The Sunday after Halloween Dad left the house early before we got up to go fishing with his friend John and when we got up Mom took Brenda, David and me to Sunday School and church and then we went over to Dot and John’s house for lunch and spent the afternoon until Dad and John got home.  Dad and John caught two fish each which we had for dinner that evening.  

On Saturday the 8th  we had a big birthday party for Brenda (her birthday is the 10th)  and sixteen girls came including Betty and Billy’s daughters Janice and Karen and then Betty, Billy and their girls stayed for dinner.  The following Sunday we skipped Sunday School and church and went out to Grandma and Grandpa’s for Sunday dinner then we went by to see other relatives and friends out in Flemington. We first went by to see Uncle Bill, Grandma’s brother, Great Grandma Anderson, Grandma’s mother, then Wilma, Frances, Doris and Eveyln and their families and then by to see Aunt Alice (Grandpa Mixson’s sister).  Aunt Alice was deaf and lived with her sister Lois in an old cracker house and were both were widows. I always remember visiting Aunt Alice and Aunt Lois.  

We pulled up to their house and stopped and Dad honked the horn before letting us get out of the car he said because Aunt Alice can’t hear, and she might shoot us thinking we were strangers so he honked the horn so that Aunt Lois who could hear, would know we were here.  We got out of the car, opened the gate and walked into their front yard that was completely barren of grass, just a smooth sandy yard with a few chickens scratching around in it.    Aunt Lois opened the front door and greeted us fondly and invited us in where Aunt Alice was watching the TV with the sound turned off since she couldn’t hear and Aunt Lois said she didn’t want to listen to it.  We talked a bit and I ask why they didn’t have any grass in the front yard and Aunt Alice, who read lips quite well, said, “That way no snakes could sneak up in the grass.  Why just the other day I shot a snake right out of the tree in the front yard with the shotgun.”, as she pointed to the shotgun standing by the door.  Dad turning to us kids so that Aunt Alice couldn’t see his lips and said, “That’s why I honk the horn.”   

One Sunday later in November we went Sunday School and church at the new Westside Chapel that opened just a short distance from our house down University Avenue.  Westside Chapel was a branch church from the First Baptist Church which was downtown.  The chapel was as small compared to the North Central church that we had been attending but it was a new modern building made of a natural colored brick, and small windows with green glass that let in the filtered light of the sun.  Mom said that her and us kids enjoyed it, “but Morris was indifferent.”   We continued to attend Westside which later separated from the First Baptist Church and became Westside Baptist Church and the church has been intertwined with our family for over sixty years.  

On Wednesday the 25th of November into town to see the Christmas parade which was much like the homecoming parade but the floats had a Christmas theme and the parade always ended with Santa Claus on a firetruck.

Updated: 04-18-2022

December