Now its time to tell you about my extended family. Most of this chapter is about grandparents and uncles and aunts and cousins. Most are here in Tennessee, some in Michigan. We had a very tight family with daddy's kin but because of the distance to Michigan we only went about one or two times a year which made our relationship distant too. We were always going to uncle Leon's house in Linden, Tennessee and when we went to see him we would go see all the other folks that lived there . . .
The Smock's:
Leo Smock married Ida Perrie Allen. The only older folk on the Smock side that I knew was my grandma's sister. Her name was aunt Hazel. When she was very old around 70's or so she came to live with us. She was a charterer and she had Dementia bad. When she would ride in the car with daddy ( who was one of the safest drivers I ever knew ) she would yell if a car was going around us or anything else that she thought was wrong and scares the heck out of us all the time. That must be hereditary cause grandma Perrie use to do that too. Aunt Hazel would laugh and say "Jack, I am old but I am not ready to go to heaven and we would all laugh. Grandpa's mothers name, was grandma Miser. She embarrassed grandma Perrie to the max. Grandma Perrie would tell grandpa that he needed to get his mother to stop all that stuff and grandpa would say to her,"She is too old for me to start now tell her what to do." She was very small like my grandpa. When I was very young, I almost was as tall as she was. She also drank and smoked and danced and that was why grandma Perrie was embarrass . . .
My grandmas other sister had a kid named Dorothy, she was momma’s cousin and momma said that she was a tattle tail too. If she found out anything on momma, she would tell grandma Perrie. As I sit here trying to remember all the names of my older kin I wish that I had written down the family history before momma died. Tomorrow I will call Lee Ann and get the facts cause she was eight or nine years old when momma married daddy. She had more time there to get to know them cause all I did was go up there once or twice a year. There was an uncle Everett he was grandma Perrie's brother, I remember him because he had a Boston Bull Terrier and when I was little momma would go and see him and I would play with the dog. His wife was an artist and was one of the only kin folk of my mommas that kept in touch after she married daddy as the story goes on you will understand why . . .
My grandpa died in I think 1970 or 1971. When he died, grandma was left alone and aunt Barb was looking in on her once a day or so. She also had Dementia like her sister. She was not in her right mind when uncle Al talked her into signing everything that my grandma owned to him but she adored uncle Al, he could do no wrong so she never thought anything about signing all her belongings over to him. One day aunt Barb went to see about her and she was very confused and look like she was sick. She had her night gown on and her hair was messed up. So aunt Barb told uncle Al he had to get someone to come in every day and make sure she was taking of. Uncle Al said no because he didn't want anyone knowing that she was there alone. Well aunt Barb went again to see about her and she was in her night gown walking down the main road with no shoes on in three or more inches of snow. She stopped and picked her up and told uncle Al to do it or she would. So aunt Barb put her in a nursing home the same one
her sister went in when she came back to Michigan . . .
My momma went up there because aunt Barb called her and told her about grandma. Momma went to court to make uncle Al ( because he was the power of attorney on her ) and asked the court to put all the farm and stuff back in grandmas name. She even ask if grandma could come and live with us. Uncle Al swore under oath in court that he only put it in his name because he would have to pay for her to go to the nursing home and the government would take it away from her. She had enough money that she could have a nurse 24 / 7 so that didn't convince momma or me. My momma swears that uncle Al bought the judge. The judge just happened to be one of uncle Al's friends that he went to school with. If you are wondering why I go into so much detail, it is because when my grandpa died he had more than $300,000.00 plus in farm and equipment. When grandma died momma tried to get what was rightfully hers. He won again. She only got $20,000.00 and I got $1,000.00 and Lee Ann got $5,000.00 so he got what he wanted everything. All the personal belongs and the house, farm and money. He sold the house to his son and made him sign a note saying he would never sale it. What kind of dad does that unless he is power hungry. Well that's enough ranting and raving about the people in Michigan . . .
