OUR FAMILY STORIES

Pam says:

I was pretty young when we lived in Arkansas, so my memories are really nil when we start traveling down memory lane. I can remember Grandpa chopping wood, and of course the old white mule he had. I remember that we had to trail down thru the pasture to get to the "outhouse" and seeing things that were never there. I also remember a mountain, called "Magazine" Mountain. When I ask why it was called that I was promptly told by one of my very knowledgeable brothers that it was full of magazines. Could I not see them? It was years before I realized that they had told me one big whopping fat LIE! Now, which wonderful brother told me that? Hmmmmm, I might remember at the end of this thing then everyone will know who storied to their younger sister.

Told by: Pam (Webb) Hill

All of us have stories that we can tell about those days in times when we were growing up. I have asked my brothers and sisters to tell about some of them. So here we go----down memory lane.

The story Polly had goes like this:

This is a story from when I was a little girl. I wasn't very old, probably six or eight years old. We were living in Arkansas and where we lived was a piece down the road from where Uncle Lonnie Fowler lives now. The house has been torn down now but it was on a slight curve in the road.

My Uncle Earl Webb liked me, maybe I was his favorite,(I never was anyone's favorite so he was special), and he called me "Booger". He would drive by our house in the afternoon and Anna Lee and I would be in the front yard. The best I can remember we would be climbed up on a rail fence in front.

Uncle Earl would throw a brown paper sack with candy inside (penny candy, suckers, etc.) and holler, "There's your candy Booger". Anna Lee would always run and get the candy before me. She was quicker than I and I remember always crying because he was throwing it to me. Of course, Mama always made us share which she should have. I always remember this because Uncle Earl thought I was special.

Told by: Pauline (Webb) Mills

Al had this to tell:

This happened when Dad, Bob and I came to Texas. We were staying with Wayne and Juanita out at Oklahoma Lane, when Wayne was working for Bro. Kersey.

One day I was looking out of the window and Juanita asked me how I liked Texas. I said o.k. but how did they get water into the house? She said from the windmill and explained how it worked. To the storage tank, to the house and asked if I understood? I said I did but how in the world did it get hot!

Told by: Al Webb

June wrote: This may not be the EXACT way the story goes, but it is the best I can remember, and an experience I will NEVER FORGET.

When we were living on A.L. Black's farm outside of Friona there was an experience I had which now sounds funny. At the time it happened though, it wasn't so funny. In fact, Mama later told me that the whole family cried when all was said and done.

Daddy, Alfred, and I suppose Larry, had been out plowing the fields one hot summer day. It was right after they'd been in the house to eat a hot lunch Mama had cooked. They were preparing to go back into the field, but first they had to do a little adjustment on the cultivator plow on the tractor. It was a Massey-Ferguson tractor, (the best I remember), and it was gray in color..a smaller version of the usual big John Deere tractor they drove to cultivate in the fields.

We girls (Joyce, Pam (Dianne), and I) were all three on the tractor under the shade tree in the front yard playing around. Of course, Joyce occupied the driver's seat, Pam was on the other side (don't know what her job was but she was busy and happy with whatever),..there was NOTHING for me to play with except the lever which operated the power lift. All was going so well, Joyce was acting so big and important sitting there in the driver's seat. Pam was happy pretending to chug along. About the time Joyce pretended to shift the gears, I thought I had to shift gears as well. When I pulled on the lever, it lowered the plow onto the ground....on to Alfred's foot. He started yelling like crazy!

WELL, let me tell you, it didn't take a heartbeat for Joyce and Pam to scamper off that tractor in a flash. And "poor little June", was left having to be careful not to fall getting off the contraption, and was the only one caught by Daddy. He grabbed me and blistered my behind but good! When he finally let go, I ran to the house crying my eyes out. When I told Mama what had happened, she was all sympathy for me. In fact, the best I remember I was put on the bed until I hushed crying. I don't remember that Daddy hurt me all that bad, it was just the fact that I was the ONLY ONE CAUGHT AND PUNISHED! Mama told me later the whole family cried with me.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT??? THAT MARY JOYCE AND PAM NEVER DID GET A SPANKING!

Told by: June (Webb) Muse

Here's Larry's Story......................

