A Moment In Time With Mike

Hello again friends and family. I recently sat down with my mother and asked her to put some of her childhood memories together on a cassette tape and she did just that. Well I listened to that tape the other day there were some interesting things that I learned about her life that I didn't know. But after listening to the tape and hearing here jump around in time from future to present and from present to future again I told myself I'm just going to have to sit down and ask her to tell me what she can remember about her childhood from the beginning and tell it to me in order. I love my mother Very Much but (Organized) isn't something she does well. Don't tell my mom but my brother and I cut up about our mother having the best (Organized Chaos) a person can have lol, but even though she has her faults she has many more good qualities about her than bad.

Mom was born in Sapulpa OK in a house on Wickham Road, Jan. 9th 1940 and at that time the area was called 4 Mile Square and her house was just across the street from Pappy Newman's Place, and she has 1 sister and 4 brothers. We recently had her 70th Birthday and so I told myself I need to find out all I can about my mothers past before she passes on.

Like I said before Mom was born Jan. 9th 1940 and she said she can remember Grandma Eva Hankins telling her those were the Depression Years and times were hard. Grandma told her that Flower and Sugar were Rationed and hard to come but they did get Corn Meal and Molasses on a regular basis. Grandpa and Grandma worked in the local Glass Factory for awhile but Grandpa wanted badly to farm and live in the country so they decided to move to Flatrock Ark. to live with his dad, John Wesley Hankins.
After getting all moved in mom barely remembers her Grandpa John taking them all to town to meet the people of the community in his Buckboard with his Mules hitched to the Buckboard so he could show them where every thing was located.

While living with John Wesley Hankins they worked in the Peach Orchard to raise enough money to get there own place. Eventually Grandpa Emery Hankins borrowed $400.00 and bought 80 acres of land with an Old Log Cabin on. Grandma Eva Hankins cooked in an old Wood Burning Cook-stove with no Electricity in the house and no water and of course back then you had to go the Outhouse for Number 1 and Number 2 lol. Then eventually Grandpa Emery Hankins and his boys, added onto the Cabin, and built a Barn, Smokehouse and a Chicken Pen. They didn't have an Icebox so they took there perishable foods and drinks down to the Spring and put it in the water because it was very cold water and would keep there food from spoiling. Mom said from time to time the Ice Man would come there way and they would buy Ice and store it in an Old Wooden Ice Box , but that didn't happen often. Mom said they had several Natural Springs in the area but one she remembers the most is what they called Blue Hole. She said they called it that because the water was so clear and so cold and that was her and the rest of the kids favorite swimming place.

During those Flatrock Ark, days mom said that's where she started to school.
The old school had 1st through the 5th grade and she said there were 5 rows of Desks and each row represented a Grade, 1st row 1st Grade and so on.
Well she was to start school at the age of 5 BUT she said she was so Shy and Backwards that she cried every day until they finally had to take her out of school and put her back in the next year. She said they had a new teacher that next year and she still didn't want to go to school and she cried but that new teacher would take her up and hold her in his lap and talk to her kindly and she came to like him very much. Meanwhile back at the house Grandpa was piping some Spring Water from the Spring so they could just put the bucket under it to get water instead of dipping it. They used this water for Drinking and washing the dishes and such. Mom said it was so beautiful there especially in the Spring. She said we would always pick the Blackberry's, Red-hull's, Black-hull's, Huckleberry's and the Muscadine grapes would always grow down by the creek. Grandma Eva would always make jelly out of some of the berry's each year. Meanwhile back to Grandpa Emery and I'm sure the boy's to, were out in the field trying to clear all the trees by blasting them out with Dynamite and she said there were so many rock to be moved out. Mom said Grandpa Emery was always just a thin little man but he was the most hard working man she ever new.

Once the land was cleared and then plowed she remembers Grandpa Emery growing Corn and Boysenberry's. I'm sure he raised more but those are the 2 she remembers the most. He also, during that time, bought a Milk Cow for there own milk. She also remembers it was the boys job to always chop the wood for the Stove and that was there only source of Heat and the girls, each night, would always bring in the water and Grandma Eva would put two big buckets of water in the stove and it would heat all night so they could have hot water to do the dish's with. I asked her where did you take a bath and she said when we did and it was about once a week, we would go down to the spring and bath in the cold spring water and I just shivered at the thought.

