Bill and I had the pleasure of meeting and in his case becoming reaquainted with his nearly 80 year old 1st cousin once removed, Wesley Baker Davis this summer in Lubbock, Texas. Wesley`s dad Doc (William Wilburn Davis) and Bill`s Grandpa Nat (Charles Nathanial Davis) were brothers. Doc was a Jr. so his nickname was derived because as a child he treated peers for pretend illnesses with rabbit pellets.
Wesley was one of six siblings born to Doc and 1st wife Pearl Harmon. She died when Wesley was young. Doc then married May. That`s when "All hell broke out." according to Wesley. She bore 13 children 9 of whom (7 men and 2 women) commited suicide. Two jumped off the rim of The Grand Canyon. About 1942 when Wesley was 13 and younger brother Roy Lee or Tinker was 11 the parents left them in the cotton field near Matador. His dad offered him a bus ticket to Amarillo. He declined saying he could get there faster by Hitch hiking so he hitched to Amarillo, got a room in a hotel and sold newspapers to live. In spite of all he had a good relationship with his dad. Step mother was another story.
Wesley was able to give some insight into the lives of other family members. He knew Great Grandma Mary Davis. She was a fullblood Choctaw Indian. Great Grandpa William Wilburn Davis was embarrassed of her heritage so she was never allowed to go to town. She had sore gums and jaws and would wail in pain. She had no teeth. She would sit by the fireplace and smoke a pipe. I remember Pearl saying in later years she lived in a tent in her and Nat`s yard. Their house had burnt. His memory of Bud and Fannie was Bud was in CCC camp a couple years before they married. He remembered seeing Fannie only a few times. Wesley`s biological mother Pearl and Great Uncle John`s wife Noah were sisters. Wesley was the one to get John and Nat and their families to move from east Texas to west Texas. They settled near White Flat and made their living pulling bolls for 4 or 5 years 1st for a Charley Harris and others later. When asked about Nat`s illegal whiskey business, with a twinkle in his eye he told me he always sold it. Once when the sheriff came around to search the house Nat told him look all he wanted. Nat sat on the porch with feet propped up on a large round footstool. The sheriff opened every closet and cabinet, found nothing and left. The next visitor was a customer that purchased whiskey from that very footstool. Wesley thinks Tinker`s wife had him killed June 5, 2005. At his funeral he observed wife giving a fellow a roll of $100 bills. He said you don`t have to do this now. She replied "I told you I would pay when it is done."
One of the interesting recent stories was widower Wesley a couple of months ago eloped with his dancing club friend Rita. The couple dressed in blue jeans went to the local courthouse for their nuptuals. His oldest daughter hasn`t spoken to him since. They live in a new but very ordinary house for a man that is a billionaire and knew Sam Walton personally. No Rita is not a gold digger. His money is all tied up in trusts for his kids. To make his fortune it seems years ago on the advice of his father-in-law he bought a couple parcels of land in the Houston area and in recent years offered the land to some California doctors for an ungodly amount of money and they bought. I would say that is the rest of the story for a self made Davis relative.
One of my older Balk cousins related this story recently. He is one of the few who can remember Grandpa Joseph Balk.
At that time bananas were sold not by the bunch but by the stalk. One day as he and Grandma were headed to town to buy groceries, he told Robert do not eat any bananas while we`re gone because Grandma needs them for something. Robert being a onery kid helped himself to a few bananas. When the grandparents returned not much was said about bananas, Grandpa told all within hearing that someone told him poison was put in the bananas and anyone eating them would kill over dead. Robert spent the next several hours getting sicker and sicker. Of course it was all a made up tale and it was Robert`s conscience hurting him. Grandpa made him suffer more that way than whipping him for disobeying. Ole Joe tho not highly educated had child psychology down to a science.