My story of something memorable about my family, has to do with my sister Polly (Pauline). I'll get around to that in a minute or two, but first let me reminisce a moment or two.

When we were growing up in the hills of Arkansas, money was something we didn't have a lot of and so if we had any fun like most children have, we had to more or less invent it.

I must have been 4-5 yrs. old, because Polly tells me she was in her early teens, and since she's 10 yrs. my senior, well let's assume those ages anyway. When we got a present usually it had to be shared because of the money shortage, so is the case that Bobby Hugh and Alfred Henry got for Christmas that year, a brand new Daisy single shot, break-over B-B gun, it may have been a Red Ryder as well. Anyway, they were out in the yard of our 2 story house one day, target shooting, and they spilled some of their bb's near a rock. Well, me being the resourceful person that I am, I picked those bb's up and put them away, so when Bob & Alfred wasn't around, then I would be able to use their BB gun, without their permission, of course.

One day they weren't around the house, I slipped the bb gun out, without Mama seeing me and I climbed to the top of the 2 story house to do some target practice. When I climbed up on the house I really didn't know what I would be shooting at, but I just wanted to shoot something. I was also a little tyke and could hardly break the bb gun over in order to insert the bb in the barrell, but with a little effort on my part, I would put the barrell on the roof and push the stock downward, thereby exposing the barrell to insert the bb into. Anyway, after I got the first bb into the gun, I began to look around for a target, and as luck would have it, down on the ground working real hard at the rub board, awashing our clothes was my pretty sister Polly!!! Her rump (behind or butt) posed such a good target, that I couldn't resist. So I aimed at her and pulled the trigger. Polly jumped and screamed in pain as the bb hit her in the behind. Well she looked around and didn't see anyone. So she went back to the washing of the clothes on the rub board. I struggled to get the darned gun cocked again, and finally succeeded, inserted another bb into the barrell. I put Polly back in my sights again, and zinged her behind again, only this time she began to cry. Mama heard her and came outta the house and spotted me on the roof of the house. She told me to get down right now, and I was gonna get a bustin, I told her Uh-Huh, she couldn't come and get me and I wasn't coming down. Well, she said that I might as well face the belt now. I think it musta been beat Larry's butt for everyone, including Bobby Hugh and Alfred Henry----because Mama took that BB gun and busted the stock off of it, right on the rock where Bob and Alfred had spilt the bb's at.

My story had a happy ending for Polly, because she watched Mama bust my behind, and it was a very unhappy ending for me, as Bobby Hugh and Alfred finished up what Mama started.

I still chuckle about it to this day!!! Polly, I'm sorry that I hurt you, but it's still funny.......

Told by: William Larry Webb

Joyce said:

I remember one time Bob came home from the service, Germany or someplace. The first morning Mom got up and put in a pan of biscuits, STORE BOUGHT! WELL, Bob sat down, looked at those biscuits and started talking about how he had waited all this time to sit down at Mom's table and eat her "tarapine" biscuits and here she had fixed store-bought canned biscuits. Well, Mom was a busy lady and didn't have a lot of extra time but she was a thinker. The next morning she got up, opened two cans of biscuits, worked two of them together into one biscuit and produced a pan of "tarapine" biscuits. You cannot believe how much Bob bragged on those "Homemade" biscuits. This was what he had waited so long for.----I'm not sure if Mom ever told him the truth.

by: Joyce (Webb) Smith

The following story is about Anna Lee, told to me by her granddaughter, Tabitha Englant.

My Grannie, Anna Lee, always told me stories, but the one I remember most is about her husband, Cecil, making home "brew" and trying to hide it from her.

One day as Grannie was doing her wash she looked up and seen Cecil at the end of the field digging. He pulled up a jug from the ground and took a couple of drinks, then looked to see if anyone was watching. Seeing no one, he put the jug back and covered it up. He went back to his work.

Grannie went to see what was in that bottle and it turned out to be liquor that was made with persimmons. The seeds were still in the jug. Well, she was mad as fire and she grabbed the bottle and took it to the front yard and dumped it all out.

