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Memories of (Me
Me’s)
by
Eva Lee Laubhan (Voth)
12-1-1996
My grandchildren have been my inspiration and they won’t let
me forget the stories of days gone by. My daughter Brenda, urged me
to write a book which I
am now doing. So to my
friends and relatives who keep encouraging me I’m about 1/2
there! So I’m going to
share some of the things from my writing that I hope you all will
enjoy.
My earliest recollections are when I was 5 years old. I had my first birthday
party and all of my cousins came, there were at least 12 about my
age. I don’t remember
the gifts or the treats but I remember playing outside games and it
was Oct. 12. The first
Christmas I remember was also when I was five and I got my first
doll. She had a cloth
body with rubber arms, legs and head. I was so excited that I
jumped and jumped and
ran around the dining room table singing “I’ll call her Ida
Mae.” So she and the
neat name “Ida Mae.”
She is the only doll I ever remember having. I’m sure I must have gotten
at least one more but my memories fail.
One of our favorite play times when my cousins came to see me
was making mud pie. We
had all kids of improvised cookware. Mason jar lids, little jars,
and broken cups and dishes.
Usually we slipped some of mothers silverware out of the
house as we needed spoons to stir with. We always used eggs in our
mud pies and that was no problem with several thousand chickens
laying them for us. The
pies seemed to set up better, and the hot sun baked them.
Cousin Marvin and I were together most of the time as Aunt
Louisa and Uncle Alex lived the closest to us, about a mile across
the pasture. When I was
at Marvin’s house, we played till we got hungry. Marvin would send me in to
Aunt Louisa for a bread and butter and jelly sandwich. So when he was at my house
playing, I would send him in to my mom. Some times we even got a
cookie.
One of our favorite play times was playing Dr. and
nurse. Guess I played
nurse most of my life!
And Marvin surely showed great potential in becoming a
surgeon! Anyway, one
day we decided to operate on a mouse. We had plenty of mice in the
chicken houses, all we needed was a broom and we’d knock them “coo
coo”. This way he was
already under anesthetic.
We stretched him out on a board and tied him down with a
string in case he woke up.
I sneaked into our house and go one of mom’s paring knives
and the operation began.
The mouse did wake up but not for long. I do remember rinsing off
the knife and taking it back into mom’s kitchen. I never in all my days told
my mother about this as I was afraid for my life in my younger
years, and later on I was afraid for hers. She hated mice with a
passion and would have climbed the highest windmill just o get away
from one. Now I know
how she felt as I’ve been known to climb on tables and cabinets to
get away from one too.
Many of our games like Drop The Handkerchief, Red Rover Red
Rover and Hide and Seek were played when all of us cousins got
together. Our families
did get together a lot.
We had a lot of home made ice cream parties. I can remember most of them
were at our house because mother and daddy had only one child and a
lot more time and room than all the rest. And my parents loved doing
it too.
One of my chores in the summer was picking up prairie chips
or cow chips, they were used to heat with in the winter. Mostly we used them to start
our fires as daddy usually bought coal. There was no tree wood in
our area of
Texas. Trees were very scarce and
when you got one to grow, you kept it.
One of my other jobs “with pay” was picking potato bugs off
of potato plants. I’d
have a little can or jar with kerosene in it and when I had 100
bugs, I got a penny.
Sometimes when the bugs were plentiful I’d make several
cents. One day in
summer, mother rewarded me with a nickel. I walked to town at least
1/2 miles to get a 5 cent ice cream cone a the drug store. At that time it was a double
dip!
One of the high times of the week was church and Sat
night. At this point
I’ll tell about
Saturday night.
I will tell about church later in my book. It seemed that every one
younger came to to town on Saturday p.m. I can remember several times
going into Uncle Herman's and Aunt Mary’s restaurant and my parents
getting me a .10 cent hamburger. That was the ultimate treat
for me and I can still
remember how big and good they were. Also the restaurant had
stools at the counter and to this day I still love sitting on
stools.
Follett at that time was two blocks long and with all the
people I was always afraid of getting lost so I always hung onto
mothers hand. Of course
my parents and my one cousin (Marvin) had told some scary stories
about people disappearing and it took me many years to get over this
fear.
It was on Saturday p.m. that my parents did their weekly
grocery shopping at my Uncle Asaph’s and Aunt Tillie's store. It was in their store that I
saw a man smoking and I thought he was burning to death. I created quite a scene
screaming and crying.
My parents took me outside and I was told about
smoking.
I need to stop with these fun stories of yesteryear. Perhaps some day I’ll finish
my book and at least those what want will get the privilege to read
it. !
Eva Lee Voth,
December 2,
1996
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