Story 3

Ma was the last child of the family of eight. She was born in 1898 in Crenshaw County, AL. She would always say that she was the last child born on the last day of the last month of the next to last year of the century! She has always told us all that her mother was of Native American descent from the Milton/Crestview Area of FL. I have been unable to document the Native American line. (After 23 and Me DNA test AND Ancestry DNA test, I have learned that I am 100% Western European, so the Indian story does not fly.)

Her father was Joe Hudson. She said he was deeply religious. He would read the Bible and pray every morning and evening. He would say “the sun doesn’t get too high, and the cotton doesn’t get too white to allow time for prayer.” They were “old-time” Methodists. I believe that they were more like today’s Pentecostals.

She told a story of her family traveling by wagon to visit her grandparents in Florida when she was a small girl. On the trip, it rained heavily and her youngest brother, Jody, got his shoes wet. That night, they placed Jody’s shoes by the fire to dry out. The next morning, his shoes had burned up. A tramp was passing by about that time and Ma’s father asked him if he knew a place to get Jody a pair of shoes. The tramp tried to tell him but was a stutterer. After several attempts to tell Ma’s father, he yelled in a sing-song voice, “Oh, I could walk to hell and back before I could tell you.”

Another story she told was about working for eight cents a day when she was a young girl. She bought a dresser with her earnings. It is hard to believe that you could buy something such as furniture while working at 8 cents a day! She had that dresser until the flood in Elba in 1990, when she lost everything. She was not much older that this when she started dipping snuff. She would shred a small tree limb (sassafras? Or beech?) and use it to brush her teeth after her dip. She dipped snuff all her life. (Rooster and Beech-Nut.)

She told a chilling tale and I have searched old newspapers for authentication but have not been able to find it. It was of an old man who lived in the community. He owned a sawmill and had a reputation as being mean. He had a small black boy working for him, throwing logs into the furnace to run the mill. The child was not working fast enough to suit the man, so the man picked up the child and threw him into the furnace. He screamed and screamed until he died. They neighbors said that the man grew old and infirm, and, on his deathbed, he screamed that he was burning in the fire, to please pull him out. I still get chills every time I read this story.

Ma met Pa at a Brush Arbor Revival Camp Meeting. A brush arbor revival is a revival service that takes place under an open-sided shelter called an “arbor.” It is constructed of vertical poles driven into the ground with additional long poles laid across the top as support for a roof of brush, cut branches or hay, according to Wikipedia. He was from Zoar community, which is almost due north of Elba in Coffee County AL. They were walking home after the revival and Pa was swinging his handkerchief. She made him stop because she had heard tales of boys having “something” in the handkerchief that they would swing into the air and let them take advantage of girls! Times never change!

Her father owned property on the county line of Crenshaw and Covington Counties. She called him a “liner.” She told me that she and Pa got married in the middle of the road, on the line. While attempting to find their marriage record, I contacted both counties and found it in Crenshaw County.

When they got married, Ma and Pa lived in the Zoar community, near his family. Most of his family is buried there in the Zoar Holiness Church Cemetery Elba Alabama They had a son, Grover, who was born in June and died in October. He is also buried there. All of this was before Ma’s 16^th birthday. I cannot imagine a young woman going through all that at that early age. She had eight more children. She kept house, cooked, washed in a washpot over a fire, sewed flour sack dresses and shirts for her family, tended a garden, and helped in the fields. In her “spare” time she quilted and learned to crochet, and it brought many hours of pleasure – and money- to her in her later years.

She had to wash clothes in a wash pot over the fire. After she had small children, she had difficulties keeping the children safe while she worked around the fire. All the kids wore dresses at the time (even Uncle Daniel), and she would set the bedstead on the tail of their dresses so that they could not get into stuff while she worked, and they would be safe.

She had her teeth pulled early in her adult life. She wore her upper dentures, but never wore the lowers unless she was eating something hard, and she needed them to chew. (Soft peppermint candy sticks with crackers – was a favorite of hers) She did not drink anything except coffee and a little water. She did not drink soft drinks, except a time or two a year, she would have a “NuGrape” drink and cheese crackers or a “bob” as she called it.

