Looking Back

By Betty Jo Baca

Since I was a small child I have loved storytelling. The right words could make you see things in your mind.

I want my short stories to open your mind to what it was like growing up in the 1950s and 1960s in a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee.

So we will be Looking Back at my Barnes family in Whitehaven after WWII, pre-Graceland, Yes, we grew up two miles from Graceland as the Rock and Roll age began, through the Cuban Missile Crisis, to the early Beatle Years and what life was like back then.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 20, 2009
• ISBN: 9781467046008

Betty Jo Baca

She enjoys living in Port Charlotte, Florida. She has been a Girl Scout, a Girl Scout leader of her daughter’s Troops, and the nature advisor for her son’s Boy Scout Troop. She loves all the animals she has observed in their natural environments. Each animal has special characteristics, and she studies them so she can learn about them and how they live. She is writing this short story book with the acquired knowledge of her sixty-eight years of observations of the animals she has watched. These stories are how she comprehends they would think about us humans watching them, with some humor and sarcasm that they might feel.

Book preview

© 2009 Betty Jo Baca. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 2/18/2009

ISBN: 978-1-4389-4112-7 (sc)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008912036

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

Contents

Looking Back

A Short Barnes Background to the

Stories you will be reading:

My First Cooking Set

Pat Could Whistle If…

My Red Cowboy Boots

Pat’s Buttered Biscuit

The Noise Making Worm

Aunt Nada’s Mansion

Nubbins

Imaginary Fishing

Making Snow for the Nativity

Our Mother’s Remedy for Poison Ivy

The First TV I Ever Watched

Where Did You Get Those Kittens?

A Day in History at Joyland

Pantaloons With Rick Rack

Johnny, the Lumber Merchant

Our Evening Dinner Guest

She’s Got Colored Hair!

The Gift of Sound

Mr. Bingle

Story Hour

Mikey’s Pet

How to Bathe and Not Get Your

Long Braids Wet

Go Pick Your Switch

I Can’t Have Three Day Measles!

Soapy

My 8th Birthday

Who Was I Named For?

Volkswagen Snow Fun

Our ID Bracelet

The Dirt Farm

Tree Climbing

The New Blue Detergent Bubble Bath

Biting Worms

I Bet I Can Wear Your Suit, Ann!

I Never Had a Barbie

Who Owns the Airport?

Wearing the Blue Angels Leather Cap and Long White Silk Scarf

Snow Ice Cream

Hook-On Shoe Skates

The Demise of the Green Feathered

White Leghorn Chicken

How I Learned To Ride a Bicycle

My Designated Parts of the Chicken

One Bet I Lost To Daddy

We Weren’t Latch Key Kids

Where Do You Hide From a Tornado?

Barnes’s Kids

How to Babysit a 1 1/2 Year Old

Our Play House

Kick the Can

Mona Lisa

Mona Lisa and the Easter Egg Hunt

What is a Half Brother?

How to Keep the Maid Working.

You’re Suppost to Feed the Turtle

Remember What We Used

Mommies Hat Box For?

Skipping Choir Practice Doesn’t Pay

Barney and His Harem of Hens

Riding the Bus to Memphis

What’s a 4-Party Line?

Mr. Eckerd

Court Square

Who Was the Turn-coat in the Family?

The Long Grey Braids

The Snow Man Building Challenge

Who Died?

My Lesson on Cows

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Who’s Following Who?

A Christmas I Will Never Forget

Train Trip to Linda Lee’s

Why Was the Carpet Matted in Front

of the Stereo?

Want to Go on a Dump Run?

The Memographed Cookbook

A Dedicated Girl of Thirteen

Roll up Window Curtains

How to Buff a Waxed Wood Floor

Wintering a Green Snake

Wood Snow Sleds Designed by Daddy

It’s 7 AM

One of my Treasured Possessions,

Elvis’s Autograph

Being Different

What Did Your Family Do When

J.F.K. Was Killed?

Radio in the Dark

The TV That Didn’t Work For Three Months

The Longfellow House

Blue Crabbing in the Gulf of Mexico

Our Great Grandparents Pictures

Hatching the Writing Spider Sac

Mrs. Jones and the Home-made

Swimming Pool

Shopping, Bargain Basement Style

Making Queen

The Ghost in the Church Basement

Meeting Anita Coleman

What Kind of Snake is it?

My Light Switch Plate Crystal Radio

Summer G.A. Meetings at Senator

Cobb’s House

Saturday Night Dances at the YMCA

My First Real Date

What Can Girls Do?

Charlie, the Deer

Cooking Underground

Burning the Trash

G. A. Pageant and the Escalator

The Danger of Plastic Zippers

My First Ride in an XKE

Mid-South Fair 4-H Sewing Competition

The Wet Mohair Sweater

Our Two Grandmothers

Drive-in Movies

Our Mother’s Opera Singer Friend

The Lavender Beta

You Use Beer for What?

