B98. Grandma Remembers Tent Circuses and Open Airplanes

My Grandma Vestal was born July 4, 1914, exactly 100 years ago this week. In 1994, at the age of 80, five years prior to her death, she wrote a series of stories for the local newspaper about her childhood near Boonville, NC.  I don't know how many articles she wrote, but I have copies of three and would love for any family members who have others to share them with me.  Leading up to her 100th birthday, this is the third in a series of these stories, published Oct. 26, 1994.  Grandma said:

I must have been 7 or 8 years old when we went to Elkin in our first car, a Chevrolet, to see my first circus. The thing I remember most about the circus is the elephants. They were so big and smelly.

Back then, the animals were transported from each place by trains, then taken to the tent by trucks and wagons. Elephants being so large were simply walked to the tent by their trainers.

Nearing town, we passed the elephants. The road was very narrow, and we were moving slowly so as not to excite the animals, I suppose. I was already scared stiff just seeing such beasts when one big old fellow swung that old big trunk of his toward us and almost reached into the car. As you know all cars were open back then, no windows to roll up! I was simply terrified. My daddy was holding me and telling me everything was alright, but everything looked all wrong to me just then!

The other big attraction that day was an airplane. I can't remember much about that but do recall hearing people afterward talking about the wonder of anything that size being able to just take off and fly!

Years later, when I was a freshman in high school, my daddy and I took our first ride in one. My brother had recently returned from service in the Air Force and finally talked Daddy into taking a flight in one. It was during our annual community fair in the high school gym and a private owner of a plane was taking people for rides from an open field nearby.  I think each trip was five dollars. The pilot helped us up into the plane after fitting us for a helmet and goggles, He then strapped us into our seats. There were two single seats, behind the pilot's seat. I was in the seat directly behind the pilot and my daddy was in the back one.

Of course the first planes had open cockpits and no top over them. The roar of the motor and the force of the wind was so strong. I tried to say something to my daddy and couldn't even hear my own voice! I looked back at him and he was as white as a sheet. He was as terrified as I was over the elephant. I pointed for him to look down, but I don't think he ever did. I was enjoying myself because everything down on the ground was so interesting. Fields and woods were in checkerboard shapes to me, and people walking around at the fair reminded me of ants. They looked so small. My daddy never would talk about that ride to anyone. I often wonder what he would think of our big jets of today.




Related posts:
B10: Grandma's Childhood Memories
B11.  Grandma's Childhood World
B12. Grandma's Childhood: Memories of Family
B13. Grandma's Birth and Ancestry
B14.  Grandma's Special Memories and Favorite Pastimes
B15.  Grandma Meets Grandpa
B16.  Grandma's Kitchen
B17.  Grandma: Children, Grandchildren, and Random Musings
B96.  Grandma Remembers Corn Harvest and Corn Shuckings
B97. Grandma Remembers Her School Days

B97. Grandma Remembers Her School Days

My Grandma Vestal was born July 4, 1914, exactly 100 years ago this week. In 1994, at the age of 80, five years prior to her transition, she wrote a column of  memories for the local newspaper about her childhood near Boonville, NC.  I don't know how many articles she wrote, but I have copies of three and would love for any family members who have others to share them with me.  Leading up to her 100th birthday, this is the second in a series of these stories.  Grandma said:


It was probably three-quarters of a mile from my home to the school I attended through seventh grade. My older brothers an sister had to walk much farther when they were in school.  Our schools were one-room buildings with one teacher for all seven grades.  There were a few two-room schools, but they were scarce. Schools were heated by a wood stove that stood in the center of the room. Teachers always had a long bench by the stove where they held classes. While the teacher had warm feet, most of us pupils only warmed ours during lesson times.

Teachers worked out schedules as they saw fit, then we went to the long bench to have our lesson.  Teachers had to be dedicated and tough to teach an average of about 30 students in all seven grades. At that time, high school grades were 8-11.

