IreneHaleCloud2

   Irene was very insecure and nieve she thought that all men were like her father who worshiped his wife, was kind to his family and went to church regularly. Boy was she in for a rude awakening. Junior thought getting married shouldn't have to stop his running around with the ladies and drinking. He wanted Irene as a housekeeper.   Junior would come home from working in the coal mines on a Friday and expect not only supper to be on the table but his shirts to be shirts to be starched and iron perfectly. He would get all dressed and out the door he went to meet up with either a lady friend or drinking buddies. Daddy was very handsome. His dark good looks came from his Cherokee Indian heritage. The ladies swarmed like bees to honey.
    Irene hardly ever stood up to Junior because she really had no place to go if she left him. After the babies began to come she knew she could not support them by herself.
    Their first child was named Sandra. Irene's labor was very long and painful. Sandra did not cry when she was born but Leona who helped with the birth would not give up and contined to pat her on the back and clean out her mouth until a very feeble cry was emitted. Sandra was dead the next morning when mom woke up.   The second child Roger was a healthy baby. Then came Portia, Tony and Donnie. Donnie was the only child who was borned in a hospital.
    Junior went north to find work after Roger was born. He sent for Irene and Roger. He had a one room apartment in a tough neighborhood. He would get all dressed up every night when he came home from work and leave mom and Roger alone in the apartment. One night a fight started and gun shots rang out. Irene lay in bed holding Roger and praying to be delivered from that horrible place. After that she demanded to be taken home. Junior took them back to Harlan County, but with no where to live they moved in with Leona and Tilman, Junior's parents. Tilman loaned Junior money to build a house a short distance down the road in Stretch Neck Holler from their house. Junior went back to work in the mines for a few years but after Donnie was born he went north for work again.   There were times that Junior sent no money home to support Irene and the kids. Tilman and Leona saw to it that they did not starve.
    After several months a letter came from Junior's sister who lived near dad in Michigan. The news was that Junior was living with a woman. Mom wrote to him that if he did not come home she would file for divorce. Junior traveled home on a greyhound bus but was followed by his lady friend who convinced him to return to Michigan. When Junior went back north Irene went to Harlan County Circuit Court and filed for divorce.   Junior came home and stayed this time.
     In all the time that mom lived away from home she did all work pertaining to the keeping of Mr. and Mrs. Hale (not her parents) home.   Her family never had the land to garden and never owned animals which could have kept the family from starving.
     Junior's mom, Leona Presley Cloud, took mom under her wing and taught her the things she needed to know to care for her family. Irene learned how to quilt, crochet, make flowers out of crape paper for memorial/decoration day and sell them, take care of a garden and can the food, carry her own water to wash clothes, for cooking and drinking, and how to build fires in the potbellied stove and to cook on the kitchen coal stove. She learned to milk a cow, save a portion of the milk to sour and then churn it until butter came to the top and the milk turned to buttermilk. She took care of the chickens and learned to kill them and pluck their feathers in preparation for fixing them for supper. Leona and Irene shared many chores and did them at Leona's house. All the produce from Tilman and Junior's gardens that needed to be canned were combined at Leona's house.
      I remember lots of times sitting in mamow's living room with a big needle and thread stringing beans. First you had to remove the ends and strings attached to the beans. The beens were then washed.   With a hugh bunch of beans and needle and thread you would push the needle through the middle of the bead. When the entire length of the thread was filled with beans they would be carried to the smoke house and hung from the ceiling until they were dried. When the beans dried out they were referred to as shuck beans. Another gathering that included, Irene, Leona, and me was quilting. Quilts were made from any old clothes, scrap cloth or cow feed sacks.