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LOIS SMITH MILLER STORIES Nellie/Wm>Isabelle Pearl>Lois
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STORIES OF GRANDMA Grandma (Nellie Burdett) bought me a piano. Cecelia, Janet and I took piano lessons from Mrs. Clements on Church Street between Hillsborough Avenue and Sligh near where my mama and daddy lived on Idlewild. About Nellie, my grandma - It probably is not important, but one of the reasons Grandpa and Grandma Burdett decided to go to Florida was because a bunch of rich people had gone there and were developing the south part of the state; Edison and Ford were some of them. It had caused a boom in Florida, and people were moving down there to try to get rich too. Right after Grandpa and Grandma got there the hurricane about wiped them out. Then the United States went into a depression.. Need I say more? This was what Aunt Viola told me. Grandma and Isabelle (Mama) told me Grandma didn't want her girls to run around everywhere with their boyfriends, so she planned things at home. She had a Victrola (a record player). On Saturday nights she would toll the rug back and play records and let the girls and their friends have a party with dancing. Mama told me that when the children would get rowdy Grandma would sit on the floor and play with them. This was something she loved to do. She would teach them to cut out paper dolls and then cut out dresses to fit the paper dolls. She taught them to draw, paint and sew, would tell them stories or make up poems, anything to learn and be achieving. This was good teaching as all of her children have some kind of talent; art, writing, music. All the boys seen to be mechanically inclined. It also caused her children to love her so much. If there was a problem in one of the families she was always there to help however she could. Grandma took her money and invested it in property. If someone needed a home she always had a way to make a place for them. If she found better property she would trade and buy. I don't remember where all the property she bought is, but she bought property on Rome and also Temple Terrace in an orange grovewhere Aunt Alta and her children Lived.. There was a piano there. I don't know if it was Aunt Alta's or Aunt Viola's. I know Aunt Viola taught me to play the Missouri Waltz and Star of the East. She also bought property in Valrico and some on North Orleans and on Broad. (Tampa). The lot on the southeast corner of the Broad Street property had a small block house, and she lived in it until she sold it. My Daddy (Dolphus Smith), Uncle Frank (Fuerst), Encle Ed (Mercer) and Uncle Charlie (Higgins) (and I think Uncle Paul DuBose) built a house for Aunt Viola and Uncle Charlie. I don't know where the money came from to buy the windows and lumber. The house was on the northwest corner of Broad and North Orleans in Tampa. It seems like it was used lumber, but they lived in it until they died. I believe Paul and Joe, their sons, did some updates on it. They (Aunt Viola and Uncle Charlie) left it to (their daughter) Cecelia Higgins, and her husband built them a new block home. As far as I know this is the only piece of property that Grandma bought that is still in the family. After Everett Johns came back from the war (WW2) he moved the (Johns) family to Rome Ave (Tampa, from Temple Terrace). Grandma bought the farm in Darby. Aunt Billie was having her problems with her marriage to Pete (Franks) and needed to start over. Then Grandma brought Aunt Alta and her family to Darby. When she bought it (the farm at Darby) she told Mama and Daddy that maybe she had a piece of property big enough to give to whomever needed a home. I was crushed she Grandma moved out there (Darby). I had married and had a baby, but I loved my Grandma so much, I wanted her near me all the time but that was wishful thinking). I broke her heart when I got married as it wasn't what she wanted for me. This is so hard to write. I have no talent, but Grandma taught me about love, being humble and about truth, the Bible and Jesus and many more good things. She left me 21 years of love, and I will live for Jesus so I can be with her, Daddy, Mama, Wesley (Isabelle & Dolphus' son and Lois' brother) and my son, LaMarr in heaven. There are others in the family that I loved and miss; aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces; but I expect to see them in heaven too. My grandma sewed dresses, pants (she could sew anything), upholstery, awnings; could weave rugs…just name it. EvaMae Higgins was married to a guy named Smitty in Tampa. This was during WW11. Smitty was killed in Italy {Ithink} and EvaMae went back to Ohio. She gave Grandma her wedding dress and Grandma took it and made me the prettiest dress I ever had in my life. She was so talented. I wore that dress for years. Everyone my age wanted that dress. I don't ever remember anyone having a bad word for her. She was a remarkable woman. The best sewing and weaving she did was the love she created in her family. She created an everlasting love in this whole big family. Go to a Burdett or Bryant reunion and find that love there. Grandma's spirit abides in all of her inheritors. When I tell others about my grandma raising twelve children (part of the time she had to do it alone) they will say, "What a woman,. God was surely with her." LOIS
