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by Gloria Bennie Summa “Faulkner”
September 4, 1992
I was Born September 22, 1923 at Richland, Texas or as this community was called “Pidgedy Ridge” (Pisque Ridge) on the Healer place to Joel Elmer Summa and Ida Georgia Williams Summa. My family consisted of eleven children. I was the 8th child. (One sister older than me passed away and a brother, the youngest of the family passed away. Their names were Tinie and Harvey. They both were infants.)
I can’t remember much about my life on the Healer place. By the way, we were farmers. (My father was a carpenter by trade until he had to quit climbing because of his heart.) My father farmed on the 3rd and 4th. Don’t ask me to explain that, I can’t. I know when you farmed on the halves you took half and a half went to the owner of the land. I think 3rd and 4th meant you took a third of the main crop (which was cotton) and the owner got a third and the other is what I don’t understand. I think it had something to do with the feed such as hay and corn etc. I am not sure. We always had a good living, as much as anyone and more.
I had diphtheria while I was small. I was probably 4 or 5. I remember sitting on my father’s lap and the Dr. giving me a shot in the spine, I think. After that I remember one morning I had gotten up where my mother could make the bed. She asked me if she could put a pillow to my back so it would not hurt. I was not hurting but it made me feel loved and special. When there is that many children you don’t get a whole lot of attention. So, that has stayed in my memory all this time. Some times it’s the small things that count.
Not to long after that we moved to a 2 story house and rented a place that belonged to a Bank in Corsicana. The people that looked after the land were Mr. Petty and his wife. They came out pretty often to visit. I loved them. They wanted to adopt me but mother and father said no. They bought me gifts. One I especially loved was a doll and buggy. The doll’s eyes would open and close.
We always went to the front porch after supper. We always had a swing of some kind close to the house. We children would swing, run and play. We would chase lightening bugs for hours. We would put them in a jar. Some of them we would mash on our arm or finger to make them shine like jewelry.
My father would play with us. We would play club fist or Wiliam-a-William-a-Trimble- Toe. It would take up too much space to tell you how we played it. I loved my father so much! He was a lot of fun.
Another thing that has stuck in my mind (it is another small thing) is one night I had already gone to bed but I heard my Daddy tell Sarah (he called her Nuke), “Why don’t you get out of the swing for awhile and let Short (that was my nickname) swing”? I jumped out of bed, put my clothes back on and went out and swang and swang which I really never cared about swinging that much. If I did it very long it made me fell nausas. Carnival rides do the same. But it made me feel so special that my daddy thought of me and I was nowhere in sight I had to go out and swing. I loved all my family so much.
(There was Baptist Church at Nash. My father helped start it. If I can get it, I will have you a copy made of a document showing this.)
We always looked forward to going to church. We went to church and school in the same building. A one room building. When my father went to church we went in the wagon.
We all had a Sunday pair of shoes and a Sunday dress or pants and shirt. When we all got dressed up and in the wagon I thought we all looked so nice.
My mother made our clothes and ordered our shoes most of the time. The preacher would come have dinner with us. He had a big family of boys. They were mean or we thought so. Back then the grown folks ate first when there were to many to get around the table It seemed hours before they would finish and when they did the good pieces of chicken were gone. We always had plenty but just not the pieces we wanted.
We all had fun running and playing. Sometimes our friends would come and spend the day or mother would let us go spend the day with them. When we went to spend the day with our friends, Ethel Williams or Dortha Sawyers, we would all get together and go down to a big gully and swing across it on grape vines. The older girls and boys would go riding or just sit in the parlor and talk and sing etc.
The church would have ice cream suppers and bake sales or box suppers if they needed extra money for keeping the building up or etc. I had better explain what a Box Supper was. The young ladies or girls of dating age would take crepe paper and what not and fix a real pretty box and put enough good food for 2 in it. Then they would have some one to auction the boxes off. The young man that got the box got to eat it with the girl it belonged to. Of course, the boy would try and find out who the box belonged to and would bid all he could in order to get the box of the girl he liked. We all had a big time, even the smaller ones.
My father would drive the older girls and their girl friends (when they would be at the house on Sunday) around. Sometimes there was room for us younger ones. This happened after we got a car. (a Dodge. It was kind of square shaped.) I went to school at Nash School until I was in the 6th grade. One room, one teacher for 7 grades. At recess we would play ‘Annie Over, tag, baseball or ride the Johnie Stride. I was nearly 8 when I got to start to school because of my birthday (Sept.22) and you had to be 7 by the fist of September then before you could start.
