Lucille's Tale • More Memories!

I am constantly running across stories that I have squirreled away in some box or folder. Last week I found this list of 25 mini-Tales written by Lily Revis Koprek in 2009.

I will post her words exactly as they were written. All opinions are hers.

I have used [brackets] for any additions or links from me.

The "I, me, my, mine" in the Tales refers to Lily (1935-2016).

The "Mom" refers to Lucille Oswald Revis (1914-2010).

1

Mom's been telling the story of when she was in grade school, lived in Decatur and a little black girl got mad at her and so the girl turned around and pulled down her panties and stuck her butt out at Mom. Mom ran home and was so excited, told her mom [Julia File Oswald] that "Mom her butt was as black as her face" my mom thought her butt would have been white.

2

When Mom was in high school (she and Aunt Allegra were in the same grade) Allegra [sister Allegra Oswald Naber] always drove them into Macon High but this one day she told Mom that she'd have to drive home by herself because Allegra was staying after school with a friend. Well, Mom did okay 'til she reached a corner (we still call this corner Mom's) and the car died, so she had to get out and crank the car. The car started up and took off and Mom had to chase it and jump in.

3

Mom was the middle child 4 sisters older and 4 brothers younger, when Grandpa Oswald [Albert Phillip Oswald] started farming, the boys were too young so Mom put on a pair of coveralls and went out in the field and helped Grandpa. She was always saying that she should have been a boy, "See look at my hands they are boy's hands" I'm just glad she was a girl.

4

I think she always milked the cows when we lived in the country when I was really small, maybe 4 or 5 [around 1940] we lived in Blue Mound and she kept the cow over on the other side of the village, but sold milk and butter and clabbered milk to people around, I can remember pulling my little red wagon, hanging on to Kathleen's hand and taking the clabbered milk a couple off blocks to some lady. the lady always wanted butter but never paid for it so Mom said she couldn't afford that and no more butter for her.

5

In Blue Mound we lived in a corner house across from the Church of God. I was on the cradle roll there, we lived next door to Nettie and Fred McKinney [Lily's piano teacher and the town barber], Danny and her husband (McDaniels) lived across the street 2 houses past the church. Aunt Winnie and Uncle George [Kunzman--they also lived next door on 35th Street in Decatur during the 1940s] lived canty-cornered from us on the other corner. My cousin Barbara Jean was their child a year younger than me, and perhaps Karan was born there too. Jean had a habit of taking off her clothes and running down the street naked. Of course she was just a toddler at that time.

6

Mom tells about Grandpa Revis and his dog Pal. They were always growling at each other. Grandpa would want to lay down on the couch but Pal liked the couch too and neither wanted to give it up for the other. One day Pal disappeared, all thought Grandpa had gotten rid of him but Grandpa said he didn't he just thought old Pal had gone off somewhere and died.

7

I guess some of these stories are mine too. I am afraid of chickens to this day, Mom says it was because she made me a coat and it had bright shining buttons. I went into the chicken yard with Aunt Winnie [Revis-Kunzman] to feed the chickies and the chickens flew at me trying to peck at the buttons and terrified me, so since then the only chicken I like is cooked.

8

Now that Mom is 95, she remembers a lot of negative things. Like Dad's [Ezra Revis] obsession with women. Of course she never knew about this until the time of the divorce but now it seems to prey on her mind. Just as Phil's [Revis] rejection of her and the family. I know it hurts her as she brings it up all the time, trying to put all the blame on Ruthie, but Phil is just as bad.

9

Mom was in high school when Grandpa Oswald died of blood poisoning. After he died his good friend stole (so they believed) her cow. Here she was a widow with a house full of kids, what kind of people would do this to her? The neighbor stole a hog.

10

Mom was over at [her sister] Dorothy and Ernie's [Whitesell] when they got the word that Grandpa had died. Mom wasn't going to ask her why she didn't call sooner, but the first thing out of her mouth was, "Why?" Grandma and him are both buried at Mt. Gilead Cemetery, south of Decatur, along with several other members of their kids: Aunt Bert [Alberta Oswald Davis], Uncle Earl, Baby Robert (Mom's still-born baby). Mom will also be buried there.

11

Aunt Allegra and Mom had on their roller skates and hanging on the back of Uncle Earl's car going down the highway when Mom's foot slipped and Aunt Allegra had to pound on the back window to tell the guys to stop. She says teens or young people back through the years did and do dumb things. So we need to remember that dumb is a part of being young.