Most teachers were very conscientious, though, and we learned many things that weren't in books which helped us through life. Parents were strict also, and very few pupils broke rules because if we had to be punished at school we would also be punished at home.

Our entertainment was our recess, of course. Sometimes on a Friday afternoon the teacher would let us have spelling bees. We formed two rows on either side of the room and were graded by head marks. We sat on two long benches and as each correct word was spelled we crossed over for a head mark. We would move up a space. The side with the most head marks at the end of the match was, of course, the winner for that week.  I really enjoyed this because spelling was one of my favorite subjects and when we were chosen I would be one of the first picked.

Sometimes we had a community spelling at night, and the adults and some parents took part in our bees. This was a lot of fun because some would spell words the way they sounded which didn't always work.

We always had a Christmas program and tree and at the end of school a commencement program. I remember wondering why we called it a commencement when it was at the end of school. At both times every child had a part in the play, saying a recitation or, for the very bashful ones, songs for all to sing. We would be so nervous knowing our parents and other family members were going to be out there to hear us,  But the very worst thing for me, my daddy would have me stand up at home to practice my part before the family.

One of my very special memories was at Christmas. My daddy and youngest brother put two boxes under the tree for me at school.  Daddy's gift was a small basket made of siver wire, and my brother's was my very first compact with powder and puff. I was about 12 years old then, but that made me feel grown up.

Back then, we wore warm clothing because of the long walks to and from school.  We wore long underwear tucked inside long, dark-colored stockings. On wet and muddy days, rubber overshoes covered our high top shoes. We usually wore the same outfits all week. When we arrived home from school, we changed into other clothes to do our chores, keeping our school clothes clean. We always wore overcoats and toboggans. No one ever went bareheaded as they do now, not even in the summertime. Then they wore bonnets or straw hats.



Photo: Grandma's family - She's the baby.

Related posts:
B10: Grandma's Childhood Memories
B11.  Grandma's Childhood World
B12. Grandma's Childhood: Memories of Family
B13. Grandma's Birth and Ancestry
B14.  Grandma's Special Memories and Favorite Pastimes
B15.  Grandma Meets Grandpa
B16.  Grandma's Kitchen
B17.  Grandma: Children, Grandchildren, and Random Musings
B96.  Grandma Remembers Corn Harvest and Corn Shuckings

B96. Grandma Remembers Corn Harvest and Corn Shuckings

My Grandma Vestal was born July 4, 1914, exactly 100 years ago this week. In 1994, at the age of 80, five years prior to her transition, she wrote a column of  memories for the local newspaper about her childhood near Boonville, NC.  I don't know how many articles she wrote, but I have copies of three and would love for any family members who have others to share them with me.  Leading up to her 100th birthday, I will post a series of these stories, beginning with this one, published Sept. 21, 1994.  Grandma said:


On a small acreage farm - maybe less than 10 acres in corn - picking the crop in fall was another family job.  Daddy would hitch up the mules to our wagon which he drove to the field.  He had sideboards he fitted to the wagon bed for hauling large loads.  When corn-picking time came, both boards could be used on one side of the wagon.  Pickers worked on the lower side so the ears of corn could be thrown against the high sides instead of going "overboard" to land on the ground.

Pickers wore long sleeves and gloves because the dried stalks and shucks on the corn were very rough and scratchy.  This was hard work and sometimes cold weather would catch us still in the field.

There was some fun too.  Being the youngest and not weighing a lot, I was allowed to ride to the barn on top of the corn! Then it was exciting to see the corn sliding out the back of the wagon as my dad and brother shoveled it out in a long large pile in the barnyard where a corn shucking would soon take place.

Corn husking, or as it is commonly called, shucking, was another community thing usually held at night, but if cold weather caught us too late, afternoons were better.  Men would swap work at this time.  Once in a while women would also help.  Around their hand, every worker wore a leather strap with a steel hook in the center of the palm.  when raked across the ear of corn it would tear the tough shuck and make removing it easy and very fast work.

