy antibiotics, Staph again. His left knee had to be replaced and, once again, Staph. At 74, he needed a shoulder replacement. His health was not good but was better with all his meds except for the constant severe pain in his shoulder. The multiple doctors who were caring for him wanted several tests before they would operate again anywhere. He was clear with everything until his cardiac catheterization. He had a blockage. They scheduled a stent procedure and if it was successful, he could have his shoulder replaced. BUT, NO, the Staph became active again. He was hospitalized for most of remaining life. I always spent the nights with him when he was in the hospital. The staff at both Medical Center East and UAB knew we needed a private room even if I had to sleep on the floor and they always provided me with blankets and a pillow. If he was able, I showered, dressed and went to work from the hospital, returning as soon as possible. If he was at UAB, I would eat lunch in his room. When he had his final hospitalization, his last 11 days, he was in intensive care. I could only see him at certain times. I stayed in the waiting room every night and met many wonderful people. Thomas waited on Tanya to get here from California before giving up. On Saturday, January 7th, 2006, he held her hand until Tim had to pry her fingers from his hand. On Sunday evening, he went home. Since that time, I have sold the new home he bought for me and lived in 12 days before his final hospitalization.

Four years ago when I sold the house, Tera and Kenny invited me to stay with them and build a small home on their property. I got too comfortable and told them I did not want to move again.

I have two rooms, 1 and a 1⁄2 baths, a hall and the run of the house. They take care of me and I take care of them to a small degree. No rent, no utility bills, I buy some groceries. Last February (2021), I started to work again (at 83) and worked the remainder of tax season at Liberty Tax in Cullman. During the summer, I work on Thursday when they need me. It gets me out of the house. I attend Senior Sizzlin at Good Hope City Hall twice a month. Tera started going to the church I belong to when my blood pressure was acting up and is still worshiping with me. She remains a member of the church she and Kenny have been members of for many years. We are both in the Good Hope Baptist Church choir and attend choir practice and Sunday and Wednesday services. When my friends in Hanceville pass away, I am called and if possible attend the funeral. Thomas is buried at Bethlehem East in Hanceville. I work at the church as librarian which mainly required my organizating many boxes of books that were donated by church members. When that was done, the checkout/return is on the honor system. A notebook is provided for checkout and return of books. If they do not refile it, I make sure it gets refiled. So, as you see, I still stay active.

NOW, I am finally going to reveal to you what I think of as the BEST JOB I have ever had.

God gave us three children. Three children that we thought when we married would be impossible. What a blessing! My most important job EVER was the JOY (and sometimes headache) of my life was being mother to my three precious children. Of course, I felt that it was my responsibility and privilege to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of God. I was raised that way and my children were raised that way. My three children all are responsible, honest, God fearing adults and the two with children have raised their children in church. I could not be more proud of who they have become as they matured. None ever gave us the heartache that some teenagers we knew about. No drugs, no broken laws; just average, athletic kids who worked hard and made good with God’s help. Do I take credit for all of this? That would be ludicrous! They had a daddy who was honest, hard working and who worshiped with us. He was not a disciplinarian as much as I because he worked long hours and was not with the children as much as I. However, he made sure that he provided shelter, food and the necessities the children and I needed. Yes, I made many of their clothes and cooked and washed and kept house. He was a farmer. He kept the yards, made a garden, had fruit trees, flowers, and remodeled our home to make it more family friendly. It was - for 40 years. We were blessed to have Thomas as our teacher with regard to remodeling and gardening. All children know so much more than I ever will about those things. He took the children hunting and we all went fishing and hiking. Our most blessed and important help came from God. We were blessed as we raised a family that he loved and I love. What more important job can anyone say they had?

What has made your faith stronger?

 WHAT HAS MADE MY FAITH STRONGER

I believe that as I aged and had time to delve into God’s word more, pray more and hopefully do more for HIM, my faith has strengthened. It may not be what I want it to be but I’m still breathing so I’m still working on it.

When we (Thomas & I) first married, we had little yet so much. As the children arrived, there were frequent times when he would be laid off or on strike. With very young children and few skills, it was not easy for me to get work. Plus, when I applied for a job, the same answer was always given, “Your husband is laid off from Hayes. If he gets work out of town, you will want to go with him so we can’t hire you.” ALWAYS!! That was depressing. We moved in with his folks, my folks, got cheap apartments when he would get some kind of work but usually it was with one set of our folks. As soon as Thomas was recalled to Hayes, it was back to Birmingham. Every time and for 40 years, Thomas did not lose his seniority with Hayes. He began in January of 1956 and retired (medically) January 1996.

I worked as a Kelly Girl and realized skills I had that only God could have given me. When I went to work at UAB in the late 1960s, the job went well for two years. The ‘grant’ funds were not being renewed and I was so naive, and I was disgusted with parking and some other issues at UAB, I quit.

I got a job with Psychiatry Associates at Hillcrest Hospital as a medical transcriptionist and at the end of the second year made the comment to a fellow worker that “at last I feel secure in this job”. That every day (I later found out she knew already) I was terminated due to being low man on the ‘totem pole’ (ha) I had slapped the office manager back down the stairs when he pinched me on the seat and his anger had steamed until that day when he got his revenge. Only Thomas had the right to touch my body!!

    Anyway, I did a six month relief for a lady having surgery with Dr. John Whitehead, a surgeon, and then went to work for W.B. McDonald, M.D. That was the happiest I had ever been in a job up until that time. Doris and Bill McDonald were terrific bosses as well as friends. Their two children and their families and I still stay in touch. Dr. Mc had occasion to tell me one day that I was wasting my talents working for what they could pay me and since Tera was going into seventh grade that fall, suggested they give me my pension and profit sharing and I could spend that summer with my baby girl. It was a wonderful summer.

That August, I went back to work at UAB. I worked in Cardiology for 18 years and spent the rest of my 25 in Rheumatology, retiring from there as Administrative Support Specialist for Dr. Winn Chatham. He was a boss par excellence! I had accumulated 27 years with UAB. I had worked in medicine for 50 years.

Thomas’ health had become a concern when he was 61 and spent the first time EVER in the hospital. He had contracted staph infection from a root canal. From there, he had a knee replacement a few years later and the staph was reactivated. Multiple times that knee was operated on with the infection becoming active each time. He had the other knee replaced with the same result. He was being prepped for a shoulder replacement when he had to have a stent in his right coronary artery. This activated the staph and it attacked both knees. Doctors opened both knees, cleaned them and autoclaved the prostheses. Thomas never really woke up. During all this, God had given me better health than I had as a younger woman. That made it so I could take care of my love. He never spent the night in the hospital when I was not either in the room with him or in the ICU waiting room.

