When I was a little girl I lived on the edge of a little town called Newark, Texas.  I was the youngest of five children, and I had a great time living ‘out in the country.’ 

My oldest sister was called Ramona.  She was lovely and went to high school where she was on the drill squad.  She sewed beautifully and made her own uniform which was green corduroy and had a long full skirt.  At a football game, the girls would go out on the field and their long full skirts would swirl and float.  My big sister made me a matching outfit of green corduroy. Although I was only five, I felt so big and I thought everyone was looking at me—impressed that I was one of the team!

My only brother, at the time, was called Mickey.  As TV was just beginning, I was so proud that his name was the same as a very famous mouse who’d been starring in movies for many years.  He had a bicycle to ride to the little country school where my mother taught and coached girls’ sports.  Sometimes, it was Mickey’s job to take me to Mamaw Spraggins, the babysitter.  She lived across the highway and some railroad tracks and down on the other side of the tiny main street of our town.  Mickey would pick me up and set me on the handlebars of his bike and pedal me over in the early morning.  That was like being on a carnival ride, but I was not afraid.  He would never drop me!

I had another sister who came after Mickey, whose name was Marquita.  She was always busy planning stuff.  Once she begged to be allowed to take me to school on the day before Christmas holidays.  I was proud that my older siblings wanted me to go to school with them and excited to see what it was like.  In Marquita’s class; she’d talked the teacher into letting the children do a holiday talent show.  That was the first time I heard “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth.”

I don't remember a lot about it, but when we first moved into our house in the country it didn't have indoor plumbing!  That meant we had to go to the bathroom down a path outside in a little house called an outhouse.  The only time I remember going in it was when my brother, Mickey, was out hoeing in the vegetable patch and I crawled over the board that blocked the front door, pulled down my panties and realized there was a snake in the outhouse!  I jumped down and tried to crawl out the door, but my panties pooled around my ankles prevented me from exiting.  Mickey heard my wails and came to my rescue.  He killed that snake with his hoe and, of course, he was even more my hero.

It must have been soon after that my daddy dragged two old buildings up to the side of the house and put in a bathroom and a large den at the back of the house.  Dad was a fire fighter and worked 24 hours on at the Fort Worth Fire Department and 24 hours off at our house.  He took care of me on his days off and I followed him around while he worked on building the extra room and bathroom.  When he needed to go to the store to purchase an item to finish a project, he would let me stand right beside him on the car seat behind his shoulder.  In those days no one had car seats for children.  I always felt so safe and special standing beside him as we drove along with the windows down and his big tanned arm resting on the window sill.  Even when he was in his nineties, he’d get a dreamy look on his face and ask if I remembered when I’d ridden up beside me—his little Tahnanbaum.

The next to youngest daughter was Melany.  She was only four years older than me, but that put her into school when I still had to go to the baby sitters.   She could make me do anything if she promised to play with me.  Of course I was just a little tag-a-long sister and not much use to her.  We took baths together in the huge clawfoot tub in our new bathroom.  With so many of us, we didn’t put much water in the tub because hot water didn't last long.  One night, we were splashing around together enjoying the luxury of a tub, when Daddy came in with a beautiful Dalmatian dog on a leash.  Now, we never had our animals in the house, but I guess Dad was so glad to be bringing us a new dog that he just burst into the house with her.

We’d had a well-loved cocker spaniel named Emper Diller who’d been known by everyone in town.  In fact he went to school sometimes with Mickey, and I can remember him attending church with us as well.  If you’ve ever been to an old-fashioned church, you know that his howls blended well with the enthusiastic singing of the rest of the congregation.  Unfortunately, Emper finally was run over by a car and never recovered.  We were all devastated.

So I think Daddy was hoping we’d all love Dottie as we’d loved Emper.  And Melany and I were ecstatic.  She was a gentle dog as I remember and this is a picture of me standing out in the yard of the Newark house with her.  (If you look closely, you might see some resemblance between this little girl and some very special grandchildren!)

The Jewels

When I was a little girl living near Fort Worth in the little town of Newark, I asked my mother a very important question.  I was the fifth of seven children.  My daddy was a fire fighter and mother had trained to be a teacher.  At that time, mothers were looked down on if they worked outside the home.  In fact, in 1939 when my parents married, Mom had to quit her first teaching job.  Married teachers were not allowed. 

