Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 13, Everyday Miracles

As Mom aged, she thought a lot about the important things in her life.  I can remember Mom being a fanatic about having a clean house when we were growing up.  She worked herself down doing housework, laundry, cooking and still maintained a full time job after her children all started school.  I've often wondered where she acquired the energy to keep up with everything.  As children, my siblings and I were expected to keep our bedrooms orderly and participate in household chores.  As Mom grew older, however, she didn't worry as much about everything being in perfect order.  She realized there were more important things.

As we grew up and married our life would change.  We would have nice homes  nice cars  children who would go to school  come home and play.  No working until dark.  Good food.

Alton is the father of two sons.  Gertie has two daughters and a son.  Elton has three daughters and a son.  Myself the mother of two beautiful daughters and two sons.  But the love between my sister and my two brothers is still there and will always be.

Our mother died on June 18, 1974   she was fifty six years old but had a hundred years of work and hardship on her.  I guess that was the greatess [sic] loss that her children had ever known.

Time to enjoy things.  Not having to worry about dusting  washing  cleaning and cooking.  Your value changes     Your outlook on life is not what you can have, but what you have had.

Sometimes we are too busy raking fall leaves to see the real beauty of them.  To watch a small humming bird feed.  Flying so fast that you can hardly see its little wings.  To see a red bird sitting on a feeder feeding its mate.  The calling of a dove  this is life going on, in a world that we are all a part of.  This is a part of my life that is a everyday miracle.

Because I can see and hear this.  There are a lot of people that can never hear or see this   not because of being deaf or blind but because they are too busy with every days life and care.  To [sic] busy to take time to see real life   to [sic] busy making money to buy things with   that will not matter when life is gone.

I have seen a lot of people die in my time.  A lot of people that didn't have time to see life.  To see a reflection of a mountain in a beautiful lake.  I have seen this.  I have been to the highest mountains peak  have seen the ocean laugh as it greets the sand on the beaches with the roar of giant waves.

I have seen the great redwood trees that reached for the sun and heavens.  To walk among these gaint [sic] trees makes you feel God's hands in the sun that comes streaming through the gaint [sic] branches.

God's laughter in the crash of a gaint [sic] ocean wave.  But most of all God's peace in the clear cool air of a mountain breezes.  In our memories of life there is a lot of things that can never be bought or taken away.

I have always told my childrens [sic] it is not what life can do for you but what you can do with life.

While reading this part of Mom's memoirs, I reflected back to the times she and I have sat on her porch and enjoyed watching the birds feed.  During spring, she placed three or four hummingbird feeders out and before long she had broods of the little birds fighting for their places on the feeders.  I also thought of how much joy Mom had while on her vacations.  She thoroughly enjoyed traveling and seeing new places.  

Here are just a few snapshots of her while on her trips:

The West Coast

The West Coast

The Northwestern United States

Disneyworld in Florida (Mom & her friend Irene)

Beaches of the East Coast

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 12, Circle of Friends

There is nothing like a good friend.  Mom had plenty of them- whether related or not, she cared deeply about her circle of friends.  She enjoyed their conversation and the time spent with them.  She wrote lovingly about them in her memoirs:

I have had the good fortune of having a lot of good friends in my lifetime.  Two very special ones has a very special place in my heart.  Carol and Daisy.  

Carol's friendship has no boundary she accepts me as is.  Mistakes and all.  Daisy and I go back a long way together.  We have traveled a lot together and we have shared a lot of good times and a lot of special memories that no one can never take away.

In May of 1997 my sister a cousin and myself wented [sic] to Wyoming to see another cousin Pearl.  Elaine and Gertie had never seen the great Rocky Mountains that reached up to touch the blue skies.  Snow that looked liked [sic] the angel wings.

Or a waterfall that roars down the mountain into a beautiful stream of water.  To walk among the Indian Cliff dwelling were [sic] a very great and powerful people lived.  The frist [sic] real American people who has had their lands, God and honor taken from them.  Have been lied to cheated and killed for their way of life.  As we walked through their homes listen to their music you can feel their pain.

Have I losted [sic] my zest for life?  Why no.  I'm like a large dead oak tree standing in the middle of a field.

