THE RON YEARS

THE RON YEARS

I used to joke with my sisters that my next man was going to be a Harley man with tattoos. I think I sealed my future with that comment. Ron fit that description. I first met him at church. He would bring his wife in in a wheelchair and take care of her and I was impressed at that. I thought he was this grandfatherly laid-back guy that was always at church every Sunday. Not so. 

His wife died and he and I began dating. We never married but we dated for six years. As is turns out, he was one of the founding members of the Outlaw motorcycle gang in Chicago. He was a beer-drinking, pot-smoking mess. He left Chicago when the Outlaws got involved in gunfights and a bullet narrowly missed his head. He eventually ended up in Texas. He got a job as a welder making decent money but still liked his beer and pot. 

God got his attention when he started having portions of his colon removed until his whole colon was removed. The hospital chaplain came into his room one day and asked if he could pray with him. Ron said "Yow, if it makes you feel better." So the chaplain began to pray and Ron said something came over him and when the chaplain quit praying, he felt cleansed. He was ready to give up drinking, pot smoking and smoking in general. People were in awe of how much he changed and they were dumbfounded when he spoke about Jesus. This was not the guy they were used to.

People were still in awe of Ron just because of who he used to be. He had a winning smile and personality, a quick wit, and he never lost his swagger. He attracted women like flies to food. And he had a beautiful head of white hair, a masterpiece. It could blow in the wind when he rode his motorcycle and go right back into place. He still had muscles in his shoulders and chest until his dying days.

There were some good times with Ron and some not-so-good times, such as when he had two motorcycle accidents and then was diagnosed with cancer. In the first accident Ron was riding around town on his "bike" after a CMA (Christian Motorcycle Assn.) meeting. It was one of the first warm nights of spring and he was enjoying it. He got as far as Long John Silver's and a truck turned in front of him. It was totally unexpected. Ron held onto his bike so that he didn't go flying through the air and into the truck. But he fractured his knee when he went down. He had 8 weeks of recuperation and I was his caretaker and driver.

About two or three years later he was in another accident near Maryville. He caught the edge of a curb at an odd-shaped intersection. He and his bike went catapulting separately end over end. He had a big gash above his eye, a broken neck and a bad case of road rash on his right arm. They stitched up his eye and did a CT scan to see if any other damage was done. That's when they discovered his neck was fractured. He had to wear a collar for six weeks. They also discovered that he had cancer in his pancreas. He refused treatment for it no matter how much I or the doctors begged. 

He lived 2 1/2 more years without treatment. I was his caretaker through the broken neck healing process also. He was able to do most everything until his last few months, then taking care of him was extremely difficult because I was showing signs of Rheumatoid Arthritis myself and was unable to do things for him such as lift him. Fortunately his sister lived down the road and she was able to lift him. He lived with his disabled sister. She could do nothing except make a phone call but I was glad she was there to do that. He was not a good patient because he was stubborn and had no patience. But I would be too if I were in his shoes and probably worse. He thought I ought to be with him every minute but I just couldn't. We were usually together from noon on. I had to shorten the evening time also, but that was before the bike accidents.

We went dancing Friday and Saturday evening every weekend. I never listened to country music before but learned to like some of it and I also learned to like line dancing. I was good at it until I realized my flexibility and balance were messed up. That was the RA causing it but I hadn't been diagnosed yet. My right hip hurt when I side-stepped such as with the two-step. I couldn't finish a dance. But it was fun while it lasted. Ron and I would glide across the floor and all of the ladies wanted to dance with him. They only got the chance when he and I broke up and we did that fairly often.

Ron, his sister, her man friend, and I went to hear the Headhunters in concert in Benton. They were really good. The singers took a breather and let the drummer go and he played a song the tempo of Wipe Out and he went on and on and on. He should have been exhausted. We were exhausted listening to him. Then Ron leaned over and said, "The only way they're going to get him to stop is to shoot him." He had such a hilarious way of saying things in his rural accent, partly from living in Texas 25 years or so. He was in pain from his cancer but hadn't lost his wit.

