“Still more growing up Clinton and Oakton”

This was to be a small collection of eight or ten short stories of my friends, now and past, as well as the community that I have loved so much.  Also some of the experiences I personally have been able to enjoy.  My intention was to put them on a DVD for my children and grandchildren. I was hoping that someday they might be read.  Instead it has multiplied, giving me a chance to relive times past and some friends who are gone now but not forgotten.  How can one person be able to receive so many, many blessings in one lifetime?  Never again will someone be able to witness the stern wheelers and side wheel steam boats ply the Mississippi unless it is tour boats.  Nor experience the glee of young men fishing and hearing a strange sound only to look up to see the first jet plane that we had ever seen.  We had heard of them.  That was not long after we were begging to take a ride in the fabric skinned biplanes, at the county picnic.  They were propelled by a rotary engine and wooden propeller.  They would bush hop from town to town selling rides for enough money to keep them flying.

There was one thing both communities had in common and that was swimming holes.  We could never understand how our mothers always knew we had been swimming in a pond. It never crossed our minds that it was the lack of oil and the abundance of mud in our hair.  Our two favorites were Harper's pond on hwy 51 north just past where the fair ground is now.  The other was behind where the Cole`s and the Edwards live now.  It was called Harper's gravel pit but gravel had not been hauled from there in years.  Here we would fish and then swim.  It was full of snakes but mostly in the east end where the big spring and bog were.  There were plenty of ponds around Oakton too.  One of my favorites was on Tolbert Poole.   

It is funny how when you do not have cash you improvise.  We would often scrounge up some baling wire and take a couple of tin cans and make walkers.  Similar to stilts only a lot lower.  Walking with them was no challenge but steps were.  When we could get hardwood lumber we did make stilts.   It was neat how the scrap piles at Clinton Lumber and Lewis Lumber always seemed to have several long two inch wide and six ft long strips of wood and as many pieces of two inch thick triangles of wood.  That was just right for stilts.  You would think that they did it on purpose for us.

If there was a wooden fence around you could be sure that we walked the top plank.  I know the farmers appreciated this but I imagine they did the same when they were kids.

At nine we could walk through town with a 410 ga or a 22 caliber on our shoulder.  Stopping at the grocery and hardware store to buy ammunition and no one would pay any attention.  By nine we were taught the proper handling of firearms and how to use them.

Clinton was not too big on it but Oakton at night meant frog hunting.  If there was any new visitor to the community we could also count on a snipe hunt.  We were all taught about how prevalent snipes were at night and how good they taste.  At one time or another everyone was left holding the bag.

I remember a couple of times that wild fires in Obion bottom were threatening houses in and around Oakton and any high school kids could get out of school to fight the fire.  We would fight it with wet burlap bags.  I can just see that happening now with all the liability risk.

We worked for any spending money and there was no shortage of places to spend it.  In Oakton there was a restaurant for a while and three grocery stores where one could also find some mens and boys work clothes and Levi`s. 

Clinton had at least five restaurants and no less than ten grocery stores with at least two groceries being hardware and appliance stores as well and carrying some work clothing.  Clinton actually had a Kroger as well as a UtoteM store.  Just thinking of how many businesses we supported in our community makes me wonder if all the great advances we have made were not advances at all.  The local tax base sure took a licking.  Travel was not easy then and there were no big box stores.  With being able to run to a bigger town for needs and entertainment we destroyed our small community where we did not need guarantees for we had the honor of honest merchants to deal with.  They were close to home too.

Really the Strand Theater was the focal point of our weekends.  This was the one time we could count on a bit of change to go to Saturday matinee with a serial.  It was a dime to get in and a nickel for popcorn.  A pop was another nickel and if you wanted real butter on the popcorn that was another nickel.    My parents would go the price of admittance and pop but I popped my corn at home and carried it in a brown paper grocery bag.  The serials I remember were called cliff hangers as they stopped at a crisis and would be continued until the following Saturday.

“Post Office random thoughts” “Postal people love to eat”

“Postal people love to eat”

One thing postal people can do is eat.  We took any opportunity to get together for a PO family meal.  I went into the army weighing 150# and still weighed 150 when I got out.  When I went to the PO I weighed 150# and then they introduced me to rich food and candy.

Almost daily Jerald Chandler would walk down to Peggy Young five and dime and come back with two big bags of bulk candy.