I might not have any pretty leaves lefted [sic] or new branches.  But when a stroam [sic] comes through I don't have to worry about those new branches or new leaves getting blown off.  I have old limbs and no leavs [sic] to lose.  But I still have things to do.

God made a lot of beautiful things and I intent [sic] to see most of them.  Who knows I might live long enough to see one of my daughters learn how to make dumplings or cook a big Christmas dinner without me being there.

This part of Mom's memoirs stirs up emotions within me.  Once her health started failing, Mom didn't have many years left to travel and see all the things she wanted to.  Yes, she was fortunate to have seen a lot of beautiful places, but there was so much more she wanted to do.  It's just that her tired and aged body wouldn't cooperate with her plans.  For years she had talked about wishing to go to Alaska.  That is one place she didn't get to see.  

As far as me or Sandy learning how to make dumplings, no- that has not worked out either.  I have tried and failed miserably.  I chose to leave that to someone else.  I have learned to cook a big Christmas dinner without Mom being there, but only because I have been forced to.  

I'm grateful that Mom had devoted friends who shared so much in her life.  She had great memories of their travels together, their fun and laughter and also of the times they held each other up when life was tough.  

Here are just a few photos of Mom and those she was honored to call her Friends:

Faithful friends- Mom & Carol

Friends for life- Mom & Daisy (they were cousins too!)

Showing off their catch of the day ;)

Their big trip to Wyoming

Elaine, Pearl, Mom & Gertie

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 11, Grandpa Took Care of It

From Mom's memoirs I gather that her Grandpa "Bob" (Johnson) had zero tolerance when it came to his grandchildren possibly being placed in harm's way.  When others gave the children trouble, he simply took care of it, one way or another.

When our cousins would come over to see their grandparents then we would have someone new to play with.  We would meet them half way up the road.  But Benson May their uncle and Alton would fight, and when they wasn't fighting they would pick on the smaller kids.  This day they was fighting over a big Persimmon tree.  Benson said it was on Mr. Mays land and Alton said it was grandpaw's.  Well Gertie got hit by a flying presimmon [sic] and did she cry   So with her in tow and crying I brought her home and told the grandpa.  Well time he got down there Benson and Alton was gone and our little cousin was gone too.

Well grandpa just happen [sic] to have a real sharp ax with him so guess what happen [sic] to the tree.  Let me just say it was no longer there to be fussed over.

Between the fenced yard and the road was a big oak tree.  This was our play area when Gertie and Elton was with us.  Everyone that drove down that little gravel road knew that kids were out playing.

But there was one who just didn't slow down and that was John    he would drive just as fast as that old truck would go.  Grandpa had asked him    had talked to Uncle Albert about his driving but he just wouldn't listen.  So late one night, knowing John would be comming [sic] down that road early in the morning before anyone else   Grandpa dug a ditch across the road    covered it with paper    put a little sand over it and sat on the porch and waited for John.

The road wented [sic] down the hill across a little creek.  So the ditch was dugged [sic] at the the top of the hill.  Did John have a suprise [sic] comming [sic] to him!

He hit that ditch going full speed     bounced down that hill over the bluff and into the creek.  Grandpa walked out to the road and he could see John crawling out of the truck    so he got his shovel     cover the ditch up and wented [sic] into the house.  John never did ask any question [sic] nor drive fast by our house again.

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 10, Memories of a Poor Child's Christmas

I was blessed to have such wonderful memories of Christmas as a child.  Christmas was a big event in my childhood and my parents did their very best to provide us with most of the items on our "wish list".  Besides the gifts, there were big family gatherings and lots of good food.  There was laughter, love and time spent with family.  

Mom was not so blessed in her early childhood.  Because the family was struggling to survive, their gifts were meager.  I remember Mom, and Dad too, talking about those days.  They often received a few pieces of fruit for Christmas, such as apples and oranges, and sometimes a few pieces of candy which really made them happy because those were treats they rarely received.

Mom wrote some of her memories about Christmas as a child:

Christmas, no tree, no gifts    just family and all of the food that we could want.  I can remember the first Christmas tree.  A coffee can full of sand with a little pine tree in it.  We gather [sic] sweet gum balls and covered them with cotton to hang on the tree.