Another thing that happened that cracked me up happened at Aldi's. We were in the first aisle, him on one side looking at things and me on the other side. A fairly distinguished man came in and I thought nothing of it, but when he passed Ron (I still had my back turned), he said, "Would you hand me that, Honey?" I wondered why Ron didn't sock him in the nose or give him a tongue lashing. I turned around and Ron was picking up a jar of honey off of the shelf to give to him.

I would sometimes get an upset stomach when we went to dances so I put some baking soda in little clear zipper packets. He put them in his Harley bag made of fabric along with other things we might need. He came to my house one day and said some juveniles had stolen things out of his bag while his bike was parked outside. I was upset too until I remembered the packets. He said they stole those too. They probably thought they were getting cocaine. We could picture the juveniles somewhere sniffing baking soda.

Ron wasn't perfect but he did bring me out of my shell for six years and gave me a more active life. He thought the world of me and he would tell me I have no idea how beautiful I am. Every woman wants to hear that. It could be that he knew how to play his cards well, but I'll take it. That's the one time you can lie to me and I'm OK with it.

MY PLUNGE INTO POVERTY

MY PLUNGE INTO POVERTY

After losing my job at Central Christian Church I was unable to find another job. So I started selling on ebay. I did pretty well for a few years until the economy crashed. Then people started hanging onto their money for fear of the unknown. I don't know how I made it through those years except by the grace of God and help from family members. I won't mention names because they are trying to follow the Bible passage "do not let the left hand know what the right hand is doing." Or maybe it's just me that is considering that verse. I don't think so. I will say that I have wonderful siblings, wonderful kids, and wonderful extended family members.

It has still been a struggle. I went from $21,400 a year to $800 a month guaranteed income. I swore all of my life I would never go on public aid just as Mom and Dad swore. But here I am at the lowest point financially other than being homeless. I've had to swallow my pride and pride is a hard pill to swallow. I do get $189 a month for food and I have Medicare and Medicaid. I get help from Ameren through the PIPP program. I found out that through the weatherization program I could get a new water heater, furnace, A/C unit, and refrigerator, which I did. I got all new LED light bulbs and smoke detectors and a few replacement filters for the furnace. So that took a lot of worry off of me -- and my kids. Less than 10 years ago I applied for a grant to get a new roof and was accepted. I needed one badly.

I have no shame in getting my clothes and dishes from thrift shops. I consider myself resourceful. I would rather have all new clothes but it's no biggie. I do feel some shame using my LINK or EBT card for food. I know how people gripe about us poor people taking money out of the pockets of taxpayers. I'm afraid the person or persons behind me in line at a store will start griping about my using a LINK card. I try to correct people on facebook who are griping about the poor, all inclusive, and let them know it is the lazy poor who are taking money out of their pockets, not the truly needy. Christians should understand that better than non-Christians.

Maybe God wants me in this position so I can defend the poor. I have always had a heart for the poor because we grew up poor, at least to a certain age. I was in high school before I started feeling as if we were no longer poor. We didn't have extras but we were getting by a lot easier. Jamie is the only one that was able to get braces.

The Overturf family was poor financially in the early years but we were rich in family members. Ours was the "go to" house for our friends. We always had help, someone to encourage me, someone to weep with me, and someone to celebrate with me -- and the twins and Sharon to beat up anyone that messed with me. We siblings fought like cats and dogs with each other at times, but nobody better mess with anyone in the family. 

Music was a big part of our lives. Mom played the piano by ear and could sing and harmonize. Carolyn sang soprano and Marilyn did the harmony. Or we would just dance to rock 'n roll music. There was never a dull moment in our house. We were among the richest families. And we still are.

