Tommy, Kay Frances and Caraletha were my earliest friends outside the family. Tommy was a year older, Caraletha a year younger and Kay Frances was maybe 3 years older. They all belonged to the Family that lived across the railroad tracks. The boss of the family was "Aunt" Ada and her sometimes sober Husband named Walt. They raised crops of cotton and vegetables on the land that belonged to Mr Milford and were the watchmen for his Planer Mill located on that side of the road. Aunt Ada was my sometimes baby sitter who also helped around the house; cleaning up and washing and ironing clothes for Mamma. Tommy and I played a lot; fishing and exploring whenever and wherever we wanted.
There were two other groups of folks living on our land at that time. One was another Walter and his nephew Theodore. Walter and Theodore lived in a 3 room house about 50 yards from our house. Walter was "crippled" and hardly ever left the house. He had no wheelchair and couldn't move about on crutches. Theodore would carry him from the bed to the front porch and back. Theodore also did all the cooking. That was where I saw whole meals being cooked on the open hearth of a fireplace. Our other rental house was about a quarter mile away and was tenanted by different families over the years. It was finally torn down too, but we still call that 30 acre field the "Red House Pasture."
The only thing that I have to remember any of them by are a few stones left where the houses used to stand.
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