My grandmother put it up for us.  The lonely little pine tree sitting by a fire place with cotton cover [sic] sweet gum balls.  But we thought it was the most beauthful [sic] tree in the county.  We didn't know that there was another kind of life out there.  When we started school and I would sit in the class room after Christmas holidays and listen to all of the things the other children got, then I knew that our life was different.  After I got older I wouldn't go to school that frist [sic] day because I didn't want to stand up in that class room and tell the teacher and classmates what I got for Christmas.  So instead of lieing [sic] to them I would stay home.

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 9, Hog Killing

I remember Mom talking about the times they had "hog killings" when she was growing up in rural Mississippi.  She told me that hog killing was a family affair and that sometimes nearby families would gather together and share the hard work involved in the event.  Dad has also told me similar stories about his family gathering for hog killings.  I used to say "Ewwww, how did ya'll do that?", for just the thought of having to skin and gut an animal would make me nauseated.  They would laugh at me then Mom told me they used everything on the hog except the "grunt".  Things were different then and families did what they had to do to eat, to survive.  They couldn't make a run to the grocery store every other day to buy their food- they had to grow it or kill it.  

Sitting on Alton's front porch one rainy afternoon thinking back to our child hood  we was reminded of how far we have come since child hood.

Picking cotton for one cent a pound.  And we didn't have a choice we just did it.  Scraping cotton or corn all day.  No pay just food, housing and clothes was our pay.  And not much of this.

Killing hogs on a cool fall day.  This was a lot of work and the children did a lot of it.  Scraping the hog after it had been dipped in hot water was a messy and hot job but we all knew in order to have meat during the winter it was our job to help.

The fat with skin on it was cooked out in iron wash pots     the wood had to be stacked near by so the fire was steady burning.  Then we could have lard for frying and making biscuits with.  The skins was used for seasoning and making cracking bread with.  The rest of the fat was used to make soap with. 

We would cut wood for days before hog killing then the pots with skins in them would cook day and night until the lard and soap was made.  The water was pulled from the well in buckets and sometimes the well seem [sic] to be ten miles deep.  The creek under the hill was used to clean the chitterlings in.

Canning vegetables was done on a wood stove in big canning pots.  I can remember my grandma with sweat running down her face   her clothes soaking wet from the heat in that kitchen.

In the afternoon we would sit on the front porch and churn the milk and cream to make butter.  Everything was did the hard way.  No machines to make life easier just of lot of hard work.

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 8, Homemade Remedies & Weather Predictions

I can recall Mom talking about some of her homemade remedies from the "old days".  She used some of them with us while we were growing up.  For example, I can remember when I was stung by a wasp, she would wet some cigarette tobacco and put it on my sting.  When one of us got sick with chest congestion, she mixed up a concoction of whiskey, lemon juice and peppermint (seems to me that it did help!).  She wrote about some of her grandparents use of "natural" elements for medicine and teas in her memoirs:

Certain tree roots and barks was gather [sic] for medicine.  I don't remember the name of any of them but I do remember going to the creek bank with grandma for these things.  Grandpa would get wild cherry bark but it would have to come from the north side of the tree.  He would make tea with this.  He drinked [sic] coffee every morning with red pepper in it.  He said it helped him breath better   he had asthma.  He used mullin tea at night for colds   this was gather [sic] out behind the smoke house   it was a weed with real fussy [sic] leaves.  He used the roots of a sassafras tree to make a drink with.

Everyone is worried about the year 2000.  What will happen to the computers, T.V.'s and everything that runs the world.  Well in my younger days we didn't have things like that to worry about.

The weather was simple to predict, by the hornet nest where it was low to the ground or high in the tree.  A wooley worm or a presimmon [sic].  Cut the seed into  if there was the sign of a spoon it would be a warm winter   a fork meant a mild winter but a knife means a cutting edge cold winter.

If a woman with children had to go out of the house and there was not an older child to watch the young ones then there was the diaper way to a baby sitter.

Simple, tie a diaper around the child's waist, put the ends of it under the leg of a iron bed leg   the baby couldn't go anywhere.  But with Alton    Mama could put a feather or a glove in the door and he would not go near it.

