living on the farm

I really enjoyed living on the farm.  Mema and Granddad had about 30 milk cows and grew cotton, corn, and a few other things for sale.  We all, I think, worked in the fields, anyway I know I did. When it was time for the cotton to be picked we had pickers that came.  They were black, and lived in the huts down by the fields.  I loved going down there.  They were some of the happiest people I had ever seen.  They lived in shacks with dirt floors and blankets for doors.  They mainly ate grits, and fatback, but I still remember how happy and at peace they seemed to me.  And they loved me, I think everyone of them from the oldest to the youngest accepted me into their family.

I would sneak off every chance I got to go down and play with the children.  I always felt that I fit in even though I was very white and even had white hair then.  I know it must have looked a little funny with me down there, but I mainly remember the feeling of being loved unconditionally.  When I  could not be found at the house, I would hear my name being yelled, and I can tell you Mema could yell.  That's the only time that as a child I remember her being upset with me.  She would always tell me how I was not to go down there and play with those pick-a-ninnies. I would then be scrubbed from head to toe, just in case I had bugs.  That never made since to me as my friends were very clean.  They even swept the ground outside of their huts.

I don't know how long we were at the farm, I just know that it was months.  I believe that either that time we were there or another time that our Granddad molested my younger sister.  I have no proof, but now I know his history, as he did molest my Aunt, tried to do Mother, and molested my Aunt's daughter.  I found all of this out after I was an adult, and he attempted to rape me, thankfully Dennis and my Aunt came in before he was able to do much.  Over the years I have looked back and I remember him always taking my little sister with him when he was going out to the barn.  It makes me sad if that really happened and nobody was there to protect her.

Mother showed up one day to get us and she had gotten married.  She had married Glen S. Murphy, and he had three children, Sandra, Diane, and Mike.  Sandra was just older than my older sister, Diane was just younger than my younger sister, and Mike just older than my little brother.  So we moved to Brownfield, TX by Dad's family.   Glen became my Dad almost immediately, because he loved me and my real Father didn't.  Anyway that was the start of the Murphy clan as we became over the years.

I have to go for now.