In the year 2000 I finally got to go to that wonderful town of Camden, TN. I had heard Dad and his brothers talk about living there and they would get together and go "HOME." Charles would go along with them, they loved to show him places they had known. Charles loved it so much that he retired and he and Norma lived there for years.
The cousins all got together to try to revive the old Kee/Key Reunion that had been there in the past, some said it had been 32 years since the last one. Charles and Norma were on the committee that got the reunion together. They said the town was so different now with a new modern courthouse and a new library. We met on Saturday morning at the library, name tags were furnished and the fun began as we each searched out cousins that we had been in contact with on the Internet. There were quite a few there, they told us later that there were members from 10 of the 13 children of William Riley Key. Later that afternoon we all visited the local cemeteries until it came a shower, we stayed under an arbor in one of the cemeteries until the shower passed, visiting and learning more about the cousins we had never met before. It was quite an afternoon.
Later that evening we all met again at a local bank community room to enjoy a catered bar-b-que dinner. After the meal we all visited again with others who were not at the library or on the cemetery tour. It was something else to know you had so many descendants of the same couple. Tales were told and histories were shared about the long ago generations. The following day we had a pot-luck lunch at the Nathan Bedfore Forrest State Park near Eva, TN, which is only a few miles from Camden, the town. There were more cousins to meet, they came from everywhere ----- California, Virginia, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, and South Dakota-- to just name a few places, I can't remember all the states or members represented.
Cousin Grady Kee, had the church records from the early years when our great-grandpa was church clerk, until he was called before the church for infidelity. Our children and grand children really got a laugh about that, but I think they were like me, just a bit ashamed. I think compared to this day and time, morals have always been the same. If I never get to go to another reunion there, I can say I really enjoyed that one. It put a light on a lot of things I had heard the grown ups speak of in the past, about how the name was Key at the beginning and changed to Kee and then back to Key. Some of the descendants in Arkansas go by the spelling Key, some in other states go by Kee. However, we found out we had a lot in common.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Life as I saw it.........
I don’t know what it was about being three but it seems that was the time that I remember first. When I was about three we lived in a tin top house, I think I remember the outside of the walls on the house being tin also. I loved to hear the rain at night, it would put me to sleep. We had a pitcher pump with a table built all around it, I could climb up on the table and pump the water.
We got a puppy while we lived there, we called him “Smokie” because he was part bull dog and had a white face and a brindle color body, he was my brother, Charles’ dog but he stayed with the family even after my brother went off to the CC camp. I rode with Dad, Charles and dad’s friend, Bud Hudpath, to get the puppy in Mr. Hudpath’s A Model car. The car was a boxy black car, like the cars you see in the 30's and 40's movies. When we got back home Dad put Smoky’s tail on a brick and cut his tail off with his knife and a hammer, one clean whack but I can still see it in my child's mind. Smokie was with us a lot of years but one day dad had to shoot him because he was foaming at the mouth and running around and dad was scared he had gone mad. Charles and I have talked about Smokie a lot, he was a good memory for us both.
We lived only about a quarter of a mile from the Ebenezer school house, this was where my sister Frances started to school. The house where the teachers lived caught on fire and burned one night, the flames reached high in the sky, this was my first experience with a house fire. My brother Charles and I visited the area a few years ago and the old school house was still there all grown up with weeds and stubble. This area was called “Big Creek”, it is in the area between Aubrey and Marvell, I doubt if I could go there again.
We skated on the ice in winter. We ate ice from the rain barrels until--- after the thaw when we found a dead kitten in the bottom of the barrel. Folks back then, kept barrels under the eave of the house to catch rain water to wash their hair or do the laundry, so much of the time the water that came out of the pitcher pump was rusty or foul smelling from the sulphur in the water.
About 1940 we moved south of Marianna to a farm run by the Burke family, dad share cropped. The family does the work and the boss takes his share which was most of everything. You’ve heard the old saying “I walked a mile to school everyday”? Well, in our case it was the truth, it was exactly a mile to the hard road (paved highway)where we caught the bus to Marianna to school. When it was raining or freezing dad came to the bus stop with the wagon and team and covered us with quilts to keep us warm. The Mulberry elementary school was on a hill and at recess the kids slid down the ice covered hill on sleds or paste board boxes. I don't remember many "Snow Days" from school.
