Uncle Bill Marr

Hi Just a note to say hi and hope all is o.k. with you. Had quite an experience today----My sister Ann called me. One of my Dad.s younger brothers had called her. She gave me his number and I called him back. What,s so special about that you ask. Well. I haven't heard from him in years, he's 93 We lived with my grandparents for awhile when my Dad was going to Pharmacy school and he once rescued me from a runaway horse.I used to ride horseback to school on the back of the saddle of one of my Dad's two younger brother's horses. I was about 6. On this particular day I was on the younger brother Bill,s horse and it got spooked from something. It reared up and the next thing I knew it was a runaway with me hanging on to the back of the saddle dangling like a shoe string of an untied shoe lace from the horse . Uncle Bill was trying to get the horse under control and had no time for me but the other uncle was a little behind and saw what was happening and like a hero from a western movie galloped up beside the runaway horse slipped his left arm between me and the horse and pulled me up onto his saddle. Also at my Granny's house they had a piano and Snoots played it by ear. He was amazing---would put Jerry Lee Lewis to shame ---all from just listening To the music. People were so amazing then. We had no electric in the house or indoor plumbing. Granny Marr pumped her water outside and brought it in to do her astonishing three meals a day for 6 sons and a husband and send them off to the fields while she did whatever it was wives had to do for the family which has not changes since Eve---only the method of doing it. She did laundry in a black pot in the backyard with a scrubboard and hung it an a clothesline in the backyard where it was sundried. I can still see the blue overall and long johns hanging and flapping in the breeze. I have been thinking a lot about my two grandmothers and my mother lately and what amazing women they were and the impact of just watching them as a child had on my life, They were truly pioneer women---tough and capable, strong and determined. Back to my Uncle-----I told him I really wanted to see him and could I bring a tape recorder---He said sure just don't bring any cameras. So Hopefully Ann and I will take a trip to Mineral wells soon for a visit. He was very mentally sharp today and I want to get this stuff on paper before my memory goes, More later----Love you very much MOMXO

Notes from Helen Ruth

Cont'd------I can't remember where I left off-----My grand father built my brother and I a merry-go-round out of a stump and a wagon wheel---a swing from an old tire and rope and it hung on a limb from this magnificent huge tree in the yard. My granny made lots of biscuits and used a large can of Clabber Girl baking powder--when the can was empty she gave it to me to play with. She dipped snuff and when the Garrett snuff can was empty I became the proud owner of that too. I buried the Clabber Girl baking powder can and erected from twigs a stand to which I tied the snuff can with string filled the Clabber Girl can with water and I had a little well. From that I made mud pies for hours and decorated them with rocks and twigs. My Dad's two younger brothers were still in school. They were in their teens. They would saddle up their horses and Snoots the older one would put me on the back of his saddle and we would go to the one room school house provided for the children of the area. All too often it was a school through the week and church on Sundays. One day the horse got spooked on the way to school and was having a "runaway". I had slid off the back and was hanging on for dear life---the horse galloping as fast as he could I was hanging on to the back of the saddle with my child's fingers and screaming like a banshee when all of a sudden, Bill, Dad's youngest brother came alongside, grabbed me by the waist and hollered "Let Go" which I did and he saved me like some western movie Hero. Life with them was good for us kids. They were a hard-working loving family and were very good to us. In the evening Snoots would play the Piano and he was really quite good at it. All of his music was "by ear" He would play Gospel and rock music, I don't know where he heard the music as I don't remember a radio in the house. Back to my granny who was a short lady and carried some extra weight -------she worked and worked and worked some more. She did the laundry in a black washpot with a fire built under it to heat the water out in the back yard. She had lines of overall workshirts and "long johns" flapping in the wind. There was at least three boys left at home. They were cooked a breakfast of Ham, eggs "cross-eyed gravy, sorgham and fresh churned butter to go with those magnificent hot biscuits. They went to the field by daylight. My Granny would clear things away and get lunch set up. She cooked three meals a day for her menfolk Then she would can vegetables. meats or whatever --make cottage cheese by pouring boiling water over clabber in a cheese cloth and wringing it dry. Many of the things I watched my Granny do I did later on in my life. I also learned to work like her without complaining---I learned from her how to make the most of what I had and to be grateful for what I had. Another thing that left an impression on me was in the fall when the weather cooled off everyone was up by four in the morning and a hog was slaughtered. It was hung to a tree and the loin stripped out and given to my granny who cut it and made a king's breakfast for her Menfolk. There was no indoor plumbing or lights.
4 Sep 2008 18:26:58 -0500

cont'd 9-4-2008 As I said there was no indoor plumbing or electric, life was lived with outhouses and slopjars under the bed and it was my job more often than not to make sure they were emptied rinsed and placed back under the bed. I learned early about that and so it was not such a shock to me when I went in to Nurses training. It was always a dash for the outhouse as my grandparents were the proud owner of a white Goose who was really cranky and delighted it seemed to chase us and send us screaming across the yard, hissing and nipping at our heels. Lighting was coal oil lamps and bon fires built outside when there was outside things to be done and the day was over or had not yet begun. My mother helped with the chores and went to the fields to pick cotton as that is how she was paying for Dad's education. Mother was a cut above my dad's family---she had dreams and ambition, and knew education was the key to wherever you wanted to go. She had been raised by a single mom along with four or five brothers and sisters in San Fransisco. My Nanny Peters was abandoned by a husband, according to my Mother, who drank, gambled and chased skirts. He was a foreman, from what I was told on the King Ranch and ran off with some female that worked on the ranch. I was told that the older boys Bert and Link had gone to California and were working as Merchant Marines. Somehow my Nanny got word to them and they came and got the family in a flat bed truck. They loaded what little belongings they had and left. They got as far as Arizona before my Nanny became ill and the truck also gave out on them. These were really hard times. They stayed at an Indian reservation as my Nanny had Tuberculosis and was very ill, but sat with her back up against an adobe hut and let the sun shine on her chest until she got well. She told me about a man who came to the reservation with chickens and foodstuffs and if he had anything left he would give it to her. I don't know how they cooked it or whatever---I was very young when told these things and never bothered to get the details. I was, and still am, in awe of both my grandmothers and my Mother for the strength and perseverance, endurance and their everlasting Faith in our Lord. My Mothers dreams and hopes were carved out of extreme poverty. She went to school in Haskell and here again I don't know how or when they came to Texas as some of the aunts and uncles were in the bay area in California and had done well becoming dental techs and Chefs and had nice homes later on. I will write about them more later but I need to stay on track now. Because of Mothers attitude she was considered uppity and did not get along with my Dad's family and when one night she woke up to a calf in our bedroom at my grannny's house --it was "Katie bar the door and we moved to my Dad's sister's house which was also a farm and where my Mother could work picking cotton to get Dad through school. There was no welfare and people were too proud to accept it. Families toughed it out and took care of each other.