Uncle Al and his wife of many years didn't get along either. Alger was a jerk but not to me. It was hard for me to hear momma talk badly about Alger. He saved my life once and I would bring that up and she would tell me, so what. I didn't understand back then. I was really bad about wondering off when I was at grandmas. There was a large back and front yard. At the end of the back yard there was a fence that separated the barn yard and backyard and beside the gate on the barnyard side had a corn crib that had a place in it to park a tractor. On the barnyard side there was larger gate to drive tractors and trucks through. One day I was watching baby pigs and I decided that I was gonna catch one, YEA RIGHT! I caught one and it started squealing and uncle AL looked to see what was happening to make the piglet squeal. He saw something that I didn't, the momma pig. I am talking a huge eight or nine hundred pound pig running full forces at me. Uncle Al yelled at me to get out of there and oh boy, did I drop that pig when I saw momma pig coming. I never did that again. Uncle All told that a pig has to knock you down to bite you and I only weight twenty-five or thirty pounds so take a guess who would have won that battle. I know that this was gonna be about my kin and not what I did when I went to Michigan but the stories I am telling now lead up to another family dispute . . .
The Dailey's:
The Smock's:
Leo Smock married Ida Perrie Allen. The only older folk on the Smock side that I knew was my grandma's sister. Her name was aunt Hazel. When she was very old around 70's or so she came to live with us. She was a charterer and she had Dementia bad. When she would ride in the car with daddy ( who was one of the safest drivers I ever knew ) she would yell if a car was going around us or anything else that she thought was wrong and scares the heck out of us all the time. That must be hereditary cause grandma Perrie use to do that too. Aunt Hazel would laugh and say "Jack, I am old but I am not ready to go to heaven and we would all laugh. Grandpa's mothers name, was grandma Miser. She embarrassed grandma Perrie to the max. Grandma Perrie would tell grandpa that he needed to get his mother to stop all that stuff and grandpa would say to her,"She is too old for me to start now tell her what to do." She was very small like my grandpa. When I was very young, I almost was as tall as she was. She also drank and smoked and danced and that was why grandma Perrie was embarrass . . .
My grandpa had a cherry tree in his front yard and I would climb it ( like I did the apple trees in our barn yard in Hartsville) and sit and eat cherry's till I would get sick. He also had a raspberry bush and the same goes for them. Something we did that was fun for us was, there was a drive in theater just down the way from grandpa's house. You could see it plain and clear from there. He would get corncobs that had been shucked and build a fire and grandma would pop popcorn and we would sit and watch the movie. You could not hear it, so we used our imagination. That's back when kids did that sort of thing . . .
Remember in the last chapter I told you that grandma Perrie and grandpa adopted a boy and his name was Alger. He married a woman named Barbra and they had four kids. Alger Jr., Julie, Eric and Aaron. My uncle lived on a farm next to grandpa's. Uncle Al worked with grandpa until grandpa got too old. The Barn had a sign on it "Leo Smock and Son," Up north they take great pride in their barns and printed the name of the owner on them. They would get painted before a house would. My grandpa stopped working up in his seventies. Then he more or less gave it to Alger. Uncle Al is what I called him. Grandma Perrie cooked breakfast every day for uncle Al. He was there early ever morning for her to cook for him. He hated momma and I am really sure she hated him. I liked going to Michigan because it SNOWED there enough to play in it, and play we did. Aunt Barb would get me and Lee Ann in snow suits that would keep us warm and we stayed out all day. We would come in long enough to eat and thaw out, then on the road we went . . .
There were not to many people that I knew but Lee Ann had a daddy named Paul Williams and he was a good Christian man. That was probably why momma and he couldn't get along and divorced. Lee Ann had a grandma Rose that was her daddy's momma. I use to ask could I go see grandma Rose when Lee Ann would go. Grandma Perrie would throw a fit and say NO! I didn't understand back then that she was not my grandma too . . .
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| Momma 9 & Alger 6 White Hair Lady Is Grammas Sister Mommas Cousin Dorothy & Grandpa Looking Fine In His Topper In The Back |
There were not to many people that I knew but Lee Ann had a daddy named Paul Williams and he was a good Christian man. That was probably why momma and he couldn't get along and divorced. Lee Ann had a grandma Rose that was her daddy's momma. I use to ask could I go see grandma Rose when Lee Ann would go. Grandma Perrie would throw a fit and say NO! I didn't understand back then that she was not my grandma too . . .
My grandmas other sister had a kid named Dorothy, she was momma’s cousin and momma said that she was a tattle tail too. If she found out anything on momma, she would tell grandma Perrie. As I sit here trying to remember all the names of my older kin I wish that I had written down the family history before momma died. Tomorrow I will call Lee Ann and get the facts cause she was eight or nine years old when momma married daddy. She had more time there to get to know them cause all I did was go up there once or twice a year. There was an uncle Everett he was grandma Perrie's brother, I remember him because he had a Boston Bull Terrier and when I was little momma would go and see him and I would play with the dog. His wife was an artist and was one of the only kin folk of my mommas that kept in touch after she married daddy as the story goes on you will understand why . . .
