The following is a "Remembrance," to my mother in the book I wrote about my Dodson family, "DODSON, ONE FAMILY'S JOURNEY," published in July 1999.

A REMEMBRANCE
The November Rose
November 8, 1997, was a grey cold day like many in the late fall. What better time to stay inside and organize the material for this book. It was also the birthday of my mother, Lavinia Dodson Love. Somehow it was impossible to concentrate on the task at hand because I kept thinking about Mother. She was the one who started out, so many years before, trying to research her Dodson family. Later, before her death, she expressed her hope that I would someday finish what she had started. Little did she know, I would eventually become as enthusiastic as she had been.

While musing over these thought, an unbelievable sight awaited me. Outside, blooming in my garden, was a solitary red rose. This was after may days of frost, freezing nights, and an occasional snow flurry. Though it was somewhat ravaged by the elements, its beauty was striking since everything else had died out weeks before. It, like mother mother, had overcome a sometimes harsh environment to bring some beauty into this world and into my life. Could it have appeared in remembrance of the flower that came this way, on that day, so many years before? I'll never forget my beautiful November rose and what it meant to me on that day.

My wish is that Mother could see what was built on the foundation she laid. My hope is that this work will honor her memory and her family.
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My mother, born in Yarnaby, Oklahoma, was the second of four children. Her father, James, known by most as Jim, was a farmer; her mother, Elsie, was an Assembly of God minister. The following stories from my book (some paraphrased), have been provided by my mother and her siblings. Jim and Elsie often struggled to make a living but were happy with their lot in life. Their life style and Elsie's ministry have provided a few entertaining stories of this special time when my mother was growing up.
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Following are some highlights of my mother's life:

In 1918 Jim and Elsie Dodson (ages 26 and 20) left Altoga, Texas and moved to his parent's farm (Cynthia and George Bell Dodson) in Yarnaby, Oklahoma. His parents had bought prime farm land located along the Red River in 1917 and built a home high up off the ground on log pilings, a safe distance from possible flood water of the river. Jim and Elsie moved into a small house just across the field from them.

(At times the Red River overflowed and shifted its course, causing minor changes along its banks. One time, during a raging flood, it didn't shift back and carved a new course. About forty acres of George and Cynthia's land broke off and was swept down the river. Trees, that George had planned to cut and sell, were on the acreage that was swept away.)

Elsie knew her time was near, so she went to Cynthia and George's house to have her second baby. Dr. Reed, their family doctor, was called and delivered my mother, Lavinia Georgia, on November 8, 1918, at 2:30 p.m. Her middle name was in honor of her grandfather, George.

One of Lavinia's first notable experiences was during a lightning storm. Elsie was at home alone with her children when a lightning and thunder storm started. From all appearances it promised to be a bad storm, so she was frightened and grabbed her daughters and started running across the field to George and Cynthia's house where they would be safe in their storm cellar. While climbing through a barbed wire fence stretched across the field, a bright flash of lightning, accompanied by the deafening thunder, struck the fence. Lavinia, who had been holding onto it, was knocked to the ground. Elsie picked her up, carrying her the rest of the way. Although dazed, she quickly recovered, but that frightening day was never forgotten.
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My mother's sister, Loveta Lucille, was born on January 6, 1922. It was a cold winter day when Elsie's pains began. As she had done in the past, she went to Cynthia and George's house for the birth of her child. Jessie, Jim's sister, chose the first name for her new niece.

My mother was a favorite niece of her father's baby sister, Jessie. Jessie liked to tease her and called her "Wenia Big Mouth." She thought she was cute because she opened her mouth so wide when she cried. One hot dry summer day, Jessie, Lavinia, and her grandmother, Cynthia, were on their way to a ball game. It was especially hot, and they were all thirsty. Just then Lavinia spotted some children of a Black family eating oranges. The oranges looked so good she spoke up loudly and said, “I wish I was a little Black kid so I could eat an orange.” Cynthia and Jessie laughed and promptly hushed her up.
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Jim's General Store
Lavinia was about seven when her parents moved from Yarnaby. Her Dodson grandparents helped her father get started in a business near Mead, Oklahoma. Here he bought and operated a general store on the banks of the Washita River, which was called Jim's General Store. The back of the store was supported by long pilings buried in the bank of the river. Their house was on higher ground, built on stilts to protect it from high water. Blue Ribbon School was conveniently located nearby and was also used for church meetings.

Jim tried to make a living but was a better neighbor than a business man. He felt sorry for people who came in needing credit for their groceries. Needless to say, most never got around to paying him. He tried to supplement their income by fishing, which provided food and a little extra cash. He built his own fish nets and built a large box where the fish were kept alive until needed. It was kept by the pilings underneath the back of the store.