This was to explain some of why we did not have/take time for our daily time with God. That did not include my having more than one and sometimes two extra jobs going with my regular one.

So to the present, LIFE and our Father has made my faith stronger. My time belongs to Him. If I feel called upon by Him to do something, I can do that. He has given me better health than I’ve ever had. My ability for an 84 year old person is good with good joints and fair muscle strength. Some of my fingers and toes are bothersome but still function sufficiently that I can sew, cook, clean, do yard work, laundry or anything else I am called to do. I work a part-time job, not because I am in need, but because it gets me out of the house, allows me to spend time in the company of others and have a bit extra for whatever I want to share with others.

So, what HAS made my Faith stronger? God who is always with me, a gracious God who allows me pleasures of work I never could fit in my prior life. Would I change any of my life? Probably not. I did the best I thought I could in raising my family. All are honest, have good work ethics, are well educated and have good lives. They believe in God and Jesus Christ although few of my extended family do not currently attend worship which concerns me but they are all adults. My 12 great-grandchildren are being raised in the House of God with godly parents who are in church with them, giving them the knowledge they need to come to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, teaching them the rudiments of Christian life as they follow Him. Am I concerned about my great grand-children for their future? I would be if they weren’t being led the way they are. Do I worry? Why? I am not in control of this world. God IS!!!!

Which sports did you play in high school?

 WHAT SPORTS DID I PLAY IN HIGH SCHOOL?

NONE. I was, however, in the band and marched a LOT. That’s it. I was never good at sports due to a health condition. I had a doctor’s excuse not to play.

I played some vacant lot stuff, softball (not regulation by any means), football, etc. Of course, we nearly all played keep-away and dodgeball.

I have covered the band stories in other issues and this will be all for this topic.

What advice would you give your 20 year old self?

 WHAT WOULD I ADVISE MY 20 YEAR OLD SELF?

Get your babies in church and be there with them. Do not wait before you follow God’s direction in teaching your children to know, love and follow Christ.

Because that is what I did. I waited until they were 4 and 5 to get them in church. Having been raised in church all my days up until I was married, I was in church Sunday morning and evening and Wednesday night. I was in Sunday School, Worship, choir and activities included in those worship hours, Sunbeams, GAs, Acteens, Young Adults. When we married, we went ‘home’ every week-end. We visited my parents for an hour or two and spent the remainder of Saturday and Sunday with Mama and Daddy Junkin, worshiping with them Sunday with no Sunday School for our children. Sometimes, I guess you are without hearing God’s word as I was accustomed to hearing it until you forget HIM. I NEEDED to return to my spiritual roots and wanted the same for my children. It’s too easy to stray when you are not in the Word. Make prayer and a quiet time with God a priority. Regular attending a Christian, Bible teaching worship center is vastly important. Have daily devotion with the entire family unless someone is working at that time. In that case, have devotional time with those available.

Further your education. My generation was mostly ‘on the job trained’ for their career unless they were able to attend college right after high school graduation. If you are not able to do that, make arrangements as soon as possible to further your education; night school, virtual learning, correspondence school. There are possibilities that were not available when I graduated from high school. If you are married and neither you or your spouse are college or technically educated, alternate going if you can’t both go at the same time. If you already have children, that can change things. One of you might have to be the breadwinner with help from the one attending college on a part-time basis. Check out your options.

Stay close to your family! Stand your ground with them, gently, but with determination. Do not cut ties with those who love you most. It might be parents, grandparents or aunts and uncles. Our cousins should remain our friends for life. A cousin is a sibling by another set of parents. Never lose touch even if you are in a different country. My Sanderson cousins were like brothers and sisters to Billy and me. We were five but one for all and all for one. The others were either older or younger but we stayed in touch as much as possible and still do with those who remain. We would be considered close. My Davis cousins and I remain close including not just first cousins, but my Dad’s first and second cousins are like my first cousins. We are close also.

This epistle will close. Being now old and having seen all the technical changes in this world in the last 80+ years, it’s hard to know what I would tell my 20 year old self. My main thought refers back to the first paragraph of this ‘story’. Get your life right with God and keep it there. Follow HIM and lead your family in HIS way.

My descendants and what they mean to me

 WHAT MY DESCENDANTS MEAN TO ME: My Children -

TIMOTHY ALFRED JUNKIN

God graciously ‘loaned’ us three devoted and delightful children. We enjoyed their growing up lives and I now bask in their lives even more.

Our son, Timothy Alfred is our first blessing. Oh, what a gift he was! On my 19th birthday, June 21, 1957, Tim was born; that was ten months and ten days after we married on August 11, 1956. He was an easy birth. No pain, great gain. He was everything you could ask for in a baby.

We took him ‘home’ to see his grandparents at one month. Of course, they had been to see him already. He was the FIRST grandchild on either side and a grandSON so both were elated. I can see him in his first blue jeans at Mama Junkin’s house now. He had adoring aunts and uncles at the Granny and Grandaddy,s house. He had Ma Myrt and Daddy Bill at my parent’s home. My only brother was in the U.S. Navy and he and Valeria were in Pensacola, Florida. We carried Tim on a pillow so he would not get sore. Now, babies come from the hospital in car seats and are generally passed from hand to hand by anyone in the family that wants to ‘hold the new baby’. Mama goes home the day after delivery. I don’t remember how long I was in the hospital but went home to bed until Tim was two weeks old. Mother came and stayed with me.

When Tim was about two months old, Thomas got laid off. We had to move in with Mama & Daddy Junkin. We lived with them a lot back then it seems like. Sometimes Thomas cut cord wood, he always helped on the farm and he cleared right of way for Alabama Power Company. Whatever he could find to do, he did. Then he got called back, we went to Birmingham and Mama kept Tim for the day. I dropped Thomas off at work and went apartment hunting. I had never had to drive in Birmingham because we had one car and Thomas did the driving. It was a nerve wracking time! Finally, I found an apartment complex just off first avenue north in East Lake that was close to Betty and Stanley Branyon from Gordo. It was clean and looked alright so we rented it. I was never trusted to rent anything again. We lived there for eleven months. During that time, the tile floor was always filthy, it was old without finish on it and the rooms were dark. Timothy was crawling and we had BUGS, large roaches and small waterbugs. I tried to keep him in the playpen but that was so hard. BUT, it was a little more private than living with our folks. There was an apartment on either side of us and we made friends with many neighbors.

