drucillapresley

DRUCILLA HALL PRESLEY

Walking straight ahead as you entered the livingroom was a doorway leading into the kitchen. Against the wall dividing the kitchen and livingroom was an old fashion cubbord. It was not too different from today's china cabinets. At the top there were doors that had grey tin metal with wood only on the edges of the doors. There was a picture in the tin made by punching tiny holes in the metal. There was a rectangel shaped wood table with four canebottom chairs in the middle of the room. There was a dry sink with either a cabinet around it or a cloth skirt. Above the sink was a window that faced the mountain. There was an old fashion wood cooking stove against the side wall with a door leading outside. In the side yard was a pump for water. There was a trail leading to a house a few hundred yards along the side of the mountain. Her son Clyde Presley lived here but moved to Louisville in the early 50s.   Behind the house was a small building and a toilet.
I remember Sheila and I would sleep over every so often when there was no school or on the weekend.
    I remember sleeping in the extra bedroom looking out the window at the stars in the sky and sharing secrets with Sheila. I also remember sleeping on a roll-away bed in the livingroom with a fire going in the fireplace and watching the shadows it made on the ceiling.
   Grandma would make us breakfast. This was a treat for me because I usually had oatmeal, pancakes or eggs, gravy and biscuits. She made a bowl of rice and toasted bread in her oven. She would put sugar into the rice and we would spoon it onto the bread and eat it. That is one of the comfort foods I never got enough of as I grew into an adult. Because I wanted my girls to experience the same thing I made them rice with toast too, usually when they were not feeling good. She also had another food that she made that I like to this day. She would put cottage cheese in a bowl and empty canned fruit over it with a little mayonaise. I still eat that too.

This is Drucilla Hall Presley. The mother of my grandmother Leona Presley Cloud. Grandma Presley was born in 1882 in Elcomb, Harlan County Kentucky and died in 1962 in Dizney, Kentucky. She is buried at the cemetary behind the Church of God Church in Bills Creek. She was married Andrew Jackson Presley. Here parents were Carr Brittain Hall and Julie Ann Langford.   Grandpa Presley was born October 9, 1878 and died in Dizney on June 12, 1924. He left eight children for Drucilla to raise. She remarried to have a bread winner but what she got was a selfish man who wanted her to give up her children. Grandma refused and divorced him. Her children were Leona (b. 75/1902 d. 10/2/1988, Clyde (______________) Elmer Farley (b. 1904 d. 1977, Robert Lee (b. 3/20/1907 d.____), Cecil Skidmore (b. 9/12/1909 d. _____),Johnnie Gilbert (b. 10/5/1912 d. 10/4/1955), Golda (b. 4/11/1917 d. 8/19/1979), Stella Myrtle (b. 7/30/1918 d. 9/11/1976) Clark Hall (b. 7/16/1920 d. 11/6/1960).
My grandmother is Leona Presley Cloud. Both lived in Dizney. Grandma Presley lived in the bottom land near the highway. This land was in the valley that was surrounded by the four hollers. Leona Cloud lived in Stretchneck holler. We lived just down the road below her house.
   My mother would take me with her when she went to Grandma Presley's house to give her a sponge-bath or wash her hair or to help around the house. I am not sure if this was a weekly thing or if Pauline Grubbs (daddy's sister helped also.
   I would go with mom whenever she went out of the holler. I loved to watch mom comb grandma's hair and roll it into a bun on top of her head and put the old fasion hair pins in to secure it. Grandma had the most beautiful yellow hair.
    Grandma used to fuss at me for constantly chewing bubble gum. "It will rot your teeth out"she would say to me. She was so right. I have been paying for that bubblegum all these years.
     Mom and I usually walked up the lane before the creek and the highway. From the big bridge you would pass about four houses that were close together. Then her property would begin with a field of corn. At the end of that field was the bridge that led over the creek to the highway on the left and a path leading towards her house. After a short distance her front yard opened up. There was nothing in the middle of the yard but the cornfield surrounding it there were flowers planted randomly. I mostly remember the sunflowers. I have lots of sunflowers in my yard each summer because they remind me of her and I love them. Her house was built close to the mountain. There was a porch across the front of the house with wide steps leading up to the porch.
     There was an old radio in her livingroom. It was about three feet tall, maybe more, the width was about two feet. In the middle near the top was a tiny radio face with knobs. Sometime when Sheila and I slept over she would find a station and let us listen to the radio. This was in the middle fifties.
   The radio would be to the left of the front door as you walked into the house. To the right was a door leading into her bedroom. In the wall seperating the livingroom and the bedroom was a two sided fireplace. You could build a fire in the bedroom or you could build a fire in the livingroom. In the livingroom, I really don't remember what her furniture looked like. I guess I was too impressed with the radio and the fireplace.   In their bedroom to the right as you entered through the front door, there was a bed in the middle of the room. At each corner of the bed were tall round posts. The purpose I guess was to hang your clothes when you went to bed.   The furniture looked very old. I only remember a bed and a shiffrobe. There were no closets so the shiffrobe held all the clothes and linens.