MISS JENNIE AND MISS ALLIE FEED PJ
Miss Jennie Colley & Mr. Jesse Johns on Wedding DayAugust 18, 1911
I have talked about Miss Jennie and Miss Allie in the recipes so to keep you from wondering about these two fine ladies are I am going to tell you just what they meant to me as a child. Now Miss Jennie and Miss Allie was sisters-in-law. Miss Allie was a sister to Miss Jennie’s husband. Of course you know we lived in the country on a dirt, then gravel road. Now picture this there is crossroads, Miss Allie lived on the right in the crossroads, go up the hill and Miss Jennie lived on the left, then go over and down the next hill and we lived on the right. You have got to have that picture in mind to appreciated this kid and her bike that I am going to tell you about. I never to this day have had a new bicycle. Mama and Daddy brought home a used bicycle, bought at the Western Auto and of course it was a Western Flyer but very used, when I was about 6 years old. I was scared of it and wouldn’t even think about getting on that thing! Mama jumped on the bicycle and took off down the road towards Miss Jennie and Miss Allie’s. Daddy and Mama Jones was standing in the yard with me, I started squalling my head off because I thought Mama was leaving home on that blame bicycle. Now you got to understand why I didn’t want the bicycle to start with, it was a bribe! Mama put an ad on the swat shop and sold my baby bed!!! I was still sleeping in that bed (6 years old and had started school). You should have seen me when the woman came to buy my baby bed, I had a fit! I wanted my baby bed, but I got an iron bedstead in Mama Jones’s room instead! I was upset! Mama came back shortly and they tried every way possible to get me on that bicycle, no way I wanted my baby bed! I slept in that new (about 100 years old at the time) bed that night and it wasn’t too bad but I missed my baby bed. Well I guess Mamas and Daddys and Mama Joneses are smarter than little 6 year old girls, the next day one of them asked me if I wanted to ride my new (old as the hills) bicycle down to Miss Jennie and Miss Allie’s but NO further. Well now, I thought I was big to get to go down the road by myself so on that baby bed oh no bicycle (still missing it) and away I went, fell off a couple of times but when I got to the top of the hill and looked back there stood Daddy with his arm around Mama and Mama Jones holding Mama’s hand. Over the hill I went. I stopped at Miss Jennie’s first (I bett yo’ Mama called her, of course all we had was the old timey phone that was in a wooden box with a handle to ring somebody and a place to talk into, our ring was a long and a short) and knocked on the door. Miss Jennie came to the door with a great big smile on her face (she was Mama’s brother’s wife’s mother) and said come on in, I have got a left over biscuit and piece of bacon you can have. Well a smile came on my face then. I ate the biscuit and bacon, cold grease and all. I think it was the best I ever had. I thanked Miss Jennie and was on my way to Miss Allie’s, wonder if she was going to feed me too? Down the hill I started to Miss Allies and had a wreck, skint my knees and the palms of my hands awful! I limped on to Miss Allie’s and left that bicycle right where I went flying off it! I knocked on the door (sure she had been called also), took one look at me and grinned real big. I started crying. Miss Allie cleaned me up and asked me if I was hungry? Now what would you say? Of course I was hungry, I got another biscuit and a sausage this time. Well I stayed aliitle longer and done the right thing and thanked her. I walked back to where that dang old bicycle laid in the middle of the road, picked it up, walked it to the top of the hill, got on it and went home. Mama, Daddy and Mama Jones was still in that yard waiting
on me, but they had created a monster! I was six years old, remember? That day started a trend in my life that went on until I was almost grown. Each morning when I would start out the last thing Mama would say “Don’t you go down to Miss Jennies or Miss Allies and eat anything” (of course I had breakfast at home already). Well I headed straight to Miss Jennies, had whatever she already had laid out for me to eat and drink. Always thanked her and was off to Miss Allies to see what I had there. Thanked her, got back on my best friend now and headed back to Miss Jennies to visit and then back to Miss Allies. Back and forth all day long, remember at this time, 6 years old, I could only go to the crossroads. By the time I was 7, I could go up to Rella’s house, pass the crossroads straight to next house, well you guessed it, yep I added another but not on my regular schedule (she was not as good a cook, shhhh don’t tell anybody). By the time I turned 8 years old I was meeting my cousin Patsy Jones half way from her house to mine, that was about 4 miles. The days of Paula and Patsy will come. I always got the spanking and she got nothing, except our first day of school! Another day another story!
