Another Place, An Earlier Time...

I wrote all of my life story, as much as I now have written, but I enjoy reading it I call it, "Jim’s Journal.” Here is a small piece of my life.

I started talking at a very early age and, also, learned to sing early in my life. When I was about three or four years old, Dad or one of the kids would take me to a park and I would sing,” I Don’t Want Your Greenback Dollar,” and people would say what a good singer I was and give me pocket change. I gave it to Dad and he used it to buy food for the family.

Another thing I remember is, one time the girls didn't show up at school. They climbed some giant Mulberry trees and ate mulberries all day and just played. They could see the bus stop from where they were and when the bus came from school, they went home as if they had gone to school. Mother gave Mickey and Eva a whipping but not Joan because she was the littlest. They wanted to know how she knew they hadn’t gone to school and she told them, “A little bird told me.” We were pretty big kids before we figured that there was no,“Little Bird," and the mulberry stains on their hands probably gave her a hint.”

We used to have to walk a long ways across the desert to get water in gallon jugs for cooking and drinking because we had no water at our tent. On the way we passed a large house that had a swimming pool. Sometimes on the way back the folks at the house would let us swim in their pool. First we had to go on and ask Mother if we could then walk back across the hot desert sand to get back. Except for our burning feet, it was great.

…Gone to California…

We lived in Glendale, Arizona and Phoenix just before we moved to California. Mother and Daddy talked about going to California and who would go first and who would stay. Daddy had tuberculosis and so mother decided she would go. She took my brother and me and we caught a freight train. Later, down the line somewhere, we hitchhiked. We made it to Planada, California where Vernon Bue and his family lived.

Later Daddy and the girls caught a ride to Bakersfield. On the way they got a ride in a large, fine car. My sister, Mickey, had to ride in the back seat and got carsick so she was given crackers to settle her stomach a little and was put in the front floorboard of the car and stood up between the seat and the dashboard the rest of the way.

Daddy was sick with TB and broke when they got to Bakersfield. The Bakersfield police saw him and the girls and their situation and put Daddy in a sanitarium and the girls in an orphanage. As it turned out, my Cousin, L B Johnson, lived in Bakersfield and when he found out what had happened, he had the police let Daddy and the girls go to his house. Later the whole family got together again.

This is just another episode in my life. I really enjoy reading about it and I hope you do, too.

Later…