Dean (part I)

This is the manuscript from my father’s visits in 2006 with my great Aunt Dean in Hernando, Mississippi.

The story she tells is fascinating, heartbreaking, and inspiring. He was doing a lot of genealogy at the time and Dean was his favorite aunt.

She is a true hero. I literally wouldn’t be alive without her interference in the past, as you will soon find out. She is the kind of soul you want to watch out for your child. Her spirit is as mighty and strong as a hundred men and she is the reason Issac’s middle name is Dean.

She lived in a trailer where she would lay on her couch, chain smoke cigarettes and chew tobacco. She wore thick glasses from the 80’s with yellowish frames and her body was always covered by a lot of blankets.

This is the manuscript my mom made from the cassette tapes my dad made during their visits in Dean’s last days.

I finally feel it is the right time and perhaps Dean is urging me to do it, as I feel she is very present in Isaac’s life these days.

It begins with a foreword from my father:

In 2006, I began to visit Dean. Ostensibly, to get information for a book about her life, her experiences, and her family. I realize I am not an author and though I would like to be one- I can't. But Aunt Dean deserves to be heard and I did tell her I would produce something from these meetings. Eight tapes were recorded - eight hours. These tapes contain - silence, radio noise, talk about frogs, sharing chewing tobacco, and laughter and also reveal Dean's earliest experiences, good and bad. Most of the stories I had heard from other family members, but her descriptions were different. And from this fact I began to realize Dean was much different than her sisters, more than I had ever known.

Dean was the oldest of the six Condrey children - Five girls and one boy. Though she referred to herself as a Black Sheep of the family she really was not. But she was remarkably unlike her siblings, particularly her sisters. Besides her physical characteristics which were long and tall, her personality was the opposite of theirs. She was irreverent, but polite. She smoked and she cussed as well as anyone I have ever known. But she was forgiving and had the natural ability to minister to those less fortunate.

WILLO DEAN CONDREY

I was born September 24, 1918, on Panther Creek, in Lauderdale County, Alabama, across the creek from the Home Place (The Home Place is our ancestral home in Panther Creek, Alabama, which still stands to this day on top of big boulders alone in an overgrown field near the creek)

Coming down from Pea Ridge, Bob Condrey’s house was first on the right, then on the left was Bud Parker's. And around the curve was my house (My great grandparents Tommie & Lummie’s house) Next door was Ma & Pa’s (Ed & Althea Condrey, her grandparents). I lived on the creek two years, I don't remember being there, but I was spoilt because I was the first grand baby.

We moved up toward the ridge further up Condrey Hollow, about 5 miles northeast.
Not long after we moved - my sister Daisy was born.

Second child born Daisy Lorraine Condrey, February 2, 1921

Momma’s health began to get bad. Momma (Columbia/Lummie) was half or a quarter Indian. She was pretty, looked like an Indian squaw. Never cut her hair until she started getting headaches.

I followed my uncles Marvin and J.C. around. They did not like having a small girl following them but Pa made them watch me.

One Sunday morning I wanted to go fishing in the creek so I caught a turtle. I was very excited and I wanted to eat him. Marvin and J.C. cleaned the turtle and we ate him. They said he was nasty but I didn’t believe it. He tasted clean and I didn't get sick. I was a con.

We rode horses and went possum hunting. I rode a mule; my uncles rigged a pulley so I could saddle him. His name was Kit and he liked me; he come when I would show him the pulley. He was old, didn't have any teeth because he ate sweet feed and corn meal.

Chores: Daddy asked me if I could go to the spring and fetch a gallon jug of water. I did and that became my job. Thousands of gallons! Daddy taught me how to milk the cow. We cut and gathered wood for the stove or fireplace. We washed dishes and we tended the babies. I ran with Daddy most of the time. I was a tomboy.

Momma's health was declining (Parkinsons) so they hired a housekeeper to help.
Her name was Mrs. Martha Crossitt and she had a brother: Bill Shand. Bill was not “right”. My sister Daisy liked to call me - Bill Shand and Daisy liked to be called “Ed,”like our grandfather Ed Condrey.