And then... When Tim was seven months old, he had a bad case of croup. We rushed him to Woodlawn Infirmary in the snow. Dr. Chenoweth said had we not gotten him out in the cold night air, he could have choked to death. He was under a croup tent for a week in a ward of maybe ten or so beds. I could stay there all day but there was no place for parents to stay after a certain hour. I went in as Thomas went to work and came home after he had seen Tim following work. This routine was daily. Tim went home on Saturday and Thelma brought Mama and Daddy up to see us on Sunday. Thelma had come home to show us our new niece since Linda was old enough for them to travel. I think Ruth was with them. Anyway, I had been so nauseated all week and told them my nerves were shot and I was exhausted. When I had to go throw up while they were there, Thelma said, “Well, you fool. You’re just pregnant”. I cried. I had very nearly lost my baby and there they were saying I was going to have another. I was 19 years old and still apparently wet behind the ears. We had wanted a houseful of children, and been told we would never have the first. Financially, we could not afford another baby BUT we got so excited that I was going to have another baby as soon as we knew Tim was alright. We planned to have a new home to bring our little family into and began the hunt for such a place. First, we bought a lot in Gate City where friends of Thomas’ from work were building. Then, the lot was halved making it too small for our house plans. Our money was refunded and the search took us to Center Point where we found a nice lot on 2nd Place NE. Hagwood built our little white house on a rise and cul-de-sac next door to two of our friends and several other Hayes workers in the same subdivision.

When Tim was small, Ruth and I kept his crewcut haircut. He sat in the high chair (which now sits in his dining room for his grandbabies) and either one of his aunts, uncles or I would entertain him while he was in the “barber chair”. Ruth didn’t think I was capable of cutting hair.

After Tanya was born, Tim was a wonderful big brother. He brought me clean diapers when she needed to be changed. They were loving as they grew up together.

Tim was so smart. One day on the way to Gordo (we were ALWAYS on the way to Gordo) Tanya was counting (about 2 or so) and said 1, 2, and stopped. Tim looked over and with his all knowing nearly 4 years old said, “three” don’t you know anything?

He did not secrete enough digestive juices as a baby. Dr. Chenoweth said let him keep his pacifier as long as he wanted to help that. He was about three and we were headed to (you got it - Gordo) when he threw it out the window into the Sipsey river. He never asked for it again.

We lived in several different places, all within the Huffman, Center Point area of Birmingham except for the 18 months Thomas worked at Partlow State School in Tuscaloosa and I worked at DCH and Druid Drugs and the time we spent in Georgia.. With no option, we had the children in daycare. It was not the best solution but it’s all we had. At Christmas time, DCH lab had a party and we were to go. When we got to the daycare to drop the children off, Tim cried to not go there again and we went back home with our babies. Later I was so happy he did that because the party was not the sort we would have fit into AT ALL. After that, when we went the children went with us. If they were not invited, we did not go.

We moved into the Ridgeway duplex apartments on 21st NE in Center Point when Tim was five and lived there two years. It was a wonderful two years!! We had four rooms and a big yard. Thomas worked about 18 months that stretch before lay off and I stayed home (wonderful does not describe the way I felt). When I went back to work, it was temporary work.

The children had friends. We were back in church. We could walk if our very old second car would not crank and Daddy was at work. Michael Blanks and Timothy Junkin were best friends and played together a good bit. The Blanks and Junkin couples had been neighbors previously in our first apartment and when we lived on 2nd Place NE next door.

We met the Gaithers that year and still have fellowship with them from Alabama to Indiana.

We were in Sunday School and the children attended Sunbeams, VBS and were in the childrens’ choir at church.

Tim walked to school with other children with only one street to cross at the school with a crossing guard. He came home the first of school and announced that there were three Timothys in first grade and he had to be Timmy or Tim and he told the teacher he was Tim. He never went back to Timothy except when being corrected. He was an excellent student when he was able to stop talking. He got into a lot of trouble for always talking.

Thomas had to go to Georgia to work at Lockheed and came home on week-ends if he wasn’t working. That was a lonely time. After five months, we found a place to live. Tim had finished first grade.

Joe and Gail Shirley were friends from Gordo and we had stayed with them before we found a place and moved. They had a son and daughter also. We went to church at Hill View, they went to another church but we were good friends.

In Marietta, we had the summer to just enjoy being together. We lived in a duplex with Sue and J. C. Smith. We had a really big yard with a swing on a tree and BUGS. It took the seven months we lived there to finally rid ourselves and Sue & J.C. of bugs.

We moved back to Center Point in February and Tim was in 2nd grade and Tanya in 1st. In Georgia, she could start at five.

Tim got in trouble - again - for talking. In Georgia, he had a first year teacher and she needed to get some time under her belt. She kept him in day after day. We lived on a street that had two railroad tracks and four streets that had to be crossed on the way home. He had chronic asthmatic bronchitis and was sick a lot. We wrote the teacher explaining that at seven, Tim was too young to cross that intersection after the crossing guard left. She could spank him, make him write a sentence as many times as she must. He did not need to walk alone, especially that winter. Finally, we arranged a meeting with her and her principal. It was decreed that Tim could join the Smith children and Tanya to go home each day.

All in all, it was a really good seven months.

We found a nice duplex on 25th Avenue NE and moved in there and waited for Tera to be born. Tim went back to Center Point School to finish second grade and we only moved once more until after he and his sisters were grown. We bought another house at 1700 2nd Street N.E. in Center Point. We had a nice three bedroom house with a large fenced-in backyard. Tim had dogs, his daddy took him hunting, taught him carpentry, plumbing, electrical and all the other skills he helps everyone with today. We all went fishing in Granny and Grandaddy’s fishing ponds.

Tim was a wonderful athlete. He played church league basketball and ran track for both the school and church. He was very active in Center Point Baptist church, especially “Ralph’s Pool Hall” the Field House youth building with a large gymnasium. When Tim answered the phone at the Field House that’s how he answered the phone. He was honored for all his work with RAs the years he was a senior in high school.

Tim helped Thomas remodel the house. He closed in the breezeway first to save me from the icy rain, wind or leaves that blew when I was going across it to the laundry room. It was a blessing. Not long after that, he turned the closet in the master bedroom into a half bath, cut a door in the wall into Tim’s closet and divided it so the two of them shared the large closet and built me a 2’ x 8’ closet out into the bedroom. Tim had a bedroom with a bed at first and later a hide-a-bed (and TV) and he could invite his friends over and take them to his bedroom. Whoever heard of a teen aged boy who didn’t want to take his girlfriend into his bedroom and sit on his bed? Well, this was the dark ages when this was simply NOT done.

Tim was the mascot (Eagle) at Erwin High School his Jr. & Sr. years. One night he had his tail feathers plucked by the opposing cheerleaders. I had to take off work during Homecoming at school to shop for and replace the Eagle’s tail feathers. Tim was strong and he would sometimes have two girl cheerleaders on his shoulders, twirling them. He and Joey Moore were good teammates for the cheerleaders. They ended up as cheerleaders at Montevallo when both went there for college.