I learned to drive a standard because the folks thought if I could drive a stick shift I could drive anything. My driving gave Mother gray hair but she was presistant. I would not be like a couple Balk aunts who never drove because of early mishaps learning to drive. Dad would not go with me. I remember once driving over a steep culvert on a turn toward home. It was on the highway about 3 miles from home for all to see. Rumors flew that the car was really messed up. Car and passengers were unhurt and I was taken out that evening for more driving. Anothe time I remember Mother stomping on my foot and brake going around a sharp curve and over a hill. I didn`t react fast enough. This made them realize I needed glasses. I remember one time driving the farm truck with many gears to town before school for servicing. I was a bit embarrassed but saving gas was the name of the game even back then. I drove 12 miles home alone many nights after school obligations. I was not afaid even tho for about an 8 mile stretch I passed 1 house and a couple of male classmates swore they had seen lights on Long Creek on that stretch on more than occasion. I didn`t get my license until about 17 1/2. I didn`t take the driving part of the test the first time and drove with a permit for a long time. I think all of the above makes me still not like to drive in traffic particularly if I don`t know where I`m going
I remember Mother relating how she got her license in the mid 1930`s from the court house for 50 cents without any sort of test. She also told of driving her Dad in a car without a working speed odometer. If she drove too fast he would say "I know you are speeding look how fast the fence posts are flying by."
Bill`s early driving was with Grandpa Nat Davis. He let him drive him to another county to pick up hootch but wouldn`t let him drive home. Nat would get mad if he brought the keys in after a trip. That way he always knew where his keys were. Dad still doesn`t like to bring keys in from his pickup. Dad was also a little older when he got his license but he drove alone in Matador at 13 and some in Dallas at an early age. Grandma Pearl Davis never drove. "Why did she need to learn she always had someone around to drive her?" She regretted that when everyone was gone from home yet she was still spry enough to drive around little Matador.
Our first apartment at 812 1/2 4th St. in Alva was chosen in the spring before we married in August. We looked at several before deciding on an about 20 square foot furnished basement apartment behind the landlord`s house. It was $35 a month all bills paid. Cool in summer but if outside drains got blocked with debries the floor flooded when it rained. Think that only happened once. In May I and a girlfriend moved in for summer school. Dad headed to Lubbock to work. The apartment was within walking distance of school and my job downtown at T.G. & Y. After summerschool roomie moved home and the girl upstairs moved down with me for the remainder of the summer. I made curtains. It was small but with lots of storage.
Our next place on a $6000 per year teacher`s salary in Lebanon, Nebraska was a square TP looking home. It had 2 closetless bedrooms. One bedroom had an addition built on that was at one time used as a beauty salon. There was one closet in the dining room. This house too was furnished. I remember an old fashioned rolltop desk, a reddish pinkish sectional sofa, built in hutch in dining room and stained glass windows across top of living room window. We did not heat the bedrooms. The insulation probably was not very good. We didn`t notice the cold with all 7 of our wedding blankets on our bed.
The second school year we moved across from the H.S. in a 2 story house with basement. We bought the minimum but new furnishings - gold sofa, mattress set on frame. chest of drawers, wood table with 4 chairs, brown refrigerator and washer on time which I promptly paid off with double payments most months. Nate`s crib after he outgrew the cradle was a garage sale find of Aunt Nell`s. We used only the downstairs. The school secretary loaned us a bed when we had company to use upstairs which had a half bath. Again I made curtains. A treat for me the house had a big old claw foot tub. We only had showers up to then. Our address there was P.O. Box 26 chosen because it was our anniversay date.
The summer between those school sessions was spent back in our original apartment in Alva where Nate was born. We also lived in the upstairs apartment one summer. Another summer when Angie was born we lived in a brick duplex across from Homeland Store. My grocery bill was the highest that summer. I could just run across to the store when I got hungry for something.
Our first home in Stroud was on 8th St. in a converted nursing home. It had new kitchen cabinets, 3 smallish bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and large livingroom which must have been a ward room for it had bedroom type closets across one end. Again I enjoyed making curtains. The rent was like $70 and we had to pay utilities. When we were gone for summer school the landload charged only half rent. They rented to mostly teachers.
When Angie was 2 we lived in a furnished apartment in Weatherford for the summer with minimun possessions. That was the last year we had to uproot for the summer. Thank goodness because Nate was always busy picking neighbor`s green tomatoes and visiting anyone in complex or whatever. Dad had spent 5 summers in school - 4 for his masters and one to finish up a math degree.
