The Life of Me: An Autobiography

as I go along. While I have been telling about some of our working habits and our little family customs, I find that

t. Her name was Gladys, an

nd a half, I was no longer just a little kid. I was getting to be a big boy, six and a half and going on seven. And my ears w

, "A sweetheart is a chick

eethearts are one boy and one girl about the same age who like each other and like to go

d best was Gladys. She was just my size, she was six years old, and she and I liked to go play together. So, when I learn

rently toward her. We just went right on playing together as we had been

dered why boys and girls had sweethearts at all. They were

eethearts and dating. (In those days we called it "going together.") But in our i

anted to be branded as being "not so good." Instead of dances we had parties. Many a Friday night some good farm couple would give a party. These parties were al

nswers." There were many others but I can't recall them just now. I was only eleven when we

ds as we do today, just "Girls.") But I was so timid I just backed away like the bashful co

maller than any of the others who took part in them, and I was

Mill." These were the promenade type dances where they swung their partners kind of like in

nces. Now I'm telling you we danced. But this was not the kind of dance

sually some were standing in the adjoining rooms also, looking through the doors, because the living roo

re games and more happy people playing games. In general, whe

oung set-that is, the sweetheart set who enjoy

would "volunteer" one of their crowd and push her forward to be "it." Then the "it" girl would circle the room looking for the boy she wanted for a pa

fingers, she would hurry to the couple in the middle of the room and the boy she "snapped" would cha

he chase by favoring the girl. They might raise their arms to let the girl go through between them and then lower their arms quickly to stop the boy. Or,

e couple who had held hands would leave and let the new couple ho

- contact game. And yet, not too much contact, because the grown-

the party was over, you could bet good money that the teen- agers wo

fixing. Just make sure the house is clean, the yard is clean, and there are plenty of places

nd a girl before they were married. Sweethearts could hold hands in the presence of adults, if it

to hold hands in public, or to hug and kiss anywhere, on her way to c

eir kids it was all right for them to do these things, it would be like saying "sic 'em" to a dog. Putting it another way, parents were saying, "Don't e

were some boys and girls who lived six or eight miles from us who were not wanted at some of the partie

to invite certain ones and leave others out. They seemed to figure that their integrity would demand respect fro

all about everything that went on around me but I knew enough to realize there were some bad feelings between their families and some of those in our immediate ne

had discovered the horse in great pain. The boy who owned the animal had seen the disease before and knew how quickly it could kill a good horse. So he offered to

t of kerosene. Then he climbed up in a tree, pulled the horse's head high in the air with the bridle reins and poured the mixture d

antage of him by buying the horse. Will Johnson knew that a go

ture of a baby buggy from a Sears, Roebuck catalog. I don't remember just how old I was at the time. I was old enough to do a pretty g

er, a lack of research. This was part of the researc

ecome so smart within the next few years and r

om concerned parents, about the choice of wo

word in the presence of Papa or Mama. And if any of the other kids heard us use it, they wo

One old farmer said, "I don't know what the world is coming to. I believe the time will c

s talking to a farmer who had some calves he wanted to sell to the rancher. He told the rancher, "Three of those calves are still nursing." Well, my uncle a

nd eighth grades, when I had to fill out certain school papers and was told to put an M for male or an F for female, there was a wee bit of embarrassment or shyness associated with th

east not in my presence. Some of the brothers I grew up with are in their seventies now and I c

sperity is lurking. Well, at the Exum place we finally round

ut the time I started to school, almost everyone in our neighborho

ving so many on one line wasn't the best arrangement but it was better than no pho

e weather forecast immediately after the long ring. I don't know where they got the weather information, probably from a record of what the wea

woman operator. And we kids knew she was a woman, but we didn't know she was an operator. We only kn

eir ring. For instance, our ring was a long and four shorts. But, if we wanted to talk to someone on a line out another direction from Ham

ime, and usually some neighbor on our line would volunteer to ring for us and help us get through to Central. Perhaps the neighbor's phone had a s

g. It was just barely possible that she was eating a sandwich in another room. And of course, we shoul

about one day when the operator got through to me. Now, on th

er to Papa if the work didn't get done, was working hard and was way out ahead of the rest of us. I wa

working. He shouted to us to get to work. We did for awhile because we knew Frank was boss. B

ng all the responsibility for getting the hoeing done. It was

hat God has gone so far away we need not obey him any more. But I suppose God knows when we are loafing and getting further behind, just as Frank

