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| Troy and Vena |
Interview with Vena Hall Hobbs about 2012
Vena: I was 10 in
1926. I know everybody lost everything
they had. My dad did too. We lived in town in Ash Flat. He’d been working the
cotton gin, I think. We just sold out and us and two more couples, they came
with us to California in a Model T Ford.
We sold all our furniture.
We knew some people out here, quite a few people. That was
our first trip to California. Then we went back and stayed while dad farmed in
Missouri 3 years. Then we came back in ’35. Troy and I got married back there
and we came back here to California.
Inez met Chap there.
Grandpa worked on a ranch out on 12th and
Grangeville owned by a John Hall. Not
related. Daddy worked on the ranch and
he had a house for us. We lived there in
the house. We moved into it. Dad could get a job anywhere. He was a farmer
then.
We had it pretty good. We walked to school. We didn’t grow
our own food, we bought it. The man had
dried fruit and stuff like that we ate. We lived there maybe a year.
We had electricity, sure!
In Arkansas we didn’t have electricity. We had kerosene lamps. We heated
and cooked with wood. We heated our irons on the stove. We had to buy the
kerosene. We washed on a washboard in a
tub. We lived on a farm in Missouri. That’s where dad got to drinking so bad.
We had a big ole washtub, we heated the water on the stove
for a bath. We made it through ok.
We had a basketball. We played keep-away and stuff like
that. You know what else we did? We had silver dollars. We’d make a hole and
see who could pitch a dollar.
Oh, I remember Grandma Kissinger. I slept with her from the
time I was 2 years old until I got married. She was so good! I was her
girl! And Ralph was ornery and Inez was
too big, so I got to sleep with her. Grandma would go stay with people when
they was sick.
Grandma was a practical nurse. She’d go stay with people
when they had babies and I’d go with her everywhere. She delivered babies a lot
of times. I’d always go alone and stay with her. I stayed with her more than I
did mama. I remember one time kids at school had bugs on their heads. I come
home. She’d get me down and part my
hair! I never got em!
Grandma Kissinger was medium sized, not as tall as you (I’m
5’3). She had long auburn hair, the prettiest hair, and she done it up on top
of her head. Gloanna remembers her when they lived in the old hotel. I remember mom took me up to see her when she
died. She was one of the loveliest people I ever knew. She was only 60 when she died. She had just
started Social Security. She had got one or two checks when she died. She died
of pneumonia. She fell and broke her hip and got pneumonia.
We stayed with friends in Arkansas lived next door to us.
When Sophie and WL come out, Grandma came with us.
When we first came out, there was me and Troy, Chap and
Inez, Gloanna, Ralph and Helen, Mom and Dad all in one Model T! Ralph rode on the lard can sitting between
the seats. Grandma stayed there. We
couldn’t bring her. We didn’t have room. Jim and Pearl, she stayed with them.
Troy and I got married. Mom and Dad, Chap and Inez come with
us. Then Sophie and WL came. Then her mom and dad came, Woodrow and Patrice,
Adam and Loretta. They all just started coming out. All of your dad’s people
(she meant Pa Cato). I told Troy, “Boy when we got married and come out we
started something!” Then Uncle Jimmy and
Aunt Ory.
It took us 6 days to drive out. Started the 6th,
got here the 12th. Chap and Troy went to work picking fruit for 25
cents an hour. Got here one morning and they started work at noon.
Dad didn’t have a job the first time we came. My dad would
work! He’d find a job. We hadn’t been here a day or two til he got work. We
lived in the old hotel when we came out the 2d time. It’s not there anymore.
They had rooms to rent.
We stopped beside the road, put our beds out and slept under
the stars. We had quilts and blanets on the ground. We gave a ride to this old guy. They car had
fumes coming up through. Everything
we’d stop the car, I’d faint. We got to this side of Phoenix and they decided
they’d better stop and took me to the doctor.
Got a cabin at the motel and stayed there for 2 weeks. Mom, Dad, and Inez picked cotton. Got
acquainted with Les Brown, a black guy who lived near us. He wanted to go back.
Dad said, “Well, if you’ll help me drive, I’ll take you back.”
Well, he did. When we got there, Dad said, “Now don’t you go
back there and tell them we brought this (black guy) with us!” My dad wasn’t against blacks, but a lot
of Southerners didn’t like that. So we’s
afraid to say anything. We liked him real well though. He was a nice kid. I’m glad times have changed.
The first time we come out, two couples came with us. We put
up a tent. We had the tent up and Dad slept at the end where the flap was. Put his overalls under his head. That night
somebody got his pants. Next morning,
his pants was on the back of the truck and all his money was gone. Dad called mama’s brother, Uncle Arthur, and
he sent us money to the next town and he sent money to come on.
