Up from the Deep South

By Thais Grace Barry

When Thais "Grace" Roberson is born in the mid-1930s in a small town in southern Mississippi, a world of rattlesnakes and fragrant honeysuckle, her family is on the cusp of the middle class. But a move into the country to build their own home soon brings difficulty. There is no running water or electricity for the Roberson's growing family, and when a fire destroys the house they've put everything into, the family of six moves into the back of a gas station, where they sleep on the floor and black widow spiders lurk in the outhouse. They attempt once more to build a home, but job loss forces her parents to move again, deeper into rural Mississippi. Grace is left to negotiate adolescence, including episodes of bullying and sexual assault, on her own, with occasional help from her sister Willene. But there are also lighter moments—Gene Autrey and Tarzan movies to watch at the theater, and biscuits and bacon breakfasts on Saturday mornings when Dad is not away preaching in another town.
In understated but lyrical detail, Barry shares the story of an ordinary girl and her family surviving and ultimately triumphing in the face of unemployment, crushing physical labor, illness and loss, while WWII rages in the backdrop. Her unforgettable tale is one of grit in the face of adversity, but also one of human imperfection and frailty, and the power of education to change lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350902709

Book preview

1

GRACE

I was born and grew up in the rural south, thirty miles from the southern tip of Mississippi. Yes, there was moss on the trees, thick humidity in the air, magnolia, honeysuckle, and dogwood growing wild in the woods, and rattlesnakes living up to their name. Huge water moccasins silently traveled the water of the creek near our house. My sister Willene told me she learned from Dad to stand absolutely still, no longer fishing, holding her bamboo fishing pole with sinkers and bait out of the water to not attract the artful glider as he swam by.

What I knew about my family and the life preceding me, I learned from my sister Willene. She was seven years older than me. Our other sibling, John, was four years older than Willene.

Willene was sweet to me and I was a curious child, always wanting to know something. I asked her to tell me how things were just before I was born.

Grace, you know I’ve told you about that several times before.

I know, Willene. I still like hearing it.

She smiled and told me that when I was born, it was a few days before Christmas, so she and John were off from school for the holidays. Daddy came in earlier than usual for dinner. We lived in Wiggins, the little town that is the county seat of Stone County. Daddy walked over from the courthouse where he was County Superintendent of Education. Willene ran up to him, gave him a big hug, and asked why he was home early. He said that he and Mother had to go somewhere. Willene begged and pleaded to go with them, but Daddy explained that he and Mother had to go by themselves and needed for her to stay home with John. He asked her to please run upstairs and tell mother that he was home and ready to leave.

Mother was standing in their bedroom wearing her beautiful blue coat that matched the color of her eyes. It gathered at the shoulders and flowed like a graceful tent. She looked so beautiful with her blond hair up in a bun. Willene said that she never would forget that coat or that day. She told her that Daddy was waiting out in the car and asked her where they were going. We have to go to Hattiesburg, Mother explained. She had a small bag that she seldom carried and seemed to be walking a little slower than she usually did. Willene ran across the yard, jumped up on the running board on Daddy’s side of the car, and again asked Daddy where they were going.

Revving the engine of Mother’s black Packard, he looked up at her and smiled, We’re going to the hospital in Hattiesburg to get a baby. We’ll be back as soon as we can. If either of you children needs anything, just go across the street and ask Mrs. Yeager. She knows we’ll be away for a while. She’ll give you anything you need and you and John can spend the night with them.

Willene remembered being totally stunned by the news and kept saying to herself, A baby. A baby. Incredible as it seemed, Willene told me she and John didn’t know that Mother was pregnant and neither did the women in Mother’s Eastern Star Society or any of the other people in town. When Mother was pregnant the next time with the twins, everybody could tell. She was so big she could barely stand up or sit down.

You were the only child in our family born in a hospital. The nearest hospital was in Hattiesburg or Gulfport, each thirty miles away. Your birth certificate says you were born in Hattiesburg, but we lived in Wiggins at the time. The rest of us were born at home with a midwife, she said.

I wanted to know why Mother had to go to the hospital to have me. Willene said she didn’t know. She continued telling me that she and John could hardly wait for Mother and Daddy to get back from the hospital. We asked Mrs. Yeager so many questions we nearly drove her crazy. We wanted to know if Mother and Daddy knew they were getting a baby before today and would they get more than one baby. Her answers weren’t very helpful. She said something like she didn’t know and told us we should ask our parents.

In addition to asking Mrs. Yeager questions, Willene played with her paper dolls and John read. Mother and Daddy returned late the next day. Willene said she and John ran to the car and John opened the car door on the passenger side.

