THE WAY IT WAS GROWING UP IN MY DAY

THE WAY IT WAS GROWING UP IN MY DAY

While my mind is still sharp and my memories still vivid in my mind I want to share with my children and grandchildren what it was like growing up in the country with 7 brothers and sisters and a stay at home mom and a preacher daddy. We were by today's standards considered poor but I never knew I was poor. Oh I knew some kids at school like the Babelays, Tiptons and Lays had more money than we did but I never felt inferior to them. The reason I thought they were rich is because they were the ones that their mothers came to the school for the parties and brought refreshments and help to build the Christmas Floats for the Santa Clause Parade. And while I am talking about the Santa Clause Parade it was the highlight of our Christmas. My dad worked downtown on State Street at Albers Drug Company and we would take the bus and go downtown on the night of the parade. We would walk up to Gay Street from where the bus parked and stand several people deep on the side walks to watch the parade. If you were early you would get to be in the front and have a good view of Santa when he rode by. The floats were beautiful and Ritta's float was always one of the prettiest. And speaking of Gay Street my dad ate lunch a lot at two different places. First was the S&W Cafeteria. He always got on those big scales inside and weighed and every time it would go up to 147. Never saw it go any higher. And he would also go to Kresses and eat lunch. He could make his whole meal with just rolls. They had the best.  Well back to the way it was. As kids our mom never asked us to do much as far as housework and laundry, ironing, cooking etc. Sometimes we would help out especially at night with dishes but for the most part my mom did the housework. I know now looking back with a family as big as what we had she did a lot of work and I am sure could of used a lot of help. But me and my brothers and sisters would go outside to 'play'. Now what play consisted of was building playhouses out close to the woods. We would take a broom (probably my moms good broom) and would sweep off the leaves and then we would gather up stones and make a layout of a house. It would be divided off with rocks and stones to make each room. And then we would find boards and buckets anything we could to make the furniture. We would use broken pieces of glass and cans, sticks and whatever we could find for dishes. And of course we always had some dolls because what is a home without babies and kids in it. My  brothers  would play cowboy and Indians and they always had cap pistols. We would also have church and somebody always got saved and then we would rake or sweep up a big pile of leaves and baptize them in the leaves. I also grew up in the days that a lot of women dipped  snuff. So what we would do would be to take sugar and cocoa and mix them together and put it in our bottom lip and pretend we were dipping snuff. Don't laugh. That was better than smoking rabbit tobacco.  In the summertime we could spend hours chasing after June Bugs and tying a string to their leg and let them buzz around. Or go out at night and see who could catch the most lightening bugs and put them in a jar and take a nail and punch holes in the tops so they could have air. We would also lay out in the front yard at night on blankets looking at the stars. Because it was so hot in the house we would think nothing of sitting out in the front yard until  10:00 at night. Also when I was a kid we slept 4 in a bed. Two girls at the top and two boys at the foot. Then as we got older it was two girls and two boys to a bed and that's how it was until I married. I had never had my own bed or slept by myself until I was 73 years old. We also would walk down and play in the creek some. I think the boys more than the girls would slip off to the creek that ran behind Ritta School. There was a lot of good blackberry picking in those fields between our house and the school. We would pick a lot of  blackberries in the summer and mama would make jelly and cobblers. Speaking of blackberries, I also thought the Haires that lived on the upper side of us was rich  until one time it came that big snow when I was in elementary school. We had to walk home from school and the snow was so deep that you couldn't hardly walk. Mom and dad had went into town that day and couldn't get back up the hill to the house. Because they weren't home I went with the Haire girls to their house. Was I ever so surprised that when we had supper  they had pinto beans and canned blackberries. I knew then they didn't have any more than we did. We would also play in Mr. Reesers corn crib. The Reesers lived on the other side of the road from us.  I am sure we didn't have permission to do that or play in the hay stacks that were over in his field. I was always afraid there might be mice or snakes in the corn crib.  Of course going to church was a big part of my growing up days. My dad being the preacher we went every time the doors opened and I mean every time. You didn't even question whether you would be going to church or not. I always liked Wednesday nights when I was a kid because that was pay day for my dad. Mr. Ogle would give him his check and we would go to Cas Walkers on Magnolia after church. BTW Mr. Ogle was our treasurer and what I remember about him most, besides being the dad of my very best est of friends Patsy, was him going to sleep each service. I don't think the sermons put him to sleep because my dad was an interesting character to listen to but I think he put in long hard hours at work at Pet Dairy and was just tired and sleepy. But back to going to Cas Walker's . We would get a fresh loaf of bread and some boiled ham and those pickles that were in their individual plastic packages with pickle juice in them. Then we would go next door to Krispy Kream Donuts and get a couple dozen donuts and we would go home and have a sandwich and donuts. Back to church in my growing up days. On Sundays I would either go home with some one after church that morning until time for church that night or someone would go home with me. It was just the thing that everybody did. People would ask us to their house a lot on Sundays because that's just what people did...ask the preacher to dinner on Sunday. That doesn't happen much any more. Easter was always one of my favorite times to go to church because I always got a new dress, shoes, socks, hat and gloves. We don't even do that any more. Holidays and Birthdays were different when I was growing up. Birthdays meant getting a cake and if you were fortunate enough some ice cream to eat with it. You did not get or expect gifts. I don't know when all of this changed but even when my kids were growing up they didn't get gifts for birthdays. We always celebrated them but gifts were only for Christmas. Christmas was always a fun time when I was growing up. I remember as a kid at Highland Baptist we always had a Santa Clause. It was a woman and her name was Mrs. Kirkland. We may of had others but she is the one I remember. She would be down in the basement of the church and all of us kids would be around the tree in the Alter area and someone would say "I believe I hear Santa coming". And then we would hear that Ho Ho Ho start down in the basement and come up the stairs. She would have a big pack on her back and we were so excited. We would all get one gift and we were thrilled beyond words. And of course we always got our Christmas treat bags that had oranges, apples, nuts and candy in it. And that's another thing. When did Christmas turn into seeing how many gifts you can give a kid. If kids were pleased and happy for years with one gift what has happened to our thinking? Kids today have more than they have ever had and are more unhappy and discontented than ever. I think we need to rethink what we are teaching our kids about entitlement. Ok what have I not covered. Halloween. When I was growing up Halloween was fun. It was not thought of as evil. It was a time to dress up in a costume usually homemade with a sheet or old clothes or hats and go to your neighbors and yell "trick or treat" expecting some candy. And we would come home and count how many pieces we had and eat it all. The worst things that would happen would be some of the older boys would take delight in turning over someones outside toilet. No worry of drugs or razor blades or poison in your candy. No worry about going to your neighbors house or even a strangers house. And then there is Thanksgiving which has always been my favorite holiday. One word sums it up family. Well maybe two family and food. There are a lot of other things I could write but this is getting rather lengthy and it is almost 2:30 in the morning and I am going to bed.  