She remembers Grandma Mary Hurt coming over from time to time to stay with the young kids while Grandpa and Grandma would go to the Peach Orchards to work so they could have some money to make it through the winter months. She also remembers her mom and dad having to go all the way to Sikeston Mo. to work, picking cotton, also for money to make it through the winter. She said we didn't have much money at all, we raised almost all the food we ate and we literally lived off the land and farmed most of our food. Mom said Grandpa raised a hog every year and butchered it himself.
Grandpa and Grandma would also have a Big Garden next to the house that they grew just about every vegetable known and also had lots of fruit trees.
Grandpa Emery would take the fruit and put it on top on his Smokehouse that had a tin roof and that's the way he would dry his fruit, no Dehydrators back in those days like we have now. She also remembers them making there own Lye Soap to wash with. She remembers that money was getting short one winter and Grandpa Emery went to Memphis Tenn. to work with his cousin, who owned a Plumbing business and he was gone the whole winter. Mom said it was really rough without her dad there and she missed him so much and always hated it when he had to go off and work out of town, especially for long periods of time.

She said Grandpa Emery loved to farm and live in the country and she said that she saw Grandpa Emery, after plowing the field, pick up a clot of dirt and taste the soil, now that's a man who loves to farm and not afraid of work.
Mom would say that money was hard to come by so us kids would save our lunch money up and go buy candy with it and that was a real treat and we didn't get it very often. She also remembers the lumber company coming to Grandpa Emery and wanting to cut down some of his Pine trees and mom remembers Grandpa getting lumber out the deal he made with the Lumber Co. but cant remember whether he got paid any money as well. Well mom tells me the time came when the money just was getting so hard to come by that Grandpa Emery decided we need to go back to Oklahoma and get a steady job in town, I'm thinking this is probably a decision he really didn't wont to have to make because he loved the country and loved farming but he had a family to feed and that's what was most important to him. Well he went back to Sapulpa OK. and lived with my Uncle Sidney Hurt until he raised enough money, by working at Bartlett Collins, so the rest of the family could come back to live also. They also sold all the lumber they got from the lumber company and sold peanuts they had in the barn just to raise enough money to get back to Oklahoma. She said they sold the land later after getting back to Oklahoma to a man from Ark. and he bought it just mainly to hunt on.

Well they lived in several rent houses in town until they raised enough money to buy there own house on Mill St. Mom said the old house wasn't much but Grandpa Emery added onto the old place and remembers that Grandpa would always get aggravated as he worked on the old place because the wood was so rotten that when he would drive a nail the old wood would just bust to pieces. While living in Sapulpa when mom got old enough to work so she went to work for the phone company where my Aunt Katherine helped her get a job. Well she worked there for awhile and then she went to work over in the Redfork area, close to Tulsa, at the Crown Drugstore and that's where she met my Dad.

Dad said yea when we were dating I would get free Malts and Sundaes and then he laughed. Well it wasn't long and they got Hitched and was married at Grandpa and Grandma's house on Mill St. by Preacher Bro. Lear. Then it was only 3 month's later that Dad was drafted to the Army. Well somewhere in those 3 month's there was some Hanky Panky going on because I came into this world 11 months later while Dad was still in the Service, serving in Germany. Dad said while he was there he bought me a Blue Jacket with some writing on it and I still have that Jacket somewhere. Mom had her own house during my first years of life, but Dad was in the Army and she was scarred to stay alone, so she lived with Grandpa and Grandma while Dad was in the Service.

Well mom said she was so worried about me because I couldn't keep my baby milk down and that I just keep vomiting it up and in those days Pet and Carnation were the only 2 baby milks. Well she eventually took me to the doctor and he said try Cows Milk and so she did and she said I finally kept it down and got to be so FAT. Grandpa Hankins told mom, if you will buy the feed, for a Cow, I will buy one so Mike can have fresh Milk. I'm telling you that Grandpa was a loving and caring man, and his love went far and beyond.