AND GRANDMA NELLIE GO TO THE FAIR
Back to the story about the down and out man at Mr. Phillips. The man came back the next day and asked for another dollar. Grandma told him she didn't have any money, but he could come upstairs in the evening and have supper with her. He did and left after the meal. A few days later he came upstairs and knocked on the door. When she opened the door he grabbed her and knocked her down and grabbed her purse and stole her money. A few days later it was time to go to the fair. Grandma was so afraid of being robbed again she kept a little money in her purse and a little in her bra. She said, "Now I've got to find somewhere to hide our cab fare. She finally decided to put a $10 bill in her shoe. We ate and walked and all the things you do at the fair. She bought supper with the rest of her money and told me we wouldn't go to the show as her money was in her shoe and was all she had left, and someone might try to take it if she changed it. She decided we should go home. She went to the gate where a policeman was, sat down and took her shoe off. After walking all day the bill was torn in two. She was so upset she almost cried. She grabbed me and hugged me and said, "What are we going to do?" The policeman came over, and she told him the story. He stopped a cab and asked him if he could take a couple of ladies home with a torn $10 bill. The cab driver said yes. Grandma told the driver about the man robbing her and why she had put the money in her shoe. When we got to the apartment he gave Grandma her change and told her he would sit in front until she went upstairs and turned the light on. After he left she said, "Thank you, Lord, there are saints in this world." Back
to Grandma's real estate deals. Aunt Alta and family bought a house in Thonotosassa, and Aunt Billie married Ernest Croft. Grandma bought a farm on Highway 301 in Lawtey which is just out of Starke. She bought a loom and started making rugs and selling them beside the road to make a living. Leave it to Grandma. She could find a way. Grandma had a bad heart attack, and Aunt Reatha took her to her house. When she felt better she wanted to go home. She didn't have room to do her thing. Uncle Ed and Aunt Reatha fixed her an apartment in their garage. I don't remember how long she was there. About 1950 I had learned to drive, and I had a friend who would let me use his car. One day Grandma got one of my aunts to come over to Mama's. I was supposed to go to Okinawa in a few months and was staying with Mama and Daddy until I got my orders from the Army. Grandma got me off to ourselves and said, "You still love your Grandma?" I told her I always would. She said, "Will you do me a favor?" I said, "Sure." She said, "I need to go home and nobody will take me up there (Lawtey). I want to be in my own home." I said, "Are you well enough?" "Yes, please take me home." I could not turn her down. A few days later she brought some clothes like she was going to stay with Mama for a few days. On Saturday my friend and I left to take her to Lawtey thinking nobody but Mama and Daddy knew what I was doing. Grandma told me if I wasn't married she would keep me and the two boys with her. But how would we have got along. No money, no car. I couldn't figure that out. Right after we arrived at her house Aunt Alta, Uncle Everett and family arrived. I went to Aunt Alta and told her, "She wants to come home. Please don't take her back." Aunt Alta told me not to worry, "Your Daddy brought me some money," and he told her that I was taking Grandma to Lawtey. She said to take the money and get her some groceries, and make sure she's comfortable. So I wasn't so sneaky after all. I had planned to take her on Sunday to buy some food for her, but Aunt Alta would know what was best for her. My daddy was always checking and looking out for Grandma. DOLPHUS
AND NELLIE Grandma always liked Daddy as he worked hard. Grandma always wanted Daddy (Dolphus) to meet Mama after I was born, and she knew Mama wouldn't consider his drinking; she hated it. I only know what Mama and Aunt Billie told me about Mama marrying in New York and getting pregnant with me. My father brought her to Florida, and they lived in New Port Richey where I was born. When I was three months old he left and went back to New York, and Mama never heard from him anymore. According to Robert Draughn he (Robert) went to New Port Richey and moved Mama and me to Tampa with Grandma and Grandpa Burdett. Mama was twenty, and she had to find a way to take care of me financially. (She went to work taking care of The General). A few weeks brfore Mama and I left General's she came to Tampa so General could see the doctors at Bay Pines (Veterans Hospital). He was over there a couple of days, and Mama went to the awning shop to see Grandma. Dolphus was there, and Grandma introduced them. Fortunately he wasn't drinking, and Mama never saw him drink before they married. They went out to dinner that night at the Bayshore and got acquainted. The next night they had to take General back to Nobleton. Two weeks later later she left General's, and a week later they got married. So, after five years Grandma got her wish. Grandma could always depend on Daddy for whatever she needed done if he wasn't working. Grandma made me quite a few dresses, and I wore them until they were worn out. I wanted one of her quilts so bad. She told me when I left to go to Okinawa she would have me one when I came back. She didn't get it made, so my memories of her are enough. I