Mother was holding you in a white blanket. Daddy came around and took you from her arms and asked John to help Mother get out of the car. After she was out of the car, we went inside. We were very eager to look at you and hold you. Mother told us to sit down and showed us how to support your head. You were so cute and Mother and Daddy both seemed happy. We wanted to know if you were a boy or girl. Daddy asked us to wait a minute and went out to the car. He came back with a box of cigars, held one up, and announced that you were a girl and your name was Grace, ‘named after your mother’s friend Grace Yeager and my favorite hymn, Amazing Grace.’

Everything seemed wonderful then, like a perfect family with no worries, Willene said with a smile. You were a wonderful surprise. John and I ran over to Main Street. We told the man in the barbershop, the people in the Five and Ten Cent Store, the pharmacist, the owner of the meat market, and the women in Elizabeth Henzie’s Beauty Parlor. We made sure we went to the courthouse where Daddy worked and told the Sheriff, Mr. Hinton, and the Deputy Sheriff, Mr. Duggan. After that, John and I went by the jail that was next to the courthouse. There were no prisoners that day. We tried to tell everyone in Wiggins we had a baby sister.

Did you tell everybody?

She smiled, I guess we must have missed a few as there were about a thousand people living in Wiggins at the time. Some of them didn’t live right downtown and we couldn’t go beyond the Yeager General Mercantile and Feed by ourselves.

I told Willene how much I liked that story. It made me feel good because I felt wanted.

***

Our lives began to change when my parents built a large house in the country outside Wiggins. The house in Wiggins was a rental house. They wanted to build a house with more room and land of their own to plant crops.

I was not yet three when we moved in. I don’t remember the details, but according to Willene, You liked the pretty, gleaming wooden floors and the cabinets. The closets supplied endless places for you to explore. We used to take the pots and pans out of the cabinets and play rhythm band.

Another house was being built. The plan was to get a tenant farmer to live there and farm. This was a fairly common situation. The tenant farmer would farm the land owned by another person and get a percentage of the crop. The rest of the crop would go to the owner. The percentage varied depending upon which party bought the fertilizer and seed and who did the majority of the work involved with planting. There were many people who didn’t have money to buy their own land or build a house that made such arrangements.

We used to take walks over to the tenant house to look at the progress of the building. The house was going to be attractive and sturdy. Daddy didn’t want people to live in some sort of shack. He said, It is a good idea to build a comfortable house and that way we will attract better workers and have nicer neighbors. I was hoping the new family would have playmates for me.

Paul and Pauline were born almost immediately after we moved. I was too little to run all over town telling people the way Willene and John had done when I was born. Besides, this was the country, and neighbors were far away. But I wouldn’t have gone around announcing their arrival anyway. I wanted things to stay the way they were – no babies – except me.

Mother was forty-two and Daddy was a year younger than she. That seemed to be important in those days, so my parents – when asked – made Daddy a year older than Mother. When people heard about the twins, they whispered, Must be menopause babies. I had no idea what this meant, but it was whispered, so I thought something must be wrong. I stared at the babies and they seemed fine, squirming and plump. Ms. Yeager came to visit and said they were the most darling things since white bread. I asked Mother what that meant, and she explained that it was just about the nicest thing anyone could say. I wanted Ms. Yeager to tell me I was cute.

Three weeks after the twins’ birth, the Stone County Enterprise listed the birth of the Roberson twins, as yet unnamed. I saw this announcement years later in a family scrapbook that a cousin had kept. Friends suggested lots of different twin names for them, like Carl and Carla, Pete and Repeat, but somehow they got to be Paul and Pauline, with no middle names. One name must have been all Mother and Daddy could manage.

When our former neighbors came from Wiggins to see the twins, they said things to mother like, Bless your heart, Jencie, I sure hope you can find some help with all these children. Even getting someone to launder the diapers would be a big assistance. If I hear of anyone, I’ll let you know. They would bring real cute baby clothes and blankets for the twins and a casserole or dessert.

Mother’s life was difficult since we had no running water or electricity. Nobody had electricity until the rural-electrification program was put through in the late 1930s. So we were all in the same boat when it came to the absence of running water and electricity. That was how life was. To get water, people had to dig a well. A bucket was attached to a rope over a pulley and lowered into the well. When filled with water, the bucket was drawn up to the surface. This required strength, and bringing up several buckets was tiring.

Mother had to go to the well to draw water for laundry. Daddy would help when he was home and often built the fire under the cast iron pot where water was heated. Willene and I would watch the twins.

The twins cried. When one shut up, the other would start. That caused the one who was momentarily quiet to join in. Once Mother came from the well into the twins’ room and called to Daddy, Ed would you come in here? Mother was looking at the twins. Willene and I stood in the back of the room watching.

Look, Daddy, she said, I’m nearly out of my mind listening to them cry all the time.

What do you want me to do, Jencie?

"You take one and I’ll take the other. Maybe we can get them to be quiet and go to