| Leona Presley Cloud |
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| Leona Presley Cloud was born in Harlan County, Kentucky in 1902 and died October 1988. She married Tilman Thomas Cloud in 1924. Tilman Thomas Cloud, Jr. was born in 1901 in Tennessee. Their first child, Tilman Thomas Cloud, Jr. (Junior) was born in August 1925. Shortly after Junior's third birthday they moved from Brittains Creek, Kentucky to Stretchneck Holler, Dizney, Kentucky. This was about three miles from Brittains Creek to Dizney, Kentucky. They lived in a small cabin above what was to be their family homestead. Shortly after Tilman bought the house and the surrounding land, Lola, Asbury (Berry), Pauline and Lora were born. Tilman worked in the mines when there was work. There was a lot of work to be done at home also. The garden was taken care of by Papaw, milking the cow and gathering honey and taking care of the bees. The canning, cooking, gathering eggs, housekeeping and selling of extra buttermilk, butter and garden vegtables. Tilman never helped with the any of the "women's work". Leona worked as hard as any man. She would pack up whatever she could sell and walk from Dizney, following a trail directly over the mountain, which was called Bonnie Blue. This trail let to Virginia. At the top of the mountain there was a place that men would wait for a ride down the mountain to work in the mines in Virginia. Mamaw would catch a ride also and sell whatever she brought with her to the miners and people living in the mining community. With the money she made selling eggs, buttermilk, butter and vegtables she bought her children new coats and shoes for winter. These were bought from the Pace general store in Dizney. Tilman never would buy these things for the children so she had no choice but to raise the money herself for these necessities. Tilman worked hard and expected everyone to go to bed when he did. The sun came up later in the day and set earlier in the evening because the took the sun longer to get up high enough to get over the mountains and shine into the valleys. The sun would also go behind the mountains earlier than other places too. The children were not ready for bed when the sun went beyond the mountains. The children were young it was hard to get them to be quite and go to sleep so Leona would quietly take them out of the house and a good distance away from the house as not to wake Tilman. They would return to the house when it became almost too dark to see. I loved to walk up the road to visit Mamaw and Papaw. Most of the time I came with mom when she was helping Mamaw. I have many happy memories of Mamaw in her kitchen. When the cow was milked and the milk was brought into the kitchen, Mamaw would use a very thin cloth to strain the milk. This separated the milk from the cream. The cream was used for coffee, baking and some was put aside with some milk to "clabber". This mixture of milk and some cream was put into a large aluminum bowl or bucket on the kitchen table. After a few days the milk would turn thick and have a very sour smell. The water from the milk would separate and be at the bottom of the container. Leona would bring her churn into the kitchen. She would remove the "dasher" and the lid to the churn. She would then pour the thick sour milk and water into the churn, replace the dasher and lid. The "dasher was a long skinny round piece of wood with two flat thin boards nailed to the bottom in an "X" figure. The lid had a hole in the middle that fit over the dasher. There was enough room in the hole for the dasher to be pulled up and then pushed back down into the thick sour mixture. This up and down motion eventually formed small pieces of butter. The longer you churned the bigger the pieces of butter got. When the liquid turn to the proper consistency to be buttermilk the job was done. Mamaw and mom knew exactly when this happened. For me it seemed an awfully long process. I never whined to quit when my arms got too tired. I just plugged right along because I was not a quiter at anything life threw at me. Leona would gather all the butter and put it into a bowl and pour water over it. Then she would use a wooden spoon to beat the butter in the water, kind of like mixing up an egg that was to be scrambled. She would pour out the water until it was no long milky in color, but clear and the butter formed a ball and stuck together. A sheet of wax paper would be laid on the table. The wooden mold would be filled with butter and patted down to get all the air bubbles out. When the mold was turned upside down on the was paper appeared this perfectly formed round pound of butter with a little design on top. There were usually four or five molds of butter. The butter would be wrapped in the wax paper and go into the refrigerator until they were eaten or sold to customers. Tilman had built a rock wall about three feet from the back of the house. The wall was about three feet high. At the top of the wall was a small flat area where he had planted purple grape vines that would grow around a wooden overhang. This retaining wall served a duel purpose it helped to give a flat area to grow the grapes and it held back the dirt of the mountain from sliding down into the back of the house. continued . . . . . |