Sometimes farmers would ask teen-agers to help, both boys and girls. The seed corn used back then would once in a while produce some ears of red corn.  The attraction at these times was a rule that any boy finding a red ear of corn could kiss the prettiest girl present.  I always wished Daddy would have a corn "party," but he never did.

What we did, and most farmers had, was a pie supper after the work was done.  Women of the family would spend the entire day baking pies.  Pumpkin, apple, and sweet potato were the favorites but sometimes there were fancy ones with meringue on top.

I have a niece only six months younger than I, and it was our job to fill a big wash tub about half full of warm water and put out plenty of soap and towels for the men to wash up before coming in to eat. I can remember seeing our long dining table completely covered in pies with more in the kitchen.  About 20 hungry men could soon take care of them.

Another fun thing about these workings, especially if they were at night, several mothers would come and bring the little ones to visit while the men worked.  Older children would play outside and sometimes Mama's bed would be filled with sleeping little ones.  I have fond memories of this.

The next morning after the corn shucking, what a pretty sight! On one side of the empty space where the men worked was a great pile of white corn. On the other side, a huge pile of fresh clean shucks.  Now another busy day was waiting.  Not only at the barn, but also at the house, for today a full meal must be ready for another work day.

This work was done by the men in the family and maybe a neighbor or two who were swapping work so as to have help with their own work. As Daddy was a sharecropper, every bushel of corn had to be measured.  Owners were able to just shovel it into the crib.

Usually two men carried a big washtub full of corn to a nearby crib, and at every third one a mark was made on the crib door for rent. Daddy always bought this third from the landowner when he settled up. There was also a shuck pen nearby, and the shucks were stored for feeding the livestock on the farm.  There was no rent for this. This was fun.

Everyone, even the children, could carry a big armful into the shed. Sometimes baby kittens were found here. Also hens would steal nests inside to lay their eggs when they found a corner nearby empty.





Photo: Grandma 1984, age 70


Related posts:
B10: Grandma's Childhood Memories
B11.  Grandma's Childhood World
B12. Grandma's Childhood: Memories of Family
B13. Grandma's Birth and Ancestry
B14.  Grandma's Special Memories and Favorite Pastimes
B15.  Grandma Meets Grandpa
B16.  Grandma's Kitchen
B17.  Grandma: Children, Grandchildren, and Random Musings

B14. Grandma's Special Memories and Favorite Pastimes

(part 5 of 8 of a series written in memory of my grandma, Ellie Irene Nance Vestal, born on the 4^th of July, 1914, near Boonville, NC)

In 1986, when Grandma was 72 and I was 24 I gave her a birthday gift that I thought might help her fill her days.  It was a memories book filled with prompts for her to write about her life.  She had lived alone since Grandpa’s death in 1977, and she enjoyed writing.  I forgot about the gift, but months later she gave me a far greater gift, which has become one of my most treasured possessions, the same book, completely filled in with her memories. 

In her honor, and to share this precious gift with others who love her, I continue here a blog series of her own memoirs in her own words: 

Some of my happiest moments:  Walking to school and church with friends while growing up; playing croquet and hopscotch in the yard; taking trips on my birthday with my family;  going chestnut and chinquapin* hunting in the mountains in the autumn and seeing all the beautiful leaves; later double dating with friends and finally dating (your grandpa).  I quit double dating then!

One dress I’ll always remember:  That has to be my wedding dress.  It was white chiffon.

My most unforgettable friend:  A girl named Maude who lived nearby.  We were together a lot walking to church and visiting each other on Sunday.  We would go home with each other from Sunday School and stay until service at night.  I met (your grandpa) at her house.

Songs that bring back memories:  Patriotic songs at school, hymns at church, records played on the old wind-up phonograph we had at home, fun songs sung together around the old pump organ

A vacation I’ll never forget:  I went to Virginia to visit my oldest brother and his family.  I spent two weeks.  I had never been that far away from (home) or ever stayed away that long in my life before.  I enjoyed my visit very much and made a lot of new friends, but I was very glad to get back home and thought I would never leave again!