Tim was 6’3” tall and played center on the church basketball team. He had a cyst on the top of one of his feet. During prayer meeting on Wednesday night before surgery for removal of the cyst the following morning, Brother Field asked special prayer for Tim’s surgery to go well. About that time, someone came in from the gym and spoke with Brother Field privately. John Byrd had jumped against Tim for the ball and landed on Tim’s foot bursting the cyst. The surgery was therefore canceled and the cyst never returned. God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to be shown..

Tim and Tanya ended up classmates at Montevallo, both taking business courses. He helped her get on at Moore Handley with him. They got apartments next door (well, through the hedge bushes) and he made sure she was taken care of. She was his fraternity little sister. He had always watched out for her away from home but gave her the dickens at home.

His roommate was Burney Sproul and Burney came home with him frequently. We all loved Burney. We would take as many college students as came home with the children out to eat at those “all you can eat” restaurants. (That is why they no longer exist. We ate them out of business.) Sometimes, we had our three with two extra for Tim and Tanya which would make seven to eat and those kids could eat.

Tim was seeing Mamaw and Papaw Burketts’ granddaughter, Rene’ and we found out when he stood her up and took someone else to a dance. After that, he only saw Rene’ and after 42 years, he is still in love with her. They have four MARVELOUS children with four GREAT children from another mother (or in-law). They have 12 grandchildren.

I could not be prouder of my son. He has a good work ethic and is conscious to do all he does to the best possible result.

He believes in God and worships HIM. He has been a bi-vocational pastor for many years, working his ‘day job’, raising his family to know the Lord, taking care of a house and yard and pastoring a church.

He and Rene’ are by far as good grandparents as are on the face of this earth. They have taken their children on fantastic vacations which are fun as well as educational. They would live at Disney World as would all the four grown children and their grandchildren. He is close to his siblings although visiting together is not frequent due to everyone having different schedules. When Tanya can be home, everyone is invited to their home and anytime all of their family is scheduled to be home, he makes sure I am invited. He has taken me on MANY trips with all or part of his family. He and Rene’ accompanied me to Hawaii when all three children paid for my trip. I was not allowed to pay one penny except for souvenirs the entire trip. What a magnificent time I had!!

This does not cover the many things Tim does or has done that I remember. Some are better left unsaid and some are just for my memory chest (brain).

Oh, how good God is.!! I am so blessed!!!!!

TANYA LYNETTE JUNKIN HOWELL

Born 16 months and three weeks after her brother, Timothy, she was a different temperament but as much loved child. Tanya was no better loved than Tim but was certainly as dearly loved. What a beautiful baby and she could not have been a better baby nor child.

Since Tim had asthmatic bronchitis every five weeks and usually for one week, there were times she was cared for and well loved but Tim’s care was always such that had she required more I am uncertain what we would have done. Thomas cared for her during the times I was holding him by an open window or spending the night outside wrapped in a quilt holding him with just his face not covered so he could breath. Neighbors would say they knew he was sick again when they saw us sitting on the porch at night. His ‘spells’ of choking were worse at night and scared us. Tanya was so good, seeming to understand the importance of our caring for him and giving her such limited time during those times.

As she grew into a little girl, she was so adorable. Tim was so handsome, she was beautiful. I dressed them alike. It was cheaper to buy enough fabric for him a shirt and her a dress and panties than just the one garment. People thought they were twins.

When Thomas was laid off or on strike, we lived with Mama & Daddy Junkin and Ma Myrt & Daddy Bill; mostly in Gordo. Mama J. would watch the children if I got a chance to work at one of the local stores for a day. Thomas found whatever work he could.

After we moved to Georgia (This story is included in Chapter I of What My Descendants Mean To Me), Tanya got to start school at five. Her teacher said she was the smartest child she had ever taught and she was nearing retirement. When we moved back to Alabama in February, we received a letter from her teacher advising us to keep Tanya in first grade even if she wasn’t allowed to go to public school in Alabama. She wasn’t allowed to transfer to Jefferson County Alabama school even though she tested three weeks ahead of their students. She transferred to private school and was only two weeks ahead of the students there. She excelled all through school. Tanya was always small for her age during grammar school years. We thought it was because she was a year younger than her classmates. BUT when she started Erwin High School in seventh grade, her classmates who had not seen her growth spurt during the summer did not recognize the 5’7” tall, 110 pound young lady there. From 4’11” 80 pounds, she had outgrown all the new clothes Aunt Evie Godfrey had made her that summer. Since I was working full time, we had asked Aunt Evie to make her several dresses and I never knew a better seamstress than Thomas’ aunt, Evie. I don’t recall who wore those dresses. Even though we had Tera long before then, there was a seven year gap in their ages.

During high school, Tanya was on the track team, excelling in that along with excelling in studies. She and Lou Ann Wright were good friends and were in theatricals together. I would make their costumes and Billie (Lou’s mom & my beautician) did their hair. When she was a senior, she aced the PSAT and SAT scores, earning her the honor of being included in “Who's Who Among American High School Students''. She also tested out the first year of college, entering Montevallo as a sophomore. She was the first grandchild in either family to graduate from college.

When Tera was eight, she began to ride the bus home from school. Tanya got home at the same time and watched her little sister. She also took laundry off the clothesline and folded it and put it away. She started supper and helped with the housework plus homework and babysitting. She had such an important role in rearing Tera that Tera’s girls refer to her as “Little Grandma”. They call her Aunt Tanya but think of her as much more than an aunt. Tera thinks of her as her ‘other’ mother which is fine with me. Tanya DID help me to get Tera through many things that are usually a mother’s responsibility. Tanya taught Tera to help around the house and before Tanya left for college, she had taught Tera to cook enough for her to start supper before I got home.

Tanya was very active in Center Point Baptist Church/First Baptist of Center Point. She was in Sunday School and Church, GAs, in choir from four years of age through college and careers. She was a lead soloist with the choir even being asked to be guest soloist when she was a sophomore at Montevallo and the youth choir from the church came down there for a concert.

In College, she was Tim’s little sister for his fraternity. She worked with him at Moore Handley Hardware Store, sometimes working 62 hours a week (holding two positions for 32 hours each) and taking a full load. This affected her health and we told her to slow down. She would be 19 when she graduated at that rate and it was not possible to get the stewardess job she wanted that young. She was purple and after the first year got an apartment with two roommates. She lived through a hedge from Tim and his roommates. They were in some of the same classes since both were taking business courses. Tanya’s roommate the first year was Lou Ann Wright. They were in the theater club together and we went to one of their plays. Lou is still in theater and quite well known in some quarters.

After college, she came home to live while she found a job. She had been too young when she applied at Delta to be a flight attendant. She worked for Merrill Lynch as a Kelly Girl for a while and they hired her as a permanent employee. Shortly thereafter, a man from the U.S. Probation approached her about applying to work there. She would make more money, have better benefits and it was for the U.S. Government. Following much thought, she talked with her supervisor resigned from Merrill Lynch. She worked for the Probation Office for 19 years.