When we walked to the hard road to go to school we saw the creatures of the earth,---- birds, rabbits, snakes, worms. We thought a horse hair left out in the rain would turn into a worm. My sister, Pearlie, was chased by a Blue Racer snake, when she stopped running he stopped too. We ate mulberries from the trees and we relived our day at school and thought of what homework we had to get done and about how much water we had to pump for the horses and cows. Those cows could drink and drink, Pearlie tried to run them away from the trough. Dad finally got a gasoline engine for the pump and we were so happy, but we still had to get the firewood in for the cook stove. Everything took place in the front room or the kitchen in the winter because it was cold in the bedrooms. In the summer we stayed out side when we could because it was so hot in the house. We played out side as long as we could , we played red rover, hop scotch,and we caught fireflies in a jar. The ground around the house was swept clean and all the grass was worn off, I don’t know if it was because we kept it off playing or if the grown ups kept it that way to keep back the snakes, the dogs killed a snake once in awhile. We had a China-berry tree in the yard and my sister Sue tried to eat the berries that fell so I think Mom kept the yard swept to keep up the berries. We made play houses out of sticks, we would line off our living room and kitchen and bedrooms and we left openings for our doors and windows, our furniture was a block of wood and our dishes were tin cans, we stirred up those mud pies and let them dry in the sun. We tried to get Sue to eat them. She wouldn't of course but she sure bothered us all the time, she wanted to play with us, she thought she was a big as we were, isn't that the way of sisters.
We got a puppy while we lived there, we called him “Smokie” because he was part bull dog and had a white face and a brindle color body, he was my brother, Charles’ dog but he stayed with the family even after my brother went off to the CC camp. I rode with Dad, Charles and dad’s friend, Bud Hudpath, to get the puppy in Mr. Hudpath’s A Model car. The car was a boxy black car, like the cars you see in the 30's and 40's movies. When we got back home Dad put Smoky’s tail on a brick and cut his tail off with his knife and a hammer, one clean whack but I can still see it in my child's mind. Smokie was with us a lot of years but one day dad had to shoot him because he was foaming at the mouth and running around and dad was scared he had gone mad. Charles and I have talked about Smokie a lot, he was a good memory for us both.
We lived only about a quarter of a mile from the Ebenezer school house, this was where my sister Frances started to school. The house where the teachers lived caught on fire and burned one night, the flames reached high in the sky, this was my first experience with a house fire. My brother Charles and I visited the area a few years ago and the old school house was still there all grown up with weeds and stubble. This area was called “Big Creek”, it is in the area between Aubrey and Marvell, I doubt if I could go there again.
We skated on the ice in winter. We ate ice from the rain barrels until--- after the thaw when we found a dead kitten in the bottom of the barrel. Folks back then, kept barrels under the eave of the house to catch rain water to wash their hair or do the laundry, so much of the time the water that came out of the pitcher pump was rusty or foul smelling from the sulphur in the water.
About 1940 we moved south of Marianna to a farm run by the Burke family, dad share cropped. The family does the work and the boss takes his share which was most of everything. You’ve heard the old saying “I walked a mile to school everyday”? Well, in our case it was the truth, it was exactly a mile to the hard road (paved highway)where we caught the bus to Marianna to school. When it was raining or freezing dad came to the bus stop with the wagon and team and covered us with quilts to keep us warm. The Mulberry elementary school was on a hill and at recess the kids slid down the ice covered hill on sleds or paste board boxes. I don't remember many "Snow Days" from school.
When we walked to the hard road to go to school we saw the creatures of the earth,---- birds, rabbits, snakes, worms. We thought a horse hair left out in the rain would turn into a worm. My sister, Pearlie, was chased by a Blue Racer snake, when she stopped running he stopped too. We ate mulberries from the trees and we relived our day at school and thought of what homework we had to get done and about how much water we had to pump for the horses and cows. Those cows could drink and drink, Pearlie tried to run them away from the trough. Dad finally got a gasoline engine for the pump and we were so happy, but we still had to get the firewood in for the cook stove. Everything took place in the front room or the kitchen in the winter because it was cold in the bedrooms. In the summer we stayed out side when we could because it was so hot in the house. We played out side as long as we could , we played red rover, hop scotch,and we caught fireflies in a jar. The ground around the house was swept clean and all the grass was worn off, I don’t know if it was because we kept it off playing or if the grown ups kept it that way to keep back the snakes, the dogs killed a snake once in awhile. We had a China-berry tree in the yard and my sister Sue tried to eat the berries that fell so I think Mom kept the yard swept to keep up the berries. We made play houses out of sticks, we would line off our living room and kitchen and bedrooms and we left openings for our doors and windows, our furniture was a block of wood and our dishes were tin cans, we stirred up those mud pies and let them dry in the sun. We tried to get Sue to eat them. She wouldn't of course but she sure bothered us all the time, she wanted to play with us, she thought she was a big as we were, isn't that the way of sisters.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Key's - The Early Years
I want everybody to know this is my childhood memories and fantasies as I remember them. My life story begins a long time before I was a gleam in my dad's eye. My dad is James Fred Key and my mother Gerturde Mandy Little Key. Dad was born in Tennessee, somewhere around Camden. I have never been to this wonderful place but as a child I heard stories of how my great grandfather was in both the Confederate and the Union armies. The war between the north and the south must have been like the movie of "Gone with the Wind." I'm sure there were a few horse thieves and murders in my past, it seems that from the stories that most of the Key(spelled Kee in the earlier years) men in those days were rugged, hot tempered, hell raisers, and womanizers.