A gift I’ll always remember:  The first gift given to me by (your grandpa) was a pair of black kid gloves.  The cuffs were trimmed in little diamond shaped figures of white kid leather.

My favorite pastimes:  A lot of my pastimes were spent with the nieces and nephews I have mentioned so often (in this book), as some of them were always around.  We played usual outdoor games and lots of board and guessing games inside.  But I have always been a bookworm, and some of my most contented days were rainy days in summer when I didn’t have to work on the farm and I could just curl up somewhere and read for hours.

When I was a little girl:  Life was so different then.  One of my first memories is riding in a buggy.  Being small, I was put in front at my parents’ feet.  I liked that better than our first car because I would always get car sick when we rode in it.  We walked nearly a mile to school down a very muddy road.  We wore long underwear which we tucked down into long black stockings.  Our shoes had high tops, and over them we wore rubber overshoes.  There was one room and one teacher for grades one through seven.  Boys sat on one side, girls on the other.  Boys chopped wood and kept the fire going in a heater in the middle of the room.  Girls swept the floor and kept the room neat.  We did learn things and never felt a loss, because that was the way things were back then.

When I was a teenager:  I was a teenager in the worst of the depression.  Money was hard to come by.  But lots of families had a radio, and the ones who didn’t would visit ones who did, so people were closer knit by such programs as “Amos and Andy” and the “Grand Ol’ Opry.”  Visitors would stay ‘til midnight on Saturday.  A lot of Rook was played also.  The boys who had cars or the use of the family car (like your grandpa had) really had their pick of the girls.

Note:  *Chinquapins are a type of chestnut.  Grandma pronounced them "chinky-pins."

See also:

Grandma's Childhood Memories  (first of series)

Grandma's Childhood World  (second of series)

Grandma's Childhood: Memories of Family  (third of series)

Grandma's Birth and Ancestry  (fourth of series)

coming soon:  Grandma marries Grandpa, Grandma becomes Mama, Grandma becomes Grandma

B12. Grandma's Childhood: Memories of Family

(part 3 of 8 of a series written in memory of my grandma, Ellie Irene Nance Vestal, born on the 4^th of July, 1914, near Boonville, NC)

In 1986, when Grandma was 72 and I was 24 I gave her a birthday gift that I thought might help her fill her days.  It was a memories book filled with prompts for her to write about her life.  She had lived alone since Grandpa’s death in 1977, and she enjoyed writing.  I forgot about the gift, but months later she gave me a far greater gift, which has become one of my most treasured possessions, the same book, completely filled in with her memories. 

In her honor, and to share this precious gift with others who love her, I continue here a blog series of her own memoirs in her own words: 

Special Family Gatherings:  Christmases at home and school.  Thanksgivings and Easters.  Eggs being colored for Easter was always a fun time, and then hiding them for the many nieces and nephews to find. 
When my brother and his family came from Iowa* to visit, family and friends would come to be with them.  We would sleep piled together in bed or on pallets Mama made on the floor.
We had huge cherry trees, and relatives and friends would come to pick some cherries to take home with them.  Most of the time they ate dinner with us and visited a while after that.  My daddy would pull the wagon under the trees, put a big board across, so women and children could reach lower limbs.  The boys and men would take their buckets and climb way up in the trees.

A birthday I remember:  The year I was seventeen, one of my brothers came from another state and brought me a beautiful new dress.  I put it on and was so excited when I started into the dining room to set the table I dropped six plates and broke five of them.

A sad time:  the death of my little sister when I was eight years old.  I missed her so much.

Some relatives’ names and nicknames:  Uncle Charlie, Aunt “Sissy,” Uncle Henry, Aunt “Duck,” Uncle “Lum,” Aunt “Sal,” Uncle John, Aunt Mary, Uncle Henry, Aunt Whitney

A special Christmas:  One year for the school Christmas program my daddy and Thurman went to Elkin and bought presents to put on the Christmas tree for me.  Daddy’s gift was a small basket made of silver wire.  (I wish I had kept it.)  Thurman’s was my very first compact with mirror and powder.

