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Daddy's
Autobiography
Part 5
(Written
in 1967)
While working at
the Consolidated Coal Company, there was a general strike that
included another town, Jenkins, Kentucky. All mines were
shut down, and the company put guards at all critical
locations, such as entrances to mines, tipples, stores and all
business places as there was fear of looting.
The store
manager gave another clerk and me the job of guarding the main
store. He gave us two guns apiece, one repeating shotgun
apiece and two pistols. The guns were new.
The first night
before the manager went home, he was examining the shotguns to
see if they would throw the shells out; and since he wasn't
doing so well, I asked him to let me try. As I pulled
the lever and extracted the shell and reloaded it, I had my
finger on the trigger, and it fired into the wall.
I will never
forget how the manager looked. He was white; he looked
like he was almost dead. He ran to the front of the
store to see if anyone had heard the shot. He was afraid
it would start a mob.
After we got
settled and Leonard and I were alone in the store, we stayed
in the main office that was built with glass. We could
view the main front of the store, but there was about
seventy-five percent of the store we couldn't see; so we had
to make regular trips to the basement and to the second and
third floors.
After a few
nights we began to get sleepy, and we would take turns
watching while the other slept. I had taken my hour of
sleep, but it seemed like five minutes. He woke me so he
could sleep. I don't think he cheated on me. I'm
sure he didn't cheat me out of a few minutes sleep.
We had to report
to the main office every hour. I didn't realize it but I
dozed off to sleep, and the next thing I knew he was arousing
me. He said he heard a noise. He said it was the
side of the store where they put coal in the basement, so we
got our pistols and tried to go up to the second floor
without making any noise so we could look down on the trap
doors where they put the coal in for the furnace.
Since we
couldn't see anyone we decided they were already in the
basement and had gone through the trap doors, we went down to
the basement where there were rows of boxes of canned goods
all over the basement.
We would go side
by side with guns cocked around all the rows of boxes. I
can tell you for sure if a mouse had moved it wouldn't have
been safe in front of those guns, for we would have shot
anything that moved.
We may not have
been cut out for that job, but we were doing all our nerves
would allow us to do.
End of
his journal
Daddy had shared
some of the things he had written with his brother, Kerney,
who was still teaching at Eastern Kentucky University.
Uncle Kerney was so pleased to be reminded of their childhood
and early adulthood memories that he wrote Daddy the following
letter.
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Dear
Kelsey:
This is
just a brief note to tell you that I have just read your
account of your recollections of our "growing-up years."
Needless to say I have read it with pleasure, and I am
impressed by the vividness of your recollections. As I
was reading this tonight, I made some notes that may suggest a
few things you will want to add.
I'll send
this to you after I have had time to see if I can think of
some more incidents you might want to add.
Two come to
mind now. The long trek over the Black and Cumberland
Mountains the time Dad, you and I drove the cattle and pigs
all the way from Stonega to the old log house we lived in
before moving to Stonega. Do you remember how it had
rained so hard and how much trouble we had fording the
streams, arriving after dark at the home of Ira and Berle
Boggs; and then going on the next day over the Cumberland
Mountain; and how you and I went back to Stonega without Dad,
running down the short cuts on the mountains?
Do you
remember the night we slept in the loft in the old log house
and became scared on hearing an owl? We were so
frightened that we called down to Uncle Prior who told us what
it was.
Do you
remember the time Dad was run over and dragged a great
distance by a train of mining cars that brought the coal out
of the mines to the tipple?
Do you
remember the time our family was quarantined when Valma had
scarlet fever?
Sincerely,
Kerney
P.S. I
enjoyed the humor in your remarks about the beautiful girl
whom you met a long time ago and lost no time getting
acquainted with her and your comment that now after thirty
years you two are still married and acquainted.
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If you
have already visited Daddy's page, you may have read the
following testimony that he penned in addition to his
"biography." If you haven't read it yet, please continue
looking into his heart below.
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Daddy's
Testimony
Jesus
said, "it is expedient that I go away. If I go I will
pray the Father to send you another Comforter which is the
Holy Ghost. He will guide you in all truth."
Jesus
is no longer here.
Jesus
said, "In my Father's house are many mansions. Jesus
said, There are many mansions in heaven. If it were not
so I would have told you so."
Today
is the day of salvation. You are living in it and one of
those mansions.
I am in
the world but not of the world.
I have
been born again. I am a new creature in Christ Jesus.
All things have become new. The things I used to love, I
now hate; the things I used to hate, I now love.
My
Father's house covers all.
If I
could get positive assurance from God that I could make it
through, I would get down on my hands and knees and crawl from
here to Scott County, Virginia where I was at a meeting and
received the experience of Eternal Life, if I could get one
more experience just like I received, through any of weather.
And
this thought flashed through me: I would be willing to
be as though I had never been born if by this means it would
cause come person to receive Eternal Life that didn't have a
chance of receiving Eternal Life.
I know
that God does not require anything like this.
This experience was in 1929.
See below for links to all Installments.
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Installment 1
Installment 2
Installment 3
Installment 4
visit
Mother & Daddy's Page
 
Click
below to visit Delores' websites
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