My grandpa died in I think 1970 or 1971. When he died, grandma was left alone and aunt Barb was looking in on her once a day or so. She also had Dementia like her sister. She was not in her right mind when uncle Al talked her into signing everything that my grandma owned to him but she adored uncle Al, he could do no wrong so she never thought anything about signing all her belongings over to him. One day aunt Barb went to see about her and she was very confused and look like she was sick. She had her night gown on and her hair was messed up. So aunt Barb told uncle Al he had to get someone to come in every day and make sure she was taking of. Uncle Al said no because he didn't want anyone knowing that she was there alone. Well aunt Barb went again to see about her and she was in her night gown walking down the main road with no shoes on in three or more inches of snow. She stopped and picked her up and told uncle Al to do it or she would. So aunt Barb put her in a nursing home the same one
her sister went in when she came back to Michigan . . .
My momma went up there because aunt Barb called her and told her about grandma. Momma went to court to make uncle Al ( because he was the power of attorney on her ) and asked the court to put all the farm and stuff back in grandmas name. She even ask if grandma could come and live with us. Uncle Al swore under oath in court that he only put it in his name because he would have to pay for her to go to the nursing home and the government would take it away from her. She had enough money that she could have a nurse 24 / 7 so that didn't convince momma or me. My momma swears that uncle Al bought the judge. The judge just happened to be one of uncle Al's friends that he went to school with. If you are wondering why I go into so much detail, it is because when my grandpa died he had more than $300,000.00 plus in farm and equipment. When grandma died momma tried to get what was rightfully hers. He won again. She only got $20,000.00 and I got $1,000.00 and Lee Ann got $5,000.00 so he got what he wanted everything. All the personal belongs and the house, farm and money. He sold the house to his son and made him sign a note saying he would never sale it. What kind of dad does that unless he is power hungry. Well that's enough ranting and raving about the people in Michigan . . .
Uncle Al and his wife of many years didn't get along either. Alger was a jerk but not to me. It was hard for me to hear momma talk badly about Alger. He saved my life once and I would bring that up and she would tell me, so what. I didn't understand back then. I was really bad about wondering off when I was at grandmas. There was a large back and front yard. At the end of the back yard there was a fence that separated the barn yard and backyard and beside the gate on the barnyard side had a corn crib that had a place in it to park a tractor. On the barnyard side there was larger gate to drive tractors and trucks through. One day I was watching baby pigs and I decided that I was gonna catch one, YEA RIGHT! I caught one and it started squealing and uncle AL looked to see what was happening to make the piglet squeal. He saw something that I didn't, the momma pig. I am talking a huge eight or nine hundred pound pig running full forces at me. Uncle Al yelled at me to get out of there and oh boy, did I drop that pig when I saw momma pig coming. I never did that again. Uncle All told that a pig has to knock you down to bite you and I only weight twenty-five or thirty pounds so take a guess who would have won that battle. I know that this was gonna be about my kin and not what I did when I went to Michigan but the stories I am telling now lead up to another family dispute . . .
The Dailey's:
My grandpa was William Dailey. The Dailey family migrated from North Carolina to Tennessee where he married Nellie Pearl Marrs. There was Frank Marrs who was a cousin to daddy. I can't remember the first names of daddy's other two cousins I never meet them but their last name was DePreist 's. We had a family reunion once at a little park down in Lobeville on the Duck River. All the cousins and aunts, uncles and such was there. I was very young about six I think. I went exploring and found a baby rattle snake I was so proud I ran to where daddy was holding it by the tail. My daddy knocked it out of my hand and stomp it. I screamed why did you do that, balling. He knew that the bite of a baby rattle snake is as deadly as a grown one. It didn't scare me I went right away and tried to find another snake. I thought if there is one, there has to be more than one. We ate and played all kind of games. We never did that again now everybody is gone except me, Lee Ann and some of the cousin are alive. Aunt Joe is up in her eighty's and we are all old. I think we waited too long . . .