ST. LOUIS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE YEARS

ST. LOUIS CHRISTIAN COLLEGE YEARS

When I separated from John for two years I moved to Irvington, just two blocks from Little John and Peg. I was working for a dentist in Nashville at the time. When the divorce was finalized I bought a house in Mt. Vernon. I wasn't there very long before I decided to go to St. Louis Christian College for various reasons. In hindsight, I think I should have done something different. I regret the time I had to spend away from my kids and grandkids. But I only had a high school education and needed something more. I could get an A.A. Degree in General Studies with an emphasis on the Bible at SLCC, which I did. I had a 4.85 grade average. I found out later it was worthless when transferring to a secular college. 

I went to Rend Lake College before I went to SLCC to see about becoming a student there. The guidance counselor suggested I go to the city. She said they couldn't help me anymore than what I already knew. I thought that was so odd because she was supposed to be recruiting students, not directing them somewhere else. I began thinking about how I always wanted to go to SLCC and I could heal there without putting up with the liberal ideas I would have encountered at Rend Lake College.

I got settled in at SLCC and then made a trip to the library. There behind the desk was Phil Orr. He and I had gone to the same church in Nashville. He was a great guy. He was 6'4" and as thin as a toothpick, but he had Lupus. While at SLCC I went with him to a high school play as friends. He and my Mexican friend, Irma, and I went to the Muny several times and sat in the cheap seats. It was nice that he was there, although he wasn't there the last year that I was there. He was killed in a car accident a couple of years ago. He was a big loss to the Christian community.

During the first semester I asked the Dean of Student Affairs if she would consider me for Dorm Mom. I was thinking about the second dorm with no Mom. There were two girls' dorms. Months later the one Dorm Mom left and I was asked to take her place. I was over both dorms. I can't say being a Dorm Mom was a pleasant experience. It was so different than what I expected. So many of the kids that were there were more or less juveniles and their parents sent them to SLCC to get them straightened out. They went places they shouldn't. Two girls even went to a gay bar. One of them was the child of missionaries in Japan. There were thefts in the dorm and girls would steal other girls' food from the refrigerator. A couple of them were smart-alecks. Two girls got pregnant. Many of them were slobs. But there were some good ones too.

We had a security guard for the girls' dorms. He would sit in his van and watch to make sure the girls got in safely and on curfew. I passed him walking one day when we were on a break and no one was around. I noticed he had a video in his hand with a pornographic label on it. I chewed him out and he insisted it was a cult classic or something like that. I later went to the Dean of Student Affairs and told her what had happened. Evidently he had gotten to her first and told her it was a cult classic. She believed him and not me.

But one day he fainted on the lawn of the boys' dorm. The ambulance had to take him to the  hospital and a substitute was put in his place. When the sub got into the van, it was full of pornographic magazines and pornographic video covers. I was asked to tell my experience to the President of the college and subsequently the security guard lost his job. The young man kept going to the college with the intention of going into the ministry. I was seething inside because I thought the college was going to let him graduate. But came time to walk down the aisle, he wasn't in line. The administration had made up an excuse not to pass him.

Before all of that occurred, that same security guard used to come to the door of the dorm and tell me how people were holding seances in the field beside the girls' dorm that I was in. He also told me that he had seen a man dressed in black roaming around the dorms. I believed him until I got to know him. We did have a peeping Tom in the other dorm on one occasion, though.

I started out full time as a student but had to drop to part-time when Mom quit eating at the nursing home. I had three Resident Associates (RA's) that helped me out by watching the students while I was gone two days a week to go to the nursing home and feed Mom. She started eating again. Marilyn and I took certain days feeding her. When I got  job off campus two years later I was more limited in my time with Mom. I could go to the nursing home mostly on weekends. I always took Dad along with me.

