| In the mid 1950's, Alta (Neely) Moody and her family along with her sister Sara, decided to visit McCrory, Arkansas after being away for forty years. The following excerpt is from a letter to a family friend ("Miss Bessie), and contains Alta's description of that trip. | ||
| ...When we got up Monday morning Sara
said, "You know something I've wanted to do for a long time? Go back to McCrory
and see our old home place." I told her I had wanted to do the same thing but
supposed I never would and yet I had a little feeling of uncertainty as to
whether I really and truly wanted to go and see the changes -- that perhaps I
would be happier to remember it as I left it. She agreed that she felt the same
way and had expressed herself in that way when her husband would suggest taking
her back on a Sunday when they could both get away. "Let's don't go," I said.
"I don't want to see my home place changed and my
Grandmother's house
any way but the way it was when I had such happy times there." "Alright, let's
don't," Sara agreed. "Shall we go to Hot Springs today?" Well, we tossed the
thing around and around and decided to take a chance on the old home town. By
then it was ten o'clock. Had we decided the night before we would have been on
our way bright and early. As you can well imagine we just talked and talked
until we were blue in the face. No wonder George went through a red blinking
light (thought it was a caution signal) and the cop came after us (in Little
Rock...I felt so sorry for George...good old George). Well, he (cop) told us to
go on and see Central High and the Capitol where we had started and then come
by the Police Station on our way out. He retained George's driver's license.
Well, our spirits were somewhat dampened. When we were parallel parking on the
Capitol grounds who should be circling around but the same officer. To make a
long story short (if it's not too late) old Alta put in her two cents worth as
the other group went on...leaving me with the officer...we had a little chat
and then I ran and caught up with the group and handed my Honey his driver's
license with this message, "The officer said to tell you to go on and enjoy
your tour of the Capitol and to be sure to see the color slides that are being
shown." We were happy once again. When we reached Jelks or Patterson as it is
now known...three miles from McCrory, Sara inquired if my father's half brother
were still living. We learning that he passed away fifteen years ago but that a
step brother still lived there so we saw him. We went on to McCrory and down
the Main Street to Best's Drug store where our dear good friend Mr. Porter Best
still ran his business and his daughter, Myrtle Rose, whom we left as a mere
tag of a child was working there...but I wouldn't have known her...as old as I
and white hair. We gave Mr. Porter a hug and asked him if he knew who we were
(of course we had changed more than he). See, we left there with white straight
hair, Buster Brown style with huge ribbons on it. I'm sure the dear man was
interested in knowing who the two women were who were embracing him before his
daughter. He couldn't guess then we began giving him hints regarding the size
of the family...how long ago we had lived there etc., then he asked "Well,
where did you live?" When we answered, "In the house you live in now," of
course he immediately said, "The Neely girls. Bill Neely's girls, of course."
Miss Bessie, he was moved by it all as were we. It brought back to his mind a
time when many who meant much to him were still there. I began popping
questions to him so fast..." Were the poplar trees still there?" Sara asked,
"Is the mulberry tree I use to climb there?" Well, he suggested he take us to
see, so he asked Myrtle Rose if she thought she could handle the store long
enough for him to take us out to the house. I know he felt he couldn't stay
long for he was the only one who could fill prescriptions (He has had the drug
store forty four years and has been off only four days in all that time). Away
we went with a certain amount of apprehension in my mind and heart, I might
add, but the minute we came in sight of the homeplace a peace and feeling of
satisfaction with what I found stole over me. It was alright that we had gone
back to the scenes of my childhood. How happy I was that I was not
disappointed. It was as I had told Jan about many times. There was the walk up
to the porch where our neighbor had come and caught her daughter and Sara
putting diapers on me on the front porch as they were playing house and I was
their little baby (although I wasn't a baby). The porch where I had sat in my
little rocking chair and rocked the beautiful China Doll which I had sneaked
out of the dresser drawer...it belonged to Sara and we only looked at it in the
drawer. It was too lovely for every day play...but I took a chance and was
caught naked as a jay bird rocking and singing to the most beautiful doll in
the world. That was the porch from which we stood and watched the blood hounds
go by attempting to track down a bank robber or robbers...how terrifying that
was to me. That was the porch that Thorpe Hamilton (who was a friend of
Winston's and with whom we visited later) usually missed as he tossed "The
Arkansas Democrat" on his paper route so very early in the morning. The
Presiding Elder had walked that path and over our threshold many a time as he
made his rounds...he usually stayed with The Neelys when in town...we heard him
brag on Sister Neely's angel food cake and home mad ice cream or, "Bro. Neely,