agree with you that things should be as they are written, but Grandma
lived in Jacksonville with Aunt Billie. She died before A. Billie
moved to Miami. SNAKES Curtis and Mart took their shotguns and went hunting. They saw a big diamond back rattlesnake about four feet long, and killed it. Curtis knew how scared I was of a snake and put Mart up to throwing it at me. When he threw it I ran, and it missed me. I ran in the house and went in Curtis' bedroom and locked the door. The door had about two inches or more to meet the floor. Mart stuck the rattles under the door and tried to get the snake under it. Mart and Curtis thought that was the funniest thing. They got me crying. I was about nineteen years old, and that made them laugh more that I would be scared of a snake. They even brought it to the windows. Mama finally made them get rid of the snake. Dead snakes, and live snakes, I don't need them. They thought they were being so funny torturing me. When Isabelle (Mama0 and I were taking care of General in Nobleton I was bout five. She took me for a walk in the evening, usually down to the river. This particular time I went to jump, and Mama grabbed me. There was a big cotton mouth moccasin curled to strike. Mama started to run with me, and she saw a man with a gun. She called him, and he came running and killed the snake. They took it to the Fish Shack and measured it. It was five feet long. They said it was the biggest moccasin they ever saw, and they skinned it and stuffed it and put it on the wall. Do you wonder why I am afraid of snakes? SOMEONE SPECIAL
William Burdett & Granddaughter Lois Smith Miller
Someone needs to check on Sir Francis Burdett. I used to have a set of encyclopedias written in 1898 that General gave me. According to Grandma and Mama Grandpa was related to him (Sir Francis). He had a large estate, and Grandma Nellie thought Grandpa Burdett had hopped a ship (according to Uncle Gerald) to see if he could get his inheritance. There's more to the story about him hopping the ship. He jumped or fell off. I can't remember. Maybe Jerry Jerry Burdett) knows something about this. But all of the Burdetts claim they have heard of an inheritance in England. If we could find a way to get in the English birth records or court records concerning the will of this person we might find out some things about the Burdetts. Either Grandpa W. Burdett's grandparents or parents came from England to America. According to Grandma Nellie and Aunt Viola, the Bryants were considered wealthy, but the Burdetts were the wealthiest. Maybe Uncle Charlie Bryant's grandsons or Uncle John Bryant's grandson know. I asked Aunt Viola and Mama (Isabelle Burdett Smith) what happened to Grandma and Grandpa W's inheritance. They both told me that G&G had so many children to take care of, and they wasted it also. Aunt Viola said they spent what they had left coming to Florida, and the hurricane wiped them out. Grandma Nellie told me that Grandpa "had a lot of money invested in the motor he invented, and the man who stole it took the monetary hopes. Aunt Elvie (Elva Bryant) took Mama and me to the Terry Hill Cemetery. She took me up to Morral and Marion and Marsailles. She took us to Grandpa Burdett's garage. It was a brick 2 story. I think it was in Marion. I'm not sure. They had lived in a two story wood house, but it had been torn down. This was in 1985 when we were there. Aunt Elvie said Grandpa rented the top to some newspaper. I took a picture of it, but it didn't come out. It was a nice building. From the way Grandma talked to me I think she would have liked to see him when she found out he was at Uncle Ed Bryant's in Ohio. She told me it was a secret, but she was making plans to go see him and take me with her. But he left, so she didn't go. I was 3 or 4 years old when he left. He was always good to me. Mama said he would take me with him when he went to the mission on Franklin St., and he would be gone most of the day and fill me up with candy. She would be up with me because the candy made me sick. Outside of the last incident I don't guess I remember anything bad except the time Mama knocked him down the stairs. Anyway, I loved him and always wanted to see him again. Uncle Bud (Arthur Bryant Burdett, youngest child of Nellie and William) said he liked babies and small children, and he was always good to Uncle Bud and Aunt Billie. Grandpa and Grandma had a piano. Grandma played it sometimes, and started teaching Aunt Viola. After three lessons Aunt Viola started playing on her own. She got to where she could play anything. Anyway, when Grandpa came home he would sit in a chair and rest his long legs on the piano. One day he was sitting there, and he got up and played music. Grandma and Mama said it was beautiful, but he never played the piano again. I remember his long legs because I used to walk behind him and try to walk like he did. Ha ha.