I remember riding around in Stroud one year. As we drove past 604 S. 1st Ave. I thought houses like that never come up for sale Little did I know that by the time Angie was 1 we would close on our 1st home at 604 S. 1st Ave. It was only 2 bedrooms but had lots of nice wood kitchen cabinets, wood paneling in kitchen, attached garage and the latest blue green shag carpeting in livingroom and bedrooms. This was Sarah, Anna and Josh`s first home. We assumed the original mortgage and the owners carried a 2nd mortgage for us. House payments were at most $200 a month. When Sarah was about 2 we converted the garage to bedroom, bath and a larger dining area with laundry closet across one wall.. That was a mess remodeling with the dust and mess with all the little ones underfoot. Dad did alot of the work. I remember wallpapering new bathroom ceiling and walls with yellow paper with tiny white flowers. Pretty but I was so sore. I swore I would never do the ceiling of another small room- there was not much room for ladders. Again we were quite comfortable until Josh came along. I felt like a rat living in a maze in our 1200 foot house. We made do for about 2 1/2 years until we decided to bite the bullet and build our present home.
Looking back - how did we do it - 2 acreas, new 4 bedroom 3 bathroom house with variable interest mortgage that sometimes was over $400? Answer since daycare on 2 1/2 ( kindergarten was 1/2 days) was more than I could make Dad taught, coached, drove a bus, worked at pool or painting at school in summers and worked at Sonic on Wed. evenings all the while doing as much finish work on the house as he could. Everyone was disgustingly healthy. ha We scrimped, wore handmedowns or handmade, cooked at home, cut boys hair, vacationed at Big Granny`s, used school and church things for our entertainment and held off decorating our lovely new space. Many years care packages of cookies from Big Granny Balk was our Easter treat and bags of candy and fruit from Santa downtown was put up for our Christmas. The kids all worked from age 16 not to help with household expenses but for spending money and to save for college. They all took a turn at McDonalds which I think instilled in them an excellent work ethic. We persevered and proved all things are possible if one wants it bad enough.
I was the type of teenager that everyone wondered how I fit in with my somewhat wild classmates. Those that packed liquor in their bags for the Sr. trip to Washington D. C. which led the guys to break a TV in a motel room about Memphis. Most of the 6 girls were pregnant on their wedding day.
I on the other hand had never had a complete physical before I suspected the birth of Nate. We lived in a tiny town named Lebanon, Nebraska. The nearest Dr. was 15 to 20 miles away in Cambridge. I drove over there, circled the Dr. office a couple times and headed home. I did eventually keep an appointment then we moved to Alva for summer school. I gave the Dr. the only Dr. in Alva I remembered and hand carried my records. Dr. Stephenson was ancient and got sick before Nate was born. He did give me great advice on one visit-"Get to the hospital quickly." I woke up at 12:30AM and Dr. Simon delivered Nate at 2:00 AM. The hospital was shorthanded and Dad answered the switch board while nurses attended me. My night nurse was a male named of all things Harry Carry. He more than once startled me awake in the middle of the night for blood pressure etc. Nate did not like being in the nursery alone, was born with one ear folded over, and we stayed in the hospital a couple extra days because Dad received his Draft notice and had to plead his case in Plainview, Texas. We were that close to being an Army family.
When Angie was born we lived in Stroud. She was due after summer school started so on Sun. May 30 we took an all day ride on bumpy country roads. She arrived just after midnight on Mon. She had the most perfect round head. We headed to Mooreland and eventually Alva the day after I got out of the hospital. Townspeople thought something was wrong with her we left so quick. Mother had a bed all made for me to get in when I arrived. I didn`t go to bed but did stay there a week.
Sarah was born a couple weeks late after I worked at the pool and sat at a baseball game until 8:30. Clinic hospital was packed and our first room was a bed in a storage room. She arrived right around shift change at 11:00 PM. Lots of nurses around but all debating whose job it was as they didn`t pay overtime. She arrived on Karen`s birthday barely.
