When Pearl Harbor was bombed we heard about it on the radio, of course. I was very aware of the bombings and afraid on that Sunday. In the afternoon I was playing outside by the front steps of our rented house when a squadron of airplanes took off from the airfield in Victoria. I was terrified and ran in the house practically screaming because I thought that we were going to be bombed!
When it came time for us to go to school, we bought a house in what you might call the suburbs of Victoria – at least it was an area of new but rather modest “ranch style” homes.
In Victoria we lived in a very nice sub-division where the O’Conners, the Yorks, the Alkecks were owners of oil fields and oil refineries; the Lentz family were owners of a large grocery(s); a banker and his family of five children lived right behind us. The neighborhood was filled with children and most of the time they came to play at our house since we had a large metal swing/rings/acting bar set and I had a large playhouse which mother had built for us under the reasoning that “it would be an extra bedroom for guests” should we need it. Of course it was immediately filled with tables and chairs, a standing blackboard, dolls, doll houses, etc.
Bob was enrolled in the Catholic boys’ school which was right across the side street from us. The gym was the first building and the classrooms were built past the gym for at least a block or more – really two without a break.
Since my birthday was October 3rd I was not allowed to start to school because the state of Texas mandated that a child HAD to be 6 by September the first in order to be enrolled in a public school. Because of this ruling and because I was completely “ready” for school Mother enrolled me in piano lessons, dance lessons (tap was my favorite!) and art lessons with the nuns on Saturdays at the Catholic girls school across town. Bob was also signed up for art lessons which seemed to consist mainly of painting fields of bluebonnets with a great deal of help from the nuns. She also bought a used spinet piano and placed it in the living room for practice. When I announced that I wanted to be a dancer, Mother immediately concocted an end to the lessons. She and Arlis had decided that since my colitis episodes would probably keep me out of school rather frequently that I should have both tonsils and appendix operations before I started. Since the operations would mean recuperating in bed for a while, they became an excuse for ending the dance lessons.
When I became six (and almost seven) I attended Juan Lynn School which was for White children and relatively near our house (six to eight blocks). Mother taught me how to ride the bus which I caught on the other side of the Catholic school, but I only rode if it were raining. Mostly I walked to and from school. In the first grade I had a wonderful teacher who retired at the end of the year in a very impressive “ceremony” for her fifty years of teaching. She received a gold watch for her long service. One of the most impressive events in my first grade mind was when she took two new little children into the bathroom which was behind a door in our classroom and gave them a bath. For my birthday that year Mother brought cupcakes or cookies for all the children in the class. This was “big!” – remember that sugar was rationed.
My second grade teacher was an artist, so we learned about many artists and their paintings that year. We had notebooks with lined pages to paste in pictures of the artists and/or famous paintings by these classic artists with a few lines written by us under them. Writing was somewhat difficult for me, so I was sent home with a manuscript book over the summer to practice. In the first grade I was asked to sing for the PTA meeting – The Londonderry Aire – I sang the first part well but forgot some of the words and was horribly embarrassed.
Mother took us the church “every time the doors opened” we felt. She even recruited the children in the neighborhood – especially during the “revivals.” However, she was not always area of the time! On one such occasion she filled the car with children from the neighborhood and marched us down the middle aisle into the front section. As soon as we were seated the pastor asked the congregation to please stand for the final benediction! She also volunteered me for the choir. I sang with the all adult choir almost every Sunday morning. It seemed that we rehearsed during the Sunday School hour. I remember the pastor coming in just before the church service was to start and we were all in our robes.
He would tell a joke or jokes and then lead us in a prayer. I remember being very disconcerted about his jokes – feeling that they were inappropriate before a religious service.
During the third grade a traveling opera company came to town with “Hansel and Gretel” which was performed in a large auditorium. I was asked to be one of the children singers in the “When at night I go to sleep fourteen angels watch do keep, etc.” I loved singing it. That third grade year I also got a reputation for being very smart because I got all the answers correct on the state intelligence test. This accomplishment followed me throughout my public schooling – even through high school in Waco!
