I had mentioned earlier about my nephew Robert who had died. This is a picture of me with him. I have a vague memory of his casket being at my sister Lillian's house. There was only about 2 to 3 years difference in our age as i recall. Lillian was 16 years old when i was born. Medical care back in those days was not very good and living isolated from a town and no transportation made life difficult. I do not know and do not remember ever being told what was his cause of death. My sister went on to hace 4 children after that. Two boys, Ivy Dewitt, (the Ivy after my dad) and Benny(after my brother). Two girls Shirley Ann and Martha Carrol.

More pictures of my childhood to come.

About 7 or 8 years ago my sister Audrey and i went back to the old homeplace in Auburn Miss. The area was all grown up and fenced off. We had to climb the fence to get a close look. The house looked as if it had stood empty for quiet some time. Changes to the house was evident from what we remember from the early thirties. The old porch in front is where i broke my arm and the little porch on the left still stood. This is where i did the damage to grannys portable toilet. I went by there 2 years ago and nothing had changed.

Getting back to happenings on the farm in my early childhood, the things that i mention are not in any order but those things i remember the most. I mentioned my mom always there for us but i don't ever recall getting a spanking from her. The only spanking i ever recall was from my brother Bennie but that will be in another episode. I barely remember my mom coming toward me to give me a spanking once. I got in the window and tried to jump to a side poarch but missed it and broke my left arm. There was another time while my grandmother was staying with us. We did not have indoor plumbing and the outhouse was quiet away from the house. My grandma had a bucket she used during the night. These were referred to as slop jars or thunder mugs. Anyway, the bucket or whatever was emptied eash morning, washed out and turned upside down on the back porch. This one day there were some nails and a hammer on the porch so i took a nail and the hammer and put some holes in the bottom of this bucket, apparently, just to have something to do. Anyway, the holes were not discovered until the next day which was too late. I didn't put those holes there but the truth finally prevailed and its a wonder i'm still living. My brothers Leo and Johnnie were always doing things to aggravate granny. She always told them that someday, they would go to the gallows.
Another incident they never let me forget about. On summer nights they would get dried cow manure and put in buckets and set fire to. This would smoke and keep the mosquitoes away. This one night my sister Audrey had her boy friend visiting. Everyone was on the front porch visiting and i hollered out, "its time to get the cow manure." Except i didn't say manure.
Things were often dull on the farm. Somedays i would go cross the road where an old sawmill once stood. I would sit there waiting to see if any gypsys came by. I had been told gypsys often went up and down that road. Me and our dog Hoot would wonder around the farm always looking for something to get into. Hoot was a smart dog and would eat anything you ate. Once my brother Benny was planting peanuts and looked back and Hoot had ate all the peanuts he had dropped in the rows.

I was just thinking about the syrup that was common during my childhood. The sugar cane would be cut and hauled to a place where the stalks would be fed into a vertical set of steel cylinders that would be rotating by means of a mule walking in a circle. The juice would be squeezed out into cooking vats. A person would tend the vats and be knowledgable of when the juice had been cooked enough and the syrup then put into gallon buckets. I loved as a kid to take a cold biscuit and poke a hole in it and pour syrup into the hole. This was a good way to ease the hunger pangs.

Our meals consisted mostly of vegetables during the summer months. In the fall, hog killing time provided meat for the table. The hams and other parts would be put in a smoke house to be cured. We ate lots of potatoes especially sweet potatoes. When potatoes were dug up we would put them in piles and cover with dirt so they would not freeze in the winter. My favorite food was blackeyed peas. My mom said i would cry in the mornings if i had no peas for breakfast. We also grew peanuts. During the growing season for peanuts before they were dried, we ate boiled peanuts. They are really good boiled in salt water. They are still popular in Miss. and Alabama. Sweet potatoes is still one of my favorite foods. I love them fixed any way and especially in a pie. There are two local restaurants near my home now where you can get sweet potato fries instead of regular fries.

Since we had no monthly income things could be hectic in case of sickness or other emergencies. My mom relied on home remedies to take care of the family. I have taken turpentine and sugar for stomachaches, had coal oil poured on cuts, asafetida bags worn around the neck to ward off diseases, sulphur and grease for the itch and on and on.

All these things may sound as being exaggerate but they are true. There were times when i only had one pair of overalls and would have to stay in a room until they were washed and dried. But i believe i was fortunate and blessed by experiencing these things at an early age. As i mentioned earlier we were very poor but i don't suppose we knew it because we were not alone.