We students had to do field work while at the college. We had to go off campus to help the poor and needy. I went with other students to the inner city food pantry. It was a crude building but they gave away produce, canned goods and every other kind of food that came from places like Dierberg's and Schnucks. I had gotten to be friends with the two African-American men that ran it. They were also nontraditional students (around my age). One of them mentioned that they would like to make a chapel on the upper floor. I was in a class one day when the professor mentioned that the class needed a project. I thought of the chapel but didn't say anything. Ironically or by divine design, the professor and one of the men that ran the food pantry crossed in front of me in the hall. I stopped them both and asked the food pantry man to tell the professor about his dream project. The professor was so excited and told everybody about me setting the whole thing up. I felt like God did, not me. But I love being His tool. Both black students were elders in their respective churches and were going to SLCC to become better elders. The one in the picture, Robert Lawrence, had retired from General Motors so was free to attend as a daytime student. He ended up behind the pulpit. The other one had an accredited upholstery college and later began buying up real estate. I don't know if he was retired but he found a way to be a daytime student. Unfortunately he died of cancer.

The last semester I was there Florissant got hit with a major hailstorm one afternoon. It was spring break so many of the students weren't there. But others were on a mission trip to Africa and left their cars in the parking lot open to the weather. My car was also exposed to the weather. One student and I got on the stairs leading to the basement which was like another floor. It had tables and a kitchen. We had to stay on the stairs, though, because the hail stones were breaking all of the basement windows. I could only imagine what it was doing to my car. When the storm passed we went to survey the damage. The back window of my car was completely gone. There were dents all over my car and one big baseball-size dent on the trunk. I was told by the insurance agent to go get the window replaced right away and then we could meet at an assigned time and place. My car was completely totaled, though it was still driveable. But the smell was awful and besides, I am allergic to mold. So when I moved to Mt. Vernon, I traded it in on a new car. Just about everybody in Florissant got a new roof including the college, which turned out to be a blessing. They got new windows too. Anyone whose car was outdoors got had their car totaled. The alarms in the cars whose owners were in Africa were going off and I didn't know what to do to stop them. Inside their cars were expensive books and their windows were out so the rain was getting in. There was nothing I could do.

Changing the subject, my job off campus was secretary to the President of CWBA. It was a part-time job but I got full benefits. Christian Women's Benevolent Assn. (CWBA) was the parent organization over a 180-bed nursing home in Ferguson. It was also over an assisted living complex. CWBA used to have a mothers and babies home many years ago. Due to a plage and the deaths of too many babies, they were instrumental in starting a

hospital that eventually was turned into Christian Hospital Northeast. My boss was on their Board of Directors and her picture hung above the chapel. The first hospital they started was out of necessity because so many babies were dying. 

At some point in time CWBA also ran a children's home. It is no longer in operation. The first time I heard the name of the parent organization I mentioned to someone that it sounded like a sewing circle and how amazed I was at their accomplishments. I was later told it did start out as a sewing circle. The women would sit around and make baby clothes. Then they saw the need to provide a home for some of those babies and their mothers. And it went from there into the hospital, the children's home, the nursing home and the assisted living home. When I told the board at CWBA that I was leaving, I was asked to make trips back to CWBA for board meetings. I had to decline because of the long drive.

Back on campus, an awards ceremony was held after graduation and I was awarded $500 for a story I submitted about a circuit riding preacher whose grandson went to the church I attended. I needed a subject and when he started talking about his grandfather, I knew the grandfather would make a good subject.

I applied for a job at Central Christian Church in Mt. Vernon. Lo and behold, Jamie Allen, the lead preacher, called me and asked me to be their secretary. I found out later that he wanted
someone from out of the area. When I got there and was working the job he discovered I knew alot of the Mt. Vernon people. Back to that first phone call, he told me what they were offering as a salary and I told him I couldn't live on that. He said he would talk to the Board and see if they could increase the amount. A day or two later he called me back and told me they upped the salary to an amount I could live on so I took the job. And long story short, it didn't work out.

NASHVILLE EXPERIENCES PART III

NASHVILLE EXPERIENCES PART III

Random Memories

I always thought we weren't much for socializing but in looking back we did have quite a few get-togethers at our house: the family, church members, the youth group, and a revival speaker and his wife. The basketball court with all its flaws came in handy during those times. It wasn't too bad when I would kill the grass growing between the cracks. We had a wooden free-standing swing and we had a deck, though we rarely used it. 