The war years: Arlis with his flat feet and many allergies was not drafted, which was a huge disappointment for him. Instead he was given a huge medical assignment as he was the only young doctor in town. His “practice” had a radius of 150 miles – he was allowed gasoline for his car which at the time was a huge “perk.” It helped that he spoke German and Spanish because these were his patients in farms and small towns around Victoria. He even was called upon to treat the sick horses and/or livestock. He gave one horse a rather large dose of penicillin and the horse pulled through. He most often was “paid” on the barter system. He bought a large freezer which he placed in the garage in which we kept meats, large commercial-size metal cans of ice cream, and other food commodities. We also had chickens for which we had a hen house and a wire coop in the back yard. It was just beyond our “Victory Garden” of strawberries and a few other vegetables.
Arlis bought a large ranch which stretched back through the woods to the Guadalupe River with a good sized ranch house, barns and stable for horses. He brought his mother and father there from their home in Temple and bought milk cows and milk separators (or brought them from Temple) so that Papa could continue his work there. Mammy continued with cooking and making butter with an old wooden churn. She had me make butter, too, and I realized how long it took to keep moving the wooden pole up and down in the cream. She also had an old ”footer” sewing machine on which she helped me make doll clothes and which she used to make clothing for herself as well.
But the ranch had a herd of goats which were more conducive to the climate and needed less intensive work than cows. Goats, however, are unlike cows in that when a mother goat dies no other goat will “adopt” the baby and it usually dies. This event caused us to get another pet. The goat lived in our kitchen and I taught it to drink from a special bottle which we had to make since baby goat nipples were not available commercially. Later I taught the baby goat to butt when its horn buds became visible. Every morning before school and every afternoon after school I would play with the goat and loved it. The freedom of the kitchen and living with humans ended, however, one Sunday when Grandmother called from Waco, as she did most every week. We were in the middle of our breakfast of oatmeal, fruit, milk, etc. and left it to talk with Grandmother. When we returned the goat was on the top of the table having eaten the fruit and the oatmeal and sampling everything else. The next day or week the goat returned to the ranch to live with the rest of “its kind” the next week! (Unhappily, we learned that during the spring or summer while Arlis was preparing for his usual big barbecue party for our friends and his work associates he instructed Vernon, Mother’s driver, to get a goat to add to the meat selections of chicken and beef. Of course, the only goat that didn’t run away was our little one who was used to human companionship! We cried upon learning this, but learned a lesson about farm life!)
(Frank Beard, Joe McClain, Bobby and Patsy Nail – older generation (usually Grandmother, Auntie Alma, Mother, and Aunt Maude) played dominoes, and often “eighty-four” dominoes, but really “cut-throat” dominoes, very competitive. (At times Daddygrand would be pressured into being the fourth, but he was always glad to yield to Alice Louise as the fourth.) I would read, watch, or just listen to the talk. During these evening games I learned a great deal about Aunt Maude and Uncle Mitchell and their difficulties adjusting to living and farming in West Texas. Their stories of the sun rises, sunsets, and the vistas of the flat land broken only by the height of a windmill in the distance or nearby were very interesting. (Years later Paul Baker told similar tales of the bareness of the seemingly endless flat land to the far horizon in theater classes.) In the domino evenings I picked up on Auntie Alma’s distaste or feelings about her brother and sister-in-law’s life and lively hood in their early married life.
We children played Canasta endlessly, it seemed, most often setting up a card table on our Grandparents front porch. And then there were pick up supposedly “touch” football games. However, I was always assigned to be the Center position opposite Bob on the other team. The first thing he always did was to push my head and upper body down into the grass and run over me to get to the ball. It was NO FUN for me and I always protested even playing with them, but Bob would beg and promise NOT to push me down even though that promise was never kept!
