Tudy and Her Bottle

Looking for Tudy's Bottle

I remember when my baby sister was about 18 months old, my Mom and my Grandma Smith were trying to put my sister down to sleep. 

They were putting her down in the bed in the room that served as the kitchen, dining room and bedroom. The front room served as living room, and bedroom for Grandma and Grandpa. That was when Grandma and Grandpa only had two rooms to their house.

Anyway, Tudy would say she wanted her bottle.  Every time Mama would give her the bottle she would throw it and cry for the bottle again. Tudy wanted to go outside to get her bottle.  So we all went outside (except for Grandpa) with the flashlight looking for Tudy's bottle. We get out there and what does Tudy do?  She crawls under the house and comes back out with one of Grandpa's wine bottles!

That was back when Grandpa still drank alcohol. He would drink wine and beer.  Grandma never allowed anyone to bring alcohol into the house so Grandpa would drink outside and he hid his wine bottles under the house.  Tudy must have been watching Grandpa and decided she wanted to try out some of the stuff Grandpa was drinking.  The house was up on blocks so there was space under the house.

Of course Tudy wasn't allowed to have any of Grandpa's wine but leave it to her to have us going on a wild goose chase right from the start.  Never a dull moment with that girl, I tell ya even when she was a baby.

Sissy Swallowed a Plum Seed

Almost Went Plum Crazy Before Almost Dying!

 

I know I have mentioned my grandparent's house of two rooms before and how much time my sister and I spent there.  Well, we were there once again along with our parents in the evening.  Grandma and Grandpa had a black and white Philco television set.  Since we didn't have one, we would watch television at Gandma and Grandpa's house.

Their television looked very much like the one in the photo above.

We were watching "Sing Along With Mitch".  It must have been summer time because Tudy and I were eating plums from Grandma and Grandpa's tree. 

Grandma was always warning us about not eating the center of any fruit seed.  She told us that it would make us go crazy and, or possibly kill us.  Well of course Grandma knew everything!  I didn't doubt for a minute that if I ever ate the center of a fruit seed, I would go crazy and die.

I was really enjoying my plum, and I was pretty much done with it but I was trying to get the last little bit off the seed.  Before I knew it, I had swallowed the entire plum seed! I jumped up and starting running in circles yelling and crying that I had just swallowed a plum seed.  My baby sister Tudy, was right behind me, yelling and crying, "Sissy swallowed a plum seed".  We were both running around in circles in the front room yelling and crying like a dog chasing its tail.

I just knew I was going to go crazy and then I was going to die!  Our Mom was trying to catch us and calm us down.  Our Dad was laughing, Grandpa was lying on his bed, all laid back as usual watching the commotion.  Finally, they got a hold of me and Grandma said I would be okay since the seed was whole and I didn't eat the poisoned part of it.  I was about seven and Tudy was about five.

Our parents called us Pete and Re-Pete because Tudy would do and say everything I did.

From left to right
Me, Tudy (my baby sister), Gerald Lee Clay, Roseann Clay, Rosie Mae Smith Johnson (My Mother) holding Monte Ray Clay and Stella Holland Smith (My Grandma)

This great adventure took place in the room pictured in the photo above where I am with my baby sister, my Mom, my Grandma, and some of my Clay cousins.  My sister and I were a little bit older in the photo above than we were when we had the "Plum Crazy Adventure".

It was always something and never a dull moment with all the kids around.  Good times!

Tudy and Me

This is Tudy (Doreena) and me at our Grandma and Grandpa Smith's house on Rd 198 in Poplar, Ca.  I was about 7 or 8 here and Tudy was 5 or 6.  We were born almost exactly two years a part.

The house was still two rooms at this time.  The front room served as a living room/bedroom combination and the back room served as the kitchen/dining/bedroom combination.  Our Grandpa built the house himself.

Tudy and I spent more time here than we did at our own house since Grandma took care of us while our parents worked.  I thought it was the most wonderful place in the world and felt very safe and secure there.

As you can see, our skin was tanned from playing outside so much.  Tudy would always get much darker than me since she inherited the skin tone of our Father.  I would burn first and then get a little tan.  In the summertime, it would get so hot we wouldn't stay outside for too long unless we were in the shade.  We would run around in the  sun a bit, back in the shade, and back into the house to cool off.

Grandpa only had a swamp cooler in the front room that had to be sprayed down with water from the outside periodically, but it did a pretty good job of keeping us cooled down.

I don't know how my parents, Grandpa, and other family members stood the heat to work in the fields to support us.  Thinking about it now, I have a whole new respect for them and what they had to endure.

It Was Hot So We Cooled Em Off

We Cooled the Ladies Off!

The population of Poplar, CA in the 1950s and 1960s was about 800-1,000 people at the most and I think that included the population of  Cotton-Center and outlying areas.

My family lived in a two room house, (my Dad later added another room).  We lived between the Short family and the Glory family on Imperial Rd.

It was a warm, uh, lets make that a hot as hell summer day in the Central Valley of California.  My sister, Tudy and I were home with our Mom and we were playing outside.  I was about six and Tudy was about four years old.

We were playing on the side of the yard next to the Glory's because they had a couple of big old shade trees.  It was at least a little cooler under those trees.

Mrs. Glory and some of her women friends were sitting under the shade trees visiting and talking about how hot it was.  They kept carrying on about the heat and fanning themselves with paper fans and homemade fans made from pieces of paper.  Some of them were fanning themselves with their dress-tails.  Now Mrs. Glory and her lady friends were not a petite bunch.  These ladies loved their fried chicken and starches! 

Tudy and I had been playing in the water earlier so I knew that running through the sprinkler helped to cool one off in the heat.  As I listened to the ladies complain about the heat nonstop, I came up with a brilliant idea!

I enlisted the aid of my little sister and told Tudy to go into the kitchen and get Mama's bottle of dish-washing liquid.  Tudy went and fetched the bottle and I proceeded to fill it up with water.

I told Tudy that we were going to cool the ladies off.  We hid behind the tree and I started squirting them with the water.  The ladies started jumping all around hoopin' and hollerin!  They were causing quite a commotion!  They made so much noise that Mama came out of the house and caught Tudy and me red handed cooling the ladies off.

Mama said, "Helen Jane, what are you doing"?  I was trying to explain to Mama that we were just trying to cool the ladies off.  She took the bottle away from me, and made us go into the house.  Of course she threatened us with "Wait until your Daddy gets home"!

Mama apologized to Mrs. Glory and her friends for our bad behavior.  She kept threatening us with Daddy for the rest of the day.  We got our little butts beat when Daddy got home.

I later caught our parents laughing about us cooling Mrs. Glory and her friends off.  I don't recall Mrs. Glory ever getting out in the yard like that again and complaining about the heat. 

I was just trying to help the ladies, and Tudy thought it was a good idea too.  I was in total agreement with them that it was really, really, hot.