My grandfather, Calvin Venable Key (known only as CV) was married three times, with a total of 21 (so I was told, I can only count 17) children, my dad was from the second marriage. My grandmother's name was Molly Brackin and they had four sons and a daughter. Fred, Chester, Irvin and Lester. I never knew anything about the daughter but apparently she died young. These guys had numerous cousins, CV's brother Andrews had 24 (so they say)children, when I was about five I remember sitting on the steps when CV and Andrew were sitting in rocking chairs on the porch trying to out boast each other about how many children they each had. Andrew had more fortune because he had all those children to help him work his farm and help make a living in his "old age." He said this was the best insurance a man could have. I remember one other great uncle and his name was Daniel . His wife was "Miss Lily" as my dad called her.
Since Molly died young, CV married Nancy Beggs, dad called her "Miss Nancy" because she was only five years old than he was. This made more aunts and uncles for me, some even younger than me. When I was almost eleven years old Grandma Nancy had a tumor and we were all so worried but it turned out to be Leon, another uncle. We played in the grudge ditches around grandpa's farm, we caught "crawdads" from the ditch and roasted them on a piece of tin over a campfire. Our little blond haired cousin, Jeannette, came to visit from Memphis and this was the first time most of us had seen a store bought bathing suit. Of course the mosquitoes had a field day.
Grandpa died at 91 and I think Leon turned 21 that same year. Grandpa's mind was good up until he died, he loved crossword puzzles and reading. He was a teacher in his younger days. He told us he sold a wagon load of corn to get money to go to college to become a teacher. He had the bluest eyes I have ever seen on a man, I see those same eyes in some of his grand and great-grand children. Grandpa was a slight of build and not tall but he was a giant in my eyes.
My uncle Andrew was one of those kind kid loving men, I thought of him as old but it was because I was so young. His overall pockets harbored treasures, he never saw me that he didn't reach in this pocket and bring out something for me, a pecan, a nickel, a peanut ---- it was always something interesting.
I never saw my uncle Daniel very often but when I did see him in town on Saturday afternoon he bought me "BIG NICK" ice-cream. I 've never found anybody else except my husband who remembers what "Big Nicks' were, I guess that is why it is nice to be married to someone your own age. A "Big Nick" was a solid bar of vanilla ice-cream dipped in chocolate, it was packaged in a cardboard carton and could be torn down as you ate it, but it looked kinda like the boxes a dozen pencils comes in today.
Grandma Nancy made us sorghum molasses candy and we pulled it while it was still warm. Country folks said "it looked like sorghum and butter mixed together. Hum, hum, I can remember the taste now.
They planted sorghum and it grew into a cane that looked kinda like a fishing cane. Then when it was ripe they cut and carried it to the Sorghum Mill over on "Last Chance" road. The men fed the sorghum stalks though the Mill to press the juice from the them, the juice would drain into a vat that had a fire under it and they cooked the juice and while it was cooking the raw foam was skimmed from the trough. The mill press was kept turning by a mule that walked round and round as the men put in the stalks. It took around six men to operate the mill and when the syrup was all cooked off the syrup was divided for each family to take home to be eaten with hot biscuits and butter. Us kids chewed the sorghum stalk, you could strip it down and bite off the sorghum and after the juice was out of it you spit out the husk, it had a heavenly taste. Sorghum making only came around once a year just like a crop of cotton. But that is another story, post more soon.
My grandfather, Calvin Venable Key (known only as CV) was married three times, with a total of 21 (so I was told, I can only count 17) children, my dad was from the second marriage. My grandmother's name was Molly Brackin and they had four sons and a daughter. Fred, Chester, Irvin and Lester. I never knew anything about the daughter but apparently she died young. These guys had numerous cousins, CV's brother Andrews had 24 (so they say)children, when I was about five I remember sitting on the steps when CV and Andrew were sitting in rocking chairs on the porch trying to out boast each other about how many children they each had. Andrew had more fortune because he had all those children to help him work his farm and help make a living in his "old age." He said this was the best insurance a man could have. I remember one other great uncle and his name was Daniel . His wife was "Miss Lily" as my dad called her.