Like I said earlier mom was staying with Grandpa and Grandma while Dad was away in the Service because she was afraid to stay by herself. Well a sad night was ahead of them and she said she will never forget it, she was doing the laundry one evening and she hung the clothes over a heater that Grandma had in the Laundry Room and that when she got through hanging the clothes she went out the front door, and they all think today, that a Cat entered the door as she went out and later that night the cat turned the heater over or knocked the hanging clothes down on the heater and it caught the house on fire and it burned to the ground. She said she remembers getting buckets of water and trying to put it out but it just wasn't working and the house was really flaming by then and Grandma Eva said, where's the baby, you go get that baby, and get out of this house right now, but when she went to get me my Uncle Donald had already taken me out of the house and thank God he did get that baby or I wouldn't be writing this story today.

Mom said she remembers the Fire Department coming but it was to late and she remembers Grandpa Emery Hankins down on his knees praying and that someone was with him as that house burnt. You see, My Grandpa and Grandma Hankins were Godly people and they loved the Lord God with all there hearts and that night God came to his rescue again like he had many times before and mom said all the neighbors, from all the neighborhood came with clothing and food, she said Ive never seen anything like it before. She said God wasn't through and that all of the neighbors and family came together and they rebuilt that house bigger and better than it was before. What a Awesome God we serve and when I say God I mean the God of Abraham.

Mom said that I thought Grandma Eva Hankins was just about it and that I loved her so much and she was right. She said when I was just 4 years old that I would play in the yard, at our house in Sapulpa, and that once when she went into the house, just for a minute, that I went and found a missing board in the old Pickett fence we had and that I knew where Grandma Eva lived just around the corner and I would go to her house. When she first discovered I was gone she panicked something terrible when she couldn't find me, so she went to her Mom's, to get help finding me and there I was. Dad said I done that later on in my childhood again, but they knew straight were to go find me.

Then 2 years later after I was born mom had a baby girl, Trela McGuire. And then 5 years after I was born she has another baby girl, Leatrice McGuire. Then Dad and Mom bought a house in Kiefer and that's where I was raised most all my life and we all loved that town. Then WOW 12 years after I was born she has a baby boy and let me tell you I wanted mom to have a baby boy so bad. I had so many sisters and so many girls in the house that there needed to be another boy in there and he came just a day before my birthday, boy did all of us kids spoil that boy. During all those days at Kiefer I can remember my Dad working at Bartlett Collins, repairing lawnmowers, bicycles and Mom Babysitting the School Teachers kids, doing Ironing jobs just so they could buy there family the things they needed, they both worked very hard.

Well later in our years Trela and I got married and moved out of the old house and went on to raise our own families. Then Dad and Mom moved to Kellyville where Grandpa McGuire had lots of land and he gave them over 70 Acres if they would come and build a house on it and they did just that. Now Dad is very happy, because he loved the country also and wanted to raise some cattle and do a little farming himself. This was the very land that Dad was raised on, so he knew the land well, but it wasn't too many years later that Dad's health was failing, his Kidneys were shutting down and he had to have Dialysis Treatment 3 times a week every week for the rest of his life. During this time Leatrice and Freddie had married and went on to raise there families. So Dad and Mom moved back to the city so they could get closer to the Dialysis Unit, and Mom, what a woman, she works so hard every day getting up early in the morning and taking Dad to get his Treatments done. This is a woman that was taught how to work hard buy two of the most loving Parent's anyone could have had, Grandpa Emery and Grandma Eva Hankins.

Now I have a few of those memories to share about my Grandpa and Grandma Hankins as well. I can remember staying with Grandma Eva and Ricky my cousin was there also and when Rick would be playing cars in the dirt with the neighbor boys they wouldn't let me play so I ran off crying to Grandma and she would blow up those long, wavy, blue balloons and I loved her for that. I remember Mom telling me that Grandma said when I got mad at her house I would go to her rocking chair and rock that thing so fast and hard and she would just laugh. I can remember going to there house when they owned the store in Bluebell and when I would look in the candy showcase and see all the, (Back Then) penny candy and my eyes would get as big as Silver Dollars and of course my Grandma always gave me some. I can remember Grandma giving me my first pocket knife and she said, I'll give you this knife as long as you don't take it to school. When I get to Heaven I'm going to ask Grandma to forgive me, because I lied to her and took it to school and got caught with it and they took it away from me. Sorry Grandma!!!

