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My father was Samuel Robert Isbell and he was born in 1888, His parents
were Robert Isbell and Mary Susan Westbrook Isbell. His brothers were
John, George, and Jim Isbell.
Samuel Robert Isbell married Edith Louvine Norman, whose parents were
Moses Norman and Sarah Athalee Phillips Norman. Mother had one brother
Ottie Norman, who was a twin and four sisters. Lottie, Otties twin
sister, Elfa, Etta Pearl, and Edna.
I was born in 1925 and my little sister Billie Wayne Isbell was
born in
1927. We lost our father in 1928 and our mother in 1973. On Jan. 17,
1981 I lost my little sister. On December 18, 1978 I lost Sarah Fay,
my
daugher. In 1975 we lost our stepfather Samuel U. Trousdale.
When I was a small child I remember the little 2 or 3 room shotgun
houses the tenants who cultivated our farm lived in. Back then there
was
no electricity, gas, or running water. We had coal oil or kerosene
lamps, wood cook stove or kerosene, and well water. Since there were
no
tractors it took one person for each ten acres to plow with a mule.
Most if our food was grown in the garden and canned for the winter.
Hogs
and cattle were raised to butcher. We milked the cows for milk.Winters
were colder then, and we put our hogs in the smokehouse to cure out.
We rendered our own lard from the fat and skins of the hogs.
Christmas was the only time we had fruit, like apples, oranges, and
bananas, also pretty ribbon candy.
Dolls weren't as fancy back then. If your doll happened to get rained
on
then it was goodbye dolly, as it's face would wash off. Once I forgot
dolly and left her outside it came a hard rain and when I went to fetch
her, her face had slipped off.
Since t.v. wasn't invented back then we listened to a battery operated
radio with headset and a wind up victrola. My father bought one of
the
first radio and victrola combinations in Red River County, Texas. People
came from miles around to see and hear it.
My father bought he and my mother matching model T.'s ( actually I think
someone said they were model A's????) He had his a short while
when he
drove it to town and it mysteriously dissappeared. Cars were scarce
as
hen's teeth back then, but they never found his car.
Once mother went to town and bought a waterbury mantle clock. My dad
had
a fit about her buying an old cheap clock, but to this day it still
runs
when wound, and it must be at least 60 years old. ( I Marian Brown,
have
this clock and it is still running in the year 2000).
Oh! Yes! Wash day was once a week. A fire was built under the big black
washpot in the yeard, to which homemade lye soap was added to the
boiling water. I always marveled how clothes could come out of that
black washpot so pretty and white. Everyone had tubs ( galvanized)
and a
rub-board beside the wash pot.
Ironing day was also a big chore, as there was no wash and wear clothes.
Everything was starched and ironed with flat irons that were heated
on
the stove. As one cooled you replaced it with another one you had heated
on the cook stove.
To curl your hair there was a curling iron you heated over a kerosene
lamp. Granny made us some curlers out of tin cans cut in strips, then
wrapped in cloth.
A bell clanging meant the Peddlar was on his way, in his horse drawn
wagon. His supplies were pots,pans, needles, thread, candy, and odds
and
ends. You could trade eggs and chickens for what you needed if you
were
short on money.
Before we had electricity we had an ice man who delivered blocks of
ice,
in a horse drawn wagon. Our ice box was just that, a box for holding
ice. The ice went in the top and the food stuff below.
Later we had milk delivered door to door in a horse drawn milk wagon.