d said, "Tell him to

do it. That would leave him guiltless and he would get to see the fun. His pleasure would be twofold. He would glory in the thought that he had caused me t

f and furnish entertainment for my "fans

k did ju

me. I knew it would hurt and I knew I deserve

feet toward him. I kicked furiously. My laughing hindere

round me, trying to get at my weaker end-my head. After two

f I remember right, I think I quit laughing before he quit whipping. Anyway, I had my fun and my puni

se not. That would have brought a reprimand from them. I knew I

e had handled the situation well and we all knew he could do i

ng I got from Frank. That was okay. I needed that. I mean like things I wanted to do. There were so m

were not too little- never had been. At lea

unds. I remember I went one time, but most of the times I was too little

ey weren't going very far and they figured

. Old Queen was his fastest one. She was his lead dog. Old Pluto was almost as fast. He would run in single file behind

at home and figures he has a better chance to survive. But Robert's dogs wouldn'

roles in the pack. They were good to spread out and help flush rabbits out of the weeds and brush. And they were also t

f as another dead rabbit. About the only way a rabbit could escape was

t he took pride in owning the best greyhounds for

d us when we worked for him. When we hoed or picked cotton for him, he paid us as soon as we were through, and he paid us in cash, never by check. We hated checks. Some men paid us

finished-he made it a point to have a pocket full of coins so he could pay us then and ther

Grandma's. Yet, I didn't mind that so much because I was

ere upstairs and they didn't want us little kids messing around up the

, the Old Bootjack will get you." Well, I was almost grown before I learned what a bootjack was. Then it was easy to see that a bootjack wouldn't hu

some of us Johnson kids were at Uncle John Hudson's house one day,

get his pig back in the pen with its mama. I don't know why, he couldn't hurt anything, he was t

bare feet. We were suffering from the heat but we thought we must not st

n the peach orchard. Well, we were hot, the ground was hot, t

tree. We kids cooled off right away, but the pig was so tired and was bre

r right out of the well. Then we poured it on the

s it would. We learned that lesson the hard way-that is, hard on Uncle John. And we learned some ot

d. One of these was, "Don't climb on the feed stacks." That would destroy a lot of the feed and allow rainwater to run in and ruin even more of it. No pr

in the bin. Walking on it wouldn't hurt it. Digging holes and tunnels in it

honesty. It was so much fun, we went ahead and played in the cottonseed bin anyway, wh

e having a cottonseed fight. And, more than likely, we would have left the door open at times for the rain and rats and cows to get in. And of course, a

ot an absolute "don't," but perhaps more of an "I don't think you ought to" kind of a "don't." So,

that open door a quarter-mile away and, come supper time, we kids would have had to answer a question or two. Also, a few seeds outside on the ground could have been seen b

red up dust. And when the sun shone through the cracks onto that dust, it was har

oards. The dust in the sunshine looked a lot like a large board, lying flat above the seed. I tr

ust until it became very dense. Then I tried jum

ed why. The dust was

row planter, a dog plowing for his master, and Texas kids trying to wal

n Angelo, Texas. He was just a lad at that time-couldn't have been mor

ne night near San Angelo and were sitting around the camp fire doing noth

ll broke and the boss is two days behind.

p and go with me a

te a few of the boys rode with him int

Angelo was made up of at least 20 saloons and few

hiding their billfolds in their saddle bags, they each took a jug an

lling it up? After the jug was filled, the cowboy would reach for his wallet only to "discover" that he had lost it. The bar

alf the saloons in San Angelo, you can bet your boots they rode bac

owboy. The youngest girl, Annie, was one of those little girls. But when Annie became big enough to do chores, one of her chores was to churn the

h helping his little sister solve her problem. Whoever it was, the idea worked well and made a little girl hap

sture he had an old cow which was well educated in the art of breaking

the neck of such an animal. Of course, the purpose of the yoke was to

the fence easier. And she had been spending entirely too much of her time in our field. Mr

n though Papa was smart in most cases, I really think he used poor judgment when he shot the cow. He only meant for the shots to sting her enough

pa doubted that he had hit her at all. So he moved up closer and fired a secon

a look at his cow, h

dge about it and the

y for his

w was worth. The judge agreed, that might well be true, but it didn't give Papa the right to go around s

tle poorer and a lot wiser. I don't think Papa ever sh