Sometimes, when it would rain upstream, logs and debris came rushing down the river. This was always dangerous because Jim would have to get out in his wooden boat to save his nets and keep them from being torn to shreds. Elsie and the kids would stand on the bank of the river, scared to death, watching him maneuvering around all those logs in his little boat.

There was a well at the house, but it was so close to the river they didn't know if the water was safe. Sometimes Lillian, Lavinia, and Loveta would come down with chills and fever. Once, they were all sick at the same time, so they suspected that the water was contaminated. From then on, they would carry their water from a nearby spring. Usually it was the kids' job to take buckets and get the water. To get there they had to pass by a big old oak tree called the "Hanging Tree." It was rumored that this very tree had been used for the lynching of a Black man who had killed a woman years before. A story like that was just the kind of thing Lavinia liked to use to liven things up. Sometimes, when they were passing that tree, she would suddenly act scared and scream that she could see his ghost. It would scare Loveta so much she would run all the way home, spilling most of the water out of her pail.

Then came that terrible day when they were returning home from the Blue Ribbon School house, where Strawdy Watterson was preaching. The store was no longer there! While they were at the service, the river had risen so much that it had been swept away. They could see what had happened from where they were forced to stop at the bridge. The water was rushing over the top of the bridge which was rocking back and forth. They finally crossed the shaky bridge, but it wasn't long afterwards that it washed away too. They were worried about their house with all of their belongings, but fortunately it was up higher than the store and was still standing. The water had risen high enough to cause some damage. They didn't have much furniture, but Elsie was concerned about her sewing machine. This was her prized Singer treadle model that Strawdy Watterson had traded her for some chickens. Most of their furniture was wet, and some of their pictures were water soaked. Fortunately, the sewing machine survived the ordeal. What was so surprising was that it had hardly rained there. The flooding was a result of a rain storm far upstream. That was the end of Jim's grocery store business.

After the bridge washed away, Jim helped build and operate a ferry. Junior recalls hearing his dad tell about customers ringing the bell when they needed to cross the river. If Jim was fishing or working, he would hear the bell and know someone
was waiting to cross.

When Lavinia was about nine years old, they left the Washita River. Jim bought a bus and fixed it up to live in. It had most of the comforts of home with a wood stove, a table, and beds. They traveled along Texas roads while Jim tried to find work. They would stop to rest and have meals. When it was too hot, Elsie cooked meals outside on a campfire. Work was hard to find. It's too bad Jim didn't recognize the value of his revolutionary new idea. If he had, maybe there would be a "Dodson Motorhome Company" now.

The Rock Fight
Their next house was located close to some railroad tracks. Lillian and Lavinia attended a nearby school. One day after school, Lillian came running into the house saying that Lavinia was in a fight with some Black kids. Elsie rushed out to find her and was terrified when she saw the kids standing on the railroad tracks throwing rocks at Lavinia. Although alone and outnumbered, Lavinia didn't seem the least bit worried. She was busy throwing rocks back at them, confident of victory, but Elsie broke up the fight and brought her home. However, Lavinia had discovered a surefire tactic to use in her next confrontation. She said, "The only way to hurt them ‘Black kids’ is to hit ‘em in the knee."

Jim and the Girls Pick Cotton
In 1928 Jim and Elsie were renting a farm on Mary Niblack Road, a few miles outside of Ardmore. Times were hard, food was scarce, and jobs were hard to find. Jim's half sister, Dora, sent word from Texas, saying that work was to be found where they lived. Jim, Lillian (age 12), and Lavinia (age 10) went to Texas to pick cotton. Elsie, in the early months of pregnancy, stayed home with six year old Loveta.

They found work near Dora’s on land owned by Mr. Heubsch and Mr. West. The pay was only fifty cents for one hundred pounds, but the work was welcome. The girls did the cooking and helped Jim pick cotton. Mrs. Heubsch gave them some of her home made bread and honey. They camped out in the back of an old pickup on the
farm of Dora’s father-in-law, James Calvin McFerrin, Sr.

Calvin and Dora helped by giving them a bushel of sweet potatoes and extra food. Dora made two dresses and some underwear for Lillian and Lavinia. After two weeks they went back to Oklahoma.

Lavinia was about eleven when they moved to Lawton, Comanche County, Oklahoma. There, Jim found a demand for his carpentry skills and worked several months on a building project.