12

Both Aunt Allegra and Mom worked after graduating from high school as housekeepers, cooking and cleaning, living in with an occasional day off, thinking $10 a month was great pay (this was during the depression and work was hard to find). Mom worked for a Jewish family, Mr. and Mrs. Rory. Mom and Allegra quit at the same time. Allegra was working for an elderly couple, the wife was sick. While Allegra was taking a bath the old guy tried to get into the bathroom and she quit.

13

Uncle Phil was always called "Bitty" because not only was he the youngest but also the smallest. He made up in brains what he didn't have in stature.

14

During WWII the brothers were all in service. Phil, Bob, and Al were all in the Navy. Al was killed when his ship was torpedoed in the south Pacific (friendly fire?) [I have confirmed that it was a torpedo from a Japanese war ship]. Uncle Earl was in the Army with Patton (he hated Patton) in Africa. Uncle Phil because of his size was stationed on a submarine. When repairs were needed in a tight place he did them. Once he had to go into a tight place and told them he'd do it but not to shut the door. Well, the officer shut the door. Later he got drunk and Phil beat the shit out of him.

15

Uncle Earl was always doing weird things, practical jokes, etc. Once he was giving the Arabs cigarettes and the Arab was happy until the cigarette exploded. Earl had loaded the thing with gunpowder. He was wounded in Africa, so he followed Patton up into Italy.

16

Grandma Oswald belonged to the Gold Star Ladies. If you had a child in service, you hung a little flag in your window with a blue star for those still living and a gold star for a lost in battle child. They got together for potlucks, and I remember she needed a pair of silver shoes to go with her long dress for a special event. She didn't have any so she got some silver paint and painted her shoes.. Wahlah, she had silver shoes.

17

Mom and Grandma received Uncle Al's life insurance. Dad [Ezra Revis] tried to get Grandma to give Mom more of the money Grandma received. No way.

18

After I got married Dad bought a new Ford. Well, Mom took it to some doings at Boody school along with Jim. Jim told her just leave the keys in the car. Well, when the event was over--no car--no Jim. Mom and Phil and Mike, they had to wait 'til he came back. Dad and Jim had a really big fight about that.

19

Once Jim and Kate had done something and Dad was going to kick them out in the middle of the night. Mom said no way were they walking to Decatur in the middle of the night, so she took them over to Mary Lou Montgomery's (Monty).

20

Mom and Dad were coming home from work one evening and over a half mile away, she told Dad that the kids had burned the potatoes. He said no way could she smell that. When they got home, we'd burnt the potatoes.

21

I remember Dad decided they'd make money raising and selling the fur from Angora rabbits. Of course the work went to Mom, but she didn't know how to do that and tried to clip them and they would bleed so that didn't work. He sold them and didn't know that they were pregnant and the guy who bought them got mad because he didn't have a place for the babies. Dad was always coming up with some get rich quick scheme.

22

Mom and Allegra were making mud pies and didn't have anything to put in the pies so the took a stick and dipped it in the toilet (the old outhouse) to fill the pies, but their brothers wouldn't eat the pies. Wonder why?

23

As kids they'd take the salt shaker out to the garden and sit and eat the tomatoes. Grandma said she wouldn't have any to can.

24

We lived on 35th Street in Decatur at 1045, a small 4 room house. Later Dad decided that we needed more room with 5 kids, so had the house raised and a basement built under it. [I see that house from my kitchen window.]

25

It wasn't too long after this that he sold the house and we moved to rented houses out in the country. I was 10 years old and attending Brush College School and we moved and I went to Union School. About a 3 mile or more walk to school during times when the snow was deep through the pasture or the creek was high and we couldn't go that way. We rented an old farm house from the Bernsteins, which had an old barn. At that time the road was called Goat Farm Road. Mr. Haskell lived just down the road and had goats. I'd go down and help Mrs. Haskell do housework, that was fun, not like having to do work around the house at home.

At the north end of the road was Route 36 and Max Hughes and Jerry Bailey had their homes there. They were my classmates in the 4th grade. At the other end was what is now Cantrell Road but before it was extended to Wyckles Road.

My goal in all of the Dead Family Tales is to present stories that would have been told around a kitchen table or campfire during family gatherings.

A new Dead Family Tale is posted every Monday.

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