She ran into Joe Howell who had gone to Montevallo with her, graduating three years before her. They started dating and married in April. They bought a house in Hueytown on the street behind Joe’s parents. They lived there four years and then Joe got transferred with Ford Credit to Denver, Colorado. They rented an apartment for six months while looking for a house. They bought in Conifer, Colorado and loved living there for several years.

Joe was transferred to *** and they moved to Cheyanne.

They next lived in Albuquerque, NM. There, we flew hot air balloons. I say we because PawPaw & I were chase vehicles sometimes. I finally got to fly as reported in an earlier story. It was a fun place for them to live. Tanya was transferred with the Government and they lived there for a while before:

Joe was transferred to California. The only government position available was an entry level position which would cut her pay and lower her grade. She ‘retired’ from the government and took a job with a company doing title searches. She worked there for about a year, being sick with allergies most of the time. Finally, she took a temporary job with Palomar Hospital in Escondido, California as Executive Assistant to the Chief Financial Officer. She is still there 19 years later. Joe retired from Ford with 30 years, worked for Starbucks five and one/half, worked for Sewing Machines, Plus, LLC for several years and waits for her to retire at whatever time she decides. After training four CFOs, some who became CEOs, she continues to work for both the hospital and foundation at Palomar Hospital. She is good at what she does and I am so proud of her. I look forward to their returning closer home when she retires. They were thinking of the Nashville, Tennessee area until their recent visit home but really liked the area around Cullman, Alabama. It would be great for me to have them that close after so many years away. All three of my beloved children would be close to me. BUT my main focus is for them to find a home where they can be part of the community with a church they can call home and many friends. Tanya and Joe are loved and have been missed.

TERA LaDALE JUNKIN LEE

After what seemed to be our last hope of filling a house with children, the seven year wait for number three was over!! We finally had our third baby. We were thrilled beyond words. I excitedly told Mama Junkin, “We’re pregnant”. She replied, “What, not another one”. I thought she meant she thought we had enough and cried. She quickly assured me she meant because Brenda, Thomas' first cousin, and Mary Helen, his sister, had just told her that week that they were pregnant. We had just gotten back to Birmingham and Hayes insurance was no good until Thomas was back ten months. We scrimped and saved to pay for our baby’s birth and found out his Lockheed insurance was good for ten months post employment so we bought a color television set. Our best gift came October 5th when our red-headed, very blue eyed daughter was born!! Tim & Tanya now had a baby sister and our family was complete. Due to a bruised back, my delivery was not easy like the first two and I opted not to have any more. Now, if God (or Thomas) had disagreed with me, we would have loved a dozen or more. Finances had always been tight so the decision was from Thomas, also.

We enjoyed our wee little girl. She had been the largest baby but was and is our smallest child. She is 5’5” compared to 5’9” for Tanya and 6’3” for Tim. That being said, it was a good life. We bought a house! We lived in it for 40 years. The children went to the same schools and never had to move. I went back to work when she was 18 months and Thomas was laid off. I went to UAB for the first time. When Thomas got loaned out to Hayes Huntsville and from them to a company in California for a few months, we were able to stay in our house. All three were in daycare which was not what we would have liked. We did what we could.

As Tera grew, her beautiful red hair became light blond. So blond that her chemistry teacher in high school often referred to bottle blond hair and she was the only blond in the class. She was smart, athletic and artistic. All through school, she had a natural talent for art. She sings, she writes songs and poetry, books and devotionals. She works with paint, draws, works with wood, paper, acrylic, whatever medium she desires, she does and does well. She also builds things she wants, furniture, garden boxes, anything.

She has a good work ethic and most importantly, she is a Christian. She and Kenny have a nice home they share with me. They both work too hard.

In summation of this story, let me say that I have not written about my grands or greats. They are all 24 just that. My other six about whom I have written briefly are so good to me. I love every one of them ‘to the moon and back.

There isn’t enough space for me to write all the good things about either of my wonderful children. I haven’t time to fill the books it would take to do so.

WHAT MY DESCENDANTS MEAN TO ME: MY GRAND AND GREAT GRANDCHILDREN:

I have six grandchildren and six grandchildren in-laws; that is 12. I have 12 great grandchildren and my three children and their spouses. THAT’S 30 people. WHAT A BLESSING!!!

So, what do these 30 people mean to me? My heart is beating for every one of them. They are the best part of my life after my God. Jesus is so wonderful!! God allows me to continue here on Earth to love everyone of those sweet folks. They are all loving, attentive and kind.

My children are Tim & Rene’ Junkin, Tanya & Joe Howell and Tera & Kenny Lee. Tim & Rene’ have Scott & Magan, Colby & Melissa, Katie & Mark, & John & Shay. Joe & Tanya have no offspring. Tera & Kenny have Dianne & Tyler, Katherine & Chase. Currently, no grandchildren from either.

Scott & Magan have Sam, Davis, Belle & Ruby, Colby & Mel have Ben, Luke & Andrew, Katie & Mark have Wyatt & Ivey and John & Shay have Ellie Kay, Isabella Marie & Laney Ann.

It seems impossible that soon FOUR of my great grandchildren will be teenagers. Sam, Davis, Ben and Belle. Before another month passes, Laney will be one. Ruby and Wyatt just turned nine. Luke is 10, Andrew is 4 as in Bella and Ellie is 7. Ivey is two going on 16. That’s my sweet family and they truly mean the world to me. My desire in life is that they would ALL come to know and follow God’s laws and accept Jesus as their savior. HE is the ONE MOST IMPORTANT thing that any of them can do.

I love you ALL.

Are you a regular at any of your local restaurants or cafes? What is that relationship like?

 I don't eat out often enough to have a regular cafe.  

Who did you go to prom with?

 WHO DID I GO TO THE PROM WITH?

My first ‘prom’ (which was the football banquet) was with Joe Elmore. I don’t remember much about the meal, dance or anything else. I do remember that I had to borrow a formal from my friend Sara Nell Zeanah and getting out of Joe’s truck (yes, he used his daddy’s truck because he was a farm boy), I hung my shoe heel in the satin of the gown and tore a triangle in it. I might mention it was a large triangle. Mother, being a wonderful seamstress, did her best to mend it but it was still damaged. I never borrowed a formal again.

I usually was dating someone who had already graduated and was in the military so I did not date the high school boys often. Of course, I did run around with Max, Louie, Richard, Freddie. I dated Johnny Mosley who was my very best friend all through the last four years of school. To me, he was like a brother.

