I was born in 1924 near the Friar cemetery in a log house.  The house was torn down and replaced with a wooden structure in 1930.  The house burned in 1975.  A huge spring on our property is still there.  It provided water for two families for house use and four families for washing clothes weekly.

   Through the New Deal program, the R.E.A. brought electricity to our community in 1938.  Telephone service came in 1958.

  We raised a vegetable garden, an orchard of fruit and produced nearly everything we ate.  We also raised peanuts, pumpkins, sweet and Irish potatoes and picked up and shelled hickory nuts and black walnuts.

   Holidays were always special.   On the Fourth of July, the men would all gather at the Nazarene Church Tabernacle and wait for the ice man to come.  Sometimes it would be after midnight.  The ice was used to make ice cream and cool the soda and lemonade.

   Christmas was a fun time for all.   Sometimes we would not get any toys, only our stockings full of fruits and nuts.   In better years, my sister and I would get a doll and set of dishes.  My brothers would get toy trucks.  I remember well when my brother got a beautiful red wagon.  We used it to coast down the hill but always managed to hit a tree or land in the water of the creek.  The wagon was used also for carrying wood for the cook stove and heating wood.

   Revival meetings were held for eight weeks each summer in our community.  We have four churches and each church had two weeks of services, two times a day - 10 a..m. and 7 p.m.  Every man in the community hitched up the team to the wagon and took his family and neighbors to nearly every night of the revivals.

   A lot of young couples would walk to church and they would stop by houses on the way and get a drink at their neighbor's well.  A water bucket and dipper were always left at the well for those passing by.   After each revival, a baptising would be held in the creek.

   Each family had its own cows for its milk and butter supply.  The milk and butter was either hung in the well to stay cool or placed in a well milk-house where the spring water flowed through to keep it cool.

   People only went shopping on Saturday.  They would carry their cream, eggs and any surplus chickens they had for sale.  The merchant often had a peddler's route.  The peddler had a well-equipped truck with all kinds of merchandise that he peddled on a route two or three days a week.

   I remember well when bread was 10 cents per loaf or three for cents. Light bread was a special food that was only served on Sunday.

contributed by: Mayo Stallcup