Christmas Gifts
Lavinia came running home from school and excitedly announced they would all be getting Christmas presents. She said some men had stopped her and asked her name and address, how many other kids in her family, their ages, and what she wanted for Christmas. Elsie thought this sounded suspicious since Lavinia was always making up stories, and this sounded like another one. Elsie said, "Don't get excited. We'll just wait and see." Christmas day came, and they found a big gunnysack sitting on the front porch. It was filled with toys, candy, and Christmas dinner with a note offering the best wishes of the local Odd Fellow's Chapter.

Lunch Bucket
Lavinia and her sisters took their lunches to school in one-half gallon lard buckets. Usually, Elsie packed them with fried potatoes and biscuits. One day, when they were walking home from school, a little boy, Victor Coleman, did something to upset Lavinia. Quick of temper, she started swinging the only weapon at hand, her lunch bucket. She kept beating him on his back saying, "You Chickama thing! You Chickama thing!" Lavinia had learned how to say a few Indian words and thought she was insulting him. She was actually saying something like, "You good thing. You good thing."

When Lavinia was about 12, Jim and Elsie rented a small house in the country, about two miles south of the Mary Niblack school. The small farm was owned by the Methodist church, and Jim rented it for $10 per year. Later this land was claimed by the government when Lake Murray was built. Some of the family call this the "Old Methodist Place." There were two large rooms and a long kitchen. Jim partitioned off part of the kitchen to make a storage area that he called the
ante-room.

Wash Day
Farm life depended greatly on lye soap. It was used for everything from laundry to baths and shampoos. Making lye soap was a lengthy process that took most of the day. Rendered hog fat was mixed with lye and water and heated in a large kettle in the yard. The mixture was stirred and stirred and stirred. It wasn't done until you couldn't stir anymore. Then it was poured into trays or pans to get hard. Afterward it was cut into bars of soap. This was soap that was strong enough to remove dirt from clothes or skin, and if you weren't careful, it could remove the skin too. On wash day, the laundry was usually done outside. The dirty clothes were first boiled in a large kettle. Then they were scrubbed by hand with lye soap on a washboard and rinsed in tubs of cold clean water.

Lavinia hated rinsing clothes, and this showed when she hung them on the line to dry. One time Elsie saw soapy water dripping from the clothes Lavinia had hung up. She said, "Lavinia, you didn't rinse those clothes good enough. Take them all down and rinse them again!" After Lavinia finished rinsing the clothes again, she put on her perplexed look and told Elsie, "I always say if you want something done right, do it yourself." However, by then the job was done, and the clothes were clean, so Elsie overlooked the statement.

Lavinia Gets out of Chores
Loveta recalls that Lavinia was always clever enough to find a way to get out of doing chores she didn't like. One such chore was milking their cow. Elsie tried to teach Lavinia, but she would act like she couldn't quite get the hang of it. She had a way of stretching her mouth open as though terribly perplexed. She acted like she was trying so hard to learn how to milk, but if you looked close, you could see she was pushing up instead of pulling down. Consequently, Loveta ended up doing the milking.

Lavinia didn't like to work in the garden hoeing weeds. Loveta said she would deliberately chop down the plants along with the weeds. Lavinia would tell Elsie, "I don't know a weed from a cucumber plant. They all look alike to me." Lavinia got out of gathering eggs by pretending she was afraid of snakes. On the other hand, Lavinia often chased Loveta around the yard with a dead snake. Loveta would get so frightened she ran until she was exhausted.

Gathering Hickory Nuts
Lavinia told about how their mother kept them busy when she and her sisters got bored and weren't behaving. Elsie would say, "Okay girls, each of you get one of my hairpins and go gather up some hickory nuts." After finding the nuts, they had to crack the hard shell open. Picking the meat from the nut was tedious and time consuming, exactly what Elsie had planned. This really settled them down, and
they were ready to behave.

Fried Chicken
Lavinia was a good cook and enjoyed cooking when she was in the mood. One day Elsie went to town and left Loveta and Lavinia home alone. Lavinia was hungry for chicken and thought this would be a good time to cook one of the few they had rationed. Lavinia assured Loveta they could have it cooked and eaten before Mama got home, and she would never know anything about it. Loveta had to catch the chicken and chop off its head. They cleaned and fried it and had a feast. Afterwards they cleaned up their mess and got rid of all the bones, thinking Elsie would never know. Several hours later, Elsie got home and said, "I smell fried chicken. Who has been eating fried chicken?" They had forgotten to clean up the frying pan. When Elsie demanded to know what was going on, Lavinia said, "Loveta killed a chicken, and I didn't want it to spoil, so I fried it."