A Thanksgiving memory:  One year my daddy had his corn shucking on Thanksgiving Day.  We had neighbors and some city visitors (an aunt and some cousins) and all our family.  Such a big dinner we had.  All the visitors and all the workers ate lunch.  A lot of dishes were washed that day!

Our most talked about relative:  Probably a cousin who married three times and was a city cousin who wore the latest fashions and hair styles and very beautiful shoes.  I wanted to grow up and dress like that. . .

One “black sheep”:  I suppose that would be an uncle who liked to tell tall tales and to drink too much, so when he put the two things together the sky was the limit!

Our funniest relative:  I guess that was one of my brothers who liked to make funny faces and tell tales to all the children.


Note:  *Grandma and her siblings pronounced Iowa "I-way."

See also:
Grandma's Childhood Memories  first of this series

Grandma's Childhood World  second of this series

coming soon:  Grandma meets Grandpa, Grandma becomes Mama, Grandma becomes Grandma . . .

Age 70 in 1984

B11. Grandma's Childhood World

(part 2 of a series written in memory of my grandma, Ellie Irene Nance Vestal, born on the 4^th of July, 1914, near Boonville, NC)

In 1986, when Grandma was 72 and I was 24 I gave her a birthday gift that I thought might help her fill her days.  It was a memories book filled with prompts for her to write about her life.  She had lived alone since Grandpa’s death in 1977, and she enjoyed writing.  I forgot about the gift, but months later she gave me a far greater gift, which has become one of my most treasured possessions, the same book, completely filled in with her memories. 

In her honor, and to share this precious gift with others who love her, I coninue here a blog series of her own memoirs in her own words: 

Some of my most memorable (childhood) days:  Starting to school, Birthday trips, Christmas Eves, Thanksgiving Days, Easter egg hunts, Family dinners, Commencement exercises, Playing in the snow, When my brother returned from military service, Visits from another brother who lived far away, Sixteenth birthday

Costs way back then:  licorice 1c, ice cream 5c, candy 1c, bread 18c, sugar 5 lbs. 20c, milk 10c gal., bicycles 12.50, comics 5c, soda pop 5c, stamps 1c, movies 10c, bus rides 7c, newspapers 5c, gasoline 10c gal., new cars $600.

The dances they were dancing:  waltzes, the Charleston, blackbottom*

The music they were playing:  Singing in the Rain, Yes Sir She’s My Baby, Yes We Have No Bananas, Happy Days Are Here Again, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Take Me Out to the Ballgame

The books they were reading:  Pilgrim’s Progress, John Halifax, Jane Eyre, The Bible

The people who were famous:  Bible characters, Political leaders, Tom Mix, Mary Pickford, John Barrymore, Rodolph Valentino, Al Jolson, Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey, Lottie Moon, Amelia Earhart

What people were talking about:  the first World War, women voting, short skirts, politics

The movies we were watching:  The Ten Commandments, Ben Hur, Tom Mix westerns, Al Jolson in the very first talking movies, “My Mammy” and “Sonny Boy”**

The fads that were popular:  bobbed hair, the flapper era, rumble seats, skeeters***, double dating

What I wanted to be when I grew up:  So many things!!  Store clerk, famous writer, speaker, teacher, nurse, actress, missionary, wife, mother, grandmother (I actually did some of them)

See Also: Grandma's Childhood Memories  (the first post of this series)

Notes:
*The blackbottom was a 1920s dance of the flapper era: Blackbottom video
**When I looked for "My Mammy" and "Sonny Boy," I found them as Al Jolson songs, both available on youtube, but not as movies.  It's possible Grandma meant to list them under music rather than movies, or it's possible there were also movies, and I just didn't find them.
*** Skeeters were scooters, made of aluminum because all steel was being used in war production.  I didn't find evidence of their existence before the 1940s, so Grandma might have been remembering them from her children's era, or, again, they might have been around before and I just didn't find them.



Grandma as a baby with her family