HIGHLAND BAPTIST CHURCH

HIGHLAND BAPTIST CHURCH

The Beginning

This is not my original work but written by my mother to put in a booklet that was handed out at the 1976 Homecoming at Highland Baptist Church. I think the history is interesting and thought some of my followers might think so also. I will share this just as my mom wrote it. 

Psalms 127:1: Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.

     In the late years of 1930 and early 1940's, the Lord was beginning to gather his children in the community of the Highland Homesites of Knox County Tennessee to help build a house of God in the community for his name sake, Jesus who is the head of the Church. Ephesians 1:22. All things working together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, Romans 8:28. Like Abraham of Old, not knowing what was ahead, but being led by the Holy Spirit of God, Brother Ed Spencer moved in the community of Highland Homesites in June, 1941. On Edmondson Road, where he moved, was a widow, Mrs. Bertha Lansden, who had nine children who had no way of going to another community to church. Brother Spencer began loading his car with children and taking them back to Grove City Church with him for services. So God began his work by the Holy Spirit saying we need a church in this  community; and seeing the great need, Mr Spencer with his cousin, Ernest Warwick, who had moved next door to him, began to talk and discuss and Sunday School in the afternoons on Sunday and also Mr. Warwick said the Lord had called him to preach. So God knowing all things, the time came when Mr. Spencer and Mr. Warwick began to fulfill God's will.