Spring Feast
Springtime was always welcome after the long cold winter months. Jim and Elsie knew where to look for poke plants, dandelion greens, wild onions, etc. Jim especially liked wild mushrooms and knew which ones were safe to eat. They would search until they had gathered up enough wild plants for a feast.

Mother's brother, James Calvin Jr. was born on March 23, 1929. Her parents had almost given up any hope of having a son after three daughters, so this little boy was most welcome. Elsie went into labor and knew Junior's birth was near, so they woke Lillian and Lavinia up and sent them to stay with a neighbor. Two midwives came to the house to help with his birth. Seven year old Loveta slept through all of the excitement.

Entertaining Junior
Loveta remembers they visited Grandma and Grandpa Dodson once or twice a year. She will never forget the visit in 1930. Junior was about two years old and had to climb up the front steps on his hands and knees. Loveta, Lavinia, and Junior were playing near the well behind the house. Lavinia was trying to entertain Junior by holding him up to look down in the well and talking about playing in the water. She helped him get in the water bucket that was sitting on the wooden ledge of the well. His knees were hanging out over the edge of the bucket, and he was holding on to the handle with both hands. When Loveta saw Junior in the bucket, she reacted with shock and went running and screaming to the house to tell her mother. She was always getting in trouble for telling on Lavinia, but she was too scared to care. When they heard her screams Elsie, Uncle Bill, and Aunt Jessie came running outside. It will never be known if Lavinia would have lowered Junior into the well to play in the water, but she got a lecture on the dangers of such actions anyway. Like many things that Lavinia did, this probably got just the reaction she wanted.

Loveta's Bob-Tailed Mouse
One day Loveta was playing with a white mouse that only had one eye. Chickens had pecked out the other eye. Lavinia told Loveta she had to kill it because it couldn't see. Loveta took it to the chopping block to cut off its head. She dreaded this chore because she hadn’t had too much luck with chopping blocks, but she laid it down and raised her axe. Just as she swung the axe, the mouse moved, and she cut off its tail. She felt so sorry for the mouse that she took it to the barn and hid it. One day her dad came in the house saying he had seen a white bob-tailed mouse running around in the barn. Loveta didn't say a word.

Clydesdale Horses
Loveta remembers the huge gentle Clydesdale horses that Mr. Noland owned. Their backs were so broad they could lay down without falling off. She and her sisters found an easy way to get on the horses. They would lead them to a leaning tree. The horses would stand still while they climbed up the branch of the tree and on to their backs. They didn't need a bridle. All they had to do was push on their necks in the direction they wanted them to go. They were so gentle they would just walk
around.

Punishment
When they got in trouble, Elsie would go on and on until they got tired of listening to her. Then she would make them cut their own switch from a tree limb. Lavinia would always choose one that was almost rotten, so it would break when Elsie started spanking her. If it didn't break, Lavinia would grab it, causing it to break. After it broke, Elsie stopped spanking her. When Loveta picked one that wasn't strong enough, Elsie made her go get another one.

Someone’s Up There
One day Elsie went to town with Mr. Noland. She left Lavinia and Loveta to take care of Junior. One of Loveta's good friends was staying with them. Loveta laughingly says that Lavinia soon figured out a way to liven up things. All of a sudden Lavinia's eyes opened wide and she asked if they heard that noise up in the attic, which of course, they hadn't. She said, "Did you hear that? I know you heard that!" Lavinia climbed up on a chair and stuck her head up in the attic. She jumped down, acting like she was scared to death. In a terrified voice, she said, "There's a man up there!" Lavinia took off running, and they followed, running after her for about a mile. Lavinia was so convincing that they really believed there was a man up in the attic. A neighbor saw them running and asked what was wrong. They told him, and he took his shotgun to the house and looked around. Loveta doesn't know if Lavinia really thought she saw someone, but she doubts it.

Lavinia enjoyed teasing Loveta and told her that Pretty Boy Floyd had come by the house. She said he stayed long enough to eat one of her sandwiches and promised to come back after he robbed another bank. Loveta said, "I didn't even know what Pretty Boy Floyd looked like."

Lavinia Catches a Squirrel
Loveta remembers the day when Lavinia saw a squirrel running up a tree and going down inside a hollowed out place. Lavinia told her, "I'm going to get that squirrel." She climbed up the tree and reached down inside the hole and pulled it out. She wrapped it up in her coat and took it home. Loveta said, "Papa just about threw a fit when he saw her carrying the squirrel home in her coat." He really cringed when she told him how she had caught it. He told her, "It's a wonder that the squirrel didn't chew your hand off!" He couldn't figure out why it hadn't bitten her.

