School and church affairs were well attended as it was the main source of social contact in the community. I recall a Christmas program with a Christmas tree trimmed with cotton for snow and candles for lighting. A fire scare was caused by one of the candles catching some trimming on the tree, but for the quick thinking and acting of someone hear the tree, the fire might have caused panic. There was one door and the house was filled.
In this new country were many Indians and Gypsies. Always when we went to Clinton or Arapahoe to trade, we saw many Indians and they dressed in their native garb of bright blankets and beads. We children, in those days of mothers wearing long skirts, depended on keeping track of mother by hanging onto her skirt. This gave a feeling of security while we looked around the store. I recall one day after enjoying looking around and securely hanging on, looking up to find that instead of mother standing there, it was an Indian and I was hanging onto her blanket. You can imagine my quick exit to find "mom".
Gypsies often camped down the road about a quarter of a mile, travelled in covered wagons and pitched their tents when and where they chose to stop, and lived on what they could beg or steal from people around their camp. They would take clothes off the line or pick up chickens in the yard and take them home. They would even enter your house unannounced if the door were not locked.
The house we first occupied was not completely tight against varments such as scorpions, centipedes, etc. Mother had had many stores told about these poisionous enemies she would find in Oklahoma. In the night, one time, she felt something sting her hand. She slept, or laid the rest of the night with her arm up over Lorena's head so she would feel anything that might crawl on her. The next morning she found where one of the fellows had
To the Table of Contents
To Roger Kroth's Homepage