My favorite Christmas doll: Ramona made a bride dress and other clothes to go with the doll from Santa.  They were all packaged in an oatmeal cylinder.  I couldn't figure out ahead of time what could be in that shape of present.  I'm standing beside my baby sister, Camille.

It was very hard to feed and clothe five children on a fire fighter’s salary.  Even when Mom started teaching when I was about three, times were not easy.  I had an older cousin whose hand-me-downs greatly enriched my wardrobe.  My parents bought powdered milk so that we children would have milk to drink.  It was very cheap and perhaps not so tasty, but we didn't know what regular milk tasted like so we drank lots of it.  At Christmas, we received one toy and took great joy in it.

Mom holding me when I was a baby with big sister Melany nearby.

Anyway, my turn had come to ask my mom if we were rich. Turns out all my siblings had asked the same question at some point earlier so my mom had her answer ready.  She told me a story, and here it goes.

Once there was a very rich lady who wore lots of beautiful jewelry.  She couldn't wear all her gold and silver and fine gems so she took great pleasure in taking out all her jewelry boxes and looking at all she owned.  She would put on the lovely pearls and look at herself in the mirror with pride. One day her maid came in while she was admiring all her sparkling treasures.

She decided to give her maid a treat: she would show all her fine jewels to her.  So she called her over and said condescendingly, “I know you don’t have such beautiful things so I thought I’d let you look at mine.”  She felt she would even enjoy them more while watching her maid look longingly at the pretty things.

She was surprised to see her maid look at her with…could it be patience and kindness?  The maid stopped straightening up the things the lady had dropped on the floor and folded her hands in front of her apron.  It was almost as if she ‘put on’ a look of admiration as she watched her employer proudly show each piece of her extensive collection. When the lady was looking toward the jewels, she’d sneak a quick look around at all the work she would have to do later and perhaps looked a little less patient.

Finally, when the lady closed the last box, she asked, “Now, aren't you glad to see all these fine and beautiful things I have?  Perhaps someday you’ll be able to save up and get yourself a jewel.”

At this her maid straightened up and said, “Oh, no ma’am, I already have seven of the finest jewels you've ever seen.  Would you like to see my treasures?”

Her boss was taken aback and wondered why this very efficient and capable maid would find it necessary to lie to her.  There was absolutely no chance that she, with her neatly mended dress and run-down shoes owned seven jewels. 

“Well,” she said doubtfully, “Do you bring them with you to work?”

“No, ma’am,” the maid replied, “but I’d be happy to bring them to work with me tomorrow and show them to you.”

“Well…all right, if you think you can still get your work done…”

The next morning, when the lady had selected her jewelry for the day, just to make sure her maid’s jewels did not outshine her own, she came into the dining room for breakfast. 

She saw the maid beaming with happiness and pride.  “When would you like to see my jewels?” she asked.

Her employer sat down at the table and said, “I guess you might as well bring them in while I eat my breakfast.”

Left to right: Melany, Mickey, me, Ramona, and Marquita standing in front of our  house in Newark.

Immediately, her maid opened the door to the kitchen and waved in a line of seven children from a tall dark-haired girl of about 18 holding a baby girl, a boy just shorter, of about 15, carefully holding the hand of a young toddler boy to a girl at the end with two long blond pigtails.  They were dressed cleanly and neatly and each had a happy smile of their faces.  “These are my lovely jewels,” said the maid.  “I, too, love to look at them and hold them each and every day.  I think they just grow more valuable every year.  I think I’m the richest woman I know.”

The Sisters.  Left to Right: Marquita holding baby sister, Camille, Ramona, and Melany.  I'm in front wearing an Easter hat like the rest of the girls.  We're in front of our house on Bomar in Fort Worth.

As one might imagine, the lady was surprised and a little disgruntled by this display of wealth.  She tried to smile graciously and thank her employee for sharing her children with her.  But every time she took out her jewels to look and gloat over them after that, she couldn't help noticing how cold and unfriendly they were.

Mother didn't have to say much after she told this story.  Each and every one of us went away pondering over the fact that we were a very rich family because there were so many of us children. From that time to this, I've always understood what true wealth is.