Working in the Cotton Fields
Loveta remembers working picking and chopping cotton. Times were hard and all of the family worked together to increase their income. Elsie was a hard worker and good at picking cotton. She can't recall her dad ever picking cotton with them. He stayed home and worked on the farm while Elsie and the girls worked during the cotton season. Lillian couldn't stand the heat, so she took care of Junior instead of working in the fields. They always took their lunch with them. It was usually fried potato and biscuit sandwiches. The ants were really bad. It was always a problem finding places to hang their lunch buckets so the ants couldn't find their food. It was a real treat, on a hot day, when they found a ripe watermelon growing on a volunteer plant at the end of a row.

Loveta's most pleasant memory of working in the cotton fields was when she and Lavinia would take a break and lay down on top of their cotton sacks. They enjoyed looking up at the huge white fluffy clouds drifting by. The clouds looked so close they could reach up and touch them. A game they played was to pick out shapes that looked like horses, sheep, faces, and all kinds of things.

This was also a fond memory of Lavinia’s. Years later, she would talk about how close the white fluffy clouds looked in Oklahoma. She regretted not having her beautiful clouds to see, after moving away.

When the Bough Breaks
Lavinia loved the outdoors and also enjoyed reading. Her favorite place to read was in a tree with large wide limbs, which hung over a dry, sandy creek bar. One day, after she finished reading, she tried hanging by her knees from a smaller limb. Before she could raise up, she heard the limb crack, and she went crashing to the sand bar, head first. She was stunned, and the fall knocked the breath from her. She remembered this incident many years later and said she felt like she would never catch her breath again. However, after a few minutes, she recovered and climbed back up the tree to try it again.

Danger in the Watermelon Patch
About 1931 Jim was working, breaking mules and horses, for Mr. Gray. During this time, wolves were so numerous that there were bounties on them. Several times Jim had seen large packs of wolves in the distance. Loveta wanted to see them too, so early one morning when he spotted some, he woke her up. It was really exciting to see the pack of wolves running across the ridge of the hill. Every now and then a man from town would bring his hounds and let them run loose. Their house sat high up off the ground. Sometimes his dogs chased wolves underneath their house causing a loud commotion.

Jim planted a watermelon patch and was having trouble with some wolves because they liked watermelons. They would eat some and only taste others, leaving bite marks, so Jim put a trap at the edge of the garden. One warm summer morning, Elsie sent Loveta and Lavinia to get a watermelon. She wanted the melon to cool off before it baked in the hot afternoon sun. Lavinia took a knife with her, so she and Loveta could eat a melon themselves. When they got to the watermelon patch, they found a wolf caught in Jim's trap. It was frightened and frantically trying to get loose. Lavinia was now thirteen years old and grown up enough to take on any challenge. She said she was going to kill it with her knife. Loveta was scared and went running back to the house as fast as she could to tell Elsie. This terrified Elsie, and they raced to the watermelon patch. Lavinia was swinging her knife and jumping back, just barely keeping out of the wolf's reach. It was becoming more frightened and enraged, snarling and lunging. All the while, Lavinia was jumping, trying to get close enough to stab it. Elsie yelled for Lavinia to stop. She told her to run to Mr. Craddock's, about a mile away, for help and get him to bring his shotgun. Lavinia started running and wasn't even out of sight when the wolf jerked its foot free, leaving some of its toes behind in the trap. It ran away, but Elsie was almost certain it would have stayed to attack Lavinia if she had been there alone.

Riding Bareback
Lillian remembers there were always lots of things to do when she was growing up. She said, "We had a lot of fun. You just kind of had to make your own fun." She and Lavinia often went horse back riding, always bare back because they didn't have saddles. They had a hard time staying on the horses. The horses would race off through the woods, determined to get rid of them by going under trees with low growing branches.

Dodson Band
Almost everyone in the family played some kind of musical instrument. They played and sang songs just about every evening, sometimes until midnight. The entire family played an instrument. Jim played a fiddle, Elsie played a guitar, she played the mandolin, Loveta played the tambourine, and Junior played the triangle. Lillian laughed and said, "Well, almost everyone except Lavinia, who didn't play anything. Papa picked up fiddling from his father and played a fiddle real good."

Prayer Meetings
Prayer meetings were held in peoples homes. There were few roads, so most travel between houses were by old logging roads and foot trails. Sometimes, when they were going to the meetings, they could hear the wolves howling and making rustling sounds in the leaves. This was especially scary when they walked through the dark woods. Elsie would tell them, "Don't be scared. God is going to protect you. Don't worry about it."

