Uncle Frank and Aunt Pauline

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Aunt Pauline and Uncle Frank were probably my favorite relatives. They didn't have kids of their own, and they were always trying to spoil me. Uncle Frank pronounced apple as "Opple" and would always bring me one whenever I was around. Frank's mother - Mrs. White - lived with and took care of Big Mamma (Eugene McKinney. who was my dad's mom.) Mrs. White always kept her hair done up on top of her head and I was really surprised once to see her hair when it wasn't tied up. It actually reached her ankles.

Uncle Frank ran liquor stores and played poker. He was pretty good at it and I assume accumulated a lot of money. He also, from time to time, sold bonded liquor from his home on Sundays and after sundown. He was arrested several times, but was never convicted. Uncle Frank also drank a lot of brown liquor. His brand was Jim Beam. He used to say that a lot of doctors told him that if he didn't quit drinking, he would die. He always laughed after telling that and said, "And I outlived every damn one of them." When he was in his eighties, he had problems with blackouts and Aunt Pauline always kept a half-pint bottle of Jim Beam in her purse. When he started having one of his blackout fits, she would feed him a tablespoon of Beam and he would straighten right out.

Aunt Pauline ran a combination pool hall and beer joint near Matthews Millhill. She had four pinball machines too. Her machines would "pay off" even though it was against the law and lots of people would spend their paychecks at those machines. Sometimes she would let well known people in on Sunday and let them play pool, pinball and drink beer. Once, she was raided by the local police. As the story goes, she hit Ramey Underwood (a deputy sheriff) with her fist and broke his jaw. Then she decided to run out the back door of her bar. Unfortunately she forgot that the steps had been torn down and she broke both ankles. I know she didn't go to jail or "do time" for this, so she must have had to pay a fine.

Aunt Pauline and Uncle Frank were good people who made their living in a different way. They didn't "prey on" their customers, but they did take the money that others wanted to give up. Uncle Frank died in the 1990's and Aunt Pauline died while I was in Iraq in 2005. She left me $5,000.00 which I thought was very nice of her.