The Life of Me: An Autobiography

farmed there in 1919. Susie and Dode moved to Ham

rabbits and I guess it was harder for the coyotes to find something to eat. They would come almost to our barnyard in broad daylight in search of food. Old Scot

in another one and the two of them would chase Old Scotch back into our yard. Then with us to back him

m a man, and they can also tell whether or not the boy has a gun. They simply would not come that close to a big boy with a gun. We kids had guns but they wer

was the youngest of us four. He had a gun by the time he was ten

t nailheads in the front yard fence. We would also stand matches up in nail holes in the fence and shoot t

peaches. He said we other kids would walk around under the trees with buckets and Earl would shoot the stems and let the peaches fall

ce. But when he was a boy on the farm at Lamesa, I remember he made a windmill. I mean this was a windmill to remember. He set it up on a tower and made it pump water. And he made a real cylinder out of a piece of pipe, with two leather valves attached to two wooden spools. One spool moved up and down, the other one was stationary at the lo

rubber-band motor. It would dive to the bottom of the water trough, circle around about one time and then float back up to the

ome up again the next day. Be that as it may, besides hauling mail it also hauled passengers when there were any who wanted to be hauled. It

hat like your living room at home. Jump seats were two in number and they folded down into the back

ng with the mail. The point to notice here is the segregation of passengers according to color and race at that

o stay on. If there was one "white," one Negro and one Mexican, there would be one riding in the car and one on each running board. The

e car broke a tooth off the ring gear in the differential. The garage man in Lamesa phoned Big Spring for a new gear. The parts

ned that the man who took the order for the gear had become sick suddenly and was rushed to the hospital before

t a boy remembers a thing like this when he is 13 ye

ut we figured we could get a good deal on one in Hamlin. So Papa bought a pair of leather bridle reins. Then he let the air out of the old tire, wrapped one rein through the spokes and around the bad place on the tire an

nd the great distance you could see. Almost every farm house had a windmill, and more than half the houses i

ted near homes for windbreakers-this country looked mighty bare. You could see as far as your eyes could stret

a cypress tank high on a tower. The tallest mill was 80 feet and the tank was 60 feet. That was the city

went from eight cents a gallon up to 29 cents a gallon. There were no drive-in service stat

im it was 29 cents a gallon, he said, "Put in one gallon. That will get me home and back." Then after thinking i

aid to Mr. Simpson, "You know that quarter's worth of beans you sold me last week? Well, the s

going hunting. Joel was harrowing in the field one day, walking barefooted behind a harrow in fre

over to the right to avoid him. About that same time, the snake tumbled out from under the unfriendly harrow, still fighting fo

from the other. They both succeeded-momentarily. But as soon as Joel could stop the horses and tie up the lines, he went back and demanded that the snake pay the supreme penalty. Not th

lie Mae was younger than Albert, and since she was a girl, she was sort of a different kind of link in

on't mean from germs we got from not washing our plates-I mean be

al pet, and at times somewhat of a pest. He was gentle and liked to be curried and petted. And naturally we enjoyed feeding and petting him

ack in the pen. So we thought we'd better get after him in a hurry. But our hurrying wasn't necessary. Before any of us could even get out o

rom his barn one time. And about that same time the Nolans began feeding their horses oats and corn. Most of us couldn't afford such feed for our horses, and the Nolans were poorer than the most of us. They said some wolf hunt

e, the boy pointed way over toward some sand drifts and exclaimed, "Look, I see a hammer handle!" Mr. Hamilton stopped the wagon and let the boy go get it. Only the tip of the handle could be seen. It seemed quite obvious he could not have known it was a hammer handle from tha

as usual, we talked about everything, including the hammer incident. And I, as could be expected, not havi

er a much more serious situation when you look up to see a mad mother coming toward you with a hoe raised high in the air and with fire in her eyes. I believe to this day, if I had been wearing sho

the close of the meal, Mrs. Nolan went around the table pouring up the few drops and swallows of milk which were left in each and every drinking glass, explaining

tion. Sometimes his mother took him to the bathroom and sometimes one of the older girl students took him. And if you think the bathroom was in the house, you are wrong. Now the pig needed to go to the bathroom too at times. But he didn't go anywhere-he just used the bathroom wherever he happened to be at the time. Nor did he seem to understand that one room was the schoolroom and the other

ma thought it was too far for her to have to walk. So she taught Ollie Mae at home through the

s that there was a rattlesnake in their closet. (In those days they were closets, not toilets. And no one had ever heard of "rest rooms.") Anyway, we got out there as f

d at our seeming total disregard for discipline and order. He thought we were getting out for recess and he was used to seeing kids march out in a straight line and stand at attention until the teacher said, "Dismissed." But back at h

of the ground and wait for strong winds to roll them away like tumbleweeds. They would cling together because of the claws on their branches, and often long rolls of

nd coming across the field about a hundred yards away from me. At first it looked as though it had hit one end of one of those rolls of catclaws and was rolling it along on the ground. But

nt at a right angle and was whirling horizontally along on the ground. The balance of it was standing uprig

hought to be already? I didn't even mention this incident until I was grown and had kids of my own half grown. I really believe to this day this little story is one of the reasons my kid

the covered wagon who camped one night and tied their horses to a bush. About bedtime the wind came up and the sand started blowing. And next morning they were surprised to learn that the bush wa

their ropes and harness, the wind changed and th

until the cellar shook as if by an earthquake. The man opened the door to see what was happening. The cellar was rolling acros

. Most of the water ran out before he could get it plugged up and put a faucet in the bottom

y told that Papa settled the question once and for all one day. He hung a trace chain on the clothes line and told us, "As long as the bottom end of the chain is hanging do

to blow for three days and three nights. There were no fences, so the barrel rolled on and on. Then the wind changed and there came a blue norther from the northeast. Three days and nights later, about bedtime again, they