I went to four football banquets, but I have no memory of a ‘date’. Most of the time, I went with a group of girls who also were dateless. Of course the football banquet would require an escort. My daddy went with me to a band function held in a restaurant.

My Junior Prom was with a date, I think. Don’t remember who. I do know Mother bought me a gorgeous royal blue gown for it and a week before the prom, we pulled the gown out of the wardrobe and it was horribly faded in spots. We went back to the store and we couldn’t return it but the manager had a beautiful white gown that he let us have for $15.00. I remember paying for the other one on the “lay-away plan”.

So next year when I went to the Senior Prom, I went with some girl friends and wore a gorgeous lavender dress. The royal blue had faded evenly and was beautiful. Good time with my friends, male and female. High school was a BLAST!!

What was the neighborhood you grew up in like?

 WHAT WAS MY NEIGHBORHOOD LIKE AS A CHILD?

I lived in many neighborhoods growing up so I will describe each separately.

HAMILTON, ALABAMA:

My first memories are of Hamilton, Alabama. This is in northwest Alabama and is and was a small town with close-knit neighbors. We looked out for each other. Although my parents said I lived in several houses before I could recall them beginning at two years old, the first I remember was a rented house at the bottom of a small hill on the outskirts of town.

I don’t think this house had but three rooms. There was a back room where I assume we all slept and a front room with a bed in it which was the room you entered from the front, and a kitchen. I recall a front & back porch. The front porch was off the ground quite a bit and Billy shoved me off that one at some point. I don’t recall the incident so I must not have been injured. Mother said it knocked the breath out of me and I turned blue so I think it scared my parents. We lived there until I was probably almost three, and my main memories are of a snake being in the house and Mother calling one of the Walker boys from across the road to come kill it. It had gotten under the refrigerator and I think he got it outside before he killed it. I got on the foot of the bed and cried that a “goldfish” was going to get me. And.. we had to go across the road to a neighborhood water pipe to draw water there. AND of a tramp passing through and Mother giving him a sandwich off the back porch. There were lots of tramps back in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

We moved from there when I was still two and I’ve told of the move up the hill to a house Daddy had purchased. It was a small four room house with a screened back porch which was HIGH off the ground. Steps from that porch led to the barn and outhouse. Yes, we had no in-door facilities. We did have indoor plumbing to the kitchen. We even had a small coal burning heater that would heat our water for washing dishes. We had a kerosene stove for cooking and a refrigerator. The kitchen held the long, narrow stove, the coal burning heater, a sink and a pie safe. It was full. The dining room held a large wardrobe, the refrigerator, dining table, Mother’s flour/meal box, a table and four chairs. The living room held a large heater (wood-burning), a sofa which folded into a bed, some chairs, (don’t recall what else). The bedroom in which there was a small closet held three beds and a small bookcase. Billy’s bed was a twin with perhaps 12” between it and my parent’s double bed. My bed, the other twin, was foot against foot with my parents' bed. Was it full? You know it was. We were so very happy there. When Daddy had the peddling truck, he built a large storage building there for extra products. While he was working for the bread company and Uncle Victor was peddling for him, I remember having bread there, also.

That community was one that the whole town was one community and everyone in town helped raise every child in town. It truly took a town to raise a child. Of course, it helped that Uncle Victor and Aunt Exar and Uncle Elmer and Aunt Charlie Fay lived in town and Harbor Jean and Jimmy Wayne, offspring of those relatives practically lived with Billy Joe and Janette (me). together. The four of us would roam from one place to another together, the four musketeers. We played in the woods, we played in barns (of course, they were in the yard of one of us). Back then, if you went visiting, you just opened the screen door and called, “Hello” and waited for someone to answer. If they didn’t, you would walk through looking for them. BUT, you NEVER bothered anything in the house. Respect! It was taught in every home. You NEVER showed disrespect to anyone whether it be your parents, a stranger or a friend. AND, I NEVER showed disrespect to Mother without discipline.

Back to Hamilton, I went through fourth grade there. My first and second grade teacher was Mrs. Sartain, third grade (my Daddy’s former teacher) Mrs.Fleeta Loyd, and fourth grade (Mother’s former teacher) Ms. Arnie Robinson. Billy Joe went through sixth grade there. We walked to school as did everyone else. It was a long way from home, probably 5 or less minutes if one had a car, but for short legs, it was a long way. The group grew larger the closer we came to school for everyone on your way joined in so that there was a large number of students by the time you all got to the school. High school kids stopped at the high school and elementary grades went a little bit further to their school. Afterwards, everyone went home or to an aunt’s house. Billy Joe and I went by the Yellow Front Store where our parents worked and either stayed and studied or went home with the particular high school student who was living with us at the time. Back then, high school students from way out in the country roomed with those of us living in town and looked after younger children after school as payment for room and board. Mother lived with a sister for a while in order to go to school when she was in High School. We had several who lived with us off and on. That’s how life was back then.

Daddy went into the army the year I was six. World War II was winding down but it was not known to small towns like Hamilton. Every time the church was open, everyone was there, praying for our soldier boys. There were larger crowds in those years. Mother got letters from Daddy and so did Billy Joe and I. In our letters, we were always admonished to “Be kind to Mother”, “Take care of Mother Dear”, and other such sentiments. Mother went to work for Shotts and Summerford that year. She was a great salesperson. When Daddy finally came home, he couldn’t hug and kiss Mother for me hanging onto him. He was MY Daddy. I guess I was really a big baby.

After that, Daddy was restless. He managed the Yellow Front until he and his first cousin, Hilburn Pollard, bought a store together, Pollard and Davis. It was a feed, seed and grocery store. When it was not prospering, Daddy bought the peddling truck. A big flatbed truck onto which he had a store built. He tried running the truck and working part-time at the store and saw the need to go to work for Hardin Bakery out of Tuscaloosa. He hired Uncle Victor to run the peddling truck, he delivered bread and he sold his half of the store to Hilburn and left the bakery and that was when we left my first ‘neighborhood’. Those are some of my memories of Hamilton, Alabama. Many others flood my mind but this is not to be a book, just a short story and I have several more neighborhoods to write about. So next, you’ll hear of Amory, Mississippi, in Northeast Mississippi.