I can remember sitting in front of a fire place in old straight chairs with my grandma and grandpa roasting peanuts and corn on the cob over the hot coals.  This was the place to be on a cold winter day.  On days that was not real cold we would gather broom straw to make brooms with for the house   Dog wood limbs was used to make yard brooms with.

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 7, More Memories of Grandpa

My Mom dearly loved her Grandpa Bob.  He and his second wife Harriet helped to provide at least some stability to Mom and her siblings.   Since her mother had to work outside the home to help support them, Mom and her siblings were often left in the care of Bob and Harriet.  Mom shared more memories of her grandpa in her memoirs:

One of our game [sic] was playing church in grandpaw's storm pit.  Of couse [sic] Alton was always the preacher.  Because if we didn't want

him to preach he would get mad and leave.  

Gertie and Elton wasn't allowed to leave the yard  they were just toddlers    this is the reason they didn't get into all of the trouble that Alton and I did.

My grandpaw thought it would bring him bad luck if he lefted [sic] to go hunting or fishing with his grandkids crying to go with him.  So it didn't take us long to figure this out.  So when he lefted [sic] and we saw him going across the field to the back woods Alton and I would go running and crying for him to take us.  So instead of taking us back home he would let us go.  He would take us far enoug [sic] that we could hear the sound of the water.  Here he would sit us on a log and we would

have to stay there until he came back.  It didn't take but 2 or 3 trips and we didn't want to go with him again.  Of course later in life we learned why he didn't want us with him.  He was using fish traps and this was against the law and he was afraid Alton and I would tell.  It didn't make the fish taste any different because they were real good when grandma got them cooked.  We would all sit at that old wood table with those old hard wood benches and enjoy collard greens, fish and corn bread.

We would then go to the front porch and relax a few minutes.  I can remember grandpa sitting on the porch under the water selve (?) resting his back against the wall.  He sat there everyday

with his shot gun at his side.  He hated a chicken hawk and ever [sic] time one flew over he would shoot him. He said he didn't raise chickens to feed the hawks with.

Of course there wasn't too much relaxing for us.  On days were [sic] there was no field work there was other things to do.  Wash day was a whole days work with the water comming [sic] from the well and wood for the wash pot

And when all of the fields was planted the fertizise [sic] sacks had to be ripped apart and boiled for hours.  They were used for sheets and panties, slips.  Then we would have to go gather medical roots and tree bark to use for teas.

There were days when Mom's hand tremors made it difficult for her to write.  Obviously, she attempted to write these notes on such a day.  

I truly appreciate my Mom's efforts to write down a portion of her memories, for they mean so much to me now.  As I read her handwritten notes, I imagine her sitting in her chair remembering the days of her childhood.  I imagine her smile when she wrote of the tender moments in those days and I imagine her attempting to hold back her tears when she wrote of the hard times.   

To be continued...

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 6, Love Carried Us Through

Our present lives are far different than those of our ancestors.  We have so many modern conveniences that we take for granted, because we've always had them.  Most of us have jobs outside our homes and we depend on the grocery stores for our food, the gas stations to fuel our transportation and the utility companies to provide us with the conveniences of indoor air conditioning and heat, running water, cable or satellite television, internet connections and phone service for landlines.  I often wonder, what if... all those things were stripped away and I had to survive without them?  What in the world would I do?  I'm so spoiled to those things which make my life what it is.  

In her memoirs, my Mom shares her story of what her childhood was like growing up in rural southern Mississippi, without the modern amenities I'm so blessed with.

The above photo was taken about 1943.  My Mom, about 2 years old at the time, was in the arms of her mother, Susie Johnson Simmons.  Mom's brother Alton is standing in front of their father, Woodrow Wilson Simmons.  When I study this photo of my grandmother, I see a young woman with a hard life- her skin deeply tanned by the sun, her dress stained.  She didn't have many choices of clothing, she wore what was provided to her.  My grandmother would have two more children- Gertie and Elton.  Life became even harder for the family when their father, Woodrow, left and they had to survive the best way they could.  

My Mom's story continues....

I will never forget the first time my Grandpa spanked me.  He used a saga [sic] brush broom straw   of course he could not have made a mark on a stick of soft butter with this.  But to me he broke both of my legs and a heart.

