Letter From Sarah Davis to Her Children
By Sarah Davis
Christmas 2001
Dear Children,
If you ever wonder what my childhood was like, read this book, “The Blessed Town”. Although it describes Oxford from 1900 to 1910, for many of us not too much had changed by the late 1930’s and 1940’s. Some of us who lived here then fondly refer to that time in our life as “the Oxford experience”. Here are some of my experiences as a child in Oxford.
My family group consisted of my mother and father (who died when I was 10), a brother, my grandmother, and my Aunt Mary. We lived in the house that I live in today. It was built by my grandmother in 1938. She, like many Oxford women, grew beautiful flowers and let me help with watering them and pulling weeds, probably laying the foundation for my love of flower gardening. She very patiently taught me to knit and crochet and also to cut out quilt pieces and put them together for doll quilts. She had chickens in the back yard, providing eggs for breakfast and to use in baking. I loved helping her feed the chickens in the late afternoons.
My father took us on long Sunday afternoon walks and taught us to shoot marbles and to play Mumblety Peg with his ever-present pocket knife. These were games he had played as a child. My mother taught me to cut out simple doll dresses from scraps of fabric and then she sewed them together on her treadle sewing machine. On some Sunday afternoons in the summer she would let us take a tablecloth outside to spread under the mimosa tree in the front yard for a “picnic”. This was especially nice if the mimosa tree was in full bloom, we thought. The menu included fresh squeezed lemonade and cookies that we had helped to cut out and bake. What fun that was!
Our houses in Oxford were very hot in the summer and drafty and cold in the winter, requiring coal burning fires in fireplaces and heaters. This meant that someone had to bring in the coal and kindling, remove the ashes, and light the fire early each morning. My brother and I were responsible for these chores, from chopping the kindling to lighting the fire. We DID have electricity and indoor plumbing by this time.
The roads were unpaved, therefore dusty in dry weather and very muddy when it rained. On a muddy day the few people who owned cars would likely get stuck in the mud and all available townspeople felt it their duty to help “get them out”. There is a hill on Asbury Street, and as our house was on the corner of George and Asbury, many times on a rainy day someone would get stuck, providing my brother and me with an opportunity to watch the unfolding drama from a window. Sometimes it could get pretty interesting.
We walked to church, with a nickel tied in the corner of a handkerchief for the offering. Nickels were very precious then. Sunday School was fun, and a time for learning. We memorized a Bible verse each Sunday and we loved singing the songs.
We also walked to school -- by then called Palmer-Stone -- and in a new building. As in the early part of the century, students were taught morals, character, honor, and a strong work ethic. We had math drills and weekly spelling bees. We learned to speak to our class on topics assigned to us and to write in cursive. The teachers weren’t satisfied until we wrote “with a good hand”. At recess we played games on the playground with the teachers. The girls liked Hop-Scotch and jumping rope. The boys favored marbles. We played group games such as Fox and Hounds, Red Rover, and a very old game which was a favorite, Bum Bum Bum. Most of us liked school.
Food was mostly produced at home, and those with gardens or garden space shared with those without. In the summer the women stood over kerosene or wood stoves, in almost unbearable heat, canning peaches, beans, tomatoes, blackberries, etc. that had been picked and prepared by all members of the family. Trips to the peach orchard at Mansfield were a special treat for us children, and picking blackberries was certain to be a required summertime activity. Blackberries were needed for making blackberry jelly to spread on hot biscuits and they were canned for making blackberry pies.
Blackberries for our family were often picked on the vacant lot behind our house. Huanne Burnett’s house is on that lot today. We would rise early, and making sure to wear a shirt with long sleeves to protect our arms, we took our empty lard buckets outside and walked through the dewy grass to the thick undergrowth of the lot next door. There the berries thrived in a mass of stickery vines, just waiting for us, ripe and luscious. As we filled our buckets we couldn’t resist eating some of the cool, sweet berries, always looking forward to a bowl of berries with milk and sugar as a special treat at our evening meal.
In cold weather some people had hogs to slaughter. A hog-killing could turn into a community event, with many people helping to prepare the meat. My family had no hogs, so my knowledge of this procedure was limited to what I watched at my aunt’s house when my family went to help. Leftover fat was used to make lard and soap. Sometimes we brought some of the fat home, cut it into smaller pieces and rendered it into lard, leaving bits of hard residue in the bottom of the pot. This residue is called “cracklins”. The lard was used to make soap in the wash pot outside. We used the soap to do the laundry, which was done by hand in the backyard and hung on the clotheslines to dry. The “cracklins” were used for “cracklin” bread which was especially good with turnip greens on a cold winter day.