I went to visit Linda one time when she was down in her back. I spent the night and she needed to go to the ER in the middle of the night. I told her I was going to change clothes then would be there at the hospital. I was getting ready to turn into the hospital parking lot when I was approached by a young black man. He yelled through the window, "Do you know where the Jack in the Box" is? I had an idea but I wasn't going to tell him that. I said "No, I'm not from around here." He said "What, I can't hear you," and tried to open the passenger side door. Fortunately it was locked and he went on his way. There were supposed to be security guards in the parking lot but they couldn't be seen if there were any. I went inside and told some of the workers about the incident and they said for me to go tell the security guards. I told them there were no security guards out there. And that was that. Thank you, God, that that door was locked.

Mom and the twins and Mychelle and Brandyn were on their way to my house. They had turned off of the highway onto a road that eventually meets the road we lived on. The road they were on had a bridge that you wanted to take slowly. Mom took a Dukes of Hazard approach to the bridge and jumped it, coming down with hard thud. Mychelle was young and started crying. Everyone else was shocked. They were still talking about it when they got to my house. Who knows whether she did it by accident or on purpose. 

Linda Brink and I used to go to different stores, even ones in other towns, to do double couponing. We went to Centralia one time, did our double couponing, and drove back home using the back roads, doing about 65 mph and blabbing away. When we got on that same road where Mom jumped the bridge, but farther down, we heard the car make an awful scrunching noise. Linda asked me what I thought it was and kept driving. I shouted, "Stop the car. Now!" She did, and come to find out, one more rotation would have made the wheel come off and flipped the van. Her tires had been changed that day and the bolts weren't put on tight. We had to walk to her husband's partner's house in the pitch dark with no flashlight. But at least we had someone we knew to help us. If that had happened anywhere else on our round trip it could have been disastrous, especially going 65 mph.

Speaking of the Brinks, I was at work at Green, Cross and Pearcy's law firm and the head secretary was complaining about these kids that were riding go karts through her neighborhood making all kinds of racket and going through people's yards. I was about half paying attention to her and then it later dawned on me that that could be Little John and Kenton Brink, his best buddy. I tried to talk myself out of it. Sure enough, Little John 'fessed up when I got home. I never told the secretary who it was. 

We had no air conditioning in the house quite a few years until Larry Sowers gave us a window unit. We had no A/C in the car, either, but only because John (Sr.) removed the belt so we couldn't use it. John got a family season pass one summer because he painted the pool so the kids and I spent a lot of time there to escape the heat. Another summer we had a week or more of 104 temperatures. John decided to take us to Jane's in Olathe, Kansas because she had A/C. Jane, I and the kids went to Worlds of Fun. I don' remember John being there. The kids were going on the roller coaster ride and Jane and I just stood and waited and talked. Little John came running up to me as angry as could be. I asked him what was wrong and he said that Diana was at the top of the roller coaster ride. Bridgette was with Diana. I didn't think anything about that being bad until he said she was stuck up there. John expresses fear as anger. Otherwise he's laid back. They weren't up there too awfully long, though it probably seemed like a long time to them -- and John. The worst of it was that they had two loops to go through after they repaired the broken wheel.

Diana asked her dad if she could walk around the square with her friends. He said "No" and she asked him why. He told her she might get hit by a car. I told him that if he was going to say "No," at least give her a good reason. Well, as it turns out when one of her friends was crossing at an intersection, she got hit by a car and went flying through the air. I was dumbfounded. It was like John had an epiphany or premonition, though it wasn't Diana that got hit by the car.