Snipe Hunting

Being Too White To Tan

We’re Having Betty Jo’s

Chickens for Dinner

Girl Scout Art Show

Troop 367’s International Tea

Our Favorite Camping Foods

The Jell-O Isn’t Dead Yet!

Peeping Over the Fence into Graceland

Hoyt Wooten’s Bomb Shelter

Planting 200 Pine Trees in a Day

Cuban Missile Crisis Weekend

The Governor’s Chair

Hanging Out Clothes

The Fashions We Survived

Sergeant Mister Barnes

My First Time Sailing in a Lightning

Trying Out For Roundup

The Memphis Queen II Paddle Boat Ride

Singing at the Memphis Peabody Hotel

Who Taught Me to Drive?

The Inn Club

Rainbow Girls

What is Wheat Pasting?

Turning 18

Permission Slip to Cross Over

the State Line

Making a Nickel

Man or Gorilla?

The July 4th, 1965 Jones Reunion in Riverside Park

Mema’s Wedding Gift

So You’re Just Married

You Graduated from an Adult High School?

Looking Back

This book is about what I can remember of my childhood and growing up years. (1947-1966)

I was born in 1947 in the Deep South (Whitehaven outside Memphis, Tennessee and 2 miles from Graceland). I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s. I was the oldest of 4 sisters and our only brother died before he was born.

I cherish how I was raised (I didn’t at the time) and how my parents and other people did their best to bring us up in a Christian environment.

I hope you will enjoy my reliving our past experiences in Looking Back.

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Oct 1948, Betty Jo, Daddy and MommySpecial Thanks

I need to thank a few people for inspiring me to write and publish this book of short stories:

First, I need to thank Frances Fanning for challenging me to write this book that was inside me; as she put it.

Secondly, I want to thank my sisters for letting me not only use their real names but allowing me to share our family story.

My sister, Pat has helped me remember some of the stories that were important in how we were raised.

I also want to thank my Branch Manager, Aaron Scutt for giving me the freedom to write. (Lunch time is not always a time for eating.)

Cee or Carol Dene, if I wasn’t your memory, I might have forgotten some of the Girl Scout stories.

Magicman, you reminded me how much I loved to write.

Not last or least, I need to thank my life partner, Gene A. (Lex) Baca for giving me the time away from my household duties to type this book into my computer.

And thanks to all the people who have touched our lives and made us the people we are today.

A Short Barnes Background to the

Stories you will be reading:

I was born to Edwin Charles Barnes and his wife, Anne Mae Auten Barnes on June 9th, 1947. I was born in the Methodist Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. (I was the first Barnes to be born in a hospital.)

We lived with Daddy’s mother, Anna Florence McCage Barnes (We called her Bama.) in the 3rd house built after WWII in Whitehaven, Tennessee. It was on Mosby Road.

Daddy had bought the house for Bama before he met and married our mother.

Daddy’s father, Frederick William Barnes died of natural causes in 1944 and daddy’s older brother, Lamar Alvin Barnes died while navigating a B-59 during WWII so daddy felt he had to take care of his mother. Which he did during the remaining years of her life.

Patricia Anne or Pat was born January 2nd, 1949 while we lived with Bama and was brought home to this tiny 2 bedroom house (2 baby beds and their bed filled their room).

During the Korean War our parents bought a trailer. Daddy had been transferred to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and then to Murtle Beach, South Carolina.

When he was transferred back to Memphis, Tennessee we parked the trailer in Bama’s back yard and lived there till I was 6.

Daddy then bought mommy a new house on Blanchard Road, two blocks from his mother. We lived there till I was a sophomore in High School.

While on Blanchard Road, our parents lost our only brother and Virginia Leigh or Ginny was born October 27. 1955 into our family.

We then moved to Oakwood Drive where I was married to Glenwood Lee Ingham on December 26th, 1965 in the living room.

Denise Lynn or Denise was born February 13th, 1966. She was the last of the Barnes children.

I hope you will enjoy the stories of our Barnes family up to 1966.

Mosby Road

My First Cooking Set

One story my parents loved to tell about me was about my first cooking set.

I was about two and Pat was the new baby when I got my first cooking set. I must have been craving attention because I was used to being the center of attention from Mommy, Daddy and Bama before Pat.

So when I got this pots and pan toy cooking set, complete with dishes and silverware, I played with it for a while and pretended to make dinner. I served everyone imaginary food and got some attention.

The next morning it was time to cook everyone breakfast. I was doing all the things I had seen mommy and Bama do to make breakfast.

I found the toy egg beater and I wanted to pretend to beat up eggs. But I needed something to beat up.

I had this goldfish in a bowl of water with a piece of greenery. They watched me go to the bowl, put the egg beater in the water and before they could stop me I began to beat up the goldfish and the piece of greenery in the water.

I loved the egg beater and I was fast at beating things up with it.

Sadly the goldfish died. I was too young to know what I had really done. But I felt bad later when I heard what I had done at two years old to the goldfish with the toy egg beater.

Pat Could Whistle If…

Pat and I shared our wooden rocking chair with a chine in the rocker so when we rocked it would play a tune.

