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By Lillie Nevitt
Chapter 2
| Lillie loved apples and got very few of them. So the kids would go through
the cans and boxes because the stores would sometimes throw out vegetables and
fruit that could be salvaged. Many a pot of soup was made of a few turnips, celery
tops and what ever could be saved from the vegetables. But any apples Lillie found
were saved for her.
At noon, hot soup was served to the less fortunate children and Mamma would take a French mustard jar, fill it with mild and give it to Lillie to take to school. She would set it in the window of the lunch room to stay cool. It and the soup made a very nourishing and satisfying lunch. Many years later, she would see a mustard jar and memories would be awakened. No home ever lasted long for the family. Before the year was over, they found themselves living in a barn in Phoenix at her Aunt Hattie's place. A stove was set up to cook on and beds were made out on the floor. Artie, Lillie and Johnny slept in one and the parents and Georgie slept in the other one. A new school was entered and a new phase of life begun. The only spanking Lillie ever received at school was at the Murphy School and for something that was not Lillie's fault. All the students were sitting around a table in small chairs. It was almost Easter time and they were making decorations for the school room. There were rabbits, chicks, flowers and trees. The teacher had borrowed a rabbit pattern from another teacher and since the wind was blowing in the open windows, she had placed a book on the patterns so they would not blow away. Lillie had asked permission from the teacher to use the rabbit and had been told to go ahead but be careful not to tear the rabbit. As Lillie started to pull the rabbit from under the book, a small boy put his hand on the book, holding it down. Of course, the ears tore off. Immediately, the boy called to the teacher that Lillie had pulled the ears off the rabbit. Lillie was told to go to a tree in front of the building and break off a switch and bring it in to the teacher. Lillie did and on handing it to the teacher, was told to turn around. The teacher started switching her legs awhile the kids all watched. She had been switched by her mamma but it had never hurt like this did. She did not remain at the school long enough to make friends either with the children or the teachers. Since her father and her uncle did not get along, another move was made, this time to the desert north of Glendale, near a canal bank. This, Lillie loved. She liked watching the water in the canal, or the little boats, leaves or whatever she floated on the water. And Mamma would take branches that floated in the canal, and tie them together, making a broom. And since there house had a dirt floor, it worked quite well as a broom. There were mesquite trees and even a peach tree that really had peaches on it later in the year. Probably from a seed thrown down by some wandering hiker or fisherman, and it had taken root. There were rabbits along the bank, both jack rabbits and cottontails. If one was really quiet, the rabbits could be seen nibbling at the tender new growth along the bank. She liked that and when the water was low, Matt would take her into the water with him where she would try to swim. He could but somehow, she never quite got the hang of it. And she always, all her life, had had a fear of water closing in over head and could never learn. She and Johnny loved exploring and they did lots of it. And the baby, Georgie, was reaching an age where he would toddle along after them. Sometimes, they would forget to go slow and would have to go back and find him. Generally he would be found sitting, playing in the dirt. By this time, he too, was in bib overalls and would have the bib full of the dirt. It was his storehouse. So Lillie took the responsibility of taking care of him. He was the doll her mother had promised her before Georgie was born. Then after his birth, her mother would not let her play with him, so now she was making up for the time she lost. In their wanderings, they found a tent and in it was an old man. To them, he was very old. He told them his name was Tobe Lacy, but they could call him Uncle Tobe. They would spend hours at his tent listening to his stories and looking at his pictures. When mamma needed them she always knew where to look. Lillie loved to tease Matt and would imitate everything he said. No matter what he said, she would repeat it. If he yelled, 'Mamma, make her leave me alone.", she would imitate it, just as he said it. He would be so mad but could not get his hands on her so he would hide. But invariable she would find him. He enjoyed reading and got to where he would take his book and sneak up onto the room, sitting astraddle of the ridge pole. She would look and look for him, but even finding him did no good because she could not get to him and he would not talk to her. So, the fun was over and she would go and find something else to do. By the time he came down, she would think of something else to do and forget about him. Two of mamma's brothers came to see them quite often and one of them wasn't liked by none of the children. He found he could make them cry by tormenting them and never came that at least one of them was not crying when he left. There were two spikes driven in the outside wall of the house, one on each side of the door where the men would hang their hats or canteens before going into the house. If Johnny or Georgie were not fast enough, they would find themselves hanging by their suspenders on the spikes. And of course, all the screaming and kicking would not get them down, unless mamma or Daddy went and lifted them down. Uncle Dave chewed tobacco and if he could catch Artie or Lillie standing in their bare feet, not watching, he would spit the tobacco juice between their bare toes. If they knew he was coming, there would not be a kid in sight upon his