Often J D Barclay would feed us turtle soup at his house or make some of his wonderful homemade ice cream.  At one time I had his recipe but regrettably lost it.

Ed Latta`s mother Ms. Willie Latta would dry apples and made the best fried apple pies.  Now I have to admit that J W Moran makes a mean fried pie as well.  Mrs. Latta would often leave me one wrapped and in the mail box.

When the Locks lived on College street Brenda knew that I took my afternoon break at my mothers.  If she made a red velvet cake I would get a huge piece to eat when I got to my moms.  That is why I have called her Red Velvet for all these years.  Just recently she brought me another red velvet cake and she has not lost her touch in the kitchen.  I hated for them to move to a rural route and J D Barclay get all that cake.  Anyway I do not weigh 150# anymore and it is all the Post Office fault.

Not postal related but one day driving up College St.. I happened to glance toward the Locks house and the side door was open and I could see all way to the window over her sink.  I noticed she was placing a pie on the ledge to cool.

That was a time when we all had CB radios and I keyed the mike and changing my voice said, “Brenda Rose, that pie sure smells good.”  She ran to the radio wanting to know who I was.  Who knew her middle name and how did I know about the pie.  I did not tell her for a long time it was me.  When her cousin Brenda Kay moved to Clinton we all started calling them Brenda Rose and Brenda K to stop the confusion.  Never did tell her how I knew about the pie.

I think the best thing I saw carrying the mail was the Meals on Wheels delivery.  For years I had carried the route and not having air conditioning I could smell cabbage cooking at the same houses day after day.  I like cabbage but not every day.  I wondered how many, like one they found out about, who was eating dog food straight out of the cans.  I believe the Senior Center and meals on wheels were the best thing ever done for old folks and always hoped that wealth or income did not matter.  I also hope that there was no needs assessment, but there probably was.  I know living alone there are few who will eat a proper diet and the seniors need that for sure.  I don`t know if the program still exist but I pray it does.

“More Growing up Clinton and Oakton”

One of the oddest things about growing up Clinton and Oakton was the nicknames.  In Clinton we had a few and mostly older folks like Foots Jackson, Frosty Barclay, Pop`s Johnson, Powerhouse Craig, Tip Johnson, Judge Brummal, Squatlo and more.  Those my age usually went by their given names.

At Oakton we had Bogie Crow, Doc Williams, Hoss Clark, Pep Clark, Toodlum Clark, Share Cropper Williams, Snake Hogan-Darrel Kelly, my uncle Lightning Trevathan and as I was always right behind him I was Thunder or Thunderhead.  Lightning and Thunderhead carried on to some extent in Clinton as well.  I think maybe it was started in Clinton by the Tarver boys, Carl and Kent.  There were more and some I did not even know their given names.

Carl and Kent Tarver`s mother Ruth was the Bell operator for Clinton and before that Olie Johnson and Miss Ruby Autry was the Pvine operator before that.  The telephone switchboard was up stairs over Hopkins grocery where the motel would later be built.  This is now the parking for the new courthouse annex.  Before 653 our prefix was OR for Orchard 3 and then the number.

The one place we could be found every day we were not in school was “Uncle Ned” Benedict’s blacksmith shop.  He was not my uncle but we ran with his nephews and to all the kids in town he was uncle Ned.  I can still picture him wearing that dark full length bull hide leather apron to protect him from hot metal.  I loved to watch him back into a horse’s leg and pull the hoof up to size a horse shoe.  He would be pretty close on the size by looking and it did not take him long to heat it and shape it to the horse hoof he was shoeing.  I can almost hear his hammer tapping on the anvil before he struck metal. One tap slow followed by four in rapid session.

He had a monster bellows he pumped by hand to heat the coals and he had a wood half barrel of water to cool the metal in to temper just right.  It really fascinated me to see him take two separate pieces and join them by heating, beating and molding together. 

Once while on vacation to my uncles I contracted poison sumac on the inside of my forearms.  He had me dip them in the cooling barrel of water and I did that three times in three days and it was gone.   He cleared up many cases of diaper rash by dipping the baby’s bottoms in the cooling barrel.