it seems like your watermelons get bigger and juicier every year." His name was
"Bro. Shands." The name was so appropriate. He had white hair and a white beard
and slept on the sofa that unfolded in the Parlor...we had no spare bedroom but
that was a nice room and it stayed that way because we only went in there when
we had company and it seemed we always had a preacher in the house. The Sweet
Alyssum (is that spelled correctly?) was, of course, no longer outlining the
walk to the house. I missed it but that was to be expected. The yard was cool
and pretty the yard where we children use to pull weeds when were small and
were told by Mother to put them in piles of one hundred to a pile and we would
get a penny for each pile we had. Mother was a trusting soul...you know she
never did count those weeds. Ha! "Jan," I exclaimed, right here by the dining
room window is where that funny picture was mad by the photographer who knocked
on the door one day and asked our Mother if she would like to have our pictures
made. "Why, yes, if you could just give me a few minutes to get the girls
cleaned up." (Winston wasn't there.) He waited while Mother polished our high
top buttoned shoes, smoothed every wrinkle out of our long hose, or were the
wrinkles in the long underwear...well, I've forgotten. Did I say every wrinkle?
Well, almost every wrinkle...I do want this story to be told quite straight or
my Mother who was known to never shade the truth might turn over in her grave.
Our long waisted plaid gingham dresses, so beautifully smocked by our talented
Aunt Naomi, were as fresh and crisp as
could be and oh, the ribbons in our hair were so big and fastened securely with
a beret. We were told to stand right by the dining room window for the light
was best there and the man "stuck" his head in that black cloth, we grinned for
all we were worth and now as I look at the outcome of all that effort I wonder
if it was worth it. It seems we are all feet and grin. I guess it was of some
good ---my child has nearly split her ribs looking at that picture of so long
ago. So, just for the heck of it I suggested that Sara and I stand in the same
spot and have our pictures made again...the process was somewhat different,
colored film, a mere click of the camera, a touch of lipstick beforehand hoping
it might help, almost dislocating a vertebrae so that our "bowing" shoulders
would not be so prominent. We haven't had the film developed yet but I'm sure
I'll again wonder (more than ever) if it was worth the effort. My, we haven't
left the front yard yet but I must mention that it was there we saw our first
aeroplane. School had been dismissed because an aeroplane was going to fly over
the town that afternoon...the exact time was unknown so we just stayed out in
the yard and waited and stretched our necks for so long that I've always
believed that is why the three of us have such long necks. Who knows? It might
be. But I can assure you that was worth the effort. We finally saw the
aeroplane What a work of man it was. My! It was wonderful. The next day a
school that is all we could talk about. We went around to the back yard. How
cool, restful and inviting. Yes, there was the Mulberry Tree Sara was so
concerned about and on the other side of the yard the tree I often climbed into
but could never get out of. I've often wondered why Mother didn't just leave me
up there and let the birds have me but do you know she always came and helped
me get down? "Where is the spot that Henry Ann had her fit?" Jan was anxious to
learn. "Right about here," I showed her. Henry Ann was a friend of Millie who
lived in our back yard in the servant's house with her husband Clarkey Pickens
and their daughter Reefie, and Henry Ann had come to see Millie on hot summer
afternoon and fell flat on her face in the back yard. Mother came running and
seeing blood streaming from her mouth was sure she had knocked some teeth loose
and reached in her mouth and took out the loose teeth...called the doctor and
they moved her into Millie's house. When she came to, Dr. Brewster asked Henry
Ann what she had eaten for dinner that day and Henry Ann answered, "Not much,
not much, I jest went to de store and got me a pound of cheese and some
crackers and et it and thats all Doctor, hones' that's all." Well, she lived
yes to a very ripe old age. I was a little disappointed that the servants house
was not there...instead a two car carport...the smoke house was also gone but I
could understand. There was just a stump of the tree left under which we buried
Old Shep and had a funeral and later planted violets on his grave. I'm glad
they didn't pull up the old stump for I didn't want his resting place
distuurbed. He was such a beautiful, sweet old Collie who would never harm
anyone...oh, he howled miserably when a train went through the town whistling a
sad note...yes, Old Shep always chimed in. No one ever complained about it and
that's why I've always wondered why Shep came home one day with bullet holes in
his body and went under the house and died and we cried until it seemed our
hearts would break -- there was nothing more we could do but give him a grand
funeral and we did just that. I don't believe I'm a good enough Christian to
ever have forgiven the person who did that any more than I'm able to forgive my
brother for burying my rag doll one day when he was in the mood to preach a
funeral sermon...why should my precious old rag doll have been the victim of
his urges and talent at preaching, orator what have you? Well, of course I
could reclaim my dear rag doll but Dog Heaven had already claimed Old Shep.