John Denver's song, Thank God i'm a Country Boy is one of my favorites. I have that 45 on one of my juke boxes. It reminds me of how laid back you can be on the farm. As i mentioned earlier there was nothing to do for entertainment so you had to find ways of having fun.
There was a family living across the field from our house and they were afraid of everything. They had heard the world was coming to an end and lived in constant fear that it would happen at any time. If it thundered they would come across the field to our house and stay until it was over. Leo and Johnny occasionally would take the large mirror off our dresser and take it on top of the barn. With the sun at a certain position, they would reflect the light into our neighbors house. This would cause them to abandon the house and start our way. Mom finally put a stop to that prank so other means of entertainment had to be found.
Some farms in the area raised what we called sugar cane. It was used to make syrup which was very popular in all farm households. I recall, the two of them getting in one farmers cane and cutting some and storing it in a tree. You could peel the cane and chew it for the sweet cane juice. On this occasion the wind blew the cane out of the tree and the cows enjoyed it. Of course i tagged along on all these episodes.
Where we lived in the Auburn area there were no churches close by. I don't recall any conversations about church going. However, later on my mom explained that she was a member of the Freewill Baptist Church.
I started to school at Auburn. The first year i went to what they called the Primer. After this year then you started in the 1st grade. It was at school when i first ate ice cream. My brother Johnny was in the 6th grade and once they had ice cream at school and he bought a bar as i recall and gave me half of it. We had no means of making ice cream at home. In fact, we never had ice. Food after it was cooked was kept in a safe with screen wire on front. The legs of the safe always sit in pans of water to keep ants out. We had no screened windows. In the summer months we sleptwith mosquito netting over the beds. We used coal oil lamps for lighting and wood for cooking and a fireplace for the winter. Our water was from the well and had to be carried to the house. Normally we had no shoes during the summer but in the winter we had rubber boots. I remember wrapping my feet in paper to help keep my feet warm in the boots.

I am the only one still living of the Freeman clan. Looking back to those yesteryears, my mom deserves all the credit for the countless hours of toil and the abundent love she had for her family. She never complained nor did i ever hear her speak harshly against anyone. She lived a great life despite all the hardships she went through. She never remarried was always there to see that we kids were taken care of. Most of Proverbs, Ch. 31: 10-31 is scripture that relates to us the type Godly person she really was. I know for a fact also we kids did a lot of things to torment her but she knew how to handle each situation. I mentioned earlier that she would send my younger brothers to the store with a chicken to trade for whatever she needed. I remember coffee was about 20 cents a bag and usually the chicken was worth 25 cents. She would expect the 5 cents back. My brother Leo told her coffee had gone up to 25 cents and he took the 5 cents and bought Bull Durham tobacco. I was with them when they would hide in the barn an try smoking. She caught us doing this and set the punishment. Her mother, our grandmother was staying with us at the time and she smoked a cob pipe. My mother made the three of us come in the house, sit down and she got grandma's pipe and made all three smoke it. As i recall there was no more smoking done after that. One puff on the old corn cob pipe will last a lifetime.

The point i really want to get accross is to have the love and respect for your moms as you go through life. Don't wait and lose the opportunity to let them know you do love and appreciate them. My mom lived just ten days short of her seventy fifth birthday.

I have been considering doing this series of postings for the benefit of my kids, grandkids and great grandkids. My early life was very uneventful so there will be no amazing revelations here but just of some of my early childhood situations that might be intresting or maybe not so. The picture you see at the left is of me( the short one) and two of my brothers, Leo and Johnny. My earliest memory of things go back to about the age of around five.

I was born on November, 28th. 1927 to Ivy Ransom and Sarah Cornelia Davis Freeman at Johnston Station Mississippi. I was the youngest of seven children. My oldest brother Juluis, (Jack) was born in 1907, Benjamin, (Bennie) was born in 1909, My sister Lillian was born in 1911, My sister Audrey was born in 1913, My brother Leo in 1917 and my brother Johnny in 1922.

My father died when i was one year old leaving my mother and seven children. My lifelong desire has been to see a picture of my dad. I have no idea of what he looked like and if there was any resemblence of me and him. Years i have spent looking for a picture but apparently there was none not even among his family members whom me or other relatives have contacted.

My early childhood years were during the Great Depression era of the late 20's and early 30's. As evidenced by the picture you can tell by our clothes that times were tough. My older brother Jack had left home shortly after my dads death but the rest of the family struggled through the coming years as sharecroppers. My brother Bennie shouldered the load of keeping the family together. I have many memories of my early life on the farm. We were poor, but we were not the only ones. I can vaguely remember my mom's dad dying and also the death of my sister's son Robert who was a year or so younger than me. As i look back to those years, despite the tough times, i truly can say i have been blessed. We lived on three different farms as i recall in my early childhood. The most vivid in my mind is when we lived on the Peterson farm in the Auburn community of Miss. The land owner would come by about every month or so and he would bring us a package of peppermint sticks. We would buy a few groceries on credit at he community store and settle up when the crops were in. I have gone with Leo and Johnny many times to the store which was a couple of miles away and they would carry a young pullet under the arm and trade it for a pound of coffee. Can any of you imagine living in a time with no radio, tv, phone, no transportation, no neighbors next door, theaters etc for entertainment? I will be relating some things later that we did for fun.