There were less than a dozen children around my age in my Oxford neighborhood, and we played all over town. We walked the dusty streets, pulling our wagon full of dolls; we made playhouses under the trees in the backyard; we played paper dolls on front porches. We played board games – Checkers and Parcheesi, especially. We rode bicycles when one was available, and, on occasion, saddled up my cousin’s horse, Bill, and learned to ride a little, but often getting thrown off in the clover patch that covered the lot where Miss Emmie Stewart’s house had stood. The Post Office occupies that lot today. We tried to make kites using newspaper and string saved from mail order packages, but we seemed never to be able to get them to fly. We played baseball on the church lawn and checked out the candy counter at Mr. Harwell’s store, if we were fortunate enough to have a nickel, making choices from the penny candy. A nickel’s worth would fill a small “brown paper sack”.
We looked forward to Bible School in the summer. There was lots of singing and we listened to Bible stories. We enjoyed the games and crafts and the refreshments. Occasionally there were birthday parties with Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Go In and Out the Window. Group games were fun for us.
Our houses were often too hot in the summer to be comfortable until late evening after the sun went down, and so families gathered on porches to sit and visit in the early evenings. Many porches had chairs for rocking. Sometimes there were beans to string or peas to shell and everyone helped until the job was done. Many times at our house there were relatives visiting from Texas or Virginia and the adults would reminisce or tell stories about our family’s history. There was no television, of course, so we children sat on the steps and listened and absorbed much of the family history and began to learn a little about who we were and where we came from. When we tired of this we caught lightning bugs and put them in a jar with air holes punched in the lid. (We released them when it was time to go inside to bed.) It was also fun to play Hide and Seek in the dusky evening light. We enjoyed the porches during the hot Georgia summers.
We were all poor but didn’t know it. Life was rich and full and interesting. It was also challenging, but we were taught the skills needed to meet the challenges.
Oxford provided me with the most wonderful thing in my life. Your daddy came to Oxford because of the college, and you know the rest of the story. I have my wonderful family and for that I give thanks every day.
I do hope you will read this book and enjoy it.
With much love,
Mama
If you ever wonder what my childhood was like, read this book, “The Blessed Town”. Although it describes Oxford from 1900 to 1910, for many of us not too much had changed by the late 1930’s and 1940’s. Some of us who lived here then fondly refer to that time in our life as “the Oxford experience”. Here are some of my experiences as a child in Oxford.
My family group consisted of my mother and father (who died when I was 10), a brother, my grandmother, and my Aunt Mary. We lived in the house that I live in today. It was built by my grandmother in 1938. She, like many Oxford women, grew beautiful flowers and let me help with watering them and pulling weeds, probably laying the foundation for my love of flower gardening. She very patiently taught me to knit and crochet and also to cut out quilt pieces and put them together for doll quilts. She had chickens in the back yard, providing eggs for breakfast and to use in baking. I loved helping her feed the chickens in the late afternoons.
My father took us on long Sunday afternoon walks and taught us to shoot marbles and to play Mumblety Peg with his ever-present pocket knife. These were games he had played as a child. My mother taught me to cut out simple doll dresses from scraps of fabric and then she sewed them together on her treadle sewing machine. On some Sunday afternoons in the summer she would let us take a tablecloth outside to spread under the mimosa tree in the front yard for a “picnic”. This was especially nice if the mimosa tree was in full bloom, we thought. The menu included fresh squeezed lemonade and cookies that we had helped to cut out and bake. What fun that was!
Our houses in Oxford were very hot in the summer and drafty and cold in the winter, requiring coal burning fires in fireplaces and heaters. This meant that someone had to bring in the coal and kindling, remove the ashes, and light the fire early each morning. My brother and I were responsible for these chores, from chopping the kindling to lighting the fire. We DID have electricity and indoor plumbing by this time.
The roads were unpaved, therefore dusty in dry weather and very muddy when it rained. On a muddy day the few people who owned cars would likely get stuck in the mud and all available townspeople felt it their duty to help “get them out”. There is a hill on Asbury Street, and as our house was on the corner of George and Asbury, many times on a rainy day someone would get stuck, providing my brother and me with an opportunity to watch the unfolding drama from a window. Sometimes it could get pretty interesting.