     There was an abandoned Murphy's Chapel Church building on Luttrell Road belonging to the Methodist Conference and after prayer and faith, Mr. Spencer and Mr. Warwick went to see, along with Mrs Spencer and Mrs. Landsen, Mr Luttrell who had charge of the building and were given permission to use it. Mrs Spencer and Mrs. Landsen carried tubs of water in the back of the car and cleaned the building and got it ready for our first Sunday School which was the first Sunday and first day of February 1942. After Sunday School, Mr. Warwick preached.

     We had between 30 or 35 people present our first Sunday. The Lord began to bless the services so it was decided to have Saturday night services. We used oil lamps as we had no electricity. There was an old organ Mrs. Spencer played and people began to be saved and the work was abounding for about 4 1/2 months; and of course, the adversary, the Devil, was mad because of God's blessings so he sent the Bishop of the Methodist Church to tell us we could not use the building any longer, trying to discourage God's people and his work. But Romans 8:31, What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who an be against us? It was God working out his plan for a church in this community.

      One Sunday night Mr. Spencer started to Old Beverly to church and met Mr. Jim Davis coming to his home to discuss organizing a church.  Mr. and Mrs. Jim Davis and Mr. and Mrs. Joe Smith had moved on Babelay Road and had attended some of the services at Murphey's Chapel and God was speaking to them also since there was no church in the community. Mrs. Davis was very reluctant about buying in this community until Mr. J.C. Cameron who owned the Highland Homesites said he would give a lot for a church.  After discussing the need of a church and God laying on the hearts of people, the church was constituted on July 5, 1942, in the yard of Mr. and Mrs. Jim Davis. Other churches present were Lincoln Park Baptist Church, their pastor Reverend David Livingston, Grove City Church, with their pastor Reverend D. W. Lindsay, and many other churches which I can't recall. The church was constituted the Babelay Road Missionary Baptist Church, but was changed to Highland Missionary Baptist Church after the Highland Homesite additions the first business meeting. The church was not a mission from some sister church but was a full self supporting Baptist Church. The charter members were: Mr. and Mrs. Joe Smith, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Warwick, Mrs Bertha Landsen, Miss Betty Rhea Smith, Alfred Martin, John Spencer, Mr. and Mrs. James G. Davis, Mr. and Mrs. James E. Spencer, Mrs. Elizabeth Davis Rouse, Mrs. Mary Smith, J.T. Smith.

     The Lord sent in people who had a mind to work and build the House of God. The first meeting was probably held in the new building the last of August, 1942. Reverend T.T. Lewis was called to be the first pastor of the church and was there five months. Mr. Lewis began preaching in the church by using a large oil drum for a pulpit stand until one was built. Ernest Warwick was called and pastored for six months. The Lord had called Mr. Spencer to preach about five years before, but he was trying to do everything but preach. He was the first deacon and also the first Sunday School Superintendent of Highland Church. After he became obedient to the call God had given him, the church called him as their pastor and he was ordained July 4, 1943. He pastored for five years until God called from House Mountain Church. He went there as their pastor and after three years at House Mountain Church, Highland called again and he pastored for another three years. 

        There has been many a problem and many  hills to climb and many valleys, but God has been with the church through them all. And the mountain tops have been so wonderful, you forget the valleys and press on to the mark of the  High calling in our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who is the head of the church and also knowing our labor is not in vain in the Lord, 1 Chronicles 28:20, And David said to Solmon his son, be strong and of good courage and do it; fear not nor be dismayed; for the Lord God even my God will be with thee, he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee, until thou hast finished all work for the service of the house of the Lord.

     Philippians 1:6. Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:27, That he might present it to himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Revelation 14:13, And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them. 