Dolphus and Isabelle Rudolphus
Bird Smith "My Dear Sweet Daddy" ISABELLE
- YOUTH Grandma sent her a ticket to go to Aunt Viola's and Uncle Charlie's in Tennessee. Aunt Viola said she had her hands full and put Mama in a boarding school in Nashville. Mrs. Ackerman was moving to New York and wanted Mama (Isabelle) to go with her. She came by the school and picked her up. Mama worked for the Ackermans for awhile, and then she got a job as a telephone operator. She said she bought her clothes from a second hand store in a high-class part of town, and she really had some nice dresses and coats. I remember she used to wear a fox fur. Another time before this she told me about when she met my father. She used to go on Saturday to his mother's house to make bread and rolls for the week. Although his mother didn't want him to marry Isabelle, they did get married. Shortly after that she got pregnant. His mother really got mad, and he finally took Mama to New Port Richey where I was born. A few weeks later he left, and she never saw him again. Grandma said she waited a long time to hear from him. She was really in love with him and what he had to offer her. Grandma and Aunt Billie told me the same thing. So, as far as I know this is true. Mama had a hard time until she and Daddy (Dolphus) moved to St Petersburg. Aunt Reatha and Aunt Thelma told me she worked at Bilt Rite (Awnings) for awhile (before she met Dolphus). Then she took a beautician course with Bessie Downs School. It seems that I remember sitting in a baby carriage while she did people's hair. Aunt Thelma, Aunt Reatha, Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Bud took care of me when she worked. Aunt Thelma told me she was fifteen when she took care of me. Aunt Dorothy used to buy me clothes. After that Mama took the job taking care of General. I don't think either one of us went for want of anything while we were there. Mama got mad at General and went to Tampa where she met Daddy (Dolphus). She stayed a week in Tampa and went to General's and got our things. We stayed with Aunt Reatha and Uncle Ed for a couple of weeks. When we went back to Tampa Mama and Daddy got married. ISABELLE
AND DOLPHUS Daddy started drinking, and Mama said she thought he was going to drink himself to death. She threatened to leave, and after that he just drank once in awhile. Daddy's father lived with us too. The water was full of lime, so we had to buy water for drinking and to drink. They used to go to the well to do the washing with tubs and washboard. Daddy always helped Mama do the washing. The well had a pitcher pump. One time when they were washing (at that time they were living in the house and renting the summer kitchen) Mama sent me to get another box of soap. I was just about to the house, and I looked down, and there was a snake all coiled around. It scared me so bad I jumped over the snake. I was wearing a panty suit that Mama had made when I jumped. The bottom popped off, and my panties fell down around my ankles. I ran to the summer kitchen crying, with my pants down. Daddy and Mama heard me holler, and they were dying laughing. It wasn't funny to me.
ISABELLE AND DOLPHUS PART TWO 1937 Mama and Daddy moved us into a house near Grandma on the corner of Hamilton Avenue. The property went down to the Hillsborough River. Aunt Edna and Uncle Paul lived about a block from us on Highland. Grandma lived a few houses down on Hamilton. Philip and I played together all the time. He called me Owee. Mama would send him home because she wanted to do something, and he would come back and get under the house and call, "Owee Owee", and Mama would send him home. We were great pals. I'll tell some more about Philip at a later time. Daddy did some farming there, and Mama picked and canned. He also pulled moss out of the trees, and he and Mama hung it on a barbed wire fence to dry. Dried moss was used in the cushions for furniture. I don't know what else, but Daddy would dry it and sell it. An alligator came up to the dredge, and Daddy killed it. He brought it home on the running board of the car. I don't know where he took it, but a couple of days later Uncle Curtis and Aunt Gertrude came over, and Mama cooked dinner. Aunt Gertrude was real fussy about what she ate and smelled everything before she would eat it. She asked Mama what she was frying, and Mama told her blue fish. Aunt Gertrude said she never heard of blue fish. I didn't know if I wanted to eat blue fish or not either. Aunt Gertrude and I both tasted the blue fish, and it was delicious. She and I ate a bunch. After dinner Uncle Curtis told us it was gator, not blue fish. Aunt Gertrude said it was good, but she wouldn't be fooled again. Daddy bought five acres with a three-room house when I was eight years old. He farmed most of the land. He planted black-eyed peas, collards, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yellow squash, carrots, strawberries and some other things. Mama spent the summer canning vegetables. Sometimes Aunt Dorothy came over and helped her. Daddy worked at the shipyard, sometimes two shifts. Mama had to work very hard as she had a cow to milk, chickens to feed, and vegetables to pick and can. They started taking vegetables to the Farmers Market from one AM until 5AM or longer. If Daddy was working during those nights Mama would leave Curtis, Wesley and Ronnie with me, and she would go to the market. She worked all the time, and so did Daddy.
