Below are pictures of Momma at 17 and Daddy at 23.
After they married, they moved into the old German Prisoner of War Camp outside of Aliceville. Like everyone else, they had two rooms, a living/bedroom area, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Since Daddy worked at the Cotton Mill at night, and Momma has always been a "scaredy cat", she stayed next door with my Aunt Claudine, Uncle L.D., and their two oldest kids, Nell and Ginger (also in a two room apartment) at night or had one of them stay with her. When some apartments opened up in the mill village, they were able to move there, but they were still in only two rooms.
The fall after they married Momma went to Aliceville High School to get her high school diploma. In those days, married girls could attend school, but pregnant girls could not. Not long after school started, she found out she was having me, so she had to quit. I was born a year later on June 24th almost a year to the day they married.
After I was born, the two rooms were close quarters for Daddy, who worked at night and needed to sleep during the day, and a newborn. So, Daddy approached his foreman and told him that he would have to quit and find another job unless they would let us have a three room apartment. Before a week was out, we were in a three room apartment.
I'm not sure how old I am here, but this is one of the few family pictures when we were young. They tended to take more pictures of just me than of the family.
The village put their apartments up for sale, and Daddy decided he did not want to buy there, so they found a house close to Aliceville Elementary. We lived in that house until I finished the sixth grade. Momma started working at Westinghouse in Reform at this time, so I had to have someone to watch me in the mornings and in the afternoons because she had to leave early for work and was late getting in. Kay Carroll kept me until she started work at Piggly Wiggly; then Glenda Carroll kept me. ( I know I gave them fits, and I apologize here for it. :-))Their mother dropped them off on her way to work and picked them up on the way home. Daddy no longer worked at the Cotton Mill. Instead, he worked for the county driving dump trucks and working all kinds of machinery. I remember walking from the house to the County Barn to greet him when he would get off work. At that time the County Barn was located just down the road from Herndon's Grocery. By the time sixth grade was over for me, Momma and Daddy built a house just a few blocks down the road a little closer to the school. That is where they still live.
Over the past week or two, I have been visiting and talking a lot and trying to get as much information from them about themselves as well as their brothers and sisters. Momma's brothers and sisters lived out of town, but most of Daddy's brothers and sisters lived in Aliceville, and they were all close when they were young. In fact, at one time or another,three of Daddy's brothers and one of his sisters and their families lived with Momma and Daddy. It was what families did in those days--help each other out in times of need. Uncle R.A. had had emergency surgery that kept him from working, so Aunt Ola, Uncle R.A., Gloria, and Sherry lived with us until he got over the surgery, and he was able to work again. Uncle Nathan had to work out of town, and there was no place for Aunt Emma Ruth, Barbara, Wayne, and Gail to stay with him, so they stayed with us until he got a job closer to home. Uncle J.D. and Uncle Jimmy were both just out of service with no place to go. (My grandfather Gilliam died young, and Granny Gillian lived with Aunt Ola. Daddy said that somebody had to be their father, and he figured it was him.)All of us stayed in a two bedroom one bath house. Times sure have changed.
The first picture is of me and Daddy at our first house, and the second picture is of Momma and Daddy after they built the house they live in now.
All my life I have known that I am loved. I was also overprotected and spoiled; however, I was spoiled with love not material things. My momma and daddy did without so that I could have what I needed and what I thought I needed. Everywhere I went, they were there to support me. Words could never express how thankful I am to have them as my parents.
Happy Anniversary, Momma and Daddy! I love you.