The wolves never attacked them or their dogs, but they liked to get their chickens. Sometimes they were really bold. Once during mealtime, a wolf came up on the porch steps, just outside the screen door, and grabbed one of their chickens. Elsie practiced what she preached. She would sometimes walk three or four miles, to help people who were too sick to help themselves. Two or three times a week Elsie went to the home of a woman, sick with dropsy. The woman’s feet were so swollen she was almost helpless. She bathed and massaged her feet and prayed with her. Another time she helped a woman who was sick during her pregnancy. She had children and was unable to do her laundry and ironing, so Elsie would go to her home and help her.

About 1933 they left the Methodist Place and moved to Potato Hill, a few miles southeast of Ardmore. It was often called Tater Hill, because it resembled a huge potato sticking up out of the prairie. They lived there for at least one year.

Blue Ribbon Phantom
In the summer of 1934, while living on "Tater Hill," Elsie and her Aunt Isabelle were invited to hold a revival meeting at Blue Ribbon school. They were both preachers and held revivals that often lasted for two or three weeks. Elsie sometimes took the children to the meetings and, on this occasion, Loveta, Lavinia, and Junior went along. This particular meeting will always be remembered by Loveta. Not for what happened at the meeting, but for what happened at the house where they stayed.

Guest preachers were usually provided with food and a place to stay while they were holding meetings, but this time it was a little different. They were taken to a nicely furnished house that would be theirs to use. The only thing wrong was that it was close to the railroad tracks. One other little thing was that the house had the reputation of being haunted. In fact, they were told the previous occupants had left in such a hurry they hadn't even bothered to take their furniture with them. This didn't bother Elsie and Isabelle, because they were God fearing women. They didn't believe in that nonsense about ghosts. They were just thankful to have such a nice place to stay while doing the work of the Lord.

Some local people had even found a small chicken in a nest out in the woods and brought it to them. It seemed to take a liking to Loveta and followed her around like a pet. It didn't take long before strange things started to happen. Sometimes they would hear loud thumping noises on the floor that made the little chicken squawk and jump straight up in the air. One night after they had gone to bed, they heard what they thought were pigs under the house. It sounded like the noise pigs make when they huddle together for warmth in the winter time. They didn't think much about the noise, but when they looked under the house the next morning, they couldn't see any pigs or pig tracks. They didn't know what to think.

Another night after the kids had fallen asleep, Elsie and Isabelle woke them up. They had seen a strange light shining on the wall. Since it was moving around on the wall, they thought it might be someone walking by carrying a lantern or maybe lights coming from a train in the distance. From the windows they couldn't see any source for the light. Elsie and Isabelle searched outside and still couldn't see where the light came from. Elsie kept telling them, "Don't be afraid. God is going to protect us." Loveta laughingly remembers that she and Lavinia were so scared they jumped back in bed and stayed there with the covers pulled up over their heads.

The unexplained noises, lights, etc. started taking their effect. One night Loveta and Lavinia thought they heard a noise. Lavinia sat up in bed with such a start that the bed slats crashed to the floor, shattering the stillness of the night. Elsie and Isabelle were jarred out of a sound sleep and flew out of bed to confront whatever was lurking in the darkness.

On another day Elsie was at the back of the house washing clothes on a scrub board. Loveta and Junior were down by the creek playing in the sand. Lavinia was in the front room sewing and looked up to see a man standing at the front door. Startled, she ran to tell Elsie. Elsie walked around to the front of the house, but no one was there or anywhere near. This was another unnerving occurrence. Then again, Lavinia was sometimes known to try to liven things up if it got too dull to suit her.

Log House
While living on Potato Hill, Jim saved up enough money to purchase forty acres near McMillan, about one mile south of Red Everett's store. He started clearing the land and built a small one room log house on the south side of the gently sloping hill. This served as temporary housing for the family until he could build a larger house. Later Jim built a much larger log house, about forty feet long and twenty feet wide. It was built on the south side of the smaller house with a breezeway that connected the two together. Jim cleared and cultivated land on the hillside so he could plant an orchard. He planted several varieties of peach trees and also apple and plum trees. The apple trees didn't do very well, but peaches were plentiful.

Elsie's Preaching
Lavinia would always call her mother a long-winded preacher. She and her sisters had to sit in the front row so Elsie could keep her eye on them. By the end of the sermons, the hard benches had become very uncomfortable. In earlier days Jim had often played for dances with his father and had learned to play most stringed instruments. Elsie played the guitar and sang solos, so Jim would usually tune her guitar and teasingly play a few cords of a "worldly" song, knowing it would get a reaction from her. And, it usually did!