He gave us plenty of rings off of wagon hubs some were about ten inches in diameter and we would roll them down the street.  We would use a tobacco stick with a piece of wood attached to the lower end.  This we would stick in the ring to start it rolling and then we placed it low and behind to push the ring.  Being boys it had to be a challenge so we would go to a big oak and try and roll it up a root and see who could get theirs to roll the highest up the tree.  Being short I usually lost.

There were at least seven service stations inside the city limits and that made a big supply of bad small truck and large passenger tires that we rolled all over town.  Seems everything we did was good exercise.

I am not sure of the provenience but the old timers told us a tale about the boarding house that used to be west of where John Cromika lives today on West Clay St.  Seems the James brothers, Jesse and Frank, would head to visit family in Bowling green or somewhere near there to hide out until things cooled off a bit.

Supposedly they crossed by ferry at South Columbus and would stay a day or two in Clinton to rest up.

Another version told often by the Burkes, who ran Hotel Jewell, was that they stabled their horses on West Clay and walked to the hotel Jewell.  I have to doubt this version as the James brothers being wanted would not stable their mounts where they could not be reached fast.  Not to mention that before the Hotel Jewell it was Marvin College where the “Veep swept here.”  Referring to Vice President Alben Barklay Many believe he was a Paducah native but he was a poor Graves county farm boy and worked his way through the college by working as custodian.  He was born in 1877 and enrolled at Marvin in 1897 so I doubt it being a hotel or boarding house before that.

"Growing up Clinton and Oakton"

Growing up in Clinton and Oakton we did not have computers, cell phones and Ipads but we had other things that kids today can only dream about.

Clinton had five stock yards and we might be found at any or all of them on a given day.  We loved to sit on the top plank of the fences and watch them unload small local trucks and load the semi`s for shipping out.   It was fun to watch them move cattle and hogs.  I assume they were separating them by grade and where they were headed. 

Later I washed and cleaned trailers and put new bedding for some. I rode shotgun some with Forrest Jeter.  My family and the Jeter`s were close friends.  Most of the cattle ended up being hauled to St. Louis stockyards and Chicago as well with the hogs mostly going to Greenville, SC and Atlanta, Ga.  That is when I found out that the only thing more stubborn than a old sow is an anvil firmly bolted down.

Almost any day would find a visit to the cotton gins.  They had powerful fans that would suck the cotton out of the wagons and truck beds into a holding building.  Later it was cleaned and baled with Mr. Hop Bryan doing most of the baling.  I fell on some telephone poles once when one rolled and my leg was trapped.  My pals Johnny Walker and Bobby Vaughn could not budge it so they got Hop to help.  After manhandling bales of cotton for years it was no challenge.  In order not to hurt me he picked up the base end and literally threw it off of me.  I am sure some of it was adrenalin but mostly it was one very strong man.  I am not sure but I believe the bales he handled were weighing 3 to 5 hundred pounds each. 

Hickman County had three gins at that time with two in Clinton and one in Oakton and we kids spent a lot of time at each.

I think one of the most fun things though was hanging around the depot.  They had these big freight carts for freight and baggage and though they looked cumbersome and hard to pull they were quite easy.  I used to hang out with the telegrapher Mr. Cook and he was very patient.  I sat by the big pot bellied stove and questioned him. Once I asked him what was the purpose of the empty Prince Albert tobacco can behind his clackers.  He explained that all telegraphers used them to amplify the sound so if he was in the john or outside on the deck he could hear if he got a call.  Each operator had a certain signal and they could all recognize the others hand on the key.  I could never pick up code by clacker even though I did learn Morse code by tone.  There were many more trains then and the locals came through and it was cheap to go by train to Fulton or Cairo to shop or go to a movie.   Some folks went for other things that were illegal here. 

Thinking of the depot and stock yards reminded me of the barber shop across the creek from Brown and Wayne stock yard and behind Coy Evans stock yard.  I think the barber was “Foots” Jackson not sure about that though and don’t know his first name.  There was the shop under the Clinton Bank building and there was one next to William`s hdw.  There was another one on Jefferson st across from Tip Johnsons hdw store.  The one under the bank and the one across from Tip`s had shoe shine stands.  One shoe shine man who stood out and I know he could make shoe shine rags make music to about any tune.  He was Albert Hughes who worked in the big shop under the Clinton Bank building.    Oakton had two shops midtown that were across the street from each other.

