My first remembrance of Aunt Katie was when she was living at Canyon and came to Grandpa and Miss Mary’s to visit. I was so excited because for the first time I was going to get to stay overnight away from home. I must have been about five and Virgil was about eleven years old. Everything was fine until it started getting dark. Then I decided it was time for me to go home. I started crying – so to distract my distress, Aunt Katie and Virgil got down on the floor to play marbles with me. That has always been a pleasant memory for me of Aunt Katie.
Aunt Katie and Uncle Homer lived in the Baptist Parsonage in Follett at one time. Aunt Katie was working on a correspondence course and I went to keep Mackie occupied. Mack always called me “Baila”. That’s the summer Mack warned me with “Baila, I’m going to hit you with the pliers” – and he did – I saw stars for days. But I never told on him because I didn’t want him to get in trouble.
I always thought Aunt Katie and Uncle Homer were rich because they had an electric refrigerator. Aunt Katie would make ice cream and freeze it in the trays. You had to be rich to do that.
We lived about a quarter of a mile from Grandpa and Miss Mary when I was young. I never heard Grandpa ever talk very loud and thought it was because of his moustache. One day I heard someone calling the cows and I ask who that was? Mom said it was Grandpa calling the cows – “you mean he can talk that loud with all that stuff on his lip?”
Grandpa and Miss Mary had a trunk that sat beneath the shelf that held the snuff bottle and mantel clock. Every grandchild had to set astraddle the trunk and twirl the tin star flower attached loosely to the top of the trunk that sounded like spurs jingling.
Miss Mary always made sure we had something to eat when we went to her house. Cold biscuits and plum jam never tasted better than Miss Mary’s. Before we would go home, Miss Mary always said, “Now, you can’t go yet, these children haven’t had anything to eat.”
There was always a lot of excitement when Aunt Allie and Uncle Gerard and the girls came down. I remember Ethel, Lucille, and Ruth would put make-up on me when they got ready to go to town. To a girl of 6 or 7 that was something to look forward to.
I remember the summer Stanley, Marie and Aunt Pearl came to Follett and Mooreland. I really had a lot of fun with Marie and Stanley. It was special jut being at the Kelly’s place. It was so full of mysterious and interesting things that they had collected on their trips to “the Valley.” Marie and I always kept an eye out for a black haired boy who passed by every day. So a lot of our time was spent out on the front porch. We never did find out his name.
One summer Aunt Katie came to Mooreland to spend a few days. She made my three girls some sun dresses out of feed sacks. Those were somehow special because she put that extra touch that made them look nicer than store bought ready-to-wear.