When called upon, he would also tune the guitars, banjos, mandolins, fiddles, and other instruments used in church. This chore would usually be followed by a few bars of “Turkey in the Straw” or “Little Brown Jug” just to get a reaction from Elsie.
Lavinia, never one to lack admirers, would occasionally let a boy friend walk her home from church. Sometimes she was known to go back to church, so another boy friend could walk her home.

Loveta Didn't
Elsie wouldn't let them wear bathing suits, so they had to wear dresses when they went swimming. They were only allowed to go swimming with girls because their clothes would be wet and clinging when they got out of the water. All the kids liked to go swimming at the Holder's farm. They had a large water tank, actually a hole in the ground, filled with water. The tank wasn't very deep, about neck deep in the center. One day she and Lavinia were at the Holder farm along with Dink Vernon (who Loveta later married) and his sisters. Everyone went swimming except her because she didn't want to get in trouble. Afterward, they waited until Lavinia's clothes had dried, and then Dink walked home with them. When Elsie learned they had been at the Holder's farm, she asked if they had gone swimming, and they told her no. Just to make sure, she asked Dink if they had gone swimming. Dink said, "Loveta didn't." Years later, Lavinia would laugh when she recalled the day she went swimming and the trouble it caused.

Elsie and Girls Go Shopping
One Saturday morning, November 23, 1935, Elsie, Lavinia, and Loveta got a ride into Ardmore to do some shopping. In town Elsie and the girls parted to pursue their own interests. Little did Elsie know what those interests would be, or how their lives would be changed by the events that would unfold. Loveta accompanied Lavinia to the courthouse to witness her marriage to Woodrow Love. Elsie soon heard about this surprising event, much to her dismay. By the time she sorted out what had happened, they had missed their ride home. Woodrow paid an acquaintance to take them home. Needless to say, Jim was bewildered. He sent his daughter off to do some shopping, and she brought home a new son-in-law for him.

Lavinia (age 17) and Woodrow (age 21) were married in Ardmore on November 23, 1935, by Justice of the Peace, Will Fare. Woodrow's brother, Sidney, and a friend, Paul Story, were witnesses.

Lavinia and Woodrow Wed
There are various stories about how my parents, Lavinia and Woodrow, met. All of the versions probably contain some element of truth. I must have heard their story often as a child, but my memories are vague now. Dad would sometimes reminisce about the time he first saw Mother in Ardmore. He was impressed with this pretty, feisty preacher's daughter, and the thought of marrying her crossed his mind the first time he saw her.

Etta Rachel Love Gilliam, Woodrow's cousin, told her version about how they met. Lavinia had stayed all night with her, and they had gone into Ardmore that Saturday with Etta's parents. She and Lavinia were sitting in their car on Caddo Street, talking and watching people walking by. In that day it was common for friends and relatives to gather on Caddo Street to socialize. Woodrow happened to be passing by and stopped to say hello to Etta. Woodrow had seen Lavinia occasionally in town and had seen her at his brother, Albert's, funeral the previous December. He was impressed with this pretty young girl and had hoped for an opportunity to meet her. Unknown to him, Lavinia had also noticed him and had hoped for a chance to meet him. When he stopped by the car, they were finally introduced to each other by Etta. After he left, Etta recalled Lavinia asked her if she believed in love at first sight. Before Woodrow left town he stopped by the car again, got in and visited with them. Woodrow and Lavinia were married about
one week later.

Nehpi LaFontaine (who later married Etta) was at the corner of Caddo and Main streets visiting with his friends J.L. Hawkins, John Love, and Woodrow Love (all cousins). He described Woodrow as a good-looking guy with his grayish-blue eyes. He called this the "Hawkins look" that came from Woodrow's mother's side of the family. While there, Lavinia and Loveta walked by. Nephi recalls how the kidding got started. John, Etta's brother, said, "Lavinia, Have you got married yet?" Lavinia replied, "No, I'm still looking." John said, "Well, Woodrow's looking for someone to marry." Woodrow didn't say much, and John kept teasing them. He finally said, "Well, you don't have to wait any longer. Just go get a marriage license now." Lavinia said, "I'm game." John said, "What do you say, Woodrow?" Woodrow said, "I guess so." Nephi said he left after a short time, but Woodrow and Lavinia remained there talking. He was sure they were quite drawn to each other and thinks that they may have actually got married that day.