WEST
HILLSBOROUGH UPHOLSTERY Mama had the twins early. They weighed 4 pounds 8 ounces, and Carolyn was sick. She constantly had the hiccups, and in just a few days wheshe lost down to 3 pounds 9 ounces. The doctor said Mama's milk didn't agree with them and put Marilyn on Carnation and Carolyn on evaporated condensed milk. She was so weak they sent them home after two weeks so Mama could take up time with Carolyn who had to be fed with an eyedropper. She had to fill her mouth so full she would finally swallow. It took half an hour to get one ounce of milk down her. Meanwhile Daddy told Grandma she could open the shop. Mama got a machine made up for upholstery, and Daddy brought it in. He told Grandma it would be awhile before Mama could leave the twins with me. By the way, Carolyn still has that machine. Grandma opened up, and she got some work in. She got Aunt Billie to help her. Grandma and Daddy fixed a place for Grandma to eat and sleep. Daddy put a partition in the middle so Grandma could have her privacy. In about six weeks Carolyn could drink her bottle, and Mama went to work at the shop. Aunt Billie left. Mama would come home at lunch and bathe the babies, feed them and do whatever they needed. This was winter, and when the twins were four months old they got pneumonia. We warmed bricks and wrapped a towel around them and put it at the front of their bassinets and put camphor on their chests. I was taking care of them. Mama usually took Ronnie with her, and I took care of Curtis and Wesley after school. I washed two loads of clothes a day and tried to iron but never got much done, washed the dishes, cooked supper, and nothing ever suited Mama. She beat me and pulled my hair, and the next day just before she came home I left with Floyd. She told me later I didn't care about the twins, or I wouldn't have left them. She didn't know I passed her coming home about a block from home. She got Aunt Viola to take care of things. She didn't know I came back about a week after I left to see about my sweet sisters. She had every right to whip me, but she went beyond this. I went to Brunswick, Georgia, with Floyd whose mother was living there at the time. When Gator (Floyd, Jr.) was born Floyd called Mama and she told him she was thirty-five, and she was too young to be a grandmother. She called Floyd and me and wanted us to come back to Tampa to help her with the shop and to take care of her kids and whatever else needed to be done. She fell in love with Gator and spoiled him all of her life until he went to Ohio. Mama and Daddy sold the shop and bought fourteen acres and a house off Harney Road in Seffner. A couple of years later the state bought four acres to extend Highway 301. In 1950 she got pregnant and had Ray. She was forty years old, and she threw a fit. She said she was too old to have a baby. After all, she had two grandsons. But she loved that little boy. She did things with him that she never thought about doing for the rest of us. But I loved him too. Mama had a terrible temper during my early years. She took her stress out on Curtis and me. The others didn't see that side of her. Basically she was a very good mother. She looked after us and worked so hard. When she and I were at General's she started teaching me to recite poems. The first was Little Orphan Annie by James Whitcomb Riley. Then she started teaching me poems and stories by Robert Louis Stevenson. If she hadn't had so many kids and so much work she would have been an exceptional teacher. She had so many talents. She could sew anything. She crocheted, knitted and tatted, made quilts and upholstered. After she started going to church and was saved her disposition changed, and a couple of years later Daddy quit drinking (about 1952) and never drank again. They moved to St. Petersburg because the dredge was doing a lot of work in the area. For the first time Mama was a normal housewife and mother. In fact she was so bored she started selling Avon Products. She spent a lot of time with the St. Petersburg Boys Choir, Little League and helping Ray in band in high school. Since the rest of us were married and had our own families she only had Carolyn, Marilyn and Ray. When Gator was in high school he wanted to move over with her and Daddy. Mama said he could. He went to school and worked at Winn Dixie. Mama had him give her $15 a week. She put it into a savings account (which he didn't know). When he graduated from high school she gave it to him. He was quite surprised. The dredge started moving around working at different places. Mama wasn't tied down, and she started going to visit Daddy where he worked, especially during the summer. Ray went into the service, and Marilyn and Carolyn were married, so Mama stayed with Daddy a lot; Ft. Meyers, Buefort, S.C. and Alabama. She had a heart attack in Alabama, and Ronnie and Gayla went to see about her. She liked it in Alabama. She had the birds and squirrels, and she love to tend to them and watch them. She got a round tube that you put a pecan in, and the squirrels would roll it all over the yard trying to get the pecan. It kept her entertained. Ronnie and Wesley went into the car air-conditioning business and talked Daddy into retiring to help them. He was sixty-eight at the time. They moved back into their house in St. Petersburg. Daddy bought a camper truck, and he wanted to travel out West. He especially wanted to go to Yellowstone Park. Ronnie and Wesley did really well until winter, and their business fell off. They told Daddy they weren't making enough to pay him, so Daddy quit going to the shop. It wasn't long after that he was going to the bathroom, and Mama heard him fall. She called EMS and took him to the hospital. His blood had blown a hole through his heart and caused him to have a stroke. It was hard on Mama, and when she went off to the store or other errands she worried about Daddy being alone. He got to where he could walk around pretty good, but he tired out easily. We all agreed that Daddy and Mama needed to move where they could be in back of one of the children who would be responsible. Ronnie had bought some property to build a house like they wanted and had room for another house. He talked to Mama about buying and selling her house in St. Pete and using the money to build a house for them on his property. About this time I went to Florida to Mama's and stayed. She started telling me about this, and she started crying (This was unusual for her). She said she didn't want to move. She liked it where she was. She had a lot of friends and church, but she couldn't afford to pay someone to keep up her yard. None of her kids had the time to do it. So she guessed she was going to have to move. So she and Daddy moved back to Tampa. Daddy went to work with Ronnie and messed around. Ronnie and Gayla fixed him a room with a cot and refrigerator so he could rest which he did most of the time because of his illness, mostly his legs. Mama got involved in church. She was a teacher, deacon and anything she could do. She worked in the yard planting flowers and then started raising orchids. She loved flowers. Mama's family was her pride and joy. She got Ronnie, Gayla and Philip DuBose to start having a family reunion, and we have had one every year since. What a joy it is. They elected officers, but some of the younger ones are going to have to take over. Daddy died March 17, 1979, and Mama died June 9, 1993. I miss them so, but they're in a better place than we are. Daddy and Mama, I'll always love you.