Pt. 9 PO random thoughts. "Call the police"

 “Call the police”

Mail carriers all over the country were being robbed especially on check day and we were warned over and over that if we saw a suspicious vehicle, to call the Post Office and report it.  I kept seeing the same truck on every street I went to.  I was on Jackson St and saw it go by and I cut through to the parallel street to see if it passed.  I was going to get the license number.  It did but there was no license.  This truck had practically followed me for at least three hours.  I stopped to call the Post Office and report it but the line was busy so I called Chief Joe Weatherford.  I explained what had happened and then called the Post Office again and Ed Latta answered.  I told him what was going on and returned to the route. 

When I turned off Jackson onto College I saw the pickup coming toward me.  Now by this time I was not agitated, I was mad.  I stepped in front of him and he had to stop or hit me.  He stopped. 

Just about the time I found out it was Tax Assessor Billy Latham, taking annual pictures, of properties, for tax purposes.  It was then that the police car pulled in front of him and Ed Latta blocked him from behind.  Ed jump out with a 45 cal semi-auto and Joe jumped out at the same time with his service revolver drawn.  Billy having just purchased the new truck had no plates on it.

Something told me my taxes were going to skyrocket but thankfully they did not.

Someone mentioned my friend Jim Brummel to me today.  Made me remember one time when Jim spotted a bottle in a small ditch or creek on the route.  I think it was by the railroad depot.  Anyway Jim recognized it as old and, like I would, he had to get it.  I think he stepped on a nail through a board but memory fails on that point.  He was injured though and a report had to be filed upstate.  I think the bottle turned out to be a local Lamkin`s Clinton Bottling Plant bottle which I would consider a great find.

In a few days Jim was out on the route and an inspector came from Louisville or from Evansville to check it out.  The postmaster told him where to find Jim and he headed out and interviewed Jim and returned to his office to file his report.

A few years after that Jim`s route and my route were being inspected by two inspectors.  One told Jim that they had met before and Jim was so sure that they had not.  Then the inspector said, “I remember now, you are the carrier who had the Labrador retriever in the car with you when I found you on the route.”  He assured the fellow that for sure they really had met before.  Jim`s black Lab took every step he did.  They were inseparable.  I was surprised none of the inspectors said anything about it.  Maybe they are human too.

Speaking of mail vehicles, I will never forget the scare I got when I took the driving test for the Post Office.  I had to meet an inspector in Mayfield to take it in a mail vehicle.  The tester was Mrs Robert Bolin`s brother, but I did not know that at the time.  We went behind the Mayfield PO to get a vehicle and the only thing available was a right hand drive.  We took off and he had me parallel park.  I told him to get out and watch for me as you were always to have someone watch when backing. He was giving me hand signs and I backed right into a telephone pole that was leaning out a bit.  I knew that had failed me for sure but when he got back in he informed me that he failed but I had passed the test.  The Post Office insists you have some watch when you back up but they know you are going to be alone.  That is probably so they can always charge you for any backing accident.

Pt 8 PO random thoughts. "First day on the route"

When I was first hired I substituted for clerks and for carriers and managed to keep working for my dad as bookkeeper.  If one of them needed me more we worked it out.

The first day I carried the mail for Pete Halteman on his day off I was getting close to Ms. Lucille Jones (Davis at that time) and she was waiting on the porch for me. 

When I got there she informed me that they never locked the doors and if I needed to go to rest room or need a snack and something to drink to make myself at home.  She showed me where the kitchen, fridge and snacks were.  She celebrated her 100^th birthday Saturday 08/11/12 and It was Charles birthday as well.  If God makes angels of humans then she, Charles and Bertha are truly destined to be Angels in fact they already are.

When I first started we had railroad post office and highway post office.  I think they each ran twice a day headed south in the morning and north in the afternoon.  We also had truck delivery in early morning.  The RPO and HPO clerks would deliver mail in one town and while standing, at the sorting case, they would sort it while swinging to and fro. We would meet the mail at the depot and would place a canvas and leather bag on a hook and the RPO clerk would throw out our mail at our feet and a hook on the train would grab our outgoing.  I found out years later that one of our railroad clerks was my childhood neighbor and good friend Jerry Matthews.  We never came into direct contact with each other so there was no way for us to know.