When Mrs. Crossitt came to stay, no more calling each other “Bill Shand” & “Ed. She didn't like me and was happy to see me go to school. She packed my lunch and she always included a boiled egg. We liked to crack our eggs on our heads and one day Mrs. Crossitt gave me an uncooked egg. I got yolk on myself and my neighbors. Chuckles.

School: I liked going to school, though I only went first through sixth grade at the Duke's School. Seventh through twelve grade I went to Waterloo by bus.

We walked about two and half miles to school. By the first grade, Daddy had a sawmill (1924) and they made lumber, crossties for railroads, and poles for telephone lines.

The Duke’s School was a one room building that had a pot-bellied stove for heat. The wood was supplied by folks and sometimes the boys went out and got more. We had desks but when it was cold we pulled benches up to the stove and sat around it to do our school. We had lots of homework and did our studying in front of the fireplace or coal oil lamp. I loved homework.

The teachers were mostly young women just out of high school. I remember Flora Riley; she taught for two or three years.

The teacher would write “Baby” on the board, then the pupils wrote “Baby” over and over. Then the teacher would write “the baby cries” ...

Third child born Emma Louise Condrey, June 16, 1923.

Play: We played with other children of the sawmill labor. The toys were kept away from those children because they might be destroyed. Momma kept them in a trunk- it burnt.

We built a stove, built a fire. We stole some onions and cornmeal and made cornbread. We had a play house where we played “Squat ‘Lil Josie” and “Hop Scotch” and dominoes and checkers. We played cards; we played Rook with the sawmill children. We made our entertainment; we were never bored.

We fished a lot and played in the creek. I didn't learn how to swim because the water was too cold. I went hunting with Marvin & J.C at night but I got tired. So they wrapped me in a blanket and left me at the base of a big tree.

I slept and they came back many hours later with a lot of possums. In the daytime we hunted squirrel and rabbit. We kept the skins to sell when it cured. We ate a lot possum; we would soak them in salt water, then par-boil them, rolled them in flour with salt & pepper- Fried them. Sometimes we baked them in the oven. They would sell them fifty to a hundred skins at a time. Daddy didn't hunt much; he liked birds. He would buy pheasants and set them loose down there. Now, it's a Wildlife Preserve, repopulated with deer.

Fourth child born male, Houston L. Condrey, October 13, 1925.

We didn't have a radio; we didn't have electricity. Uncle Odell ordered a Victrola record player, the crank type. Pa played the fiddle, Marvin played guitar, Ninnie picked guitar, J.C. played a Mandolin, and my great uncle Will Condrey played the banjo. At night we would go to Pa's house and they would play music. We had square dances on Saturday night; there were more boys than girls.

Danger:
The danger was from dogs with hydrophobia, “mad dogs” (Rabies). They (the family) were wary of strange dogs showing up, so they killed them. Fanny (family dog) got it and Pa put her down. I had a friend who got bitten by a snake and there were a lot of scorpions.

Sundays: We went to church at the Duke's School; the church was called Camelot Christian Church. They didn't have one same minister, it was different men who would preach. My parents didn't attend much.
Every other Saturday we stayed at Pappy's house, The Parker Home Place. On those occasions, we went to the Panther Creek Church/school, built by Jasper Parker in 1915. I think it was a Freewill Baptist, about two or three miles from the Parker home place.

It's under water now. Lots of people went to that church. They washed feet.

Aunt Annie, dressed us up especially for Mother's Day. Sometimes, after church we would have a pie supper where Women would take their meals in fancy boxes with bows and they would auction them off. The winner got to eat with the cook. Aunt Annie dated Ervin Condrey before she married Uncle Gyle, Pappy did not favor Gyle Higgins because he drank too much. In fact, he would not allow Annie to marry him though they courted for years. But on Sundays, Gyle was allowed to sit with Annie at the Home Place. They got married in ’37.

On Sundays at the Condrey home, after church and/or lunch, they would come to our house. Daddy’s family, his laborers, their families, and neighbors. We played ball and a game called “Stealin’ Sticks”. They would separate themselves into two teams; in an open field, a dividing line was marked and each side had a pile of sticks. The goal was to protect your sticks while simultaneously stealing the other team’s sticks. There was a lot of runnin’ and screamin’.

To be continued.