While living on the farm, she and Pa raised vegetables for the table. One year, Pa moved the cow pasture to a different spot, and she planted cucumbers in that old spot. That summer, she had an abundance of cucumbers. She ate, pickled, shared with everyone who would take them, fed to the hogs, and still had too many. The rolling store, a bus-like truck that drove through the countryside and carried canned goods to the rural area, came by. She told me that she could buy two tall cans of salmon for a quarter from the rolling store. One day she was feeding cucumbers to the hogs and the store driver asked her what she was doing. She explained, and he made a deal with her to exchange his stuff for her cucumbers – he could sell them in town. They made the arrangement, and she supplied him with cucumbers the whole summer.

She would get flour from the rolling store. It came in floral print cotton sacks. She would accumulate “like” flour sacks until she had enough to make her girls and herself dresses. She would make the boys shirts out of the patterned fabric. She could buy thread, buttons, and notions from the rolling store. Others would also trade chickens to the rolling store in exchange for groceries/notions. The rolling store would have a cage on the front or back to carry the live chickens. It was like Amazon on wheels!

She told me a story of Pa and others trying to kill a cow for beef. Somehow the cow got away after they had tied it up and cut its throat. It bucked and ran until it died. After that, she could not eat beef for years and I remember that she still did not enjoy beef in her older years.

They move to the Damascus community and share-cropped for an “old Dr. Braswell.” Under one of Roosevelt’s farm programs, they eventually were able to buy their own farm. If I remember correctly, they purchased the farm from the same Dr. Braswell. That is where they lived when I was born. I lived with them after my mother died (when I was 7 months old).

She told me about trying to learn to drive. She just could not get the hang of it and ended up stuck in a sand pile. She never tried to drive again; although, she told Pa how to drive, long after he was incapable of seeing how to drive due to advancing glaucoma. She would say, “Willie, go to the left, you’re on the wrong side of the road- Willie stop, there is a red light, Willie, you are gonna run off the road.” Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach.” (not true, but funny)

They sold the farm when I was about 5 (1952.) (I cannot remember these dates too well. I may have erred in some of my previous time frames.) They lived in Elba a short while and then moved to Enterprise. Pa did a few different things – pulp wood was one that was short lived. Ma gave me the impression that Pa was not the most industrious person she had ever met! They bought a house at 106 Edgewood Dr, Enterprise AL.

He then opened a little grocery store called Hancock Store at the corner of Daleville Avenue and Highland Drive. It was tiny. He was not there too long, then got a store at the corner of Bell and Hildreth in Enterprise. He then moved to what is now Cutt’s on Glover Ave in front of the Rec center. Then he moved to an old gas station building that had an attached house on Hwy 27, near where Publix is now. Then he moved to Murphy’s store out on Damascus Road. He rented from a Ms. Murphy for several years. He stayed there until he retired.

Ms. Murphy would come up every morning and drink 8-10 soft drinks (mostly Cokes). She would line them up along the Coke box and then pay when she went home. She also took a “Goody” powder with almost every drink. It is a wonder she did not have bleeding ulcers!

The Murphy store had an attached house, too. There was also a “bottle storage room” for soft drink bottles and spare drinks. There was extra space in the storeroom, so Ma moved her sewing machine into the room and let me loose sewing up a storm. Ma taught me how to quilt – or at least to make quilt squares. She taught me string quilt and twelve square patterns. I must have made 4 or 5 quilt tops that summer. She would then quilt the tops into quilts. I am sorry I never learned to quilt them. When she lived on Brunson Hill in Elba, after they retired, the house had a huge dining room. She hung a quilting frame from the ceiling, and she would quilt in there. She always stayed busy doing something. She made a quilt for every one of her grandchildren. She used polyester scraps to make Jason (my son) a “bow-tie” quilt top. We have never gotten it quilted, but I keep it in hopes I will do it one day.

Ma would help Pa at the store, but never learned (refused to learn might be a better phrase) to use the electric or manual cash register. She used a brown paper bag to add up the total of each order – the “old timey way.” Ma only had a 2^nd or 3^rd grade education. She was a very smart woman considering her limited education. She raised eight children of her own – then me, and several more of us grand young ‘uns. Every year for Christmas, she made everyone’s favorite thing. Apple tarts (fried apple pies) – my favorite, coconut cake (Aunt O’s favorite thing), chocolate cake, egg custard (Awford’s favorite thing), sweet potato pie (My Daddy’s favorite thing), peanut cake (my OTHER favorite thing.) I remember a few other things she made that were so good and cannot be replicated. “Double Done,” (stale biscuits mixed with eggs, sugar, milk, and cocoa, then baked like brownies); Sweet Potato Cobbler, and her scrambled eggs were the best! She never had a written recipe; therefore, we have been unable to replicate some of those delicious tastes. Joseph, my sweet husband, has almost mastered the apple tarts!