They was standoffish until mama was a widow. After dad died,
they come to get her to eat. That’s his
tool chest in there in Danny’s room.
When Uncle Arthur died, they gave it to me. I took all the paint off and put new paint on
and changed the hinges. When Raymond
come to see us, he said, “I want that!”
I said, “You can’t have it!”
(I wonder what become of it when Vena went into the nursing
home)
We ate pork and beans, and bologna. Bought it along the way. When Ma and Pa traveled, we slept on the
ground. She took along her big iron skillet. We would build a fire and cook
gravy. We’d put it over bread and eat it. My mother (Gloanna) remembers that.
No hotels back then.
One time when we come out with Chap and Inez, we got a cabin
that night and stayed in it. Cap and
Troy went to the store to get some freuit and some guy propositioned them. They
was scared to death. They was so scared! :::laughing:::
Inez met Chap at Kennet. We landed there. Us and Finleys.
Their dad had a school bus and Carl drove it down there. He was my boyfriend
then. Inez went with Cap and I went with
Bill Fry. We’d all just go together that way.
Couple of boys, Slim and Jim.
We’d go places in the truck. Had a lot of fun. Run around together. Mom
and Dad didn’t want Inez to marry Chap.
He was big feeling. He had 2 acres of cotton down there. And
instead of him helping picking, he’d sit up on top of the trailer, and they
took a dislike to him. To keep her from
marrying him, they gave her money to go to Uncle Walker’s and instead, she went
to Hardy and got Chap word. Then they got married.
He followed her to Arkansas, Hardy. They met in the cotton
field, but he didn’t pick no cotton!
Troy and Woodrow. We lived at Hardy. They come up there and
a girl I run around with, Patrice, knew Woodrow, and then I met Troy. Three month, then we got married. I asked him
one day, “How come you never tried to get smart with me?” He said, “I knew better!”
The photo I found was Grandma’s dad. He took typhoid and
died before they could get married. Chris Sowards (I have a different name but
I’ll look into this name) She had a
little purse that was hers. I got to lookin’ at it and it was way down in the
bottom under the lining. I got it out and looked at it and knew the minute I
looked at it who it was. She’d carried it all these long years. Amie Soward lived up on Walnut Street. We
knew something because they never talked about it. Inez and me one day went to
ask Amie. We walked up there and told her we wanted to know the history. It was
Amie’s dad’s brother.
(Every time I found Ada listed in the census she was listed
as her mother’s SISTER – probably to protect her.)
Grandma and Grandpa Hall got married on horseback.
Before Grandpa, Grandma was going to get married but he was
killed in the war. She went with Earl Finley’s dad for a long time. He had a
moving picture out there. He came and put up a camp and showed movies. Mama
said that used to be her boyfriend.
Inez went with Euell, Eldon, and the other one too. I went
with Pal Finley. Mom went with the old man.
:::she’s laughing::: I guess we
liked them Finleys.
Mama and me had hard times in Hardy. We took in washing and cleaned. They was separated then. When Troy and me got ready to come there, he
was ready to come with us. But he got to drinking when he was in Missouri.
(I changed the subject)
When you butcher a hog, you’d wait til first freezing
weather, then butcher them. Hog-killin
weather. They’d smoke what we couldn’t eat.
We’d eat the ribs, liver. The hams and side meat bacon and shoulders
would get smoked. They had smokers and
hung it in the smokehouse. That cured it. It wouldn’t spoil. They’d rub salt on it first. Dad used to
butcher hogs. Had big cauldrons to put them in. (I have one – Annie’s note)
Mostly the men smoked it and hung it.
By that time, they had lockers and mama and daddy put theirs
in the food lockers down here in Armona.
Mr. Moore.
We’d can everything. We’d have potatoes – just pull them out
of the ground. Kept them in the cool places. Cellars kept them cool. No
refrigerators.
Gloann remembers on Walnut Street in Armona. Everybody kept
their ice-boxes in the living room. They’d deliver big blocks of ice. Never had
one of those until we come out here. I remember our first one.
I remember our first television in the 50’s. Oh, the boys
saw Gene Autry and the Cowboys! Danny’s see him fighting and just draw back his
fist!
[Mom (Gloanna) was in high school and she said this boy had
a tv and the kids would all go there to see it.]
Second Interview
This Second interview was when Vena was in the nursing home soon before she
passed away, I’m asking her about her Grandma Mary Jane Massey:
Vena: Uncle Sam
Massey was grandmother’s brother. He had family, of course, they was our
cousins. They all visited back and
forth.
Massey. Uncle Sam. Sam Massey.
They lived beween Ash Flat and Hardy. Evening Shade, that’s
where they lived.
Uncle Sam and Aunt Lucy.
