Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 10

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GRANDDAD’S LIFE PART 10               Posted on January 15, 2013 by Martin Jones

Daddy was a generous man. He was a deeply religious man. He was a deacon in the church and was very active in the Masonic Lodge. In those days the church and the Lodge were influential in helping people, and there were plenty of people to help. I remember one family in Thalia that had about ten kids. I know that Daddy bought many of their groceries. I know of one time he brought two older men to live with us through the winter. They stayed in the cellar. All they had to do was keep wood for the stoves. Us kids thought they were OK. One of them played the Jew’s Harp, and the other would sing folk songs to us. Another time he brought home a young couple who stayed in the cellar. The woman was pregnant. They stayed with us until she delivered, and he bought them a ticket on the bus to get to where they needed to go. I relate this stuff to illustrate the kind of man my daddy was. My mother would sometimes complain that if he did not give everything away, we could have more. But I remember that we did not want for anything.

Daddy bought groceries by the case... and flour and sugar by the 50-pound bag. He always had a hog to slaughter, and a cow for milk. Mother made sure that every old hen that wanted to set was able to do so and raise a bunch of little chickens. We had plenty of meat and milk and eggs. Looking back, it is easy for me to see why we did better than most of the people at that time. My daddy was a hustler and a provider.

The depression began to let up, and Daddy bought a refrigerator that ran on kerosene. It was a huge thing that had 3 burners under it that had to be lit every night. When they were lit, we had to leave home because of the heat. I cannot tell you how that silly thing got cold and made ice, and even ice cream from heat of the burners. But it did. It must have exploded while we were gone one evening. We had gone down to our grandparent’s house. You could see the fire from their house, and we loaded up and started home. When we got there the whole house was afire. Daddy was able to reach through the front room door and drag out the sewing machine, which was sitting beside the door. That is all that we saved. All we had was the clothes on our backs. I had come in from plowing and took off my shoes and shirt. I did not even have a shirt or shoes.

Martin Frank Jones Blog Part 9

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GRANDDAD’S LIFE PART 9                 Posted on December 26, 2012 by Martin Jones

In the late l920’s or early l930’s as his family grew it became necessary for my dad to provide a larger house. There was a 90 acre, more or less, farm that bordered the town of Thalia. It was owned by J.H. Laneer who lived in Crowell. There was a pretty nice 4 room house on it. I remember also the smoke house, and a big barn with a loft for storing feed for the animals. Daddy rented the land and bought himself a team of 4 horses, and we moved to what we called up on the hill. It is important to note that he did not give up his trucking business. He did a lot of the farming at night. This all happened at the beginning of the great depression. Not only was daddy working night and day providing for his family, he was making sure his father and mother were taken care of. They moved into his 2 room house and lived there until after the depression.

The depression worsened, and Daddy leased his trucks to the State, which was leasing trucks to build highways etc. At that time the state did not own trucks or mowers for the highways. He also bought a small tractor with a mower and leased it to the state to mow the sides of the highways. I do not remember how many trucks he had when the depression hit, but I know that at one time he had bought 3 trucks, and his 3 brothers were driving them. I do not remember us having to do without any thing. I guess we were considered along with the men with mail routes and other government jobs. Compared to the population I guess we were considered rich. Daddy was fortunate to have been in the trucking business and get on with the state. I remember him having trucks working on highway 70, Highway 287, and the highway being built between Lubbock and Wichita Falls.

Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 8

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GFANDAD’S LIFE NUMBER 8              Posted on November 29, 2012 by Martin Jones

During school time, he would remove the bed of his truck and install a wooden school bus body on it and run a bus route. I remember one cold winter morning that his truck would not start. The way to start cars those days, was to insert a crank into the front of the engine. It had to be turned by hand. He even built a fire under it to try to warm it up thinking maybe if it was not so cold it might start better. No luck. He removed the crank and gave that truck a good beating with the crank. The scars were still there when it was ready for the junk pile. One of Daddy’s faults was his high temper. When his temper flared up his language became a little foul. It was during this time that daddy had an accident one night while working at the gin. Actually, it was when I was a baby. He got caught in the gin saws of one of the stands, and almost lost his life. He ended up getting his left hand and arm almost mutilated to the point of amputation. Dr. Clark and Dr. Hill at Crowell were taking care of him. Dr. Clark wanted to amputate, but Dr. Hill thought they could save all the hand and arm except the left thumb. After a long battle with infection, lack of healing and pain, the arm began to heal and movement in the fingers began to come back, and it was saved. There was limited use of the fingers but at least they were still there, and he learned to use them very well. He was naturally left-handed and had to learn to write and use his right hand as the primary hand.

Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 7

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GARANDAD’S LIFE PART 7       Posted on November 21, 2012 by Martin Jones

GRANDDAD’S LIFE PART 7
I think that my father must have been born into the first generation of Joneses that did not have a son named Martin. Daddy was a very enterprising man. They tell a story on him when he was a kid. He was with the group pulling bolls (harvesting cotton by hand and putting it into sacks which were dumped into a wagon to be taken to the gin.) A cold front blew in. Carroll told the bunch that the first thing he was going to buy with his earnings was a good pair of long handles. As he grew older, he managed to find him a way of earning a living without pulling bolls. He was an admirer of his grandfather, Martin E.B. Jones. When his grandfather was older, he retired off the Indian Reservation. By that time Frank McNair, my other grandfather, who was a Baptist preacher in the area, became acquainted. I do not know how Martin E.B. Jones managed to have a little nest egg laid by, but evidently, he did. At an early age Daddy and his grandfather became owners of a truck, and Daddy started in the trucking business. He hauled cotton bales to the compress, and cotton seed to Vernon. He would go to Bridgeport, which was some distance east of Thalia and get a load of coal and peddle it out. I have forgotten whether he and his grandfather were partners, or he borrowed the money from him. But knowing my Daddy I would bet that he soon bought out his grandfather and got out of the boll pulling business. When there was nothing to haul with his truck, or even when there was, he would get a job at night working at the gin. Trucking in those days was a daytime thing. Trucks had no headlights. His first trucks did not even have a cab.

Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 6

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GRANDAD’S LIFE PART 6       Posted on December 28, 2012 by Martin Jones

My father, Joe Carroll Jones, was born Feb. 19, 1902. He was a special kind of man. I hope that I can do him justice writing about him. My mother, Ava Ella McNair was born April 21, l904. She too was a very special mother and also deserves the same justice in writing about her. My mother and father were married December 8, 1923. Mothers father was the preacher at the Baptist Church. Daddy attended school at Thalia. Mother graduated from Thalia High School. When they decided to get married, they came to Mother’s father for his blessings, and wanted him to perform the marriage ceremony. He refused to give his blessing and would not marry them. I do not remember his reason, if I ever knew why. I think Mother’s father probably thought she could do better. I am glad that he was wrong. They had 5 children together, 4 girls and l boy. Reitha Jo Jones was born January 26, l925. Jo was born with birth defects. She was badly deformed in her facial make up and upper body. Jo’s situation brought much pain and hardship upon my mother who worked hard and handled the situation heroically. I won’t say anymore about this until latter, maybe. I might decide to elaborate on Jo later in this writing.

Martin Frank Jones was born February 25, l926. Carolita Jones was born January 31, 1928. Doris Marie Jones was born Nov. 23, l929. Dorthea Faye Jones was born Oct 2, 1931. My Father and Mother lived and raised their family at Thalia, Foard County, Texas.

Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 5

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GRANDDAD’S LIFE PART 5     Posted on November 3, 2012 by Martin Jones

The Great Depression came along and times became very hard for everyone. I can’t remember if it started before or after the janitor’s job at the school. But I remember that my granddaddy had to apply and get on the WPA. This was a work project that the federal government paid workers to do public work. I think they got $21.00 per month. They worked doing things like building schools, bridges, roads and highways. And even building out houses. The out houses were state of the art things with a pit dug under a concrete floor, with a nice seat with a lid and a vent pipe out through the roof. Along about this time daddy moved in a little 2 room house onto the back of our lot for my grandparents to live in. They continued to live there until around 1950, when granddaddy died. When he died, daddy moved the little house up closer to his house, and grandmother lived there until daddy retired and moved to Crowell. Even then he moved this little house to Crowell and put it on a lot close to his house. Grandmother lived there with my mother mostly taking care of her for several years, until my sister Faye and Bill moved to Canadian, Texas to be a game warden. They had a house next door to mother and daddy. Then Grandmother moved into their house and lived there until she was moved into a nursing home in Abilene, where her daughter Lucy lived. She died there around 1984. I think that she was about 90 years old.

Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 4

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GRANDDADS LIFE PART 4      Posted on October 8, 2012 by Martin Jones

Grandmother was a really demanding person. Granddaddy pampered her and did most of the housework. I always considered her to be a hypochondriac. She seemed to always have something the matter with her. It is a good thing that she had granddaddy because no other man would have put up with her. She however had a lot of friends among the women of the community. She always managed to have one in particular who lived in a nice brick house on a farm at the edge of town. Her name was Maggie Hammonds, and she was real good to grandmother. They regularly went pea picking at various farms. My sisters called her a trapester. (Someone who is always running around taking care of others business).

My sisters did not get along too well with Grandmother. But they always tried to get by her house when she had made tea cakes. She was the tea cake making queen. I remember there was a strict limit of one per kid. She seemed to have her favorites. One reason for this I think was that the other grandkids did not have as much as we always had. But I think that I was one of her favorites, and she was extra nice to me. If I needed a little petting, she was the one.

Daddy had built a little barn and corral (lot) on the back of the lot, and granddaddy continued keeping a milk cow there. I came to know my granddaddy and was real fond of him. He was not an outgoing man, but he loved his family and he loved me. I do not ever recall him having a car. I don’t think he ever even drove one. He must have either walked or used horses and a wagon for transportation. But that was before I knew much about him.