We walked to church, with a nickel tied in the corner of a handkerchief for the offering. Nickels were very precious then. Sunday School was fun, and a time for learning. We memorized a Bible verse each Sunday and we loved singing the songs.
We also walked to school -- by then called Palmer-Stone -- and in a new building. As in the early part of the century, students were taught morals, character, honor, and a strong work ethic. We had math drills and weekly spelling bees. We learned to speak to our class on topics assigned to us and to write in cursive. The teachers weren’t satisfied until we wrote “with a good hand”. At recess we played games on the playground with the teachers. The girls liked Hop-Scotch and jumping rope. The boys favored marbles. We played group games such as Fox and Hounds, Red Rover, and a very old game which was a favorite, Bum Bum Bum. Most of us liked school.
Food was mostly produced at home, and those with gardens or garden space shared with those without. In the summer the women stood over kerosene or wood stoves, in almost unbearable heat, canning peaches, beans, tomatoes, blackberries, etc. that had been picked and prepared by all members of the family. Trips to the peach orchard at Mansfield were a special treat for us children, and picking blackberries was certain to be a required summertime activity. Blackberries were needed for making blackberry jelly to spread on hot biscuits and they were canned for making blackberry pies.
Blackberries for our family were often picked on the vacant lot behind our house. Huanne Burnett’s house is on that lot today. We would rise early, and making sure to wear a shirt with long sleeves to protect our arms, we took our empty lard buckets outside and walked through the dewy grass to the thick undergrowth of the lot next door. There the berries thrived in a mass of stickery vines, just waiting for us, ripe and luscious. As we filled our buckets we couldn’t resist eating some of the cool, sweet berries, always looking forward to a bowl of berries with milk and sugar as a special treat at our evening meal.
In cold weather some people had hogs to slaughter. A hog-killing could turn into a community event, with many people helping to prepare the meat. My family had no hogs, so my knowledge of this procedure was limited to what I watched at my aunt’s house when my family went to help. Leftover fat was used to make lard and soap. Sometimes we brought some of the fat home, cut it into smaller pieces and rendered it into lard, leaving bits of hard residue in the bottom of the pot. This residue is called “cracklins”. The lard was used to make soap in the wash pot outside. We used the soap to do the laundry, which was done by hand in the backyard and hung on the clotheslines to dry. The “cracklins” were used for “cracklin” bread which was especially good with turnip greens on a cold winter day.
There were less than a dozen children around my age in my Oxford neighborhood, and we played all over town. We walked the dusty streets, pulling our wagon full of dolls; we made playhouses under the trees in the backyard; we played paper dolls on front porches. We played board games – Checkers and Parcheesi, especially. We rode bicycles when one was available, and, on occasion, saddled up my cousin’s horse, Bill, and learned to ride a little, but often getting thrown off in the clover patch that covered the lot where Miss Emmie Stewart’s house had stood. The Post Office occupies that lot today. We tried to make kites using newspaper and string saved from mail order packages, but we seemed never to be able to get them to fly. We played baseball on the church lawn and checked out the candy counter at Mr. Harwell’s store, if we were fortunate enough to have a nickel, making choices from the penny candy. A nickel’s worth would fill a small “brown paper sack”.
We looked forward to Bible School in the summer. There was lots of singing and we listened to Bible stories. We enjoyed the games and crafts and the refreshments. Occasionally there were birthday parties with Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Go In and Out the Window. Group games were fun for us.
Our houses were often too hot in the summer to be comfortable until late evening after the sun went down, and so families gathered on porches to sit and visit in the early evenings. Many porches had chairs for rocking. Sometimes there were beans to string or peas to shell and everyone helped until the job was done. Many times at our house there were relatives visiting from Texas or Virginia and the adults would reminisce or tell stories about our family’s history. There was no television, of course, so we children sat on the steps and listened and absorbed much of the family history and began to learn a little about who we were and where we came from. When we tired of this we caught lightning bugs and put them in a jar with air holes punched in the lid. (We released them when it was time to go inside to bed.) It was also fun to play Hide and Seek in the dusky evening light. We enjoyed the porches during the hot Georgia summers.
We were all poor but didn’t know it. Life was rich and full and interesting. It was also challenging, but we were taught the skills needed to meet the challenges.
Oxford provided me with the most wonderful thing in my life. Your daddy came to Oxford because of the college, and you know the rest of the story. I have my wonderful family and for that I give thanks every day.
I do hope you will read this book and enjoy it.
With much love,
Mama