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I have memories of growing up in a family of older children and very happy memories to me. Mama and the eighteen-year-old sister at home would prepare the meals and do all the other work like washing on a rub board for the family of eight and probably scrubbed the floors with the wash water, as but very few homes had carpets on the floor.
Mama usually made a carpet for the best room out of the worn-out clothes. She would tear or cut the material in about one-inch strips, or strings, and thread up the carpet loom and weave enough carpeting for wall-to-wall covering. Carpet warp was used to thread the loom.
Papa and the four boys did the farm work. The boys ranged in age from twenty-two years on down to ten years old. We had a swing in the back yard. Papa put down two high poles and that was for Katie and I. I remember watching for Papa and the boys to come in for the noon meal, and I would run get in the swing so they could swing me up high.
At meal time, we would all be seated around a long dining table with Papa and Mama at each end, and we children seated on a long bench at each side. At night after supper, we would go in the front part of the house, and in the winter time sit around a big wood burning heater;
Katie and I were usually playing dolls while the older members of the family talked over the day's happenings.
News traveled slow in those days as there were no telephones, radios, television, or cars; not even a daily newspaper. Papa took the Dallas Semi-Weekly News and as it came twice a week, that was the day a trip was made to the post office, which was quite a distance.
We had music and singing, as three of the boys could play an instrument; Porter the guitar, Turner the banjo, and Willie the French harp. We would have pecans to eat, too. They seem to be plentiful and Mama would bring in a big pan full. We had pecans on the creek and we would pick up enough for our winter use and enjoyment and sell the surplus for five cents a pound.
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