Running into the house screaming I crawled under the bed.  It took Grandma on her hands and knees at least a hour to beg me out from under that bed so she could love the hurt away.

My grandpa died in September 1952    three weeks later in October Grandma died.  After this we sort of losted [sic] some of our childhood.  But Love is ever present when you have nothing but that to carry you through hard times.

Our Mother was a good woman that worked hard and gave what little time she had lefted [sic] to her children.  I can remember her working all day then comming [sic] home at night cooking for her children but never going to bed without praying with them.

In the Spring I have seen her pull a plow like a horse.  Alton would guide it and I would drop the seeds so we could grow a garden and have food.  You see back then there was no welfare and food stamps.

We would wash sometimes at night with the light of a kerasine lanter [sic] and the light from the wash pot fire. We would hang the clothes on clothes lines and sometimes they would freeze stiff before we could get them hung up.

We didn't have electric or indoor plumbing.  The house was a four room shell.  No screens no ceiling or walls.  With a old wood heater it was cold in winter.  Once you got into bed you couldn't move because of all the quilts that was piled on top of you.

In the summer there was no fans or A.C.  So you could go to bed with windows and doors open   you didn't have to worry about being robbed because there was not one thing worth stealing.

On Saturday night people would gater [sic] up and listen to the raido [sic] boil peanuts.  There was no t.v.  the raido [sic] was battery opertor [sic].  Family and friends would be together for a few hours of peace and rest.  On Sunday we wented [sic] to church.  We had to walk most of the time but if the weather was bad Mama would drive us in the pick up truck.  We had the Love of God and our Mother to carry us through.

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 5, Adventures on Little River

In the 1940's, most children didn't receive store bought toys like our children in today's society.  They created their own homemade toys from materials found around the home.  The purchased toys they may have received usually came from mail order catalogs.

Mom and her siblings were no exception- they rarely received toys, even on Christmas and their birthdays.  Their play time was spent outdoors, in the woods and on the river bank.

During the summer we had this old boat and with Mama at work and us kids to fend for ourselves and protect the little brother and sister we had to figure out a way to keep them safe while we played with the boat. 

So with a rope to tie Elton and Gertie in the edge of the water so they couldn't wander off into deep water we was set for a summer of fun.  A boat with a big hole in it and a river.

We would float the boat out into the river when it started to sink we would jump out, pull it to the bank,  bail out the water and start over.  

In a poor family you learn to play with what you have, make do with the clothes and eat what you are blessed with.  Our daddy wasn't around much but we had Mama, grandparents and each other.

Of course everyone had their own swim holes.  There was the Barnetts, Pittmans, Mays, Culpeppers and ours.

You did not go to these special places unless you were invited this were [sic] private places in a [sic] ever running river but each protected their territory with pride.  The deepest and widest ones was the better ones.

So Alton and I came up with this great idea to make ours the very best.  So we wented [sic] to Grandpa with a story only a grandfather would believe comming [sic] from his grandchildrens [sic].

While the river was out of its banks from a lot of rain a few weeks earlier this great big alligator had swan [sic] up stream right into our swim hole.

Now the job was to get rid of the gator and to protect his grandchildrens [sic].  So down to the river with a couple of sticks of dynamite and Boom the children are safe and Alton and I have a real deep swim hole.  Of course the big gator never did float to the top.  Must have been blown to bits.

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 4, Time to be a Child

Thus far, Mom's memoirs have reflected how mischievous and conniving her older brother Alton was.  He loved to get a good laugh, even when he knew the consequences of his pranks would be a good old-fashioned spanking.  He also manipulated his siblings in order to get out of doing chores- yep, he was a down-right menace!  Yet, Mom loved him and the two of them carried a close family bond into their adult years.  

Mom wrote more about her outlaw brother Alton:

Late one afternoon Mama brought some things in from town that had to be taken to Grandma before dark.  She gave this to Alton and told him to take it over there for her.  Well on the way down to the river he came across my cousin Dimple and I playing and talked us into taking it for him.