There were the back steps too where my father had cut many a watermelon which
he had cooled all day in a trough or tub of water and changed the water many
times...we had watermelons...the kind that would almost snap or pop open as
soon as the knife was stuck into them. We always ate them under the shade of
the trees. Those were the steps where I sat and stuck my legs through, and
pretended that the top step was a piano and would play tune after tune, running
my fingers up and down the "keyboard" with quite a flair...so I'm told...I
remember it well myself. Oh, yes, I failed to mention that from the front yard
on day I saw a piano being delivered to the home of my very best friend, Jeffie
Mitchell, a neighbor, and I thought she was the luckiest girl in the world and
I thought, "How rich they must be." But in later years when we owned a piano
(bought especially for me) somehow I didn't have the feeling of being rich. I
wonder why. Oh, dear, I know I am wearing you. I haven't even gotten out of the yard yet (ha!) I shall hasten form now on I promise you. Naturally the interior of the house seemed less like my home than the exterior due to the furnishings and individual tastes and the lapse of time has brought many changes in home furnishings but save for a room made larger and a partition or two it seemed very much like home. My Mother and Father had built the house and had planted every tree just where they wanted it. I could show Jan right where the dining room table set and recalled at one time when Mother was ill friends had brought in food and when I came home from school and told there were two nice, big cakes on the dining room table and that I might have some my feet couldn't carry me through the house fast enough. Upon slicing one of the cakes (my, they were high and beautiful with their mounds of white frosting) I, in biting into it detected lemon flavoring, which until this day I disliked...that was bad but there was still the other cake...let the rest of the family and Clarkey and Millie and Reefie eat that one...I was the baby and probably use to a little spoiling so into cake number two I plunged the knife and took a hugh bite only to find that it too had lemon flavoring. Oh, well, those dear Methodist Sisters meant well...at least it wasn't rum. I told Jan that in that dining room at our table when Mother set the table (a chore that was usually the girls) we always observed she had an extra place set and when she was questioned about it she would say, "That place is for Jesus." We had good manners in that dining room. I can recall Sara asking me to pass her something that I wouldn't do it because she wouldn't say "Please." So, the longer I kept refusing the more stubborn she became about saying "Please" to me so she not only did not get the food but she had to leave the table. I showed Jan Sara's and my bedroom..."So small" said Jan. True, but we didn't play in our bedroom just slept there and it had had an interesting juvenile paper on the walls. `Twas in that room I went to bed with a tooth so loose it was barely hanging and Mother begged me to let her pull it before she went to Prayer Meeting. I promised her I would let her when she return hoping it might have dropped out by that time. You know I fell asleep and we have never seen that tooth since. Wonder what happened to it? It was from that room that Sara came running and crying at midnight...going to the side of my Mother's bed in the adjacent room...My! she was upset. You see Mother had promised to take us to Memphis to the Zoo if we brushed our teeth every night before we went to bed for a certain number of weeks...Sara had forgotten to brush her teeth that night. What a catastrophe! Mother told her if she would brush them then she would not count it against her. Wouldn't it have been awful to have left Sara behind when we boarded the train for Memphis? Then I showed Jan where we had Xmas. The tree trimmed with pop corn and cranberries and paper chains but it was wonderful! We always had apples in our socks and nuts and even bananas at Christmas time. The gift that stands out the most in my memory was the silver Junior size knife and fork with Buster Brown and his dog embossed on them...they were in a little box with white lining and `twas the most wonderful gift Santa Claus ever left a child. I guess. I promised to hurry on and I shall. The only place we failed to see was the attic and we forgot it at the time and did not think of it until we were talking later to Hazel Jeffries (a neighbor, who was Sara's age and who still lives on the old family place as do her