Since Molly died young, CV married Nancy Beggs, dad called her "Miss Nancy" because she was only five years old than he was. This made more aunts and uncles for me, some even younger than me. When I was almost eleven years old Grandma Nancy had a tumor and we were all so worried but it turned out to be Leon, another uncle. We played in the grudge ditches around grandpa's farm, we caught "crawdads" from the ditch and roasted them on a piece of tin over a campfire. Our little blond haired cousin, Jeannette, came to visit from Memphis and this was the first time most of us had seen a store bought bathing suit. Of course the mosquitoes had a field day.
Grandpa died at 91 and I think Leon turned 21 that same year. Grandpa's mind was good up until he died, he loved crossword puzzles and reading. He was a teacher in his younger days. He told us he sold a wagon load of corn to get money to go to college to become a teacher. He had the bluest eyes I have ever seen on a man, I see those same eyes in some of his grand and great-grand children. Grandpa was a slight of build and not tall but he was a giant in my eyes.
My uncle Andrew was one of those kind kid loving men, I thought of him as old but it was because I was so young. His overall pockets harbored treasures, he never saw me that he didn't reach in this pocket and bring out something for me, a pecan, a nickel, a peanut ---- it was always something interesting.
I never saw my uncle Daniel very often but when I did see him in town on Saturday afternoon he bought me "BIG NICK" ice-cream. I 've never found anybody else except my husband who remembers what "Big Nicks' were, I guess that is why it is nice to be married to someone your own age. A "Big Nick" was a solid bar of vanilla ice-cream dipped in chocolate, it was packaged in a cardboard carton and could be torn down as you ate it, but it looked kinda like the boxes a dozen pencils comes in today.
Grandma Nancy made us sorghum molasses candy and we pulled it while it was still warm. Country folks said "it looked like sorghum and butter mixed together. Hum, hum, I can remember the taste now.
They planted sorghum and it grew into a cane that looked kinda like a fishing cane. Then when it was ripe they cut and carried it to the Sorghum Mill over on "Last Chance" road. The men fed the sorghum stalks though the Mill to press the juice from the them, the juice would drain into a vat that had a fire under it and they cooked the juice and while it was cooking the raw foam was skimmed from the trough. The mill press was kept turning by a mule that walked round and round as the men put in the stalks. It took around six men to operate the mill and when the syrup was all cooked off the syrup was divided for each family to take home to be eaten with hot biscuits and butter. Us kids chewed the sorghum stalk, you could strip it down and bite off the sorghum and after the juice was out of it you spit out the husk, it had a heavenly taste. Sorghum making only came around once a year just like a crop of cotton. But that is another story, post more soon.
Monday, March 16, 2009
WWII
My Dad was 41 years old, I was 8, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. I remember well the day we heard it on the radio. I remember how pale my dad and mom's faces became and my fear of what would become of our family if dad had to go to war. The radio was run on a big battery and the battery was a precious thing because you couldn't get another one even if you had the money which we didn't. The radio was only turned on to hear the news and what Franklin D. Roosevelt was going to lead the country to do. Dad didn't go to the service, he was listed as 4F, I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know if my beloved dad was sick and couldn't go or if maybe it was like they said, the farmers had to raise food crops to keep the country going. We had to work even harder then. My three older brothers all went to the service, all came home alive but my brother Ed only barely. Dad had been told that Ed died in action, but when the war was over he was found in a prisoner of war camp in Germany. His weight was down to 105 when they found him. He didn't talk much about it but he said that if a stray dog was killed in the street and it was thrown over the fence the prisoners fought over it. They caught garter snakes and anything else they could eat, the grass didn't grow on the yard because they ate it all. That is why to this day I can't watch war movies, the news on the radio was a daily thing and our boys were dying by the hundreds. Sons of our neighbors were being killed and reported missing in action. My uncle, Clarence Key, was killed in action, the fear was always with us. This went on for over five years.....then I remember VJ Day 1945. We had moved to the town of West Helena by then, dad was working at a wood mill there. When the news came over the radio, the fire sirens were going off, the people were in the streets rejoicing and crying and jumping up and down. There was a German prison camp just off the main street in West Helena. The prisoners were hauled to the near by farms to work each day, they were fed better than we were, we couldn't get sugar, coffee, flour and certainly not beef, I would hear remarks made by the grown ups about the prisoners were eating steak and we were about to starve ourselves.
But those prisoners were as happy that day as the rest of us. They would be going back home on the prisoner exchange program between the countries. They were laughing and jumping up and down like we were. THE WAR WAS OVER !!!
But those prisoners were as happy that day as the rest of us. They would be going back home on the prisoner exchange program between the countries. They were laughing and jumping up and down like we were. THE WAR WAS OVER !!!
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