RONNY
AND GAYLA
About a year later, Gayla had a baby boy she named Leigh. A couple
of years later she got pregnant again. Meanwhile her and her husband
started having problems, and she went back home to her parents in
Tampa. Ronnie found out and made every excuse to see Gayla imaginable.
He even went to the hospital with her when she gave birth to Dennis.
Later on she got a divorce.
AUNT DOROTHY'S HALLOWEEN STORY I was there at the party. I was about 4 years old. I went over to the Halloween party. Someone turned the lights out, and I saw this skeleton. It scared me so bad, and I ran to Grandma. She and some of the others tried to assure me it was Aunt Dorothy. I had nightmares about that skeleton, and I've never forgotten that Halloween party that almost put Lois (me) in the grave. It's funny now, but not for a long time.
Mildred Burdett Greene & daughter, Cecelia Corky Greene Wofford AUNT
MILDRED BURDETT GREENE
ISABELLE
KEMP BRYANT THE WINE PARTY I want to say that I have some of the prettiest gifts from Virginia - a beautiful Tiffany style lamp. I love it and appreciate it so much. Thank you, Virginia. Also, I have a beautiful bed sized throw that Jerry crocheted and sent to me. She also sent me a potholder. I got two more at the reunion. One is a raccoon, and I hung it on my front door. Thank you, Jerry. I love them. DARBY by Lois Smith Miller I don't remember too much about Darby except Grandma moved up there and took Aunt Billie with her. By this time Aunt Billie was divorced. She took Norman with her until Uncle Pete came and got him. When Floyd (now ex-husband deceased) went into the Army, and he was through with basic training, I wanted to go visit him. Lamarr was three months old, so I was going to take him with me and leave Gator. Mama got a lot of work at the upholstery shop, and she said with me gone and trying to cook, care for kids and work she just couldn't take on one more. She told me she would go out to Darby to see if Aunt Alta could watch him as they lived out there. She took care of him. The week I was gone I worried about him falling in the well, as that was the first thing he did was climb up on the well. When I got back Aunt Alta said Martha Nell took care of him most of the time and kept him off the well. I didn't see it, but Grandma told me about the car. I remember they had a reunion out there. I remember all the Florida families being there, and I think Uncle Austin and Aunt Tiny were there. PART
TWO PART
THREE I didn't go out there very often. They were going to send Floyd Johns to Japan, so the boys and I went to Texas for about three months. We came back and stayed with Floyd's mother, so I didn't get to go anywhere very often for about a year and a half. I finally learned to drive, but if I went anywhere I had to borrow a car. I suppose that when Aunt Alta and Uncle Everett moved, Grandma must have sold the farm and bought the farm in Lawtey. She called it a farm because it had several acres. Maybe Aunt Dorothy or Aunt Thelma knows. I believe that is when Aunt Billie moved to Jacksonville. Grandma had a heart attack after she bought the place in Lawtey, and she went to live with Aunt Reatha (in Tampa) a good while so she wouldn't be alone. After Grandma went back to Lawtey Aunt Reatha and Aunt Thelma went to Ohio; I think in 1950. Later she had another heart attack, and Aunt Reatha took her back to her house in Tampa for a good while. In May or June of 1951 I took her back to Lawtey where she passed away.
AUNT ALTA AND UNCLE EVERETT My
first memory of Aunt Alta and Uncle Everett is of Okeechobee. Mama
and I drove down there; I was probably about three or four years
old, and it was before we went to General's (where Mama worked).