Aunt Edna Chester lived in town in the house that my grandma lived in. That was because when daddy went into the Navy she took care of grandma for him when she got sick. So when grandma died ( form cancer of the uterus) in I think it was 1942 or 1943 he signed it over to her. There was a little restaurant in town and one of my daddy's cousins ran it. I can’t remember her first name, but her last name was Coble. She had a boy named Harry he was named after my daddy. He was about the same age as Lee Ann. Because she was not really his cousin, they had a crush on each other. She and I would run down to the restaurant and see who could get there first and she always beat me. I had a crush on him too. Cousins or not you know kissing cousins lots of that down south, I am kidding of course. One time I remember Harry had shot a raccoon and didn't know she had babies. He took them and hand raised them and so they were tame. WOW I loved that. Harry's mom would always fix us a hamburger or something to eat and whether we were hungry or not, they would not take no for an answer. She did make the best malted milk shakes. I wish I had one now . . .
We went there a lot when I was very young and then it kinda slacked off. We would always go to see uncle Kermit Chester, and he was the barber in Lobeville. He was married to daddy's first cousin aunt Edna and they had two girls also. They were Peggy and Neil Dean. Peggy's husband was Ronnie Reese (he will come up later in my story) There was another first cousin aunt Betty, she was married to uncle D.D. Hester. They had two children both boys, David and Steve. Genie Hester was a cousin of theirs Genie's dad was uncle D.D's brother (really not kin to me but I like him and I adopted him as a cousin). They were my favorite cousins because they lived out in the country on a farm. When we went there, I was let run loose again of course the two cousins were with me. I thought that I was a wild cat, not compared to them. I am nothing, but both of them were all boys. They didn't like it much when their daddy would say to entertain me. We would do things like swim in the Duck River that run through their property and collect little lizards and tadpoles from the creek and well anything they thought that I wouldn't want to do. They found out that I was a tomboy and liked doing things like that. They learned not to challenge me cause there wasn't much I wouldn't do when it came to being outside . . .
There were some very old kin folk that I didn't spend too much time with. They were entirely too southern for me. Aunt Carrie is one she was married to uncle Sweet. Not a nicer man in the world, but she made him live in a shed on the back of their property. She was a die hard, middle of the bible belt, southern Christian and he drank and smoked a little and she condemned him to fire and brimstone. When I say shed, you can take my word for it, It was ten feet by ten feet shed up off the ground with brick-o-blocks. There were no windows and brick-o-blocks as stairs up to the door, to me that was kind of sick HUH? Most of all those folk are my kin by way of grandma Dailey . . .
Uncle Leon worked hard for all he wanted not like our family. Daddy always had to struggle to get what was necessary more or less what we wanted. Uncle Leon started from the same place my daddy did but for some reason he prospered and daddy didn't until later in his life. He was a pipe liner just like daddy and he traveled just like we did. He married into money momma always said. Uncle Leon's mother-in-law was a nice lady and country. She would say "DA--- Lordy" it made me laugh and she was very nice to me and Lee Ann. She always wanted momma to play the accordion for her. Josephine ( aunt Joe ) was a carbon copy of her except she had an education. Aunt Joe was always dressed to the hilt and wore very expensive cloths like Agner and Caster Knot brand. She was a really down to earth person though, she always welcomed us when we came. She always had a new car and well she was high class. They had two girls, Denice and Angela. They were a little bit younger than I was. They had all kinds of toys and I use to wish I had all the toys they had. They lived in a large three story house. Each girl had their own room. Lee Ann and I had to bunk together in our sixty by ten-trailer and our whole room was only ten feet wide and about fifteen feet long. I guess you could say I was jealous. If you think I was you should have seen mommy. She was always throwing uncle Leon up to daddy and he would just sit and listen . . .
When uncle Leon retired, he suffered like a lot of people do, too much time on his hands. When he retired, he was a stay at home husband. That took lots of patience. Old habits are hard to stop even if you are a Christian. Uncle Leon later in his life ran for town mayor of Linden and won. He had always been on the road with his job. He was an inspector for a Pennsylvania pipe line that was being built and it was all in the news where there was an explosion in the open ditch and he stepped out of the ditch just in time to be clear of the blast but was burnt badly in the back of his body. His hair was burnt off and like to have died. I am going back to him being gone all the time. You know aunt Joe practicality raise two daughters by herself. He was on the road all the time . . .
Like all families there were the people that were the upper class and the black sheep. I guess that I came in the black sheep side. I am somewhat the reason for our distance from uncle Leon and aunt Joe. They stopped inviting us to their house like they use to. I was about six or seven and caused a tragic event to happen between myself and my cousin Denice. I think that I was again mimicking something I had experience in my life. I know that uncle Leon never called me Debbie Nooner ( that was his nick name for me ) again. We stopped going there shortly after that event. I am not ready to tell about the event now. Maybe in my NEXT book I'll tell you about it . . .