arrival and none would make an appearance until he was gone. Mamma would make biscuits in pie tins. Those around the edge of the rim would have to stand on edge, thus making a sort of bent over edge when done. The kids would fight over who got the curly haired biscuit. One day, a lady was visiting and stayed for supper. She thought it so funny when the kids argued over the biscuits. Mamma was the hunter of the family and had an old twelve gauge shotgun. When she aimed at something she always got it. If she didn't, there might not be a meal for the family. No one could cook rabbit like mamma could. She had a special way of making what she called 'Dago Stew' by using olive oil, garlic, tomatoes and no one ever knew just what else. Years later, Matt tried to make it, using a recipe mamma had written down but it never quite tasted the same. She and the kids would go along the canal banks and pick wild greens and mamma had her own special way of fixing them. It seemed she had special ways of cooking everything she cooked. After boiling them, she would drain all the water from them and would fry them in flour and bacon grease. The taste lasted many years. The house wasn't really big enough for all of the family, so her father, being a scavenger, though at times, an illegal one, found in the desert, an old deserted house. Near the main road and bridge across the canal, was a piece of land, unclaimed and just plain deserted. He tore the deserted house apart and on his old pickup, hauled or dragged it to the proposed home site. He, Matt and mamma worked, putting it back together again into a livable home. There was one large room where the father and mothers bed was and where they all ate. Then, a smaller room where the beds for Artie and Lillie, and for Johnnie and Georgie were put. They were beds the father had made from discarded lumber, with old bed springs that had been in old deserted houses. He wasn't always particular whether a place was really deserted or not, especially if something was in sight and he could haul it. A small lean-to was built on the backside of the house and used for a kitchen. There, mamma made all the bread they ate, cooked the beans and made the hominy. The mother was pregnant again. Georgie had gotten big enough now so he had been moved into the bedroom and was sharing Johnny's bed. Matt had been sleeping away from the house for sometime now, by himself but had gone to an old stage stop where the mother's brothers lived and was herding goats for them. School was held in a small red brick school house about a mile from their house, across the bridge. It was a one room, one teacher school named Bell Ward School. Johnny and Lillie walked it each morning and evening. Artie, nearly fifteen now and too old for the small school, walked eight miles to town to school. Most times, she was lucky and got rides, both going and coming. Very seldom did she have to walk the entire distance. Georgie, large for his age, also started school with Johnny and Lillie, and as they would strike off for school, Lillie, holding his pudgy hand, his red hair would shine. He was a smart child and in the first grade, along with Johnny, and Lillie was so proud of him. In fact, she was so proud, she told the teacher he was only four years old, but did look six. There was a state law that a child had to be six by the end of the school year in order to be enrolled, so all three children were given a ride home in the teacher's car after school and the mother was told she could no longer send Georgie to school, as much as the teacher would have liked to have him. It had really been a help to the pregnantcy to have him from under foot all day. School was fun at the Bell Ward School and she and Johnny would play all the way home, either with sticks in the road, bending them so when pushed they would sort of walk along or they would put sticks and leaves in the lateral ditch along the way. It wasn't always fun though. One day something happened that could have ended as a tragedy but didn't. It was in the winter and a cold wind was blowing. They still had a long way to walk before arriving home and, since Johnny had some matches, they decided to build a small fire to get warm. She could remember the fires Matt used to build on the way to school in the mornings. Being older, she should have said no but the memories of the warmth of the other fires was too fresh in her memory. So a fire was built. What she didn't take into account was that although there were no houses close, the grass that was so pretty and green all summer was now dry and dead and would burn easily. And burn it did. It began to spread in the grass and with the wind blowing, they soon lost control of it. They became frantic and began whipping and beating it with their coats, beating and crying all at the same time. They finally got it out, at least they thought they had and with a coat in one hand and a lunch bucket in the other, they ran all the way home. The distance didn't seem quite so far after all. They never mentioned it to anyone nor to each other, but in the night Lillie could remember another fire and was wondering if Johnny was remembering it too. When they lived at their uncle's in Phoenix, there was a chicken house, covered with burlap or gunny sacks to make shade for the chickens. Johnny, Georgie and their little cousin were playing with matches and burned the chicken house down. No one was hurt but it was a memory that stayed with Lillie for the rest of her life. Next morning, on the way to school, the two saw where the fire had burned. The fire had not been out as they thought. After all their work, it had continued to burn, going up into the orchard and burning a large number of trees. Luckily, there were no houses near and someone had seen it and completely put out the fire. They never forgot nor did they loiter on the way home from school anymore. |
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Last Update 30th June 2000