I briefly mentioned this in another story, but thought I would add details. One evening I was in the hospital and John was at church. One or more people split the frame to the back door and were able to unlock the door. Then they went in the living room and took our tv. We called the cops but they didn't even take fingerprints. There is no describing how you feel when your house has been invaded by strangers and they take your personal property. The only word I can think of is violated. Much of your peace is stolen away and is replaced with fear. You lie awake nights. It upsets the kids. You feel like your house has been defiled and you want to spray Lysol all over it for the lack of anything else to do to cleanse away their presence.

Take this however you want but it happened. I was on my knees praying one day about the sorry state of my marriage and all of a sudden something washed over me and the verse came to my head "Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." I don't remember memorizing that verse. But I did what Moses did and argued with God. I asked Him what that had to do with my problems. Of course the Bible is the way God speaks to us and it has all the answers if we seek them with all our hearts and minds. It was one of the motivators for me going to St. Louis Christian College. I wanted answers and I wanted them now but that's not the way God works. In the King James Version of the Bible the words "in due time" are repeated many times. I found that out by studying the Bible and found my answer as to why not now.

NASHVILLE EXPERIENCES PART II

NASHVILLE EXPERIENCES PART II

Linda and Ron had moved into the Millstadt house we lived in and so the kids and I would go visit her and Scotty. Their intent was to build a new house in the woods. They bought some acreage so Linda and I and the kids decided to scout out the area. Jamie was with us too, for some reason. So we were shuffling through the leaves and between the trees and Jamie and Little John got ahead of us. All of a sudden Jamie came running back and I said "What?!" I could tell she was scared and John was left alone. As it turned out, everyone did the right thing. There was a copperhead snake coiled up and staring at John. John just stared back never moving. Tell me God wasn't with that kid. I wasn't sure how I was going to get John away from the snake because I knew a sudden movement would possibly make the snake strike and it could jump far enough to reach John. So I stood back as far as I could and still reach him and quickly pulled him out of harm's way. There was no doing it slowly. I could hardly walk back to the car because my knees were so weak. I wanted to carry him but couldn't. If a Copperhead doesn't kill you it will make you wish you were dead and John was only about 3. If it had been a dog he would have screamed bloody murder. Marilyn had a giant dog that got him down one time.The dog wasn't intending to hurt him but he didn't know that. He was about 3 then too.

There were snakes in our yard too. It wasn't unusual to see one. In fact, one was curled around the gutter. I tried killing it with a hoe but my hoe just bounced off of it. They're good for eating mice but once they scare me then all bets are off. Another time I was mowing the front lawn with a push mower in the spring. I saw a snake and jumped back. I looked down and there was another snake. I jumped again and there was another one and another one. I had gotten into a family of snakes that had come out of hibernation to bask in the sun. I'm glad no one was videoing me.

Big John and I were in the kitchen one day and all of a sudden there was a flash of light from Little John's bedroom. We knew that wasn't anything normal so we ran to his bedroom. He was lying in his bed with big eyes and I asked him if he was OK and he just said "Uh huh," but he didn't get up either. He was OK. Just scared, I guess. He had stuck a nail in a socket. It melted the nail. I don't know why he wasn't hurt except by the grace of God.

Little John got in several pickles while we lived in that house. One day I looked out the sliding glass doors to where he was in the back yard and saw a bumble bee go after him. I was terrified and there was nothing I could do. John was running as fast as he could at the age of about 4 or 5 and when he got to the far end of our long back yard the huge bee was ready to sting him and he tripped. The bee flew over him. That bee was so large that I could still see it when he tripped. Later he did get stung by a honey bee in the waist of his pants. The bee was still stuck in him because the elastic was holding it in. I had to pull the bee out. Oh, what mothers will do for their children.

I had heard from a neighbor that there was a mean German Shepherd roaming around. Later that day Little John got off of the bus. I don't know where Diana was that day. But when I looked out of the window, I saw the German Shepherd dog. John just stopped, stood still, and stared at the dog. He didn't know to do that. He just did. The dog then went on its way.