I bet our parents were glad when the chime wore out from us rocking so much in that chair.

There was another thing this chair was famous for. Pat could whistle if she sat in it just right and rocked.

I remember her saying, I can too whistle….just wait till I’m sitting right. And she would rock and change how she sat for hours in that chair and pucker up to whistle. Most of the time nothing happened but every now and then she did whistle a note.

I still can’t whistle very loudly but I keep trying like my little sister and one day maybe I can whistle loudly.

My Red Cowboy Boots

I don’t actually remember this but it was one of my parent’s favorite stories about me.

When I was about three, I had these bright red leather cowboy boots. I only took them off to take a bath or to go to bed. I loved my boots.

I loved the sounds they made as I walked. Especially the sounds they made when I walked on hard wood floors or in the grocery store or when I walked across the gas furnace grate in Bama’s hallway.

I think my parents were glad when I finally outgrew the cowboy boots. They weren’t very feminine. But they did last me a long time as the story goes.

The best part of the story about these red cowboy boots was I would say, I can do anything if I had on my Red Cowboy Boots. And I really thought I could do anything if I had my boots on.

Pat’s Buttered Biscuit

When I was three and Pat was almost two, our parents split up for a while. Mommy took us to live with her mother (Mema is what we called her) on a farm in Arkansas.

We were definitely city girls. We would follow Mema and her husband, Mr. Linear as they did their chores around the farm. We had a lot to learn about living on a farm.

One thing we learned was that Mr. Linear had a horse that was worth fifty dollars. We asked him why and he said it was because it could roll over. We sat by the pasture one afternoon waiting for it to roll over and finally it did.

Farm life was very different from what we had been used to. We loved all the different animals. We soon learned about some of the dangers of farm life too.

One morning after breakfast Mema asked us if we would like to see her feed the chickens. So out of the kitchen and down to the barn Mema and I went. Pat was slower because she was still eating her buttered biscuit. She tried to keep up with us as we walked down to the yard around the front of the barn.

Mema got the feed bucket and began to broadcast what was in it. The chickens came from everywhere and began scratching and pecking at the feed she was throwing. Mema lowered the bucket so I could help feed the chickens.

Pat finally caught up with us and she came to stand by me.

The chickens saw her biscuit and they began to fly at her hand and they pecked the half eaten buttered biscuit right out of her hand.

That scared her so badly all she could do was stand there screaming and crying.

Mema dropped the feed bucket and scooped Pat up in her arms.

It’s ok, Pat. She softly said, trying to calm the tiny girl down. We’ll go get you another biscuit.

Off to the house they went with Pat still crying.

I was left with all those chickens and the bucket of feed. So I started to throw out the feed like Mema had been doing.

Pat did not help feed the chickens after that. She was afraid of them.

Even later in life, we raised chickens for the eggs and to eat them. Pat never liked chickens. I couldn’t blame her. She still remembered them scaring her as they stole her buttered biscuit.

The Noise Making Worm

While at the Farm, life was different from living in the house with Bama. Our parents, Pat and I lived in one tiny bedroom at Bama’s.

It must have been hard on our parents living with Dad’s mother.

Mommy took us to live with her mother and step-father while daddy decided what he had to do to make his marriage work.

I think it took him a month to six weeks to decide what to do to keep his family and his mother happy.

He bought a trailer and he took orders to Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. where they could rebuild their lives.

Daddy came to pick us up and mommy had things sort of packed; in case daddy came to pick us up.

While the adults were getting things settled Pat and I went out to play.

We had this long dusty driveway to play in. We knew not to go out on the main dirt road.

We were playing in the dirt and we found this worm to play with. It was a really different worm too. It made noises and curled up in a knot.

We played with it for a while till daddy came to see why we were so quiet.

We showed daddy the worm and I remember he scooped both of us up in his arms.

He began to stomp on our worm till it stopped moving.

Girls, that wasn’t a worm that was a baby rattlesnake. That is why it was making noises. It was saying, stay away from me or I will bite you.

missing image file

Susie Tilley Jones, her daughter,

Bertha and a child in 1946 in McHue, Ark.

I was more careful about the worms I played with after that.

I am glad our daddy found us before we were bitten by the noise making worm.

Aunt Nada’s Mansion

Aunt Nada’s husband, Ollie Sparks owned the only automobile Dealership in Kennet, Missouri. He must have done very well because they appeared to be very wealthy to this small child.

I never remember meeting Uncle Ollie, so he must have passed away before I was born.

I was a very small girl when I went to Aunt Nada’s mansion. This is what I can remember of it.

The mansion seemed very large in comparison to Bama’s two bedroom house. It looked to me to be more than two stories tall with a east and west wing. There was a screened in side porch with steps that led to the yard and the pond.

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Bama Barnes

I remember climbing the staircase on a stormy night while lightning was striking. The lights flickering as the power surged and ebbed. I could see the lightning flashing in the large glass window at the top of the stairs and I could hear the thunder boom as the storm