We walked about 3 miles to school. It sure got cold some times and that black mud would build up on your shoes and your feet would sure seem heavy some times. We wore high top shoes and cotton stockings. Sometimes we would wear over halls like we wore in the field.
You started picking cotton as soon as you were big enough to pull a toe sack. I was so proud when I was big enough that I got a new white cotton sack. I did not like picking cotton. I learned I was not a good cotton picker. I know now why. The reason being I picked clean cotton. I thought that was what you were supposed to do. Now, I hear the others talk and know. They say everything that come off they put in their sack. That is the reason my younger brother could beat me.
When we were growing up we always looked forward to our Uncle Felix coming to see us. He always brought Candy and Gum. We had candy but it was home made out of honey(taffy) and fudge. It was so good but what he would bring was different. Uncle Felix would go to the field with us when he was by his self. He always picked and put in my sack or if we were hoeing he always hoed on my rows. I loved him. He was my favorite uncle. The others loved him also. He was daddy's brother, Felix Summa.
When we took a bath we drawed our water up in a #3 wash tub and let it heat in the sun. After supper Mother and Dad would be on the front porch and us kids would have our tub at the back or the house. We girls would all get a switch of some kind and we would take out clothes off and chase each other with the switches. (This was after dark) We knew not to run around where Mother and Dad were so you could only run so far toward the front. The switches sure did sting but we had fun.
Another thing we did is all of us girls would go down in the pasture to the tank, take our clothes off and go swimming. I don't know why I said swimming, none of us could swim, but we would have fun splashing and baptizing each other. Our hair would dry on the way home and I guess it was probably always messed up so Momma wouldn't know. It was dangerous I know now, but then we never thought about danger.
We had a 2 gallon ice cream freezer. Dad and Mother would make ice cream for all the cotton pickers on Friday night if they wanted them to pick on Saturday, so they could get a bail finished.
I don't know where but they had some kind of picnic. Mother would fix some very good food and we would go. We had to cross over some water on a ferry boat. We would know a lot of families there and we would all have a nice time. I know today that doesn't sound too exciting but then it was very exciting to us.
There would be medicine shows come to Richland and we would go. They had popcorn, drinks and candy. They sold medicine also. We never bought any of the medicine. They would put on some good shows. They were generally funny. At that time in life there was not too much you could do for entertainment, but we managed, and we never knew the difference.
Daddy did not think any boy was good enough for his girls. My oldest sister Lila ran off and married George Murphy. They divorced and she married several times after that . Dolly ran off and married Jim Nutt. He passed away a number of years ago. They had a daughter Maudine and a son, Walter Jim. Both have also passed away. Dollie lives in Lancaster, Texas. She is about 80 now, but still lives alone.
I will never forget one night Charlie Lane drove up to the house in a Model T. He dated my sister Mable. My father went out on the front porch. He asked Charlie how hard that car was to start.
Charlie said, "Not very hard, Mr. Summa."
My Father said, " Well, see how fast you can get it started and get out of here and don't park it up here again."
None of us had heard our father do a thing like that, but when we got away from father we had a big laugh about it. It was not funny to Mable.
My father passed away when I was about 10. He had cancer of the liver, he was sick for quiet a while. We moved to Cleveland, Texas when I was 13. It was not easy for mother to save enough to buy a 40 acre farm and build a house for I am sure we were in debt when my father passed away. He was sick for so long.
Everyone worked from can to can't. We would work in the field all day and can food at night, but we still managed to enjoy life.
We all had to handle mules and horses, but Mable could handle them and any kind of a plow just like a man. The only thing I ever handled was a hoe, cotton sack, stalk cutter and a harrow. I think I could handle them all better than the cotton sack. I could not pick very much but as I have said , I picked clean white cotton.(Ha)
We made about 2 crops and mother married Mr. Rufus Fetty. There was only Sarah, J.D., Thelma and me home when we moved to Cleveland. Sarah married awhile before Mother. Mr. Fetty (We called him Pampy) had 2 girls at home, Clyde Joy and Charlene. Clyde Joy was a year or so older than me. Charlene was a year younger but because of my age when I started school, Charlene and I were in the same grade.
I'll never forget that ordeal. When they moved from Richland, Texas and started to school in Cleveland on the first day, they both put on a hat. Charlene was tall and skinny and had real thick hair. She had it cut like the Dutch Boy on the paint can and from the outer edge of her hair to her neck was about 4 inches. She put on a hat that looked like Robin Hood feather and all. I dreaded taking her in class, but I did. I was nice. (Ha)
The next day they did not wear their hats. I asked them if they were forgetting their hats and they said, "No, you were right we don't need a hat."