brother and sister), mentioned the fun she use to have in our attic. But we are told the attic is exactly as it was and I am glad because I know it is a happy old place with its memory of fun and much merriment...the old trunk and the dress up clothes...the rocking horse we outgrew seem to me to be still there. Maybe it's just as well we didn't go to the Attic I might have been disappointed that they weren't there. We snapped some more pictures and went on our way showing Jan exactly the way we walked to school...the mulberry tree along the way where we would stop and eat a few berries...the manolia tree so beautiful and fragrant...Riggs' garage where I would stop on the way from school and get a piece of tar from the big tar drum or can and chew it with much delight...then on to the brick school which is still there...we peeked inside...of course there are annexes and other buildings but the original building remains where in one room some boys had it all planned that they would turn loose a bat in the classroom and Winston's job, as everyone was scampering about to get the bat out, was to knock down the stovepipe, filling the room with smoke so they could get out of school. The plot worked. My Grandmother's precious little cottage was right across from the school grounds and we had the privilege of going all through it and over the yard. The smoke house is still there unpainted as it was then. Although, of course, no longer in use was the Johnny and as I told you I brought the pump home with me. What I will do with it I don't know be thank Heaven I have it. We met people on the street whom we recognized but of course could not recognize us...we had changed more but when we said we lived the last house on the left hand side of the street across the railroad they immediately said, "The Neely place You're the Neely girls...you're Sara and you're Alta." As Geo. and Jan said The Neely Girls took over the town for a day. There was a whole group of us standing right on the street just talking up a storm...one of them was former State Senator Walter Raney...We said, "Mr. Raney do you realize its been nearly 40 yrs since we left here?" He said to me, "What did they do take you away in diapers?" I hugged his neck and told him I loved him for that so one of the other family friends standing in the group said something complimentary so I told him that Mr. Raney was going to take me out dancing that night what about him and he said, "When he get through I'm ready. He won't last long." Oh, yes, when Walter Raney (the former State Senator) asked if they took me away in diapers...George said you can tell he's a politician. Well, it went on and on. Mr. Porter Best took us out to eat...his sister sat with us although she had eaten...Dorothy Hamilton, sister of the boy who threw our paper (and whom we saw) "ran us down" after hearing we were in town and came and sat with us while we ate. We were in the home of the wife of our Doctor (he is dead) and she served us. We went to the home of my Grandmother's Cousin...Cousin Molly Miller...the most charming person...in her eighties, witty and sharp as can be...a cut comeback for everything we said...nice home, television and all. She was so pleased we came. Visited with Mr. McCrory, for whom the town is named. Had a nice visit with my Grandmother's neighbor living in same place. We into the new bank where one of the boys my brother's age is President of the Bank...he had Ruth Files, with whom we went to school, to show us through and all of us had Coffee and cookies back in the lounge. But I enjoyed as much as anything going to Clarkey Picken's house and finding him sitting on the front porch early in the morning. My father brought Clarkey to McCrory and as I told you he lived right on our place. He is well cared for. I made sure of that before I left. I know you think I have been detailed but if you only knew what I left out. I write this only to you. I know Mrs. A. L. is too grieved to even concentrate on such and would not be the least interested. Well, we left the home town even happier than when we came...Changes in the town yes, but only for the better...morals of the young people exceptionally high, no racial difficulties, people secure and the big thrill for us to have been away for forty years and as George and Jan said to have taken over the town...people just fell on their faces, went out of their way to be nice and greeted us so enthusiastically. It could have been so different after that length of time... |
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This page created on 05/21/2003 22:21.