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Miscellaneous Memories by Ruth Williams Matchett, daughter of Ida Hawes Williams, 2004 Miscellaneous Old Memories In 1933, Mama sent me with Maggie, Claude Houser’s wife, on a trip to Sand Mountain. I was supposedly going to help Maggie with her kids; however, the real reason for the trip was to get me away from Marshall, my boyfriend, whom Mom did not like. We went by train as far as Valdosta, where Claude met us and drove us the rest of the way. Claude took me on to Chattanooga, to Ethel Sampson’s home (Ethel was my dad’s niece). Ethel Sampson’s son James drove me from Chattanooga to my relatives on Sand Mountain. Along the way, we stopped off at Aunt Pat’s in Trenton, Georgia. James was very good to me and took me all over the mountain. I believe Dr. Gardner took me back to Chattanooga after a couple of weeks of visiting. (During that time, James Sampson had gotten married.) I took a bus from Chattanooga back home to Hampton, Florida. I remember Ethel and Jim Sampson lived on 22 Long St. in Chattanooga. ----- The Ricks lived in the house across the creek from our house in Fabius. I think that may have been the house that Papa’s family first lived in when they moved from Big Springs, Tennessee, to Sand Mountain. Papa’s sister Sarah supposedly died after drinking from a spring on their new property; however, there was no spring on our place. ----- Sam Hawk was Dad’s first cousin, apparently the son of one of Papa’s aunts who married a man named Hawk. Sam Hawk visited us several times when I lived on Sand Mountain. I remember he gave me my first doll, a china doll. I dropped it on the hearth and it broke into a thousand pieces. I cried. On my first trip back to Sand Mountain (with Mama in 1924), we visited Sam Hawk in Chattanooga. He lived with two older women. One of them was called Aunt Betty (Dabney). I don’t remember the other lady’s name, but she was probably Sam’s mother (and my great-aunt). I had never seen a house like theirs; it was built on the side of a hill. The front of the house was at street level, but the back was at a lower level. I remember they gave me a cute little bucket that originally contained peanut butter. I loved that bucket! ----- When we lived on Sand Mountain, we went to the Baptist Church in Fabius. My dad was a deacon there. Our family doctor, Dr. Gardner, was a minister in addition to being a medical doctor. His church was in Flat Rock. I remember attending a revival there. We traveled by horse and wagon. On the way back home at night we kids would all huddle under a blanket in the wagon and fall asleep. As the wagon crossed Rocky Creek, the bumpy ride over the rocks in the shallow water would jolt us awake. We called it Rocky Creek because of all the rocks in the water, but its real name was probably Coon Creek, which the map shows as close to Flat Rock and crossing the road to Fabius. ----- On that long walk that I took on Sand Mountain with “Shirt-tail Pete”, Pearl, and Bennie Minton, we came upon a crab apple tree. Pete dared me to eat one. I did. It was very sour. More Recent Memories (after marriage and children) Although Marshall probably did some cane-pole fishing as he was growing up, he did not become a serious fisherman until after Wayne and Barbara left home. He would get the men started in the woods [cutting and hauling pulpwood] and then come home early, usually before noon. He would suddenly pop in and say, “Let’s go fishing!” and off we would go! He would leave Shelly [his brother] in charge of the operations in the woods. Shelly would usually cut down a sapling or a bush and put it in the back of the pickup in such a way that it shaded the cab of the truck. He would oversee the men from his shady lookout. Monday was a good fishing day because the men were usually so hung over from their weekend binges that they wouldn’t show up for work! At first we fished on Hampton Lake. Marshall kept his boat there on the east shore. Once a storm came up and it got so windy we were not able to get the boat back to the landing, so we headed for the public beach area on the north shore. Marshall then walked around the lakeshore to where our car was and came back for me. One time we came across a rattlesnake swimming near our boat. Marshall told me to hit it with the oar. I didn’t do it right and hit the rattlesnake with the flat side of the oar. That didn’t hurt the snake--just made him madder! Finally, Marshall took the oar and chopped at the snake with the edge of the oar. That did the trick. The rattlesnake sunk and we didn’t see him any more. Another time I remember we came across a large kingsnake on the shore. Kingsnakes were believed to be an enemy of rattlesnakes, so they were considered desirable and weren’t harmed. Marshall took his cane pole and rubbed the back of the kingsnake with the dangling hook. I remember Marshall sometimes would see an alligator in the distance. He would start making a rapid grunting sound, imitating a baby Œgator. The big Œgator would then turn and come towards us. I didn’t like that! And speaking of grunting, Marshall got earthworms by “grunting” them. He would drive a wooden stake in the ground, and then rub the blade of an ax across the end of the stake. That caused the stake and the surrounding ground to vibrate. I suppose the earthworms did not like the tickling feeling, because they would quickly come to the surface, where we would collect them in a can. Later we did our fishing on Santa Fe Lake, over near Keystone Heights. I remember one time we were out in the middle of the lake fishing for speckled perch, when we saw a rain storm approaching. We pulled anchor and headed for our boat landing, racing against the coming rain. We got there moments before the heavy rain came down. As we were sitting in the car, Marshall realized that he had left the “kicker” [outboard motor] on the boat, and all the fish we had caught were still in the boat. He didn’t want to run out in the rain in his clothes, so he took them all off, even his shoes. He made several trips back to the boat to get the kicker and the fish. That was the funniest sight‹Marshall coming back from the boat buck naked! I laugh every time of think of it. I was afraid that our family dentist, who lived next door to our landing, would see Marshall naked. The rain was icy cold and Marshall got thoroughly wet. He was shivering when he got back in the car. He used his undershirt to dry himself off. Usually we took a can of sardines and some soda crackers with us for lunch when we were out fishing. ----- Before they left their home in the woods south of Interlachen, Marshall and Shelly used to cut swamp cabbage and sell it to make a little money. They also used to make some money by pulling Spanish moss and collecting leaves from a native plant that smelled like vanilla. The moss was hung on a fence until the outer covering rotted away, leaving the tough hair-like center fibers, which were used as stuffing for cushions and mattresses. Once on a visit back to Marshall’s old home place, he stopped and chopped down a cabbage palm and cut out the heart of it. I cooked it. Tasted a lot like cabbage. ----- My sister Jessie’s family and my family ate together several times, both at Jessie’s house in Lawtey and at our house in Hampton. They had five children and we had two, so there were eleven of us when we ate together. Jessie usually didn’t have enough glasses to go around, so some of the kids would get iced tea in a Mason jar. Back in those days we didn’t have telephones, so our Sunday visiting was always a surprise. Once we happened to meet on the road‹each was headed to visit the other! I was always amazed that Jessie could whip up a good meal on a moment’s notice. She always had a lot of canned vegetables, so that helped. Her husband, Ed, had some strange eating habits. He always put jelly on the biscuits he ate with the meal, and he put syrup on fried fish. ----- Funny story about one of our neighbors in Hampton: I used to hear a lot of loud shouting coming from Dewaters house. I figured Mr. and Mrs. Dewaters were having awful fights, but one day I noticed Mrs. Dewaters out on the porch calmly watering her flowers, while angry shouts were coming from inside. The next day I asked Mrs. Dewaters about all the shouting at her house. She said, “Oh, that. That’s Rudy watching wrestling on TV!” |