It was really foggy. Mama kept saying it was so foggy she could
hardly see to drive. All of a sudden we heard a train whistle. Mama
got real upset because she couldn't see the train. She kept looking
around and hit a tree. The front of the car hung on a limb. I don't
think she got hurt, but my neck got cut. Toward daylight someone
stopped and called a wrecker and got us down. I don't remember about
the trip on to Aunt Alta's, but when it got daylight Mama found
out the railroad track was along the road, so there was no way the
train would have hit us. I know Aunt Alta had a hard life. She never knew anything about modern appliances. She worked so hard and the best I remember kept her house clean. Most people have a mate that helps them, but I don't remember any of that. Thank the lord she had a family that stood by her. She was so sweet and kind. She used to hug me and say, "I love you." I remember one time (there were probably other times) she went to the Goodwill Store in Ybor City and picked out some clothes for the kids to wear to school. She got some starch and washed those dresses and ironed them. She brought them over to Mama. Those were the most beautiful dresses I ever saw, and they looked like new. The boys' clothes looked new too. I'm proud to be her niece. I was there with Jerry when she passed away. Later, at the funeral, I remember how much I loved her and that she wouldn't have to work so hard again. She did an amazing job on her children. They are so smart and talented, and there is nothing they can't do. As far as Uncle Everett, I don't remember much to tell about him. He was in the Seabees during World War Two and served in islands in the Pacific. I remember when he came back home, Aunt Alta was sick, and she was at our house. Charlene and I were walking down Hillsborough Avenue between Haines and Church, and a cab stopped beside us. This man said, "What are you girls doing?" I looked at him, and he said, "I'm looking for Dolphus and Isabelle Smith. Do you know them?" I knew for sure he was Uncle Everett, and I told him, "I'm Lois." I don't know what he did then, probably went to the orange grove. He just wasn't my favorite person. Sorry! Aunt Alta was a good Christian woman. Thanks to her she got Mama (Isabelle) started to going to church. She also became a good Christian woman. When Aunt Alta and family lived in the orange grove in Temple Terrace the fruit got ripe. My daddy (Dolphus) got some fruit snips and got Curtis, Wesley, Lois, Mart, Jim and Bill to clip off the oranges and put them in a bushel fruit basket and take them to the farmers market. It was work, but we had fun. After that Daddy had all of us plant black-eyed peas around the trees to fertilize them. This helped Aunt Alta with the extra money she needed and gave her peas to eat when they were ready. We had some too. I sure would like to have some. They feed the black-eyed peas to the cows here in South Carolina. Aunt
Alta was so sweet and good. She had such a hard life and lived for
several months with cancer. She prayed and read her Bible, and strangely
enough she suffered no pain. I'm sure God took care of her, and
she will have a place in heaven.
AUNT VIOLA AND UNCLE CHARLIE HIGGINS I first met Aunt Viola and Uncle Charlie in August of 1942 when Grandma took me to Ohio. They were so hospitable and charming I felt like I was home. They made over me like they had known me all my life. That first afternoon we were there they gave Alta Ruth (Ruthie) the money to go to Lake Side Park (an amusement park). Now, I had never been to an amusement park without an adult, so I was already sort of nervous. The first thing Ruthie wanted me to do was go on a roller coaster which I had never seen. I watched it, and I just didn't want to go on it. Ruthie finally talked me into riding it. I felt like I was going to fall out, but I did ride it three times. I just closed my eyes when we went down the 90-foot drop. Aunt Viola talked about playing the piano, and she wanted us to go to the church with her. She didn't have a piano at the time. Charlene (one of Aunt Viola's twins) were best friends until she passed away. Charlene had come to Florida in 1942 to help Aunt Alta, as Virginia was really sick. Daddy and Mama kept them (Alta and Virginia) at our house until Charlene got there. Then, when Ronnie Smith (Isabelle and Dolphus' son and Lois' brother) was born, Charlene came to our house to help Mama. We became good friends. She stayed at our house for four months and then went back to Ohio. She was like my sister. The second day I was in Ohio Charlene came over to Aunt Viola's and talked Grandma into letting me go to her apartment. Charlotte (Charlene's twin) lived with her. Their boyfriends came over (Charlotte was dating Hunter then). After a few hours they started wrestling and cutting up. This was new to me. Then Charlene's boyfriend acted like he was going to push her out the window, and I got scared. I went outside and sat on a porch, thinking. I wanted to get back to Grandma, and I didn't know how to get there. I went upstairs, and Charlene and Charlotte were still cutting up. I asked Charlene if she would take me back to Aunt Viola's after awhile. She said, "I thought you were going to spend the night." I told her no, I wanted to go back to Grandma. She didn't answer me and started cutting up. I went back outside, and I thought, "We caught the streetcar by Aunt Viola's and to off by Charlene's and Charlotte's, so if I walk down the street car tracks I could find Aunt Viola and Grandma." I took off walking down the streetcar track. I didn't realize how far it was. It took me two or three hours. I started getting blisters on my feet and heels because of my new shoes. About halfway there I got into the black section of town, and some little girl tried to get into a fight with me. I told her I was taught not to fight, but if she wanted to hit me, go ahead. She looked at me like I was crazy and ran off. I finally got to Aunt Viola's, and she and Uncle Charlie were amazed that I had walked that far. My toes and heels were bleeding. Uncle Charlie told me to sit down, and he would doctor my toes. He got a warm wash pan of water and sat on the floor and bathed my feet. He said, "You poor darlin'. You've had a rough day. Those girls should have watched you better." He kept bathing my toes until they quit bleeding. Then he patted them dry and put medicine on them and my heels and bandaged each one. He was easy and didn't hurt me at all. The next morning he did the same thing and that night. By the time we got ready to leave for Dayton and go to Fostoria my feet were well. Uncle Charlie loved and cared for everyone, and everyone loved him. He was a sweet man. When we went to church with Aunt Viola I was amazed at the way she played the piano, especially when Grandma told me she only had three lessons. They both were very good people, and I loved them both. Charlotte and Charlene came the next day to find out where I went. They said they thought I had gone to bed. There was a shorter way to walk back, but what did I know?