The is in entirety all that my mom wrote. A little lengthy post but a true account of someone who was there from the beginning. It has been brought to my attention and I want to make a clarification to this post without making any changes in my mom's original wording. She said that "One Sunday night Mr. Spencer started to Old Beverly to church...." She did not mean the church that is now the Old Beverly Baptist Church but rather the original Beverly Baptist Church before it was split and became Old Beverly and New Beverly.  That happened many years after Highland Baptist was organized. I hope that clears up any misunderstanding about the time frame.  I figure I was the second baby born after the church was built. The Warwicks had a baby named Nancy that was born in January of 1943 and I was born in  February 1943. I never thought that my son Byron would one day be the Pastor and that I again would attend and move my membership there. Below are some pictures of the church from the original building to the one I will be attending tomorrow. 

The Original Building

Finished Church

Addition to the side 

The Present Church

WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND

What We Leave Behind
Material Possessions 

I have been cleaning out a lot of 'stuff' this week. A lot of it has been mine and a lot of it belonged to James. I am getting rid of a lot of stuff that has been accumulated over several years. James was not a hoarder such as you see on TV stories. He was neat and organized in what he had. I would rather call him a collector. James was a collector of many things. He had things that he had kept from years and years ago. He had a collection of arrow heads that he had found over the years. He collected knives and he had over 100 of them. He would put them on boards and display them. We laid them all out on tables in the living room and let each one pick which ones they wanted. Some were valuable but most he just liked the way they looked. We never went to Pigeon Forge without going to the Smokey Mountain Knife Works. It was nothing for him to stand and look in the cases for a hour and never buy a knife. He had to be in the right mood before he spent any money. He loved to collect guns of all different types. He would sit for hours sometimes and look at them on the internet before he would decided on one that he wanted. Then he would save his money after he found exactly what he wanted and get it. Thankfully he designated different people that he wanted to have them and they have all found a new home. He even put in his hand written funeral plans that he wanted to pay his son in law for his part in the funeral service with one of his guns. He also liked to buy guitars and still claimed the one that his mom bought him when he was 16 years old even though he had given it to Byron several years ago. He talked a lot about getting it refinished. Of course Byron, Matthew, Elizabeth and Jennifer all play the guitar so all the guitars got good homes. I am sure he had over 100 caps and several hats. You rarely saw James without a cap on. He kept old shotgun shells that had been shot because he reloaded them. I don't know how many hundreds of them he had. We won't even talk about the nuts and bolts and little pieces of things in cans and cups. He had collected books ever since we had been married and had shelf after shelf of them. He passed on his love of books to the kids and now their shelves are running over with their "inheritance". He had fishing stuff that he had collected for about 65 years. He had always fished in every creek and pond that he could find. One of his favorites when he was a kid was Babelays Pond on Babelay Road. He knew every place on Norris, Cherokee and Douglas to fish. He also liked to fish in the creek and the rivers. He loved Holston River and went often to Nancy's Ferry to fish. He carried a fishing rod in his truck all the time in case he saw a good spot to cast a rod. I hope when Matthew, David or Jonathan and whoever else ended up with the fishing stuff remembers Grandpa when they cast that rod or pull in a big fish. One of the things that bothered him the most was not being able to take his boat out to the lake. Matthew was able to go and help with the boat year before last but last year there was very little taking the boat out and fishing. But back to the topic of this post. After dealing with all of James things the past few months I have been thinking about my 'stuff' and decided I was going to do something about a lot of it now. Things that only I would ever have an interest in. If you remember last year when our church had the big sale I put most of my tea pots in it. Over 100 of them. I kept some that had a special meaning for me but the rest were just my collection that nobody else really wanted to have. I also like to collect table cloths. I don't know how many I have bought over the years but have them in almost every color. A lot of them I bought to use at church. This week I have gotten rid of lots of glass bowls and dishes and pots and pans. Christmas decorations that have been around for years. But the good things is Josh and Amanda are having a yard sale and I gave them all of it. Maybe they will get a little money out of it and somebody else get some use out of things that I no longer need. I also need to go through my clothes again. Who needs 40 skirts? Who needs 5 black skirts? That is what happens when you are a sale shopper. Just can't pass up that bargain. But remember the next time you decide to keep that little thing that you might need someday or that magazine that you might want to look at again think again and imagine someone else having to deal with all you leave behind.