AMORY, MISSISSIPPI:

We lived in the Bigbee community out from Amory for a few months. That summer (1948) was a fun time. We had no indoor plumbing. We pumped our water from a well on the back porch. The well had to be primed with water from an artesian well with iron water. Not that iron water was required, it was what we had. There were three small ponds in the back yard in which lived many goldfish, one about a foot long and plump. We fed them scraps of bread and they had big appetites. There were two large lakes at the back of the property that were stocked with fish so many neighbors came to fish and swim that summer. Billy Joe and I picked up muscle shells and sometimes there would still be a muscle in the shell. The church we went to Bigbee Baptist was small, the pastor was someone I think my parents knew. His daughter was the church pianist and she was really good. We enjoyed our time there. We lived in that big old barn of a house (we ALL HAD A SEPARATE ROOM). Of course, we were still bus kids to Amory schools and enjoyed the camaraderie of that. When the Bigbee River started rising, we looked for other accommodations. Daddy and Mother had friends in town, the mother-in-law of Mr. Shotts that mother had worked for in Hamilton and her sister. They had divided their large house into two apartments. We had a living room, two bedrooms, kitchen and shared the bathroom. That’s right, we had indoor plumbing - complete - even a bathtub!! The bathtub was in a small room, the commode in another and the sink in the small hallway outside the other two conveniences. We thought we had moved up town. Of course the day after we moved in, the house we had moved from and many surrounding areas were flooded and the roads we had traveled were to be found no more. It was a long time before the county could get into the area to rebuild.

BUT, we were uptown. We shared the telephone with the landlady and that was another luxury we had never had. There was a vacant lot next door and that was the scene of many outdoor games. Boyd and Madie Jones lived across the street with their children. Their daughter was beautiful. She was older than her brother, James, who I played with. He had an electric train set up in an upstairs room. We had never had the luxury of a playroom. I thought they must be awful rich. Mr. Jones owned the Ford dealership in town. Madie had a little bulldog that she was extremely fond of. That dog was king as far as she was concerned. The Jones’ had a maid. I remember they had an ironing machine and the maid would send those clothes through that big thing and they would come out ironed. I was doing the ironing at home and couldn’t imagine doing it like that. I always enjoyed ironing. Onise and Zoie Lee Stevens along with Emily and Kerry were close friends in Amory, also. Onise was Mother’s nephew’s, Hob Sanderson, brother-in-law. Orene was his sister and she and Hob had six boys and one girl, Janie. I try to contact Janie when I can. She never calls me but will talk a bit when I call, informing me of the brothers’ well-being or not. But, back to the Davis’, the Jones’ and the Stevens, that was a trio of friends. We did so much together as a group. The parents would play rummy and the kids would play board games or just visit. If it was early in the day, we might play outside. Emily and I spent nights at each other's home and the fellowship was great. She and I reconnected as adults and her husband notified me when she died. Amelia Peeler and I were also good friends as were Mary Jo Isbell and many others. We walked to the dairy down the street from our house and bought ice cream treats.

While we lived in town, we attended Amory First Baptist where I was active in GAs. That was such a fun time. My leader gave me my first copy of “In His Steps”, a book I have enjoyed through the years. Birthday parties were fun. I went to several and Mother always made sure I had a nice gift for the birthday person.

Mary Jo Isbell’s daddy was a songwriter, Lige Isbell. He wrote songs for quartets. He was quite the piano player. I haven’t seen anything he wrote in many years but he was published in some of the small quartet songbooks of long ago.

Sometimes I would spend the night with Amelia Peeler. Her family would serve wild game. I ate my first squirrel and rabbit there. Another time they had fried oysters. Amelia had the prettiest pageboy hairstyle. It was always immaculate. Oh, how I wanted hair that would look that neat. (I’m still waiting. ha).

My fifth grade teacher was Miss Jane Camp. She had red hair and was such a wonderful teacher. I enjoyed fifth grade. In sixth grade, my teacher was Miss Patteson. She was young and engaged to one of the Pickle boys. That was a prominent family in town, owning several businesses including the local funeral home. Miss Patterson was model-beautiful. Around Thanksgiving that year, her fiance was hunting on the TomBigbee River and drowned. It was many weeks before they found his body. Miss Patterson was devastated.

The other girls vied for who would get to ride in the peddling truck with me on the days I helped Daddy. That was a great year for me. I really liked to go with Daddy and he said I was good help. I remember most one day in the winter before Daddy sold the peddling truck, it was COLD. I mean freezing so cold that the inside of the windshield was freezing and it was my job to scrape ice from in front of Daddy so he could see to drive. The windshield wiper did a fair job outside but inside, I was the windshield wiper.. We had a small kerosene heater bolted to the floor to heat and it was helpful if you were standing right at it but inadequate for the rest of the truck. I remember keeping my coat, cap and gloves on all day. Without the luxury of a defroster as cars today have, the truck was ‘of the times’. Daddy sold the truck after that winter.

Daddy unloaded freight cars for the company Mother was working for at the time. She was a clerk in many locations during my childhood. When his back gave out doing that job (he had had back surgery at 21 and had some difficulty all his life), he and Mother got a job selling waterless cookware. We moved to the county again. This time to Hatley where I was in 7th grade and Billy was in 9th.

HATLEY, MISSISSIPPI - A community still in the Amory vicinity: Daddy had rented a brand new house, three bedrooms, living room, kitchen, breakfast nook and sunroom, all built with lumber salvaged from another building. The rooms were small but it was the first new house I had ever lived in and I enjoyed living there.

Oh, what a wonderful community to be in 7th grade. We walked across the road to draw water from a neighbor’s well for all needs. Billy and I drew three number 3 wash tubs full before catching the school bus on wash day. The bus ran about 7:00 a.m. so we got up early to be ready. We were young and did not mind that! We did have a wringer washer but Mother had to transfer the water from the tub that was over the metal barrel Daddy had rigged up to heat water. It was still hard work for her. She and Daddy sold cookware that year and went to different peoples’ homes at night and cooked a meal of the aluminum alloy “waterless” cookware. Billy, Mother, Daddy and I prepared the vegetables for them to cook at the ‘parties’. Even though I was 12 and Billy was 14, we had a ‘babysitter’, Aunt Lail Mangum, who would spend the night at the house and walk home when she woke up the next morning. It was at least a mile from our house to her’s. I think she was in her 60s and we thought she was ancient. I’m now 84 and I’m probably the age I thought she was. She taught me some recipes and I remember one that was like biscuit dough that she would sugar, cinnamon and roll up, place in an oblong dish and pour milk over and bake. Yum, yum. I can almost taste it just thinking about it. Anyway, back to the neighborhood. Mother had a cousin from her daddy’s side who lived across the road from our landlord, the Cowarts. The cousin had a very old, wind-up victrola that used rolls to play. It was so neat! I would walk to their house and they would play it for me. All we had at the time was a radio. It was wayyyyy before TVs, etc. Ms. Cowart’s sister was another friend who was ‘ancient’ (probably in her 50s or 60s) who would go fishing with me at the Cowart’s fishpond. It was amazing for me to have friends who were that much older than me.

There was a family that lived across the woods from us and one night the mother and her sons and daughter came over and stayed and stayed and stayed. Billy nor I knew what to do so they didn’t go home until it was almost time for our parents to get home. It really upset my folks that the Christian family had stayed so long.