Anna arrived during the time Dr. Markert was in trouble for selling prescriptions for diet pills. Dear ole Dr. Jones was trying to keep the hospital open singlehandedly. I went to the hospital around midnight after Dad came home from playing basketball with the Harlem Wizards-a knockoff of the Globetrotters. She was delivered minutes before Dr. arrived at 5:00ish AM. I declared as he came in "you better not charge for this." He good naturedly replied"I won`t." The insurance paid and my credit was something like $42. I was paid to take her home. Nurse Patsy Hatter told me he never charged if he didn`t make it or the baby was stillborn.
Josh was born after a 6 week wait. This was before modern ultra sounds so his due date was a guess. Around March 1 Dr. told me to stay close to town-could be any day. Dad was a nervous wreck. He continued his busy schedule of end of the year class trips etc. One time as the bus went by the hospital a car like ours was there. He knew I drove myself there. Little did we know it would be 6 weeks. I was tired of keeping laundry etc. done up. Finally on Mon. after Easter I woke up 4:00ish AM, cleaned the kitchen, did a load of laundry and sent Dad to do lesson plans. When we arrived at the hospital Nurse Tonya Roundtree told all aids to listen to me because I knew what I was doing. I came out of the delivery room to a smiling Dad and Angie. She had just gotten out of morning kindergarten. I had to hurry so I didn`t miss out on the turkey dinner they served at noon. Josh was huge at 9 pounds 6 1/2 oz. but another boy dwarfed him in the nursery. We were the talk of the hospital 5 children the oldest still 7.
These are my memories of becoming a proud mother of 5. The rest of the story will be becoming proud mother-in-law to 5 and Granny to soon-to-be 12 grandchildren.
My most recent memory of Jean was when we visited her and daughter Debbie and son Jimmie in Bradenton, Florida 2008. She uses a walker at 78 but her mind is sharp as a tack. She carries her trusty pistol on her walker when home alone. Said the neighborhood was declining but it looked fine to me.
Jean was a feisty one from birth. She was small when born and sister Fannie practically raised her while another sister Mary Lou was sick with whooping cough etc. and needed their mother`s attention. I understand Mary Lou always had her hands up wanting to be picked up.
At age 16 or 17 during WWII Jean did the patriotic thing and wrote letters to a local soldier overseas. They were friendly pen pal letters. His to her were passionate love struck letters. She laughingly shared them with her mother and Grandma Bryant. When he came home he invited her to a carnival. She was excited for the evening out and dressed in her only store bought dress-a white one with red buttons down the front and a monogramed J. on the bodice. They stopped by a friend`s house first and suddenly the hosts had to leave. She being naive sat down to wait. The soldier put the moves on her and she told him Papa would kill her. He replied "He`ll make me marry you after tonight." At that point she reached over his shoulder for a bottle of whiskey on the end table. She reared back and broke the bottle over his head. He yelled"When you say no you mean no." She returned home with glass and whiskey all down her front. She slipped in a side door where her mother took her clothes to soak and sent her up to bed. Papa was a strict one and never knew of the incident. Why Papa was strict with his baby daughter will come out later.
We had several family members serve in various branches of the militery in America`s wars beginning with Private John Hammond Sr. in the Revolutionary War to the present Iraqi War. Fortunately I do not know of any that did not make it home. Bill`s Uncle Don Short was a POW during the Korean Conflict. The family did not know where he was for 2 years. His mother`s picture during that time showed a face of true sorrow. Don was held in a camp up in an out of the way forest. He tried to escape 5 times. His commrades told on anyone trying to escape in exchange for a blanket or a candy bar. They were forced to march without medical care. He was wounded in the heel. The blood ran out of his boot as he walked. When they came to a village they were stripped and put in a wire cage. The local women came by and taunted them. In response to the question "Did that bother you?" He said "Hell no I just strutted." They carried wounded until they were able to walk or died. At that point the head of the march always placed the body head down in water. They passed many like that. He never understood the reasoning for that.
A young Mexican soldier cultivated the guards until he was able to bathe in a nearby body of water away from the camp. Finally in the nick of time for they were headed to China within hours, while he was batheing the young man spotted an American General in a jeep and alerted him he was American and where others were. He felt they would not have been liberated otherwise.