While he watched us cross the river and told us how to wade with the current so it wouldn't knock us down we made it just fine.  But on the return trip he was bored and ready for a good laugh.  So he told us comming [sic] back that we would have to wade against the current which he knew in this swift part of the river would be impossible for two small girls.  When Mama heard him laughing she knew he was into something.  Of course time she got to the river she saw two little girls that looked like drowned rats and a boy that was having a good laugh.  

Needless to say what happened after she got us home.

I can remember having two suits of clothes and one pair of shoes.  All of the under clothes we had was made with flour sacks.  After school we would change clothes and work.  Because after work it was play time.  Time to go hunting, fishing and swimming.  time to be a child.

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 3, Crossing the River

Mom spoke often of their adventures in "the river" and of spending summer days at their "swimming holes".  Since the family resided in the Pinebur community of Lamar County, I'm sure she was speaking of Little River.

As Mom aged, she enjoyed sharing stories of her childhood in Pinebur.  I can remember her smiles and laughter when she spoke of the tricks her brother Alton pulled on her and I can remember the breaking of her voice when she spoke of some of the hardships the family endured.  Her story continues....

  As a child we would think and act like children but we would work like adults.  After school we would pick cotton, pull corn, feed the stock and watch over the younger kids until Mama could get home from work.

After moving across little River from grandmaw and grandpaw one of us would have to ride the bus over to their house and get Gertie and Elton in the afternoon and walk back home.   Walking home would be about a mile through the woods and across the river.  By wading the river and carrying one child at a time and then go back and bring the other one and another walk of about half of a mile took time.  

Of course if it had rained and the river was flooded then we would cross down river in a boat.  This was a very tricky thing to do.

There was bob [sic] wire strechted [sic] across the river and we would pull the boat across by holding on to the wire and slowly pulling the boat to the other side.  Alton was always suppose to do this.

But one cold and rainy day he decided it was time for me to learn this.  So with him waiting on the other side of the river watching out for our safety Gertie and I started across.  But with freezing fingers and not strong enough for the current I made the mistake to let go of the wire.  The boat was going down the river at a very fast rate and with Gertie crying and screaming for me to save her.  

And my big brother on the bank rolling with laughter there was one thing to do.  I jumped out holding on to the tie up rope and pulled the boat in.  I got a good case of pneumonia, he got a good laugh he also got something else when Mama got home.

Memoirs of Lula Sue Simmons: Part 2, Musings of a Mischief

Mom's brother, Alton, seemed to stay in trouble while they were growing up in the tiny community of Pinebur, Mississippi. It is a blessing that the family lived in the backwoods of Lamar County because Alton could have stirred up a "heap more trouble" if they had lived in the city.  Mom's memoirs reflect some of the mischief Alton invented:

Alton was always inventing new games.  Breaking bottles was one of them.  He and I would get all of the glass bottles that we could find then taking [sic] them down to this deep gully behind the house he would throw them and they would break into many pieces.

Mama and grandma was canning peas on the day he had a brain stroam [sic] to break bottles.  So after breaking many bottles which some of them didn't break I was to jumb [sic] down and get these ones so he could throw them again.  

So I did what my older brother said to do.  Needless to say I was cut real bad.  But never fear my brother wented [sic] for help.  

Running home to find Mama and grandma sitting on the porch shelling peas he told them that I was bleeding to death and they should go see about me.  Of course they came running with Alton telling them that he didn't think that I was stupid enough to jump down there on all of that broken glass.  Needless to say what happened to him when we got back to the house.

Alton was good at inventing ways to stay away from work too.

Like the time we were to plow the fields and get it ready to be planted.  At this time he was about eight years old and I was four or five.  After getting the horse hitched up he would sit under a shade tree and tell me how to plow.

If the plow got hung up on a root or the horse wouldn't go in the right direction it was because I was too stupid to do anything right.  

One Monday morning sitting on the front porch waiting for the school bus he made a very bad mistake by telling our little sister Gertie that his badly spranged ankle would feel better if someone would hit it with a piece of wood.

Well she was sitting next to a pile of stove wood.  So thinking as a three year old would and wanting to help her brother feel better she picked up a piece and really laid a feel better hit on his ankle.  Needless to say he didn't have to go to school that day.  But he never did ask Gertie to give him a feel better lick again.

Alton Simmons

Photo, c. 1945-46