9

I am not sure how to approach this subject but it has become an interesting side line for me diuring this summer. Bear in mind i wear shoes and socks everyday. I started looking at peoples toes who wear those flip flops etc. I am amazed how ugly some peoples toes are. I was in the doctors office a few days ago with several people waiting to see the Doc. I begin to wonder if some of them were there to have their toes looked at. Man, there are some terrible looking creatures out there. Don't know exactly how to describe them yet but i believe some of them should be concealed. Saw one set that had rings on that looded like the rings off of coke cans, some that looked like turtle heads, dried prunes and oh my goodness those toe nails. Some already curled back under. Could not tell either if the feet were dirty or just colored that way. I know how mine look so i keep them covered up while out in public. Anyway, take a look for yourselves and see what you think.

A young and successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar.
He was watching for kids darting out from parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead a brick smashed into the Jag's side door! He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown.
The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the kid and pushed him up against a parked car shouting, "What was all that about and who are you? Just what the heck you are doing? Thats a new car ant that brick you threw is going to cost me a lot of money. Why did you do it?"
The young boy was apologetic. "Please mister.. please, I'm sorry but i did not know what else to do," he pleaded. "I threw the brick because no one would stop..."
With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around a parked car. " It's my brother," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and i can't lift him up." Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned man, "would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."
Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy back into his wheelchair, then took out a linen handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to br okay...Thank you and may God bless you,"the grateful child told the stranger. Too shook up for words, the man simply watched the boy push his wheelchair bound brother down the side walk toward their home.
It was a long, slow walk back to the Jaguar. The damage was very noticeable, but the driver never bothered to repair the dented side door. He kept the dent there to remind him of this message. "Don't go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your attention!"

This made me stop and think of a recent experience where a young man in his early thirties and weighing only 65 pounds. How tragic it is and how much we take for granted due to our good health and there are countless numbers who are less fortunate than we. This young man had to be lifted by his mon in and out of his wheelchair and lifted in and out of bed. Tonight as you pause to thank God, just say a prayer for those out there who need all the blessings that God can give and be reminded that God cares. Lets all do something to help so that we are not the reciepent of a brick hurled our way.

It is a sad day in Arkansas as we mourn the death of our Lt Governor, Win. Rockefeller. He was a great man, a great Arkansan and a great Republican. We have been having special prayers for him through our State Republican Party as well as our Pulaski County Republican Party of which i am a member. He along with his dad done so much for this state and he will be truly missed. I have had the pleasure of meeting this quiet and gentle person. If he had not become ill i truly believe he would have been our next Governor. How tragic it is to lose a great man like this.

Well its good to be home after a few days in Nebraska. The people there were extremely friendly and helpful. But its not Arkansas. While there i had some of the most difficult cases i have ever had. One good thing though, Mt Motel was two blocks from Krispy Kreme Donuts. There is nothing like a good cup of their rich blend coffee and hot donuts. There were other intresting events going on as well. My first time to see the protest groups at abortion clinics. Had i not been working i probably would have joined them. The clinic looked as if it was an abandoned building with their advertisement covering the entire area of the end of a two story building. Anyway, glad to be home.

My latest prediction,
They use a Lizard to do commercials for an insurance co. and turtles for Hi speed internet. I believe they will be doing snakes to do the political ads for the November elections. By the way, i hope Joe Lieberman can get reelected. I like him because i believe he is a republican and does not realize it. He is a lot like Zell Miller.

Happy Independence Day.
I was wondering why after 9-11, we did not round up all the Muslims and Islams and put them in colonys like we did the Japanese after they bombed Pearl Harbor. There is very good evidence they hate Americans.

This news item just in from the CNN news room. Hillary Clinton just stated if she decides to run for President and wins the nomination, she would probably ask Larry the Cable guy to be her running mate in order to nail down the southern vote. Sounds good to me.

Well, according to the counter on this bit of rambling blog site , in the last month i have had 4 visitors and 2 comments. That tells me that i am in the wrong situation. Could it be that since i am uneducated and don't use the big words, my comments are not important. Incidently, i purchased Websters Word Book on the correct spelling of 30.000 words. When i memorize all of them i might return. As General Doug said, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."