Mom's Story

The Promise by Juanita Neel

The following is for my sons Jim and John Neel because of a promise I made to John in July, 1996:

One day in July of 1996, I was telling John about a childhood memory and he said "Mom, you should write these down for us." Some of my earliest memories may be from hearing Mama, Daddy, Grandpa Lee and Granny Lee tell things that happened.

Note: In Mom's story, "Daddy" is Barney Emmett Lee, "Mama" is Evie Leigh Johnson Lee, "Grandpa Lee"is Andrew Thomas Lee, "Granny Lee" is Donnie Griffith Lee, and "Daddy's Mother--Irene" is Irene M. Garrison Lee

I was born Dec. 30, 1928 in a little town in Hale County called Milton. I was delivered at home by the country Doctor Smith from Greensboro, Alabama. Daddy and Grandpa farmed together. I don't remember anything about living there since we moved to Sawyerville when I was 18 months old (verified by my sister, Martha), then we moved to Moundville (in Hale County), when I was 3 years old, then to Havana when I was 4 years old and lived there where I attended Havana Elementary School 1st through 6th grade when we moved to Geiger, Alabama in Sumter County in March of 1941, I finished 6th grade there and went to Livingston High School, Livingston, Alabama 7-12 grades. Daddy and Mama were not impressed with the Geiger school and Daddy went before the Board of Education to get permission for us to go to Livingston. We rode the bus for 30 miles to school.

Now back to early memories: I remember a few things about the storm that came through Moundville. Daddy and Grandpa were in their cornfield down by the Warrior River when a bad cloud came up and Grandpa told Daddy they'd better unhitch the mules and go home, he believed a storm was coming. After they came home, all of us went down in our storm cellar (everybody in that area had a storm cellar because of all the storms that seemed to follow the Warrior River). I was told that Daddy went back to the house to move a bed from under a leak, I'm sure I can remember hearing his rubber boots making a noise as he ran back to the cellar, the storm hit just as he closed the storm cellar door.

The storm hit the big barn behind us and it blew down on top of the cellar we were in. Daddy had an ax in with us, so we were able to get out, but we could not stay in our house that night, but a neighbor told us to come to their house, but I remember being scared because they had a child that had a seizure and I couldn't go to sleep. Mama tried to tell me not to be afraid but I was too little to understand. We moved back into the house after it was repaired.

Another memory I have while living there of a neighbors bull that Daddy warned us about. He said if we ever saw it coming into our yard to run in the house or climb a tree. One day James and I saw the bull and climbed up in one of the trees.

Another memory of Moundville was a big house on top of a hill that every spring had daffodils blooming in the grass all the way from the top to the bottom of the hill. I was not sure whether that was a dream or memory but I asked Mama about it not long before she died and she said yes there was such a house near us. I also told Martha about it and she said the reason I remembered it was we (she, James and I) went down the road in front of it to play with some children (the only ones mama would let us play with).

When we moved to Havana we lived in a house that had a long hall that went all the way through the house. We lived in our side of the house and Granny and Grandpa lived in the other side. Daddy and Grandpa still farmed together. The house and land was around by Mr. Tubbs. We grew cotton, corn, sugar cane, watermelon, cantaloupe, peanuts and of course we had a big garden, cows, and hogs. I remember a pear tree outside the back door and an orchard with peaches and apple trees. In the fall we would go pick up wild chestnuts and - I believe I could back to both trees.

Granny made her bonnets and aprons out of feed sacks she had bleached (to get out the lettering on them). One time she took me with her behind the barn where she dug a big hole in the red clay hill and poured water in the hole and put a sack in the water to dye it. We checked often to keep water in the hole and turned the cloth so it would dye evenly. When it was ready it was a rust or a burnt orange.

I don't remember much about living there except sitting under the big oak tree on Sunday evening when Aunt Bonnie and Preston would come from Alberta City (close to Tuscaloosa) to see us. They always brought the Sunday paper and that's how I saw my first "funny paper." Our water came from a well that was just at the edge of the small grove of trees in front of the house. I don't remember how long we lived there but we moved across one of the fields into another house owned by Mr. Tubbs. Granny and Grandpa stayed in the old house.

After we moved we would walk about a half mile over to see Granny, sometimes we would catch a ride with Uncle Sid (an old black man who came by our house in his wagon). He was a trusted friend that Mama would let us ride with. He would stop his wagon on the road by Granny and Grandpa's house and let us off. When he came back on his way home he would stop for us to ride back to our home.

Daddy's half-sister Oleta had tuberculosis. She stayed with a friend who had it and then she developed it. She came to stay with Granny and Grandpa and our family doctor told Daddy not to let us go over there because it was contagious. We were heart broken because we loved Granny so much. Granny was daddy's step-mother but he didn't remember his own mother who died when he was about 18 months to two-years-old so he considered Granny his mother and always called her Mama. We could not have had a more loving grandmother; we called her "Granny." She and mama were the best of friends. They called each other "Donney." I don't know how that got started.

After Oleta died we still couldn't go over to Granny's house. I don't know how many years later, but the house caught fire from something Granny had on the stove. Granny said it was meant to happen to get rid of the germs. When this house was rebuilt we were allowed to go back. Grandpa still had Daddy's mothers trunk and when the house caught fire Granny tried to go back to get Daddy's mother, Irene's trunk. Someone had to hold her back to keep her from going in the house because the house was beginning to fall in from the fire.