Little John was riding his bicycle to school one day and when he got to town where the businesses are, he looked up at a sign his dad had recently made. When he did, he hit a truck, went flying over the handlebars and landed on some big machine part in the back of the truck. Then He got afraid that the truck owner was going to come out of the restaurant and yell at him for being in his truck so he hurriedly made his way out of it. He had to walk his bike to school and all the way home, which was a long way. When he got home he told me what happened and I asked if anyone stopped to help. He said they did but they just laughed and laughed.

Diana managed to stay out of trouble except for the day she decided to run away from home and find a better family. She had a ridiculous outfit on including boots. I let her get a little ways down the road and asked her to come back. She refused. So I said "But we're having spaghetti for supper." She changed her mind.

Diana was a runner. She won first in state in the 100 meter sprint in 8th grade. So she would run down our road to stay in shape. I would go out to the road to make sure I could see her and I usually could. But one day I couldn't. She wasn't even in the horizon. I got upset and Big John did too out of fear she had been kidnapped. Little John was afraid too but he shows anger when he's afraid. He was so angry with her. He's usually laid back except when he is really afraid. We all got in the car and drove down the road. We met Diana coming back. She had simply decided to go a little farther and was out of sight.

Part III to come.

NASHVILLE EXPERIENCES PART I

NASHVILLE EXPERIENCES

The Tornado
We had lived in the house a couple of years when a big storm came through. The kids had just got off the bus, so at least I was done worrying about them. I opened the bathroom window about 2" because I heard you were supposed to do that and then we went to the basement. When I came back up, I saw where the rain had made a straight path across the bathroom and hit the wall in the hallway at the same height as the window opening. The hallway had no plaster on it yet, so that worked in our favor. The water ran down the hall and most of it settled in Little John's room. It took a bunch of towels to sop it up. Fortunately we hadn't laid carpet yet so that too worked in our favor. A tornado hit the neighbor's barn and killed several of his cows.

The First Car Accident
There were two car accidents in our front yard. The first one was 3 boys who had been to the fair and watched the racing. Then they decided they would copy that on our road. Our road is straight for a long way. It is a county road known as Teddy Bear Lane. The driver got up to 80 mph and turned his head to talk to the boy in the back. Bad move. The car swerved to the left, hit our big culvert taking a chunk out of it and flipped onto its top. I heard the noise and looked out of the bedroom window. When I saw the car's top smashed down to the seats I just knew the occupants were dead. I called the police right away. Then we heard a knock on the door. I thought to myself that at least one of them was alive. John wouldn't let me open the door. I kept asking why but he just said "You don't know what they're going to do." I didn't believe they had staged that accident to get into our house and rob us so I opened the door. The young man came in and I think he called his mother. She was the Treasurer, I believe, at the courthouse. In other words, she had clout. In the meantime one of the other two boys was laying on the ground beside the car. He had a dislocated pelvis. I think the third boy was OK.

The state police came out and measured everything on the road and in our yard and drew out the path of the vehicle. They said they were going to do everything right so the driver's mother couldn't get him off because he had been in trouble before. For all their work and time, he still got off again.

The Second Accident
The second accident came from the other direction. John had put a pole on one side of the driveway so we could tell in the dark where the edge of the driveway was. The car slid on its side into our yard taking that pole with it and then landed facing the other direction and right side up in the middle of our yard. The young occupants were obviously drunk. One guy was so drunk he could only lay across the trunk. The driver tried to take off in the car with him still on the trunk but the car wouldn't run. So they took their beer cans and threw them across the road cussing while they did. I went outside and chewed them out and told them that's where my kids play. I don't remember what else I said but I was mad.

Part II to come.

FROM MILLSTADT TO NASHVILLE

BUILDING THE NASHILLE HOUSE

When we drove through Nashville from Millstadt on our way to Mt. Vernon, we would remark about what a nice town it was. It was well groomed and the people seemed to take pride in their children and school sports. We weren't thinking about possibly living there at the time. But John applied for the woodworking job at the Middle School and was accepted. However, the class was canceled a few days before school started thanks to a new principal. His starting salary was $12,000. Fifteen years later his salary had increased to $19,000, the same as a starting factory worker who had no college education.