After retiring from the grocery business, they lived on Brunson Hill in Elba for several years. The house was rented from Mr. and Ms. Sollie Brunson. It was on a beautiful, terraced lot and had lush St Augustine grass and tons of pecan trees. Ma would pick up pecans (long before the handled stick-baskets were invented). (Remember my comment about how limber she was – till her dying day!) She would crack the pecans on a brick with a hammer. Every year she would give each of her children a 1 lb. coffee can of shelled pecans for Christmas.

One year, I remember her giving every child, in-law, and grandchild a silver dollar for Christmas. I still have mine.

Ma always wore and apron and a bonnet. She would take off her bonnet and sometimes her apron when she went somewhere. She wore big heeled lace-up black shoes when she went out. She bought them at Mixon Brothers in Enterprise. She wore that style shoes for as long as I can remember. She always wore dresses, and they had long sleeves or ¾ sleeves.

When Ma was a young girl, she learned to play the old time organ and the piano.  She always played whenever she was near one.  Awford gave her a small electric organ for Christmas one year and she played and played. 

One year, while they lived on Brunson Hill, they had a falling out. Pa was getting senile; he was blind due to glaucoma and was in general bad health. He had always had a “mighty” attitude and I am sure his health issues exacerbated it. I do remember that at Christmas time that year, Uncle Daniel, and Aunt Odell insisted that we put up a big Christmas tree and celebrate – we almost never had a tree at Ma and Pa’s house. After Christmas, Uncle Daniel begged me to try to talk Pa into going into a nursing home. They thought that I would be able to convince him since I was his favorite! I talked him into it, but he did not stay more than a week or two. I always felt guilty about that.

Some of Ma’s grandchildren were visiting her on Brunson Hill one summer. They were playing on the beautiful rolling, terraced St Augustine grass. They rolled down the hills and had a blast. The landlord lady came over and jumped on Ma for letting those children “mess up” her grass! Of course, the grass was unharmed; but Ma’s pride was damaged. She immediately went to Kendricks’s apartments (low-income housing for seniors.) She managed to snag a 3-bedroom apartment for her and Pa.

They lived there for several years. Pa died in 1977 and Ma continued to live there until the big Elba flood in 1990. I was so grateful that my dad was able to get to her and get her and her medications out of there before the dyke broke! She lost everything she owned, including the precious dresser she had earned when she was a child. She lost all her pictures. Not too long before the flood, I had visited Ma. I was living in Rainbow City AL at that time and did not get to see her as much as I would have liked. I was looking through her pictures and sorta kinda stole a picture of Pa when he was about 10 years old. I took it with the intent of having duplicates made for the family. After she lost everything in the flood, I was so happy that I had the photograph! I have since had it copied and shared it with all the family.

Lester Cook, daughter Barbara, Pa (Willie David Cook), Ma (Mittie Lue Pinkey Hudson Cook), me, Elaine Cook Willmann and my son, Jason Cook Tomberlin (December 1973)

There was a strange happening during that flood. The water was at least three feet high in Ma’s entire apartment. She had an 8×10 photograph of my Uncle Audley (who had passed away in 1981) on a table. That table had floated all the way to the back of the apartment and the picture was undisturbed. It was still standing on the table when they were able to get in to clean out the place.

Ma was never quite satisfied after losing everything in the flood. Daddy fixed her a nice mobile home near another of his siblings, but she did not like it there. She then moved back to newly renovated Kendrick’s apartments, but she could not get the same apartment, so she was never happy there. She ended up “giving up housekeeping” and living “around with the children.” She lived with Aunt Pauline for a long time. She was such a finnicky eater! She would eat a donut or honeybun for breakfast, and Aunt Pauline had to cook peas, okra, and cornbread every day for her lunch. As her health deteriorated, she moved to a nursing home in Northport.

Ma and 4 of her children while living with Pauline in Northport, AL

Daniel Cook, Pauline Cook Burroughs, Ma, Odell Cook Sturdivant and Connie Pearl Cook Helms

There are so many interesting stories about Ma. She was very precious to me. I wanted to put down my memories of her so that future generations can get a “feel” for who she was as a real person. I hope that you felt that, too.

This is exactly how I remember her.

Mittie Lue Pinkey Hudson Cook – Ma

12/31/1898-12/24/1996