We attended the Hatley Baptist Church while we lived there and one of the deacons always had sticks of chewing gum for everyone, not just children, adults, too. Redman Mitchell's son was mongoloid and in his 30s or older. He was quiet and when we went to their house after church on Sunday night for late supper (which was always breakfast), he was quiet but nice, very well behaved. The Mitchells almost always had country ham, red eye gravy, eggs and hot homemade biscuits (that’s all that was available back then). Another Yum yum.

School was WONDERFUL! There were two classrooms, a cafeteria, library and kitchen. Heat was provided by pot bellied stoves that burned coal. There was no indoor plumbing. We had two privies outback, one for the girls, one for the boys. The boys mostly smoked when they went to the toilet. It looked like the privy was on fire from their smoke.

There was no football at Hatley High School. We had a great basketball and a great baseball team and that part of school was thrilling. If we didn’t ride the bus home, we walked the mile or so home.

That was 1949, 1950. The day after Thanksgiving 1949 we awoke with a scene for a Currier and Ives painting. The following day, we awoke to what looked like a vicious storm had broken down trees and split some into. Ice was everywhere! Our water bucket always had water in it at night since the well was in a neighbor’s yard and during that ice storm, the water in our bucket froze solid. Our sunroom was where our coal burning heater was and Mother hung a quilt over both doors out of the room and except for using the necessary (called a slop jar), we stayed in that room until bedtime. Mother (using the cookware they sold) still cooked good hot meals on the heater. We even had cake baked on top of the stove with the double-frypan. It was rough but I guess we were tough. Mother heated a blanket for each of us kids and as we went to bed, she rolled that blanket to preserve the heat and put it in our beds as we lay down inside the warm blanket. We had good parents.

When school was out, we made yet another move.

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA

Back to Alabama and into a duplex built of cement blocks. Our wardrobe had to lie on the floor because it would not stand up in the low ceiling. We did have indoor plumbing again. I don’t recall if Billy and I had separate rooms. It was not a very nice neighborhood. Our next door neighbor was a prostitute and kept a quilt over her window for privacy. Mother and Daddy worried about Billy as a 14 year old boy next door to ‘that’. We only lived there that summer. Before school started for the 1950, 1951 fall, Daddy found a larger upstairs apartment downtown Tuscaloosa. They sold my piano before we moved because it would not make the turn in the stairs. We played in a local park with kids we met in school. There is not much I particularly recall about eighth grade. Daddy was sick a lot. He was once again working for Hardin Bakery. Billy was old enough that he had worked in Amory helping with bread delivery and was able to get a similar job after school and on Saturdays. Mother had gone to work in a store and I did what I could with hanging out and bringing in laundry, folding it or ironing. That’s still one of my favorite jobs. My best friend was Martha Evans. They lived in a big house on the street behind us. Her daddy operated a fruit stand next door to our house and Martha and I would go there after school and he would make us grilled cheese. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a better grilled cheese since then. We walked to school together, we played in the parks with others, we were really good friends. One time when Daddy was in the hospital (long after I married), Martha got on the elevator and we actually recognized each other. Oh, what a wonderful short reunion! I think of her and wonder how she is. When school was out that year, YES, we moved again. We moved to:

GORDO , ALABAMA:

We first moved into a large old farmhouse. We went to Gordo First Baptist where Brother Lucas was our pastor. He was a fun preacher with a booming voice. He could be heard outside the church and there was no amplification in our church. Later our pastor was Brother Calvert. He was a good pastor. When we got married, he performed our wedding ceremony.

Our next door neighbors were the Johnsons. They had a son named Johnny, a daughter named Patsy, one year older than me, and a younger sister Kay. Right across the road neighbors were the Powells. Their daughter, Sabra, was a senior that year and her job at the Yellow Front was over so she asked if I would like to apply for it. Of course, I did. Since Daddy had worked for them for 11 years, it seemed a good recommendation. I applied that day, Daddy went with me to the school and Mr. Gibbs, principal, gave me a work permit (I was 14). I started as a cashier that Saturday. I worked there for 3 and 1⁄2 years until the end of first semester senior year. I then worked at Harrison’s store down the street from the Yellow Front. Mother worked next door at Davis and Elmore store and Marvin Elmore was the partner there. He was a double first cousin of Thomas. She worked there from our moving to Gordo until she got on at Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa.

The same day Sabra approached me about a job, Patsy Johnson invited me to join Gordo High School Band. That day when Daddy got home from work, he asked when Gabriel had arrived to play his horn. I was practicing on the back porch. What a fun four years it was to perform with the band. We only missed one football game at that time and I rode with Sabra and her boyfriend to Gorgus. I could read music from piano lessons but had NO idea about band instruments other than a ‘tonette’ that I played in fifth and sixth grade at Amory. I never did learn to play well, but I could carry the tenor saxophone and pretend what I had not memorized. I could not walk and read and remember where I was to be in formation at the same time. I also played snare and bass drums and the cymbals. I was much better at that. We went to Montgomery to march in the inaugural parade when Big Jim Folsom was going in as Alabama’s governor. It was COLD. We all had on layers of clothing and the ones playing horns had to have gloves with the fingers cut off. I was playing cymbals at the parade so I had on full gloves.

So, I’ve told how I met Thomas earlier so I won’t repeat that. Billy played football his Junior and Senior years and Mother provided sandwich makings, cookies and milk for the band and football players who lived out of town (bus kids) and some would come to eat before we went to the games. At first we lived at the house previously written about. My Junior and Senior years, we moved to Don Campbell’s rental house across the road from the school. That was so convenient. Billy had joined the Navy so the two bedroom house was just right for the three of us. My bedroom was on one end of the house and my parents’ was on the other. We had a big yard and Mother and Daddy were especially kind to my friend (and Thomas’ cousin) Fred McAteer. His parents were not together at that time and he spent many hours helping me mow the grass and I would help him study. He was the little brother I didn’t have. After I started dating Thomas, I found out they were related. To me, he had been Granddaddy Claudus’ grandson. Grandaddy Claudus was Daddy’s friend at the time and wanted me to marry one of his grandsons, either Billy or Fred, didn’t matter. He was happy when I married his nephew. What a blessing to have such wonderful friends.

The George Zeanahs lived next door and James, June and Tommy were their children. James was two years younger than me but a good friend. June grew up and married a cousin of Thomas’ and I stay in touch with her and Tommy today. What a wonderful family they were.

My membership stayed at Gordo First Baptist until I joined Center Point Baptist six years later.

I truly enjoyed my time spent in Gordo. Mother and Daddy moved again to George Zeanah’s rental farm house after I got married.

So ends my lengthy summation of the neighborhoods in which I grew up. I truly had a wonderful time.