Mother moved Bob and me to Waco in the 50’s when she filed for divorce from Arlis. We lived with my grandparents at 1625 Morrow Avenue. Mother and I shared the bedroom and adjoining bath that had been Eleanor’s. Bob had the bedroom and bath that Horace and Rufus had shared when they were at home there. I started the fourth grade at Sanger Elementary school which was a block from my grandparents and right across the street from Auntie Alma’s beautiful Victorian home. Sanger was the same school which ALL of the ER Nashs had attended and the same principal and many of the same teachers were still there! My fourth grade teacher had taught Rufus and reminded me every day as she hugged me, much to my embarrassment and chagrin.. Miss Nina, the Principal, was my mother’s first grade teacher. She always wore bright colors -long full skirts, bright colored blouses and many necklaces bracelets, and even rings. Her hair was reddish (probably with the help of a little dye). She always walked fast up and down the halls. She, too, liked to hug. Because we lived so close I often went home for lunch with Daddygrand, Grandmother and Mother in the fourth grade. But I also took my lunch at times, mostly when I was in the 6th grade.
One of my favorite school activities was the all-school May Fest. All the children in the school participated by primarily square dancing or round dancing in the program, there was a May Queen and King, snacks and food that could be bought, and general good times for all. For weeks, it seemed, we went outside and practiced our dances and then bright, colorful skirts and blouses were made and worn. The boys had bright colored sashes, dark pants and white shirts. There were bleachers set up for parents to observe the festivities and booths around the perimeter of the school grounds.
When they first became available Grandmother and Daddygrand bought a television – black and white, of course. We all gathered around it in the living room (it was placed in front of the fireplace which was rarely used) on Sunday evenings to see the Lawrence Welk show primarily or any other musical show or important talk by a president which they deemed educational. These always ended early enough for us to get to bed on time.
I was allowed to play with the toys and clothes/gowns stored in the walk-in cedar-lined attic. I loved playing with the plug-in electrical stove which I am sure must have belonged to Eleanor. It was one of those which “cooked” cakes in cupcake-type containers with a bright and hot light bulb. I really don’t remember eating any of the “cakes” but I do remember the warnings against burning myself. I was also allowed to play “dress up” in the various dresses, evening gowns, etc. in the attic. There was an amazingly heavy all-metallic gold and bright rust-color long dress that I especially remember from the 20’s as I recall. There were other long gowns, furs, hats, and dresses from a variety of periods. These may have whetted my love of costume and period design in the theater. Another past time which I loved was roller skating in the big round turning area just outside of the garage where the cars were kept. I would take the wind-up Victrola down and the records for it. I would put on my roller skates, wind up the Victrola and then skate to the music around and around the upper driveway for hours.
Another silly but rather fun pastime was getting into “statue” positions when we saw cars coming down Morrow Avenue and hold the positions as they passed by. We played this game both on Grandmother’s front high area between the flower beds and the street level sidewalk and when we moved next door to the house that “Daddy and Ba” left to Alice Louise.
When walking home from Sanger School I would often be invited by Auntie Alma to come and sit on her porch which went around about half of the house in one of the rocking chairs she kept there. She had a large lighted fish tank full of beautiful fish and a bull dog who would often be resting or sleeping on the porch. We would drink cool lemonade and talk about school and what was happening in my life but usually the talk would turn to advice for me from her about being a “young woman.” She told me about choosing a perfume and matching it with a bath oil so that one would have a “personal scent.” She told me that Uncle Joe complimented her on how delightful she smelled and asked her about her perfume. She didn’t admit that it was a purchased perfume but told him that it was her “own personal scent.” Much later Glenn and I have laughed about my “own personal scent.” She also gave me a small white Bible with my name on it and said that she wanted me to carry it at my wedding.
Because Uncle Joe Mitchell was a Chrysler dealer he was able to obtain a big touring car with a top that would roll/fold back– one of the first in the nation and certainly in Waco, Texas. As we all now know a chemist who lived on Morrow just down the street from Grandmother and Daddygrand developed a formula that was made into a rather healthy drink called Dr. Pepper. As we all now know from the recent court fight over the rights to make it, it was first made and sold in Dublin, Texas. But because it was developed in Waco it was available at a drug store on the outskirts of Waco. On Sunday afternoons Uncle Joe and Auntie Alma would dress up and take their son and all the Nash children in that car with the top down to the drug store to buy and drink a Dr. Pepper. There is a wonderful picture of that car with the top rolled back and filled with the children.
–Louise Mosley Smith
E R Nash Sr. and Family 