I think her name was Lucy. We had another Aunt Lucy too.
Aunt Lucy Tadlock. A lot of people named
Lucy then ::chuckling::
Not many left. They’s Floyd. He lives up there by Salem. And
I don’t know any more.
My grandmother was a Massey
Sam, Uncle Sam Massey.
Yeah. Her other brother’s name was . . .
I don’t know.
Sam was her brother. Uncle Sam Massey.
Annie: Did he have
any kids?
Vena: Yeah, he had
Floyd was his boy’s name. Floyd Massey.
He had kids then.
Annie: Do you know if
Mary Jane Massey was Indian?
Vena: I don’t know. I
think she was part Indian. Yeah, she was. She was part Indian. I remember her
sittin on the porch, rockin and rockin, all day long. That was the Indian in
her. ::laughing::
Annie: Did you like
her?
Vena: Oh, I loved
her! She was sweet.
Annie: What do you remember about her?
Vena: Well I remember
one time, she, we had to go down a ways, there was a spring down there where we
got water. And she went down to get water and the wolves got after her. She tore her clothes off and threw a piece at
a time down. They’d stop and tear it up and that’d give her time to run a
little farther and she was completely naked when she got to the houseThe men
comed in and they got after em. They killed part of em. They was bad.
Annie: The wolves were bad?
Vena: Yeah, you know
they’d thinned em out pretty good. They wasn’t a many of them left around
there. They was afraid of people any more so they didn’t bother us much. We
could hear them at night. Oh, they’d sound so awful. But we always managed
everybody’d get indoors at night and we had the doors fastened inside so nobody
could open it up from the outside so we’d just, everybody’d managed to get in
at dark. We’s sure glad for that.
Annie: Did you ever know of anybody to get killed by a wolf?
Vena: Oh yeah, lot of
people did. In the earlier days. They
were mean.
Annie: Do you remember your grandpa?
Vena: My Grandpa
Hall?
Huh-uh. No. He was gone when I got here.
(My mother is talking in the background asking if he was the
one in the prison camp. No, that was Pa Cato’s grandfather.)
We always was at grandmother’s house. Every time we all
wanted to eat, they made some big tables, put it outside, and everybody’d take
food and we’d all go there and eat all the time.
Annie: Oh yeah? What would you eat?
Vena: Oh, everything
good. Yeah. People’d bring it from all over and come and
eat with us. We had, they called em
cork plates. They’s paper plates.
Annie: Do you remember going camping’?
Vena: Oh yeah!
Annie: Did you go camping a lot?
Vena: No, not a lot,
but we went once or twice a year.
Annie: Do you remember anything about Millie’s grandparents,
Luke Hall? Did you know Luke Hall, your Uncle Luke?
Vena: No, I didn’t
know em. I’ve heard of him and folks knew him, you know.
Annie: But Mildred was your cousin, right?
Vena: Yeah. My dad
and Uncle Luke were brothers. And Uncle Luke was Mildred’s dad.
Annie: Did you ever do anything with Mildred?
Vena: Oh, we stayed
all night with her and she stayed with us.
Yeah, we was close.
Gloanna: Vene, was
Ray Millie’s brother? The one who
started the hospital there and the one who was a doctor?
Vena: Yeah. That was
Mildred’s brother. He was a doctor.
Annie: You have some good memories!
Vena: Oh, I have a
lot of good memories. We had a good childhood.
Everybody loved everybody. You never heard of people fightin’
or anything like that.
Gloannea: Those were fun times, huh?
Vena: Yeah. You know
we was workin there on the farm where we was stayin. We was tying
grapevines. They pruned em then we’d
have to wrap em and tie em. So we was
there. That morning I said, “ I had a bad dream last night that Uncle Sam
Massey had died.” Mama had a letter mail
that day, Uncle Sam had died. I dreamed it just as plain. It’s funny how you do
things that way.
Annie? Have you done any other things like that? Any other dreams like that?
Vena: No, I don’t remember
any more.
Annie: Just that one. Isn’t that something. How did he died?
Just an old man?
Vena: I don’t know. I
think he had pneumonia. A lot of people
did then. They’d take a cold, then they’d take pneumonia.
Then they didn’t have medicine like they do now.
Annie: Did you know any of your other Uncles in the Hall
family?
Did you know any of your dad’s brothers?
Tell me some stories about them. Who were they?
Vena: There was five
of them. Well Uncle Henry was the
oldest. Uncle Dolphus. Uncle Luke.
Annnnnnnnnnd Uncle Mac.
Annie: Who was your favorite one?
Vena: Oh, I don’t
know. Uncle Henry was always teasin us. He’d
light a match and put it in his mouth. Then he’d put his tongue out and it was
still lit. ::laughing::
Annie: He could eat fire, huh?