EDMONDSON ROAD

EDMONDSON ROAD

Was just thinking about something today. When I was a kid we lived on Edmondson Road which was a 1 mile, one lane, dead end, gravel road. For the first quarter of a mile it was like driving through a tunnel. Trees on both sides of the road and their branches hung over the road making a tunnel.The bus didn't come up the road when I was going to school. We either had to walk across the Reeser property and down through the woods and come out on the Stoffel's property behind the school where the dairy was. Of course that meant crossing the creek which by the way didn't have a bridge across it and going through all the blackberry bushes. And there was a lot of poison ivy which when dared one day I rubbed it on my face and arms. Wow, don't want to ever do that again. Or we could walk just a little down the road and go along the fence line by the Reesers property and cross the little foot bridge and come out by Cole's Store and walk down Washington Pike to Ritta School. I almost got run over by a car when I was in first grade crossing Washington Pike in front of the school. Or if we got the bus it stopped at the end of Edmondson Road and we walked the mile up the hill to home. In the mornings sometimes we would ride down with my dad as he was going to work but for the most part we walked to school. But what I was thinking about was on that mile long road I can remember back when there were only 8 houses. But only one house was on the left side of the road. 6 houses were on the right side and 1 house was at the dead end. As you came up the road, which we always called coming up the hill, the first house on the right was the Langstons house. I was told by my sister June today who is 10 years older than me that Mrs. Langston first lived in the house at the dead end of the road but that was before my time. She and my sister Phyllis both said they used to go to the Langston's home when they lived at the dead end. Phyllis is 5 years older than me. But neither one knew who lived in the first house on the right when they first moved to Edmondson Road. June was probably 8 or 9 and Phyllis 3 or 4 when they moved to the country. Jim was a baby and I was the first baby born after they moved to the country from town. Mrs. Bertha Langston was a widow woman and she had nine kids. My dad used to take them to church after he moved to the country. That is another post which I will share with you some day. The next house was the Congers. Louise was the woman's name but I can't remember her husband's name. And then there was Kern Lemarr's place. Mrs. Lemarr was a nurse. I think her first name was Laura. I don't remember what Kern did but he was a kind person that would offer us a ride up the hill sometimes when we were walking home from school. They had a son Marty and he still lives on Edmondson. The next place was the Emmerts. Mrs Emmert was one of my patients at Hillcrest when I went to work there. Their daughter Mildred Carr soon built a house next to them and we became friends with their children Grant and Carolynn. James and I went to church with Mildred at Union and she was in James Sunday School Class. Actually she died during the time she was in our class. Their dad Clyde smoked cigars and their house always smelled like cigars. Then we were the next house, the Spencers and there were 8 of us kids. Above us was the Warwicks and they had a house full of kids. Actually the dad, Ernest Warwick, was a first cousin to my dad. His dad and my grandmother were brothers and sisters. At the end of the road on the dead end was the Humphery's. They also had a bunch of kids and I was friends with Lula Pearl. The house that was on the left side was about 3/4 of a mile up the road and it was the Reeser's house. June also told me that when they first moved to Edmondson Road the Reeser's did not live there but she couldn't remember the name of the people that did. It was a log house. Their grandson Ken Madison has posted a picture of the log house before on facebook. Mr. and Mrs. Reeser both were unable to hear or talk. They had four children and they could all hear and talk. I learned how to do my ABC's in hand language and could communicate some with Mrs. Reeser. Mrs. Reeser would 'hire' me to wash her canning jars. I think she would pay me a dime or quarter. But the reason she would get me to do them was because my hand was little and would fit in the jars. I guess all her kids were gone from home by then. I remember going to their house and watching the Little Rascals because we didn't have a TV. Their son Robert eventually build a house further up the road on their property. He also became a deacon at North Acres but died at an early age. I remember my dad being upset because Robert died so young. Anyway I was thinking about this road today and thought it was really rather strange that only one house was on the left side. The only thing I thought was maybe someone else owned the property on the left side of the road. I know the property on the right was owned by J. C. Cameron who owned the Highland Homesites that my mom and dad bought their property from. Actually he was the one that gave the property for Highland Baptist Church which was first named Babelay Road Missionary Baptist Church but was changed after the first business meeting to Highland Baptist. The church was constituted on July 5, 1942. I have no idea how many homes are on that mile long road now and there is also a subdivision at the end in the field where I used to play with Lula Pearl. I still go up and down that road a lot because my sister June lives there still. She built a house behind the old home place. I have wondered how many times I have been up and down that road in the past 73 years. The only ones still living on the road that was there when I was born is my sister June. And she moved off for several years. Marty Lemarr has probably lived there all his life but he is a little younger than me, I think. I lived there from the time I was born until I married which was 19 years and that was 54 years ago. Makes me think of the old song Time Has Made a Change.