UNCLE CHARLIE I don't know much to say about Uncle Charlie that hasn't been said. He was good to help people. He helped Daddy build the upholstery shop on Hillsborough Avenue. When he was gone I missed him.
AUNT VIOLA HIGGINS The church I went to started having services at the prison at Six Mile Creek on Sunday afternoons. I took Aunt Viola to play the piano. The piano sat out in the weather under the trees. Instead of hitting the keys you had to pick them up and make them go down to make a sound. She never missed a note; it was amazing. Aunt Viola worried about her children, but she pretty well let them do as they wanted to do. She wasn't a strict mother but a good one. WALTER
LEE HIGGINS According to Aunt Viola Uncle Charlie was in the service for seventeen years. She didn't like him being away all the time and talked him into getting out. So he lacked three years to retire. Paul, Joe, Mary Ann and Reatha who lived around the corner from me visited me quite often. Sometimes Joe would bring his guitar and play for us. Mary Ann was Charlene's daughter. She was so sweet and was going to college to take research medicine. I just can't get over her husband looking like Uncle Charlie.
A
CONVERSATION WITH LOIS SMITH MILLER 11-03-03 Frank John Fuerst born February 22, 1912 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, died November 1, 2003 in Trenton, Florida. He moved with his family to Tampa, Florida in 1921, when he was nine years old. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Dorothy Burdett Fuerst. Three sons, Raymond, Larry and Vernon Dale Fuerst, nine grand children and 12 great grand children. One brother, Johnny Fuerst, and one sister, Marie Bryant. Funeral services will be held at Kingdom Hall-----14931 N. Hiway 19.....Chiefland, Florida, Friday, November 7 @ 4:00 PM. He owned and operated Fuerst Cabinet Shop, 607 South Lincoln Avenue, Tampa, Florida, along with his father and brother. Then he worked for Gulf Star Marina until he retired in 1977. He
built beds for the Governor's Mansion when Carlton was governor
of Florida. He built a four poster bed in 1936, which graced his
bride's and his bedroom from then until this day. He also built
the cedar lined chest of drawers in the picture below. The last
piece of furniture he built was a four poster, mahogany bed that
he started at age 87 and delivered to his granddaughter, Lisa, three
days before he turned 88 years old.
Marilyn Fuerst just called and told me that Uncle Frank passed away this afternoon from a heart attack. I am so sad to hear this. She said Aunt Dorothy said, "I guess I'll have to go to the reunion without him." So I guess she still plans to come. In discussing it, Marilyn and I decided it will probably be good for her to be around the family. Marilyn said she would let me know when the arrangements are made and I will send them to you for the web page...Reatha 11-01-2003.
REPORT
ON AUNT DOROTHY AND UNCLE FRANK 6-8-2003 She sits up in bed but it hurts her and they put her in a wheel chair and she goes to the dining room to eat or the therapy room. A. Dot Still can't move her right hand, she said she wished someone would bring her a couple of peaches off her trees and some figs She said she did (have them in Trenton) and they were ripe, North FL and GA have things about the same time. We are getting peaches from Georgia in the stores and the S.C. peaches in a week to 10 days. I ate a Mango yesterday. it was so good. Vernon said that Uncle Frank's mind seems to be better, but his feet and legs swell so bad. He works with them and soaks them to get the swelling out. I wish I could go up there and take care of them awhile, they were always so good to me when I was young. I hope I get to see them, it will be awful to go to the reunion and them not be there. I talked to Aunt Thelma once since A. Dot had her stroke, she said Dorothy is a fighter, and we are getting old. I want to go to Florida so bad, I am so afraid I will lose some one else.
Barb Burdett Slaughterbeck & Aunt Dorothy Fuerst -Reunion 2003
Bob and Lois Smith Miller
Poem,training Puppies.............Untimely Relief by Bob Miller (Nellie/Wm>Isabelle>Lois, Wife of Bob) A
very young dog needing housebreaking, Written
by Bob Miller |
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