Kids and More Kids

When my second brother came along, he was completely different in looks from my first. He had lighter hair and looked a lot like my pappa. My pappa had blue eyes; my mamma had brown eyes. With every child that came, my mamma would say, "This one will be blue eyed." At first Lee looked like he would be blue eyed, but like all before and after him, his eyes changed to brown.

He was my pet. I loved him so. And he was spoiled. Once he was sick with pneumonia, and I was spending the night with my cousin, Laura. He cried for me until my folks sent for me to come home. I was so mad because I had to go home that I wanted to spank him.

But he was so sick when I saw him that I sat on the rocking chair and rocked him all night. This may have helped him. Moving him a lot kept the pneumonia from settling, or so the doctor said. Lee snuggled up to me and quit crying. That was a long night for me but well worth it.

I looked out for him a lot and spanked him also, when needed. Like each brother and sister, there was a very special love between us then, as there is now.

Lee was always very independent. From the time he was a small boy, he worked very hard. He would always say, "If you can't make a dollar a day, make fifty cents or a dime, but earn something each day." With this kind of thinking, he always seemed to have his own money to spend or loan for interest. He never shunned hard work and still does not.

I had one more sister after that, Maxine, the baby. She had sort of a rough deal. After her was the baby boy, Gordon, who died at six months. Then my sister Sadie died in the same year. As I said before, we took in Sadie's three small children. So, Maxine had to share everything with them. We all wanted to do this, but still I am sure it sometimes put a hardship on all of them.

We are all very proud of the fact that we did share our home with Wilma, Fay, and Virgil.