Happy Memories

A reflection by Dorothy Nave Boggs Tirey

I was 7 years old in the 30's. We moved to an older home near Diaz, Arkansas. It stood on a hill with long windows of single pane glass. There was a porch across the front, high enough to play under. The yard was soft, but under the porch it was hard and little roads for little cars could be made.

There was a screened-in back porch where I helped Mother wash clothes. Soon after we moved in we got electricity. Mother was thankful for her washing machine. We would make ice cream on the back porch. Sometimes it would turn chilly and we ate in our coats.

When I was ten we were blessed with a dark-haired baby boy, then two years later a red-haired boy. I looked after the boys while Mother worked in the garden or the cotton field. The boys are now a physics professor and a chemical engineer. My older brother is a retired electrician, my sister is a retired missionary, and I am a retired nurse.

My dad and I would sit out by the smoke house. He always seemed to have time to listen to me talk.

We had an outdoor toilet that was a long walk in the wintertime.

A big oak tree stood proudly in the side yard with a bag swing. We would swing out and jump of fall off on the sandy hillside.

Mother always had a great garden. A favorite Sunday dinner was fried chicken, tomatoes, corn (on the cob or cut off) and cooked in an iron skillet. My, that was good! Oh, and bread pudding.

I never did learn to milk the cows with good results. Dad had a pair of mules and he was heard to use some choice words at times and Mother would fuss at him.

The house stood at least 100 years. Records show it was there in 1860. It burned in 1961. My house now sits in its place.

We had crepe myrtles and white roses. Someone brought a goat by, and Mother threatened to "break somebody's neck". It would eat roses and clothes off the line - anything but weeds. I think he ended up as barbeque.

Daddy's sister's husband called us their kids. She was a school teacher, and he was a county agent of Jackson County. They helped our family in many ways.

We had a Rhode Island Red rooster. He was always strutting across the yard. Indeed he was very colorful.

We would listen to the Grand Ole Opry on the radio on Saturday nights.

The railroad ran behind the house, and we sometimes had someone come by for help. We always had a dog and I only noticed one time that Mother was uneasy about a visitor.

A big event was going down to the road to meet the "rolling store".

That was a time of learning and happy memories.