After Mother came and got us from the farm and we met Glen for the first time, we moved to Brownfield, TX. What I remember is that we lived a house close to Grandma and Grandpa Murphy. We all started to call Glen, Daddy. From the very first I felt that I belonged, or anyway I had a Father who loved me. Dad worked in the oilfield as did all of the Murphy's, and for awhile Mother stayed at home with all of us kids. At that time our younger brother lived with our Father and Dad's oldest was living with her mother so there was only five of us kids.
Dad worked a lot of hours at that time and they were wildcatters so if they didn't hit oil he didn't get paid. So some times we had very little money. When he was off for a few days, unfortunately, he and Mother went out and drank a lot. In those days I guess everyone drank and smoked a lot. I remember Grandma and Grandpa Murphy drinking everyday, and it seemed they fought everyday too. It was pretty boring there for us kids.
Once when we were under tornado warning and the wind was whipping around, I talked all of the kids to get in a big box we had been playing in and waiting to see if we would be picked up by the tornado and carried off to the land of OZ like Dorothy. As the wind got worse and the thunder started everyone got scared and ran away into the house. I stayed in the box until one of the adults found out I wasn't in the storm shelter and came and made me go. The box was gone after we came out.
The only other things I remember about living there was having to stay sometimes at night with our Step-Uncle. He was a teenager and we all thought that he looked like a movie star. I think he did too. Anyway he would make everyone get ready for bed and then he would decide which one of us girls would have to sleep with him. None of us wanted to, because he would do things to us that we all knew he shouldn't. My younger sister had already started to wet the bed sometimes and I wanted so much to protect her that when he would choose her I would volunteer to go in her place. Sometimes it worked, but not always. I still don't think anyone of us has every talked about this happening, not even to each other. I now think that it's very sad that we, I believe, have each one attempted to pretend that never happened to us. We all knew we could not tell any of the other Adults because he was a favorite and we would never be believed and more than likely be in trouble for saying something like that about him. Years later my older sister married him, she told someone at that time or before that he had been her first lover. That was as close to the truth about what he had done as she or at that time any of us ever got. Their marriage didn't last of course.
After that we moved to Seminole, TX. Mother was going to have a baby. We lived in a house on the out skirts of town. It wasn't a real big house. It was by the train tracks, and the lady they rented from lived a couple houses away. She, I don't think, ever had kids. She liked all of us kids and had us call her Big Momma. I don't remember her being very big though, I think it was just because she was old.
We had a cow, Bessie, and her calf, Speedy.
Well I think I will have to pick this up latter.
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