Nola Lee (Patty) Folden

I do recall some things about my childhood days. What comes to my mind first is all the happy times we had playing together, working, fighting was a large part of our life too. The earliest I can remember is when I was about 3 years old, maybe a little older. We lived at the Flavy Litton place in Cottageville, it was Christmas time and we had hardly anything in the house to eat, but on Christmas eve my Uncle Nick Jennings came up the driveway so we all ran to the window and looked out because he had a flashlight and we could see someone coming. I remember Dad chuckling and saying it was old Santa Claus and sure enough, he had a big bag on his back. Boy! Were we excited! When he came in we all gathered around him knowing he wasn't "old Claus" but we sure wanted what he had in that bag. It was a great big bag of oranges. They were good too! So since then I have always had oranges at Christmas because it reminds me of those days.

Another thing I remember, Flavy Litton had a big farm and inside this farm were great big round tall barrels. He had said that they had beans in them. Well, needless to say we all wondered what it would be like to get into those barrels "naked". We did just that and Jimmy Litton too. There we were all naked in the barrels and we all heard some men talking. Well sooner or later it was Dad and Flavy. Boy, we got it good and proper to our bare rear ends.

I recall the time Mom and Dad went to town. Mary and Jack were supposed to be watching us, but Dotty got lost. There was a creek that was in front of the house and of course we thought she had fell in the creek so everyone's crying and hunting for her. It ended up that she had crawled into a laundry basket on top of some clothes and fell to sleep. Mom's door was locked and we couldn't get I in it and we never even noticed the window being open. She had crawled in through the window (close to the ground) and curled up in that basket and went to sleep.

Another thing I remember that's really precious to recall is of the evenings in the winter Dad would get that old banjo and sing us songs. Most of all I loved to hear him sing "The Wabash Canonball." Mom was always humming her gospel songs, she never seemed to finish a whole song, she just went from one to another, humming away.

I remember when my sister Betty and I had a fight over something in the front yard. She had a little tiny empty can of pet milk in her hand and I picked up a big rock and hit her with it. She had to go to Dr. Monroe and afterwards she got ice cream and pop. I got a beating and Dad locked me in the basement for all that day. There was a hole in the floor and Betty shouted down through it and told me all about the goodies she had. Oh! What a beast!

Now Leona was the one that made me have a terrible fear of chickens. We lived out at Hemlock in the brown Tribbet place. Mom had sent you and me down to Mrs. Wheaton for an old brown chicken. Well, Leona took that old chicken by the legs and held it up and it started pecking me in the head and chased me all the way home. Then I went down into the basement and locked the doors.

I have to tell you this about Dean, he scared Mary and me to pieces. Mom and Dad were up to the Parsons store and I was in charge (he he). We had hot dogs and beans for supper and of course boys being boys, Dean just gulped his down and he got so sick that he started choking and he couldn't breathe at all. I got him by the hand took him up our hill by the farm and he just dropped to the ground and I hit him on the back as hard as I could and finally I got him back up. I ran with him to Mary and Dales and they either had no car or Dale wasn't there so Mary and me took Dean to the road and started thumbing for a ride. The first car that came along was an old drunk. He scared us to pieces too, but he got us to Uncle Howard's and on the way to Parkersburg, he was driving worse than the drunk guy. He had a 52 Chevy. We got to the "Y" and Howard said "He'll never make it to Parkersburg he won't last," we kind of had the same idea cause boy his face was so blue. Instead, we went to Dr. Monroe and he gave him big black charcoal pills and made him vomit. What a relief it was! Dr. Monroe said he would have died if it wasn't for me hitting him on the back.

I tell you the one thing that always bugged me was on Sundays when Dad would load us in that big old truck and we would go through Ravenswood. He always made us sit up and everybody starred at us. I always wanted to hide or lay down but there wasn't enough room. Anyways, he would take us to comb's Store on Rt. 21 and we got a big ice cream cone, boy the prices back then were way different than now, we could buy an ice cream cone for 5 cents each.

I recall the times when we couldn't wait for Mom and Dad to leave, especially after a hard rain so we could go out on the mud road, strip off naked and slide down that hill. Of course we got all cleaned up before they got home. I think I hated berry picking more than anything. I'll never forget one time Dad and Uncle Ken, Chuck and a bunch of his kids went way out on Hemlock Road to pick berries. Once they got picken they wouldn't stop, they stayed out there the whole day. I remember the day that Chuck got into a nest of yellow jackets, they went up his pants and got him good. We came straight home and Ken took hm to Dr. Monroe.

I always liked to go to Grandma's cause she had good food and she let us go skating on Saturday nights. We went a lot, but you know, Grandma could be pretty darn mean when she wanted to. One day she made my cousin Susie and I get in the bath because we were going to Ripley. So Susie got her bath first and then me. Well, I was only in that tub a few seconds and I had to go do the number 2. I hollered and told Grandma and she told me I'd have to wait cause she had to wash my hair. I tried to wait, but to no surprise I went number 2 in the tub and when she came in to wash my hair, I was crying cause I knew she was going to whip me. I thought maybe she'd have pity on me, but nope, I got whipped. I got to go to town though. I was only a little kid, about 8 years old.

When I was in the second grade at Ravenswood a funny thing happened. We lived at the Tribbet Place and had to walk and I am guessing, about 2 miles to catch the bus. We were always hurrying so we wouldn't miss it and I forgot to put my under panties on. Well on the way down the road I realized this and wanted to go back. I was crying too, but I don't know if it was Jack or Mary, but they wouldn't let me cause we'd miss the bus. I was swinging on a swing at school and it was springtime. Well, my dress flew up over my head and everyone got their picture taken "free." Haha I was really embarrassed too. There was this old building on that place Dad used as a garage. Betty and me were going to chop a block in two with a hatchet. Betty had the hatchet and I was holding the block and she missed the block and hit my left index finger. I still have the scare today. Naturally Mom and Dad weren't home. They ran an awful lot, probably to get away from all of us. Anyways, someone probably cleaned it up and put turpentine on it. That was the cure for everything. I know the very day and almost the time when I got my last whipping from Dad, probably the 6th one. I got lots of them, it was October 4, 1954 about 6:30 p.m. I had this big date, his name was Marshall tolley and I was getting ready to go. There was all the dishes to do and it really was Dotty's turn cause I had done them the night before. But Dad hollered and told me to get in there and help. Well, I just plain told him no. He was working on some long chains in the living room and he jumped up out of there and really let me have it with the chains wrapped around my legs. I tell you that hurt like heck, worse than a willow razor strap hickory or anything else he had in his hands. I had scars for a good while from that one. Thank God, it was the last whipping I ever got from Dad. Dotty still doesn't like to do dishes.

That same fall Dad gave me $2.00 a day to either lead or ride the horse around the cane mill while him and Mom would stir the molasses. I made $10.00 one week if I remember well. I used the money to have me a 16th Birthday party. I've still got some of the gifts I got then. One thing is a really pretty locket from Bertha Ellen Patterson, and a necklace from Geraldine and Jack. We had lots of fun and I still had watermelons from Dad's crop. Mom made us a batch of taffy candy from the molasses and we had taffy pulls.

To sum it all up, my younger days were all pretty good. I don't know for sure if I'd want to relive them or not. In memory, we always have them happy times and sad times. The good Lord surely was guarding us all or we wouldn't have survived as we have. One of Mom's favorite expressions was, "Where there's a will, there's a way," and God sure did make a way for all of us.

This memoir was written on February 9th, 1985