Vena: Yeah
::laughing::Oh. He had a mustache.
Gloanna: Wonder he
didn’t catch it on fire!
Vena: Aunt Maggie
was his wife’s name. Indian Maggie. Arkie was their daughter.
Arkadelphia.
Annie: Arkadelphia! Where’d they get that name?
Vena: I don’t know. And
________, and Faye, and Edgar. Faye was married to Edgar. And I don’t know I
guess all of em.
Annie: Did you guys get together when you were kids? With
all those uncles and aunts?
Vena: Oh yeah. We’s
always together. I drove the old car. I got to where I could drive it. I’d
drive it up to Grandmother’s house.Aunt Minnie. I’d drive the car. It was an
old touring car. Yeah. One day Inez cranked it and it was in gear.
She didn’t know it. It started up and run over her. Cut both of her knees real
bad. She was crippled up for a long time.
They had a place way out in the country.
Arkie had em bring her. She stayed in there with her for a few weeks.
They’s so good to her.
Annie: Do you want to sit up a little bit? Are you
comfortable?
Vena: I’m
comfortable.
Annie: Did you have a refrigerator when you were a girl?
Vena: No, we had an
icebox.
We’d freeze ice and put it in there.
Annie: Where’d you get the ice.
Vena: We’d freeze it
at night and we’d put it in the icebox in the daytime then.
Annie: You mean you’d freeze water when it got cold at
night?
Vena: Yeah, put it
in the icebox in the daytime then.
Gloanna: Did they put it in something to freeze? Or was
there a pond?What did you freeze it in?
Vena: Pans. We’d put it in the top of the icebox then. It’d
keep our milk and everything cold.
Annie: Did you buy your milk or get it from a cow?
Vena: We bought
it. In cartons.
Annie: Did you ever have a cow?
Vena: Yeah, we did.
Most of the time we had a cow. We’d put the milk, we’d
strain it through clth and put it in jars, gallon jars, then close the lid down
tight on it. It keeps several days like that. When it soured, we’d churn it
then and make butter.
Annie: Oh, you’d churn it and make butter?
Vena: Uh huh.
Annie: Did you ever make cheese?
Vena: No, we made
cottage cheese but never made cheese.
Annie: When the milk went sour what would you do with it?
Throw it away?
Vena: No, mama made
biscuits and we’d use it to cook with.
Put soda in it to keep it from being sour.
Arm and Hammer Soda.
Annie: That’d keep your milk from going sour? I didn’t know that.
At this point she tells us a bad memory we won’t repeat
here.
Then she talks about Uncle Mac and Aunt Minnie.
Vena: They had two
daughters, Wanda Jean and Veneta. And a boy named Austin. He was crippled, he had
rickets and he died. We were all sitting around his bed when he died. I’ll never forget, Veneta said when he died,
she said, “ He’s a little angel now!”
Yeah, goodness we had a lot of memories. We all wound up at Grandmother’s house all the
time. My mom and dad would take food.
Mama would make potato salad and things and we’d take em so Aunt Minny wouldn’t
have to cook.
Gloanna: You told me
how grandpa would buy candy for his mother and she wouldn’t share it with you
kids.
Vena: Oh yeah. She’d
eat it right in front of us. Dad always took grandmother candy. :::laughing:: Grandmother was an old stinker!
Annie: Is that Mary
Jane Massey?
Vena: Yeah, Mary
Jane.
Gloanna: She scared
you guys too, didn’t she? Wasn’t she the one who scared you?
Vena: Yeah, she’d
take a pillow case and pad the corners and make ears. She’d cut out eyes and
nose and mouth and put it on a broom, and get out and stick it up in the
window. Us kids knew what it was but we’s
scared every time. ::laughing:: We’d run and scream and cry.
Everyone’s laughing:::
Annie: At Christmas
time did you get a big Christmas tree?
Vena: No, finally we’d
put a little one up but we never put a big one up until after I was grown and
had my own home and I’d get a Christmas tree and decorated it.
Annie: You guys didn’t do it when you were kids? When you were
a little girl grandma and grandpa didn’t have a Christmas tree?
Vena: We did after a
while. I can remember the first time we got one. Went down on the hillside and
cut down a pine tree.
After this Aunt Vena started getting tired. We teased her
about wanting to marry Dr. Dean. Then we gave her lots of hugs and said our
goodbyes.
I sure do miss Aunt Vena.
She was a kick in the pants and made me laugh all the time.
What wonderful memories I have of her!
She always reminded me how she saved my life one Thanksgiving.
But that is another story!
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| Front Row: Annie, Aunt Vena, Gloanna Back Row: Christie, Janie, Richard, Aunt Jean |
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