We got along just fine.
I had started dating. I was 14. The reason I started dating is Sarah would not go on a date unless I went with her so I was thrown with an older crowd. Clyde Joy and I double dated a lot. We had fun.
I had six special girl friends at Tarkington High School. When we first moved to Tarkington Prarrie, just outside of Cleveland, Texas, the six girls, Hazel Young, Molly Perkins, Chip Page, Lois Perkins, Oleta Stone, came o see me on Sunday evening. When they started to leave they told me they were glad I moved there, They liked me and said I was as crazy as they were. They had run together all their lives. We all stuck together all through High School. I could tell you some crazy things we did but it would take up too much room.
Mother, Pampy, my step-dad, Thelma and J.D.(Bootie, his nickname given by my father) all moved back to Richland, Texas. It was my senior year, so, I stayed with my sister, Sarah, the rest of the year. I worked in the school library. (me and Oleta) I made enough to pay for my school supplies, my senior ring and invitations. I helped my sister and her husband pick cotton etc. when I was not in school. I was Valedictorian of my class. I received an award for highest grade in my class in the 7th grade all through high school. Not bragging but I felt a small tinge of pride. I was the first of our family to graduate from High school. So, I was proud of myself.
I came back to Richland, stayed home about 2 weeks them went to Dallas and went to work in a defense plant. I operated drill presses, milling machines, lathes, punch presses, buzz saws, spot welders and acetylene welding machines. I made head of my department. We made gas lift valves for the p-38's. I stayed with my sister Tressie and Guy Keith until they moved back to the farm. I then moved into an apartment. When the war was over the plants all closed. I went to work in a Dearborn Stove factory making heaters. I then went to work in a box factory making egg crates.
I am getting ahead of myself. Just before the war was over I went on vacation to mothers. My sister, Thelma, was dating Randall Steelman, he future husband. That is how I met my husband, Wayne Faulkner. He was Randalls's half brother, home on leave from the Army Air Force. Randall asked if I would go with him on a double date.
I did and about two weeks later we were married. (April 14, 1945) They, then, sent him to Hawaii. Soon the war ended but he had to stay there until he had enough points to come home. He was over there 11 months and 22 days. About a year later we went to west Texas and settled in Wink. Wayne went to work for Humble Oil and Refinery which later became EXXON. He was a good softball player. They hired him to play softball over the summer of 1946. They then kept him on permanetely. He worked for them for 33 years, then had to take disability retirement in 1978.
During this time we had four children: Ronnie Wayne (1947), Paula Marie (1948), Beth Earl (1950), and Frankie Charles (1953). Ronnie passed away at 3month and 3 days.
The children all graduated out on High School while in Wink. The two girls married and that started the grandchildren. Paula had Karen and Carl. Beth had Candy. Frank married and had Sam Then even the grandchildren married. Karen has 3 little girls(Kasey, Korey, Krista) and 1 baby boy (John Keith). Candy had one little girl.(Heather). I love all of them fellows a lot.
Paula made a school teacher. I wanted all of them to go on to college but could not get Beth or Frank to go. Frank does construction work. Beth got her back hurt and can not work. I love my children so much. All three are different. Each one has his own personality. They are my life.
During the years I was raising my children I worked in Drug stores. This was after they were all in school. We always lived out of town either in a Company Camp or about 14 miles out on a ranch until the were in High School. We bought 6 acres across the street from the City limits and built our home. We ran a cafe there for about a year and a half. I then went to cosmetology school. When I finished I put in my shop, Bennie's Beauty Shop. I had good business. The shop went well. After Wayne's retirement I closed the shop. We moved to Oklahoma. I went to work in a nursing home as a Social Service Director. I worked there for about 11 years.
We moved to Wilson, Oklahoma in 1979. We had purchased 30 acres there some years before. So, we had a home built on it (about 9 1/2 miles west of Wilson) Wayne passed away July 19, 1984. That took a lot out of me. I loved hi m. He had cancer of the lungs. He has been gone now for 12 years. I have not met anyone that could ever take his place in my heart.
I sold the place in Oklahoma and moved to Corsicana in 1992. My sisters, Tressie and Thelma are both widowed and live there. (Thelma has remarried)
I know this is all mixed up, but I would get ahead of myself. I could have told a lot more but it was getting long and unless you could go into details it would be no good.