Don tried to remember funny things and gloss over sadness. One thing they did was they weren`t allowed to boo so during indoctrination speeches they would cheer and whistle loudly to drown out the speaker.
Let me say Don was a bit of a rebel. He joined the Navy as a teen probably because times were hard for this large family of 11 children. He served a year before Grandpa Short got him out. When he was of age he joined the Army and even after his Korean ordeal he served in Viet Nam. It was hard for him to shoot women and children there but many were wired with explosives so he just shut his eyes and shot.
These stories make me less sympathetic to all those vets that came home and seem to be reclusive and not accomplish much. Don and many others survived and led productive lives outside the service. Don worked tirelessly by writing letters to congressmen after he came home to try to bring home POWS that he knew were force marched into China and never heard from again. The war dept. denied they were there. He saw so much death during his captivity he couldn`t bear to go to his own parents funerals a couple decades later. I remember he came to the church but had to leave.
His younger brother, Charles, wrote a loving tribute to him after his death. According to family this was very uncharacteristic of him to write such a thing. It told of the sudden change on their mother`s face when his name came up #5 on the list of those coming home.
These memories were told to me by his sister, Jean Allin. She was supposed to write a book. Maybe she still will.
Billy Wayne Davis was born at home January 17, 1946 in Matador, Texas. His father Buford Coleman made his living as a professional gambler and service station attendant. He related they went from brand new cars and houses to next to nothing shanties and old cars depending on Bud`s luck. Bill suffered from diphtheria as a child and his mom, Fannie waited until the last minute to interrupt a card game for his dad to take him to the Dr. That is why he has a cracked tongue even today. Fannie contributed by canning anything she could find and sewing their clothes from flour sacks. She bought all of one pattern sacks until they had enough to make shirts etc. Bud died when Bill was 7 of a goiter operation. There is some disagreement on whether he had cancer or not. Aunt said yes and brother said no. I tend to agree with Aunt as Earl was only 10 years of age. They may have shielded the kids. Fannie was left with 4 boys under the age of 10. She went to work in the cotton fields pulling bolls. She often pulled her sack with a young one on the end of the sack. She later married a man who studied to be a Baptist minister. He had small country churches thus began the moving to a dozen different schools before Bill graduated high school. He never lived anywhere long enoug to be a Cub Scout thus his passion for scouting today was born. He attended one room schools all the way up to Dallas city schools. I think this is why he was a good counselor. He had empathy for kids in lots of situations and coming from all sizes of schools. In high school he didn`t want to move so Fannie found a family for him to live with in Geary, Oklahoma. He spent quite a bit of time with Grandparents in Matador. He listed his schools as K. he had a tutor named Mrs. Coldiron so he could skip 1st grade to be with older cousin. The list then included Amarillo, Matador, Hale Center, Hugo, Oklahoma, 2 schools in Dallas named John B. Hood and S.E. Old Cliff, Mt. Pleasant, Mesquite, Pattonville, Broken Bow, Oklahoma, Green Hill Country outside Mt. Pleasant, Matador, Mt. Pleasant, and Geary Oklahoma. Some years he attended 3 different schools in a school year. Other years he returned to a school he had been in before. They moved one year because the school tried to get them signed up for free lunches and Fannie thought they were trying to take her boys. He sometimes went to school barefooted to save shoes for cold weather, but then others did the same thing
One reason he wanted to stay in Geary was because of sports. He participated in all sports but basketball was his love-playing in the Big House in 1963 where he promptly fouled out. He was competing with teammates that were nearly a foot taller than he. He often walked miles home from ball practice. He always felt bad because his parents never saw him play a game. They had to save their money for pop and other things. He would take an odd job to buy athletic shoes but when typing had a lab fee he just didn`t take it. A decesion he later regretted when college papers were graded down because they were handwritten in neat print or he hunt and pecked his way thru his years as counselor at the high school. He could type nearly as fast as I with my 2 years of typing. His coach Keith Covey and Grandparents Davis helped him go to Northwestern. He went a couple years but the oil fields of west Texas lured him away. The money was good but work was 7 days a week. For entertainment he played summer baseball. One semester out and he was back at Northwestern. He was a math major and a job offer in the business world was forthcoming. He turned it down for his love of education. The only semester he had financial aid was the semester he bought my engagement ring. We married in 1967 and he graduated in 1968. He immediately enrolled in graduate school for the summer. In the fall found us in Lebanon, Nebraska teaching in a tiny town of about 300. All 3 of the elementary teachers were not college graduates. They had taught for years but never finished their degree because they lacked student teaching. They made 1/2 the salary of a degreed teacher. We spent 2 years there going back to Alva in summers for school. He taught math and coached basketball and helped with football. One year he taught Chemistry and set the lab on fire. He played town league basketball in a larger town. At the end of 2 years we decided to move and found a job a little south of Lebanon in Lenora,Kansas. We moved our furniture there and went to Alva for the summer. During the summer Keith Covey recruited him for a job in Stroud. Marty and we took a farm truck up and got our furniture. In 1970 we started our tenure in Stroud. We continued to go to Alva summers and he got his Masters in 1972. One summer in 1973 we lived in Weatherford for him to complete his math degree.
