Chapter One

Memories of an Aging Woman

By Dorothy Schoenhals, 2-12-2004

            I have been approached by Kim and Dana to either write or record some of my recollections and Vernie’s of different memories. Dana suggested a recording and subsequent c.d. burning of the tape…maybe just a burning will be more appropriate finish to the recalling of various happenings. I believe that Kim and Dana have been reading too many badly written books if they think that I might be able to write something of worth. However, to appease them, I will attempt to first write out some of my thoughts and then later record them.

            This will not be a chronological journal; I will start where the mind flits. It might be of interest to you to tell how I met and fell in love with your Dad. After WW2, Lipscomb County had a celebration to honor the returning servicemen, in Lipscomb.The day ended with a dance in the hot crowded schoolhouse auditorium. Jan Travis, Bernie Ehrlich, Billy McClarty and I went to the dance and I ended up dancing with Gene. He was a            wonderful dancer, the best dancer I have ever danced with and all of the Follett girls and the Follett returning servicemen ended up dancing to the music outside, (as I remember it was in the sand in front of the school.) We were used to such inconveniences, so we didn’t mind stomping around in the dust. Anyway, Bernie’s brother, Gene must have thought I was a good dancer and sport and we started dating.

            It was the custom in those days to dance on bridges, which was the only concrete in the county, and even after we were married, Bobby and Mo, Jo and Ike, Gene and I would find a bridge turn the car radio up to a station and jitterbug up a storm…It didn’t take much to entertain us country folks.

            I met Vernie also at a dance. Mom, Vivian, Ruby Gadberry and I went to the Petroleum club in Woodward one Sat. Night and Vernie was there with his Aunt Esther and her friend. We started dancing and Mom and Ruby approved of Vernie, and he approved of me and we started dating. So if you want to find a good husband, it seems that you can find them in a dance hall, or a sandy patch of ground. Dana told me that he met Audrey at a dance hall in  Houston when he was in law school…so their  successful marriage is another testimony that you can find true love in a beer joint or dance hall…I believe that Kathy and Dennis met in a nightclub in Perryton and they are still happily married also.

            In the 1940’s it was customary for Jan, Bernie, Marcille, and all of our friends to bum rides with anyone we could sweet talk into taking us to dances. In the summer time, we would go to Ben Rays and Cully’s at Shattuck, to Canadian, to Wolf Creek dances, Laverne, anywhere we heard that there would be a dance.             Sometimes, we would get to go to two a week. That would often lead us to go with some nerds…but if they had a car…we forgot they were nerds and would ditch them at the dance, only to sweet talk them before the dance was over so we would have a ride home. We always went together as a girl group and came home the same way. One time, I even went to Canadian to a dance when I had the mumps. I didn’t tell anyone I had them, so no telling how many mumps were spread that night. One time Gene and I, Jo and Ike, Bobby and Mo went to a dance on a really cold night at Gage, Ok. It was so cold that the people were dancing in their galoshes and there was mud all over the floor. There was a wood stove at the end of the hall and we would dance up to it, warm our hands and take off circling the floor again. The mud dust was thick in the air along with cigarette smoke and it was a lot of fun, as I said earlier, it doesn’t take much to entertain us country folks.

            In my next chapter, I will report on our mouse killings at the farm, and some near fires when lamps caught fire.

Chapter Two

LIFE ON THE FARM & KILLING MICE

By Dorothy Schoenhals, 2-14-2004

            When Gene and I were first married, we lived in a house on the Ehrlich farm four miles south of Follett. Jo and Ike Gillespie were in the upstairs bedroom, we slept in the basement and we shared cooking chores…although Jo was the main cook she taught me how to fry eggs cut up chicken and cook oatmeal. We would probably have starved if she had not been so proficient... I had never cooked in my life…Maybe Mom thought I was too hopeless to teach. At the farm house we cooked on a kerosene stove that smoked fumes and it was hard to control the heat, but somehow Jo cooked great meals as she taught me my cooking lessons.

            We enjoyed each other’s company and shared many good times. We did not have electricity then or a phone so we spent a lot of time playing cards and killing mice. The farmhouse was a regular sieve with all sorts of openings for mice to leave the fields to enter our home and enjoy Jo’s crumbs that were left over from her delicious meals. It was customary each evening after supper, to bring out the cards, pump up the Coleman gas lantern and play pitch or pinochle. Occasionally the gas lantern would erupt in flames and Gene would have to hurry it up to the front porch before it ignited the oilcloth tablecloth, and our clothing. Quite often the sight of a mouse slipping and sliding on the linoleum floor would interrupt our game. We would arm ourselves with brooms and mops and start the mouse execution. Jo and I kept a chair handy to climb upon in case he started towards us and there would be lots of screaming and cussing…mostly Ike’s, although sometimes, I would have to let loose with a few frantic ##$$$@! $$,

            The mouse killings went on until Jo and Ike left to go to college. Then Bobby and Mo moved to the farm after their marriage and we had a new set of mouse killers. The mice seemed to like it upstairs while in the basement, we had frequent waterdog (salamander) visitors. These slimy spotted creatures were almost as bad as the mice. They loved the damp passageway that led into the basement and if we were careless and left the door open they would crawl around inside our living area. I would get chills and goose bumps upon seeing them, and could hardly scoop them outside without becoming faint.

            In spite of the unwanted visitors, Jo, Ike, Bobby and I have wonderful memories of the good times we shared on the farm.