We had to wait until the summer break ended before he could start his new position. But when it came time for school to start, the woodworking class had been eliminated along with home economics. John was devastated. He had already quit his job at Smithton Grade School. A new principal was in charge. He was egotistical and arrogant. But the board decided to give John the 5th grade home room, a science class and whatever other classes they could make available. One was English and that is his worst subject. Anyway, that's the position he held for about 25 years or until he retired. 

He wanted to live outside of town so that he wouldn't be bothered by kids and parents. So he asked an old lady who lived on Hwy. 15 (460 then) if she would sell us some land. Her land extended east about a quarter of a mile on the west end of town. John wanted the farthest lot going north. At first she balked at selling the land but changed her mind. Then she decided how she was going to divide her property. We got an acre on the far end. 

There were no water lines or sewer lines, though we could purchase them for about $6,000. Anyone who knows John knows he's not about to let go of that much money. So we had a cistern and septic tank.

When Charlie Brink and his construction crew had the basement dug out, we discovered the next day that they had hit an underground spring and the dugout basement was filled with alot of water. We would later have to use a sump pump to keep the water out of the basement.

We got a loan for $22,000 and had the shell of the house built. The idea was to finish it ourselves. We did do a lot of the work. John helped his Uncle Joe Ancona do the plumbing in the house. David Mullinax helped wire the house, but John and I put the heating wires in the ceiling. Our house was all electric. We also ran the laterals which are drainage pipes. We had to hire someone to plaster the walls a couple of years later. 

Eventually we added a few thousand more to our loan and got some cabinets, vinyl floors in the kitchen and bathroom, and carpet in the other rooms. Until we got the cabinets, which was about 3 years after the start of building, we lived very crudely in the house. I had a free-standing sink and stove, a free-standing tall cabinet and a table to work off of. There was also a table in the dining room. We all got used to living like that but naturally we were looking forward to completion.

I used to say that if anyone broke into our house, they would probably leave a donation. They didn't. They just took our tv and left the back door open in bitter cold weather. They broke in that door by splitting the back door frame. John was at church and I was in the hospital.

I did the landscaping on the front and sides. It was a battle because the weather kept eroding the soil and leaving deep, long ruts throughout the yard. Then it turned blazing hot. We had a waterway to drain water off of the field behind us and I had to put down grass seed then place feed sacks over the whole length of the waterway in that heat. I first had to open the sacks out by removing the seams and then I had to overlap corners and drive stakes through those corners so the wind wouldn't blow them away. It worked because I got a nice stand of grass there. It took a while for the rest of the yard. 

John surprised me by having some broken-up concrete slabs dumped in our back yard. He was going to use it as a base for asphalt and then a basketball court. I was totally thrilled about that, as you can imagine. It was a disaster. First of all, it looked terrible. Then there was the laying of the concrete slabs to equal the size of a basketball court. I thought everything would be OK once the guys laying the asphalt did their part. They wanted us to pay half up front, which we did, then we were to pay the other half when finished, except it was never finished. They got halfway through then quit. I think it may have been too uneven for them to work with without investing a lot of extra asphalt to finish the job.

But the kids made use of it nevertheless. Little John shot baskets, both kids rode Big Wheels on it, and I used to pull Devon around on a plastic train all over the court as fast as I could go. I can't imagine doing that now. Occasionally visitors would shoot baskets. The second picture below is Kevin Colclasure, our Youth Minister at church, now a preacher, holding Devon up so he could make a slam dunk or else just to hold onto the rim.

We started  out with a single car garage but John later turned it into a family room. He installed a wood-burning stove and laid the brick around it. He paneled the walls with gray barn-like paneling. All well and good. But then he hung a deer carcass over the couch. He got it at an auction.