OUR STORY

                             OUR STORY

54 years ago today James and I made a vow to each other. Together we vowed to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish til death do we part. This past year brought to realization the full meaning of those words that we spoke those many years ago. Since today would of been our special day allow me to tell you our story.


James and I go back to probably the early 1950's when his parents attended Highland Baptist Church where my dad was the Pastor. I knew his family but they were just another family in the congregation. In  1953 land was purchased to build North Acres Baptist Church and the church was opened in 1954 with my dad as Pastor and James family eventually moved their membership to the new church. James said he first noticed me when I was a 13 year old black haired girl wearing a yellow dress singing in the choir at North Acres Baptist Church. He was 16 at the time. Our first date, I guess you would call it a date, was when our Sunday School class had a Christmas Party at Mildred Copeland's house. We went with another couple in the church because the boy had a car and James didn't at the time.  That was in December of 1956. I turned 14 in February of the next year and James turned 17 in May. In the Fall of that year he called to ask me if I would go to the movies with him. Looking back I am not sure how he ever got up enough nerve to ask me. He was a very shy person. I was friends with his sister Barbara and we went to school together so she may have given him the encouragement he needed. (She was our mail carrier when we started dating, carrying our love letters back and forth from one to the other.) So he called and asked me and I told him I would have to ask my mom. So I asked my mom and she said I had to ask my dad. Well I must have really wanted to go because I called my dad at work, which is something that I just didn't do, and asked him if I could go. I will never forget what he said. He said "I will leave it up to you to do what you think is right". Well that was not the thing to say to a 14 year old girl because I thought it was more than right. So we started dating. Now when I say dating I don't mean this hanging out at each others houses and having freedom to do as we pleased. Dating meant he drove in my driveway exactly when he said he would be there walked to the door and escorted me to the car and opened the door for me to get in. Our dates were always on Friday nights. We would go to the movies more often than not to the drive in movies because there were several of them. Chapman Hwy, River Breeze, Sunset, Knoxville Drive In and the Family Drive In just to name a few. I guess our favorite was the Family Drive In on Broadway. After the movies we would go eat. Most of the places we ate were also drive in restaurants. One of our favorites being the Tic Toc on Magnolia Avenue. We also ate a lot at Archies on Broadway. And the original Louies, the Pizza Palace. They also had good food at the Drive in Movies. Really good hamburgers.  Then as sure as the car pulled in the driveway at the exact time it returned at 10:30. None of this 11:00 or 12:00 but exactly at 10:30. And if I wasn't walked to the door and our goodbyes said in about 10 minutes the porch light began to flash off and on. Now this went on for 6 years. During this six years James became one of the most faithful church goers that you would ever see. Why? Because that is where he would see me. Being the Pastor's daughter I was there at every service. Twice on Sunday, Wednesday night, Singings, Cottage Prayer Meetings.You name it and I was there. My dad also held a lot of revivals and James would either go with us or meet us there. So after 6 years when I was 19 and he was 22 he said "will you" and I said "yes" and we started a life together that lasted for the next 53 years and 8 months only to be ended when those vows were completed that said 'til death do us part.'

Anniversary June 2015