I can remember Grandpa Emery making woodwork's in the middle of the house. He also made his own Fishing Lures and sold them in his store and he gave a lot of his costumers CREDIT for there food and gas that he sold and he would just write it in a book and they would come later and make payments on it and it was all done on a handshake. I can remember him raising a big garden, lots of fruit trees and running his own Beehives, cooking meat in the Smokehouse behind the store. Mom and Grandma got together once, and I saw them catching chickens ringing there necks, gutting them and then singeing the small feathers over the cook stove and man that stunk. I also remember playing in Grandpa's yard once and one of the neighbors rooster started after me, so I ran to the back door of the house, only to find that it was locked and that rooster spurred my ankles until they were just bloody and boy did Grandma chew out the neighbor for that. I can remember when us boys went to visit Grandpa and Grandma on family get together's and us boys found a bunch of old chicken eggs out in the field and we decided to have a egg fight and it was fun, UNTIL, I got hit with one of them and those egg's were rotten and stank to the High Heavens. I can remember grandpa taking me fishing down to Brown's creek just down the road on highway 33 and I can still hear his voice saying, now be real quite because if you don't you'll scare away the fish.

Man I could go on and on. Even as fun as it was to ask my mom to take down some of her old Childhood Memories and mix mine right in with them it was a lot of work and I'm sure she or myself didn't get every fact exactly the way it really was but I guarantee it was close. I'm telling you that each and every one of you who have there parents and Grandparents still with you, you need to sit down and take in all the information you can before they take it with them.

After hearing moms days as a child Ive come to 3 conclusion's for sure our Grandparents and Great Grandparents all new the real meaning of work and the real meaning of suffering and the real meaning of surviving in hard times. Yes we are also living in a Depression but nothing like they did so sit back and thank God for all he has given you, for it could be much worse. Tell your parents today that you love them and thank them for all the sacrifices they made for you and as for them living in the (Good Ole Days) I DON'T THINK SO, sounded hard to me. Love you guys and hope you enjoyed this Blog. PS sign up for a Google Account online that way you can leave comments on my Blog Page. Thanks Mike

Well my Little Brother has inspired me once again and this time it was to start a BLOG. I read his and think sometimes, that boy should have been a writer and he missed his calling.

When I read an Article he had on Christmas's of our childhood I'm telling you I literally cried, tears falling, snot rolling out my nose, oh well you get the point, I'm an old softy and it brought back some good old memories. I love that boy and he's the baby of our family and I'm telling you I'm not sure what I'd do without him.

You see I have 2 Biological Sisters and 1 Step sister and when my mom was pregnant with Freddie, I as a young boy, prayed for a little brother. I wanted a baby brother for my Birthday and the reason I wanted him for my Birthday was it was getting close to my Birthday and that was my Wish, a Baby Brother.

Still today I remember staying with my Aunt and Uncle because mom was in the hospital and it was about time for her to Deliver her baby. Every time the phone rang, I went over to it and when my Aunt picked up the receiver she said, Oh Really, well here he is and she handed me the phone. I cant remember now who it was that told me but the person on the other end said, Mike Happy Birthday one day early, you now have a Baby Brother!!!

I'm telling you that I had a smile from ear to ear and the joy was overwhelming. You see he was born July 23 and I was born July 24, but 11 years apart, and I had the best Birthday Present ever. Well Freddie was like a new toy to us during our childhood, and he always entertained us.

He has taught me lots of things in Life and I call on him regularly to show me how to do different things on the Computer, and he's good, and always made time for his Older Brother. He's all grown up now and been in Law Enforcement almost all of his life and the whole family is truly proud of him. So I guess what the moral to this whole story would be, to tell your Brother's and yes your Sisters too, every time you see them, that you Love them and Appreciate them Very Much.