In March of 1936 Fred and Waive third daughter was born and they named her Dixie Lee Junior.  With a third child at home, Fred got a job at the Cook Coffee Company working as a driver sometimes making forty dollars a week which was quite good at that time.  Although Fred again found himself working for someone else, he didn’t mind it too much for he was learning a lot about the business.  

Violin That Wibur Made

In December of 1936 down in Florida, Wilbur and Rosalie had a wonderful but simple Christmas.  They didn’t have much money for store bought gifts so Wilbur whittled a toy for each of the boys, an airplane for Adrian, a small violin for Morris and a wooden horse for Arnold.  Wilbur was quite good a taking a piece of wood and using his pocket knife he would make the most interesting things.  He found it very relaxing when, after putting the boys to bed, he would sit by the fireplace and whittle, putting the shavings into the fire.  He would hide away what he was working on until it was finished, surprising all with what he had made.  

That Christmas Wilbur did spend a little money and bought some candy for the boys and some pretty cloth for Rosalie so she could make herself a new dress.  Christmas afternoon, Wilbur hitched up their horse Cabbage to the wagon and they all went down the road to Rosalie’s parents house and had dinner with them.  

The happy times quickly ended when two days after Christmas when Rosalie’s father Tobias died at the age of eighty-eight. In spite of being turned out from the church some thirty-five years earlier for nonattendance, he was put to rest at the Flemington Baptist Church cemetery.  Rosalie missed her father but the work on the farm and taking care of three boys kept her too busy to think about it much.  It was when Rosalie went to visit her mother and her father was no longer there that she felt his loss the most.

Updated: 10-04-2021

1937