As she finished the wash, she heard the ducks and the geese making a big fuss and went to see what might be wrong. When she got there, she found the geese were on their backs, flapping their wings, trying to get up and run. The ducks were doing pretty much the same thing. Then she realized that the seeds from the persimmons were gone! Them durn animals ate them seeds and were drunk!!

I remember this one because of the way she would always laugh when trying to tell it.

by: Tabitha Englant as told to her by her Grannie.

This is one of the "yarns" that Bob spins: My thoughts go way back! The earliest I recall is when we lived across from the church at Cleaybete Springs, Arkansas. The event was Christmas, Sonny James and I were shooting firecrackers inthe field in front of the church, by the out-house. Well, we had one big red one left. We put it under a can, lit it and ran. When we looked back, Al had gone over and was sitting on the can. Well, it jolted his ancestors, and I received one of the worse whipping's in my life. ha Al, do you remember?

Told by: Bobby Hugh Webb

Sam did a bit of thinking before he sent me his story but he did and this is what he told me.

We lived on A.L. Black's farm and we had horse and cow pens out behind our house. I remember Pam roping a horse. That little rope sure did burn your hand. I also remember one afternoon when Kenneth was out hitting rocks with a bat. I was too close and he hit me and knocked a big hole in my head. Big Brother Wayne sure did whup him hard. By the way Brother, I never did want you to punish him for it was an accident.

Now, my big brothers, I have a B.B. gun story too, but I think it was Pam or maybe June that got it in the behind or back. I don't really remember too well but the results were the same. Momma whupped me pretty good. I think it was with the "Bob" belt. I never did like that thing!

I can also remember (helping) Bob fix his car out behind our house on 1st in Bovina. I think my main job was to keep all excess oil off his tools and put it on my clothes.

Told by: Sam (Scoot) Webb

**NOTE FROM PAM.... I have no idea who got the "Bob" belt. But I hope that they give it back to Bob for a birthday present for that thing wreaked havoc for Sam and I in our younger years.

Wayne's Story....Back in 1929 or 1940 we lived at the Old Price Place, at Dutch Creek Valley. It was in the wintertime and Dad couldn't find work. Food was really scarce, so he would hunt possum, coon and skunks for their skins. To my knowledge he never got more than 35 cents a piece for any one of them. Still if he could earn a dollar he had a done a good nights work, and a dollar back then would buy a lot.

Dad would work on that skin for maybe a half a day, pulling it tight across the board and scraping it. When he caught possums, he would keep the meat and Momma would cook it. Of course, the meat from the coons and skunks wasn't good eating. The price of food items back then were cheap considering what they are today. You could buy flour for about 50 cents.

Dad also would hunt Blackbirds by setting traps. These traps were made from stove wood and he had them rigged up so that he could pull a string from the inside of the house and close it when the trap was full. Snow would have to be shoveled out of trap and then he would take cornbread and crumble it up inside the tray. About 20 to 25 birds would get in there and then Dad would pull the string trapping them in there. Momma would then make Blackbird Pie. This pie wasn't like a dessert, it was more like Chicken and Dumplins, this was a meal for us.

In the spring Dad would find work and it was usually working with timber and I would help him. We fished a lot so that was a main course in our meals along with wild greens, poke salad, and wild onions.

For entertainment, Daddy would make music and play at dances. Now these dances weren't like what we have today, with liquor and husbands and wives sometimes messing around on each other. This was good clean fun, that families could go to. They would dance and sit around and talk....just visiting with friends and neighbors.

At home, we would sit in front of the open fireplace in the evenings, laughing and talking. Times were rough, but we had a loving home, loving family and we had lots of fun.

Told By: Wayne Webb

To My Brothers and Sisters, I thank you for all of the story contributions. I now have at least one story from everyone! I have truly enjoyed listening to them and working up these pages. If you have any more please send them my way and I'll get them up!

The saga of "Magazine" Mountain goes on.... All of my brothers love to joke and pull jokes on anyone that happens to get in their line of fire.

Sam is the knowledgeable one that told me "ALL" there was to know about "Magazine" Mountain. He's younger than I am and I still fell for that line! Oh well, such is the life and times of our family! Isn't it wonderful? YES!

Look for more "Family Stories" in my upcoming "Family Stories Part II".