Loran had
left for work one day and Dennis and Donna were jumping on the bed when Donna
fell off. She hit her head on the
mopboard, or baseboard, and it knocked her out.
Danny was in bed asleep and I went in and told him to go down to the
Harmon’s for help. I took her out in the
yard and she came around. When I went in
the kitchen to get a wet wash cloth, out she went again. She was just like the wet dishcloth that I
had went to get, limp all over. Mr. and
Mrs. Harmon’s son was home from Michigan.
We had never met him before, but he loaded us up and took us to the
hospital and stayed with us. Donna was
OK, however, her eyes started to cross soon after. We don’t know for sure if the fall had
anything to do with it or not.
Dennis was
very creative as a small boy. When he
was around fife, he became interested in electricity and invented his first
radio. With a cracker box, colors,
string, and a bobby pin, “White Electric” was started. He drew the knobs and dials on the box and
attached the string to the back with the bobby pin as the plug in. When he spread the pin out and stuck it into
the outlet, it played, “Ouch, Ouch”.
Dennis
found an old stump out back when he was about two years old. The stump had a small hole at the bottom and
a small path leading from the hole. He
called it his “little friends house”. He
was always taking bread or crackers to the little house and it would always be
gone the next day. He spent many hours
there at that old stump surrounded by small wild flowers and berry briars.
Dennis
started to school in 1965. Mrs. Marie
Butler was his first teacher and he had perfect attendance that first
year. He was always a dreamer. Things they taught in school, everyone
knew. He wanted to learn things that no
one else knew. He would sit with a book
for hours, reading and thinking. There
were no questions that we didn’t try to find an answer for.
Donna Kay
was our little lady. She spent many
hours behind the wood stove in the living room.
She would put her play stove, refrigerator, bunk beds, table and chairs
there and then her, Dennis, and Lana would play house. There isn’t much I can say about Donna
without Dennis and Lana being included.
Danny was in school and that left the three small ones here at home.
They were
playing in the smokehouse one day where they put a kitten in a small jar and
then put the small jar into a larger one.
When they went to get the jar out, it was stuck. They were all crying and we had to break the
large jar so we could get the cat out.
Donna was
two and a half when she had her first surgery on her eyes. She was so sweet. Before she had surgery, we would blindfold
her and she learned how to get out of bed and feel herself around the
house. We told her when we went to the
hospital they would put her to sleep, and when she woke up, we would be right
there. All she had to do was reach her
out little hand and we would be there for her.
When they brought her back, she reached out her little hand and we took
it. She smiled and said, “there you are!” They brought her tray and she sat up, put her
little hands our around everything, and fed herself. They were all surprised, but Dr. Bowers had
told us what to do and to tell her just what was going to happen, so she was
prepared.
She wore
those bandages for a week before we took her back. She had found a peephole at the bottom of the
bandages. She would sit on her Daddy’s
lap and lean her head back and peep out from under the bandages. One of her eyes was still a little crossed,
so she had to have surgery again one and a half years later. The last time, they didn’t bandage up her
eyes. I guess they thought it wouldn’t
do any good.
When Donna
was five years old, Loran’s health wasn’t very good, so we talked about me
going to work. We knew that Donna would
be in school soon and they were hiring at Recto Sportswear. So we decided if we could find someone to
take car of Donna Kay, that I would try to get a job. Leanna Ray was Donna’s first baby
sitter. She stayed there until she
started to school and then she stayed with Mrs. Mary Bivens. Dennis stayed after school and when school
was out.
I started
to work November 18, 1966 and I have enjoyed my work. When Donna started to school, she need help
getting ready for school and that is when Aunt Mathel Wyatt started coming here
to help get the children up, fix them breakfast, and get them off to
school. In the afternoons, she was here
when they got home in the evenings. The
children loved Mathel and it sure was easier on Loran and I after she started
coming to the house because we knew the children were taken care of.
She stayed with the kids for about five years
and we paid her twenty-five dollars each week.
Bless her heart she earned it.
She taught the kids many things.
They helped her make garden, clean house, and dry apples. One summer, they even built a back
porch. We are very thankful for Mathel
and all the help she was.