Uncle Leon always made it hard for daddy to live up too. He was a deacon in the church and had his own company D.& D. Construction. He had a partner and somewhere down the line his partner ran off with all the capital of the company. Too bad he didn't have daddy as a partner cause daddy was as honest as anybody I ever knew. Any way momma grew to hate uncle Leon cause she believed that he always acted like he was better than daddy. When the two DePriest cousins died, they left daddy $1000.00 and they left uncle Leon $5000.00 and that was because uncle Leon was a church going man and Daddy wasn't. Go figure. My daddy was a great man. He didn't have to go to church to be what he was. Down in the smaller towns in the south whether or not you go to church are what makes the man. Well I know for a fact that uncle Leon and aunt Joe changed their minds about my daddy's worth when they attended my daddy's funeral in 1996 . . .
When it came to my momma and daddy, they were the ones that worked hard to get there what they had. Nothing was ever given to them. If there is one good thing I can say about momma and daddy it is that they worked long hours and worked with the general public and that within its self is hard work. When Uncle Leon and aunt Joe came to daddy's funeral they were very impressed by the sites they saw. There were six pallbearers, all policeman in full uniform. He had eight young girls with flowers that walked behind the casket. They were all girls that loved my momma and daddy and called him papa Jaco. He had a five-car police escort. There were about seventy-five people that showed up at the funeral home and forty at the grave site. Daddy had more friends than any other person I knew. He was loved dearly by everyone. If there were people that may not have loved him, they always liked him and respected him . . .
Uncle Leon and aunt Joe were Republicans all the way. They campaigned all the time and really they were some die hard Frank Clement followers and went to all the campaign dinners and such. Well when daddy died there was a man there named Jim Hunt. He was a good friend of daddy's. He also was a Republicans. He was approached by aunt Joe and she asks him "did I meet you somewhere I feel like I know you." So they talked for a while and she found out that one of daddy's best friends was a big contributor to the Republican Party. She had met him at a dinner for Governor Clement. She was so impressed. What she didn't know was that he was my daddy's insurance man and had a multimillion dollar business. I am telling you this because when uncle Leon let our trailer be repossessed when daddy had to take bankruptcy, My momma got drunk and swore to both uncle Leon and daddy that both momma and daddy would have diamonds on and a Cadillac before they died and so they did. They also had a home that they owned and as much friendship as any two people I have known in my life. We had lost contact with the Dailey family, I'll tell you later why, onto more of the family . . .
The next chapter is about the horrible events in school for me at Hartsville. So don't go anywhere believe you me that it is a weird tale about a crazy little girl who grew up to be just as crazy as an adult . . .
When it came to my momma and daddy, they were the ones that worked hard to get there what they had. Nothing was ever given to them. If there is one good thing I can say about momma and daddy it is that they worked long hours and worked with the general public and that within its self is hard work. When Uncle Leon and aunt Joe came to daddy's funeral they were very impressed by the sites they saw. There were six pallbearers, all policeman in full uniform. He had eight young girls with flowers that walked behind the casket. They were all girls that loved my momma and daddy and called him papa Jaco. He had a five-car police escort. There were about seventy-five people that showed up at the funeral home and forty at the grave site. Daddy had more friends than any other person I knew. He was loved dearly by everyone. If there were people that may not have loved him, they always liked him and respected him . . .
Uncle Leon and aunt Joe were Republicans all the way. They campaigned all the time and really they were some die hard Frank Clement followers and went to all the campaign dinners and such. Well when daddy died there was a man there named Jim Hunt. He was a good friend of daddy's. He also was a Republicans. He was approached by aunt Joe and she asks him "did I meet you somewhere I feel like I know you." So they talked for a while and she found out that one of daddy's best friends was a big contributor to the Republican Party. She had met him at a dinner for Governor Clement. She was so impressed. What she didn't know was that he was my daddy's insurance man and had a multimillion dollar business. I am telling you this because when uncle Leon let our trailer be repossessed when daddy had to take bankruptcy, My momma got drunk and swore to both uncle Leon and daddy that both momma and daddy would have diamonds on and a Cadillac before they died and so they did. They also had a home that they owned and as much friendship as any two people I have known in my life. We had lost contact with the Dailey family, I'll tell you later why, onto more of the family . . .
The next chapter is about the horrible events in school for me at Hartsville. So don't go anywhere believe you me that it is a weird tale about a crazy little girl who grew up to be just as crazy as an adult . . .