Early in my career I had a very nice lady who was living on Beeler Hill where the Larkin’s live now.  She was Ruth and Bill Hinkle`s daughter Mary Ann.  This lady was as mischievous as her mom so we did some teasing.  Her husband was in combat in Viet Nam and they wrote almost daily.  She knew if she did not get one it meant he was not in garrison.  Every day she met me at the door to see if I had a letter from him.  This really touched me for when I was in the army I saw guys I knew get Dear Johns from their wives and girlfriends.  Not many but enough to see the pain inflicted when their allotment was going home.  When I did not have one I quietly let her know.  Now just to see one of the prettiest smiles I have ever seen I would turn not giving her the letter and walk to the step then turn and show it to her.  I only wish all spouses of soldiers were like her.

I was carrying the mail up College Street on extremely hot day and when I left Merle and Brenda Locks to deliver the Weatherspoons mail.  I noticed Patrick and Jerry Lock with a water sprayer and near fighting over it.  I noticed they decided to share it and thought, “I am about to get sprayed with water.” I walked to the mail receptacle and no water.  After leaving the mail I carefully pulled the weather flap over the opening in the mail pouch to cover the mail and headed to the street to cross over.  Nothing, nothing that is until I got to the street and I could hear giggling.  They wet me good and at a hundred degrees it felt good.  I am glad Spooney, Janette, Muriel and Brenda did not find out.

I was heading to the carport at Joe and Wanda Rushings one day as that was where they had the mail box.  The car was gone and I saw Todd sitting on the step.  I noticed he was holding one of the little toy bow and arrow sets and he had a particular grin on his face and I knew what he was thinking.  I turned my back to leave.  He could not see the smile on my face but I knew exactly what he intended.  He did.  His mom and dad would have spanked him but it was funny.  Without the kids the job would be no fun and the days would be long.

Pt 7 PO random thoughts. "Not to my carrier you don`t"

During the early years Beeler Hill was at the end of the route and I can still remember that the side porch of Mama Linda Jewell's house.  It was the coolest spot in town and always had a breeze when there was not one elsewhere.  She always kept kids and on pretty days she and the children were out there and she had me a big glass of ice tea. 

I got acquainted with most of them and remain friends to them.  A child who had Mama Linda, Ms Francis or Jane Dublin, keeping them were more than prepared for school as everything they did for fun had  a learning element.  I doubt the kids ever forget them.  I know I will not.

I remember a pair of route inspectors from Evansville came to inspect our routes once and as I was working a mass mailing with addresses, one of the inspectors stopped me, an informed me that I should deliver them as a third or fourth bundle as they were addressed.  The other inspector came over and went through two bundles and informed the first one that they were truly addressed but not close to being in sequence and needed to be collated with the other flat mail.  In a few minutes the second one placed his foot on a stool to adjust his laces and I noticed he was wearing corrective shoes that most carriers wore.  I asked him if he ever carried a route and he said yes before he became inspector.  He was from Paducah. 

A few years later we got a new postmaster, Charles Long.  Jerald Chandler brought him around to introduce him to everyone and when he got to Jim Brummell he said he knew us.  Brummell said no, he did not think we had met.  He then informed us that he was the inspector who had carried a city route and had inspected us before.  Charles Long was a terrific postmaster.  He went by the rules and was fair.  Everyone knew their job and did it so he fit right in.  The day he moved I was walking beside the First Baptist Church and a car passed and the driver waved.   It was a scalding hot day and in a few minutes the young lady came back and stopped.  I had no idea who she was but the cold coke she handed me was perfectly timed.  I found out she was the new postmasters’ daughter, Charlotte. We were immediate friends.

I ran into Betty Johnson It Paducah recently.  It had been ages since seeing her.  I would see her almost daily on the route after she retired.  I will never forget her kindness.  One time Evansville PO decided I could carry more mail in less time with a Ford Pinto so they brought me one for a few years and then decided I could carry more in less time without it.  They took it back while again increasing my workload.

The next day I met Betty across from where First Community Bank now sits.  She asked where the car was and I told her they had taken it back.  Boy was she irritated.  When I returned to the Post Office Ed Latta told me that Betty came in and asked for him and proceeded to let him know she was not a happy camper for, in his words, “Taking the car away from him now that he is getting older and needs it.”  Ed was touched and I was more touched.  Not many friends will take a chance on alienating someone on behalf of a friend, especially when both are her friends.