Loveta, Lavinia's sister, remembers the day Lavinia and Woodrow got married. She and Lavinia had gone into town with Elsie to do some shopping. They left Elsie to go to another store and met Woodrow on the way. She recalls they started teasing and talking about getting married. After awhile they said, "Let's go get married," or something like that. Lavinia told Loveta to tell Elsie she was going to the court house to marry Woodrow. Loveta was upset and told her she better not because their mother would really be angry. She ignored Loveta's pleas. Loveta knew she should find her mother, but she wanted to stay with them to see if they actually got married. Elsie was in the grocery store on Caddo Street and was unaware of what was happening.

As soon as the Justice of Peace had married them, Loveta made a beeline to find Elsie. Elsie was upset and said, "Oh no, not one of the Love boys. They make liquor!" (Some of the Loves were known to make moonshine and have an
occasional clash with the law.)

Lavinia and Woodrow found Elsie. Elsie told Lavinia she had to go home and talk to her father. By then Elsie's ride had left town, and she told Woodrow he would have to find a ride for them. Woodrow spent his last dollar to pay a man with a Model A Ford to take them home. Loveta remembers riding home in the rumble seat. Jim was understandably upset, and Woodrow was very nervous. They stayed up late talking until Jim said it was time for bed.

Years later, Lavinia told her sister-in-law, Maxine, about the day they married. She said that she and Woodrow were visiting in front of Keys Drug. Woodrow said he would get married if he had someone to marry him. After lots of teasing, back and forth, they decided to actually go to the court house and get married. Lela, Woodrow's sister-in-law, said Woodrow borrowed enough money from his dad to get a marriage license. He didn't tell his dad why he wanted the money, but told him he would return it if he didn't use it.

(WPA Work
One summer Jim got WPA work during the construction of Lake Murray. Since he didn't have a car, this meant walking several miles, cutting across fields and pastures, to get to the job site. Every morning he left before daylight and didn't get back until after dark. A large hole had been dug in the ground for a fish hatchery. Jim's job was to help wall up the hole with 60 pound concrete blocks. Working in the hole during the heat of the summer was exhausting work. One day he got overheated and had a heat stroke. A chronic ulcer had also been aggravated by the heavy lifting, and by the time he got home, he was vomiting blood. The doctor who attended Jim didn't want to treat him, saying he was already a dead man. Since Jim was working for the WPA, the county commissioner had to give permission for his hospitalization. Woodrow Love, Jim's son-in-law, knew the commissioner. He called him in the middle of the night to tell him that his father-in-law was sick and needed help. The commissioner gave his okay for Jim to be hospitalized. It appears that Lavinia had chosen the right man to marry, since Woodrow helped save Jim's life, at least indirectly.)

Living with Sam and Lessie
After spending the night with Jim and Elsie, Sam Love, Woodrow's father, came to get them. Woodrow and Lavinia lived with Sam and Lessie until they could afford to rent a house. Woodrow's older brother, Sid, and his wife, Lela, also lived with them. Sam and Lessie had both come from large families. They had twelve children of their own, so they didn't mind if their sons brought their wives home to live with them.

Sam was a quiet, mild-mannered man who was slow to become angry. When he did lose his temper, he often reacted by quietly whistling. He was devoted to his sons and daughters, and the feeling was mutual. Of his twelve children, Woodrow was most like Sam.

I was born in Ardmore on January 9, 1937, on a cold icy, snowy morning. Dr. Higgins was on his way to the house, when his car slid into a telephone pole. By the time he got there, I had already arrived My grandfather, Sam, had helped bring me into the world. This was nothing new to him, since he had delivered twelve of his own children.

The Skull
Lavinia thought of a way to liven up things. She remembered an old skull and two arm bones that had been laying around her house since her teenage years. It was one that her dad had dug up while they were on a trip in Gran Quivera, New Mexico. It had been in the household so long, it seemed like a normal decoration. She took it home, thinking she might have some fun with it. She put the skull on a broom handle and secured a sheet to the skull so that it had a ghostly appearance. The arms bones were crossed and fastened in place underneath the skull. Lavinia would often move it to different parts of the house to startle some unsuspecting person. Someone finally put the skull underneath a trap door in the floor of the bathroom. Then all kinds of unexpected noises were heard or imagined.

Lela said once they were frightened when they heard a noise and everyone ran out the back door. Lela and Lessie got stuck because they tried to run out the door the same time. Just then Lessie's son, Roy, came to the back door and said, "What's going on around here?" The noise they heard had been him, knocking on the front door.

Sam was superstitious and thought they would have bad luck if the skull was there. He finally buried it and wouldn't tell anyone where. That was the end of the spooks. Elsie thought the skull should have been given back to them because it had been in the family so long.

Later my parents moved to Modesto, California where I grew up.