We traveled to Enid today to bury my Dad`s sister, Dorothy. She never had children so her brother Ernie, sister Ramonda, and about 15 others mostly neices and nephews gathered at a funeral home for a short service. Sister Margaret age 95 being in ill health sadly was not able to attend. Then off to pretty Bison cementery for burial. It is about 2-3 miles from the Balk homestead. We stopped at the original house built in about 1906 where nobody now lives so is too quickly running down. The original woodsiding is in places peeking out from behind layers of more modern coverings. It still bears the original yellow paint and is in remarkable condition. Beadboard covers front porch ceiling.
Eleven people lived there in 2 small bedrooms, kitchen, large room across front divided by sliding doors, and full not totally finished attic where the kids slept. Our next adventure is trying to visit inside the house to look for pictures and papers reportedly hid in a bedroom wall when Grandma feared Joseph might be deported at the beginning of WWII like Peter was in WWI. I did bring home a very old brick from a collapsed chimney.
The question came up why they settled there. An older cousin related the men traveled by train that ran within a mile of where the house stands. All related men jumped off and ran to stake claims and that is where they landed. Joseph Balk, a teenager, was one of them and his future in-laws settled across the road.
There are only 2 aunts and 1 uncle left. I mentioned we were running out of older people to gather for. Karen brought up the sobering fact-we are moving into the older group.
We finished the morning at Golden Corral toasting Dorothy`s 85 years with fudge-a secret treat of her youth.
There seemed to be alot of secrets in the Balk family. The biggest secret on the Phillips side. I had an aunt who after attending school at Alva Normal School and obtaining her teacher`s certificate was back at home at about age 23 teaching in a one room school. Mother was only 3 so couldn`t remember but an older brother, age 11 who was probably in her class, related she came home sick from school one day and went upstairs. Grandma Phillips went up to check on her and came running down the stairs yelling "Lillie had a baby!" No one suspected! She married the father 9 days later and had 4 more children. The last was a mentally retarded girl. The first child , a girl named Irene, died at about age 8 after eating an apple treated with insecticide. Her funeral was the top of the line including several limos with all family members assigned to a certain numbered limo. My cousins told me recently that little girl was never quite right but Mother never told me that but then she maybe didn`t realize it being only about 11 at her death. She did say the family always doted on her. I think the whole family lived with Mother`s family out on the farm for a number of years. I know Irene`s crib was still out at the farm when Jeff and Lori had children because I think she used it for some of them. I seemed to remember a written tale of Lillie and family and her 2 or 3 children moved to Freedom at a later time.
We`ll blame the wild side on the husband`s side of the family. His great neice, a girl about my age, repeated the act by concealing her pregnancy until the 9th month. I remember her cheerleading skirt was huge for a formerly thin girl. She went to the City to marry the boy and had the baby before the 3 day waiting period on the marriage license was up.
A couple of thoughts-was it a shotgun wedding? I can`t imagine Grandpa Phillips doing that. He was a very kind man. Also this happened in September did she lose her job? Who knows!
