Synopsis Chapter 04
January 1957 to July/August 1957
After school was out for Christmas, we moved from Grandmother and Granddaddy Fry's house in Knoxville to live with my other grandparents in Maryville, Pop and Erma Stearns. They managed a three unit apartment building at the intersection of the Knoxville/Maryville Highway and the Alcoa Highway. We had our own unit and George and I shared a bedroom. There was concrete chinking missing between the logs by my bed, and I could see outside. The building was a genuine log cabin, not a kit, that had a second story added. We lived downstairs, Pop and Erma lived next door, and Erma's sister Edna and her husband lived upstairs. It was a tea house at one time, I don't know what else. The property was called Druid Hill. It had grass on about an acre, which I mowed for 50 cents a week. The entire property was probably 5 acres or so. It had a circular gravel driveway in the front and a spur that went to a garage in the back. The garage was wood frame with a dirt floor and had a workshop as part of one side. Pop taught me how to mix paint, as well as how to start a power mower without a recoil starter. I remember watching Truth or Consequences on tv in the daytime (with Bob Barker, I think), plus Saturday morning watching Gene Autry, cartoons, Roy Rogers, Pinky Lee, Howdy Doody, Fury, and finishing up with Sky King. The Maryville Drive In screen faced our back yard, we could watch movies for free. It was about a half mile away, so you couldn't hear the sound though. We had a big garden, probably a 1/4 acre. We all weeded, picked, shelled, and canned. Mother canned with the other women out of obligation. I don't think she was really into it. I kept a journal and called it my "Log". Mother threw it away when we moved to Jacksonville. I was still unhappy about leaving Hawaii and I said some unkind things about her and Dad in my Log. I kept a Log later in Jacksonville and she threw that one away too.
Druid Hill had a lot going for it. It was pretty much out in the country, although there were houses nearby. The Milligan family lived two doors away and had horses we could ride any time. We tried riding a calf they had once, but the calf wasn't having it. Gary, who was my age, and I played together, and set the windbreak between Druid Hill and the next door neighbors, the McTiers, on fire. We had a chemistry lab in the woods, I don't remember what experiment we were conducting. I do remember waking up in the middle of the night to fire truck sirens. Mother and Dad told me what we had done the next day and told me to stay away from Mr. McTier. He was pretty mad. He had a daughter older than me named Jody who I thought was pretty. Gary had a younger sister, Allie, and she played with us too. George never liked horses much as he had a bad experience on a shetland pony in Hawaii one time. The pony took off from the riding ring back to the stable where her new colt was. I'll never forget the attendant, Mother and Dad chasing after the mother pony all the way to the barn.
I made a little "fort" out of scrap wood at the edge of the field in back. It was about 4' by 4'. Pop tore it down just before we moved. It kind of bummed me out. I would have liked to have done it myself. I also built a very cool tree house on the other side of the house. I have pictures. It was a platform about 4' by 6' best I can remember about 6 or 7 feet up. I fell out of it one day and Mother and Dad and maybe Pop and Erma came over and started laughing at me. It knocked the wind out of me and I wasn't injured, but it made me feel disrespected. I built the fort and the tree house out of scrap wood and used nails that I straightened. Pop and Dad taught me how to use a hammer and a hand saw. I was 8. I used to jump off the one story roof to the ground. I did more of this later on in life too. I have some damaged disks in my back that were probably caused by jumping off roofs. We had a mixed breed (part bulldog) dog I named Rebel. We used to play hard and I called it rumbling. There was a plum tree in the front yard facing the highway where every one would gather sometimes in the evening. The adults would have cocktails (maybe just ice tea) and conversation. I don't think Pop and Erma drank. Pop used to and it caused him problems, so he quit. George and I would play and catch fireflies and put them in jars. I also had a little butterfly collection. I feel bad now about killing butterflies to pin them to a sheet of cardboard. It seemed OK at the time. Rebel and I used to walk across the field behind our house, past the drive in, and up a hill with houses and a general store on it. We just wandered around seeing what we could see. I sold White Cloverine Salve and Christmas cards door to door to make a little money and earn prizes. I didn't like doing it much after a while. Some people were really nice and others weren't so nice.
I read a hundred or so books from the Eagleton Elementary School library, mostly biographies. I wrote generic book reports for them and my teacher was a little disappointed when I turned the reports in at the end of the year. We went on a field trip once on a bus to Cherokee, North Carolina. I bought a tomahawk and a drum, I think.
My cousins, Larry, Danny, Fred, and Jane took George and me snipe hunting in the garden and field behind the garage one night. When I found out the next day what it was all about, I threw such a tantrum, I wasn't allowed to go swimming at the community pool with everyone else. I never liked being lied to.
We had a garbage dump between the garage and the garden. All the trash went there, cans, glass, newspapers, garbage, everything. This was common then in the country. Pop would burn it off once in a while. I think he just put more trash on top and burned that too. It was a pretty good sized mound when we lived there. One day it really flared up, and everyone went out and helped to put the flames out. I think Pop had a garden hose and we all had shovels. I remember being excited by the sense of community in working together and let down when the fire was out and the feeling was gone.
These photos were taken before we went to Hawaii - early 1950's
The dump pile in 1957 was much bigger
2/5/2010
Note to Brooke Stearns - 6/14/2020
This was inspired by visiting with Jake and Reid, 8 year old twin sons of Brooke
Druid Hill
I remember when I was 8 (1956), we lived in Maryville, with Pop and Erma at Druid Hill, right where the Maryville Highway (It was called the Knoxville Highway if you were traveling that way) split into the Alcoa Highway. Dad used to hitch hike back and forth when he was a young man, just for something to do. The building was a log cabin with mortar chinking and a second story apartment added. Pop said it was an old tea house. I later wondered if that meant a house of ill repute. There was some mortar missing by my bed and I could see outside through it. You could see the Maryville Drive In screen from our back yard. I mowed the 1 acre yard a little each day for Pop for 50¢ a week. I still have a written contract we made. He had a mower with no recoil starter, you had to wind the cord around the top to pull it.
Below: Betsy, Reid, Brooke, Jake, Karen, David
I roamed the community with our bulldog mix, Rebel. I sold Christmas cards and White Cloverine brand salve door to door to make some $. (And of course, collected soda bottles @ 2¢ apiece.) We had a 1/2 acre garden which we all helped with. We had a spot behind the garage (which had a dirt floor) where we dumped our trash. Occasionally we would burn it. I built a tree house by myself using scrap lumber and used nails which I straightened. It was just a 6X6 platform about 6 feet off the ground. I fell out of it one day and everyone laughed at me. I felt unhappy that they weren't sympathetic, especially Mother. The neighbors, the Milligans, had kids about our age, so George and I would go over and ride their horses with them. We tried to ride their calf once, but it bucked me off pretty quick. Gary Milligan and I had a chemistry set in the windbreak between our place and the McTiers next door. I woke up one night to sirens. The fire department was in the windbreak putting out a fire our experiments had started. I had to go apologize to Mr. McTier. I was scared and he was brusque in accepting my apology and told me to stay out of the windbreak. We tried smoking corn silk, but only a few times. Cousins Danny, Fred, and Larry took George and me snipe hunting one night in the field behind our house. When I found out the next day about snipe hunting, I threw such a fit I was grounded for the day. I missed going to the Alcoa pool with everyone else. I never liked being lied to, even in fun (and maybe especially in fun). We lived there from January to the summer in 1957 and then moved to Jacksonville, when Dad got a job with SK Wellman. I asked Dad if I could have a soap box derby car there and he said I could, but it’s pretty flat in Florida. My buddy, Mike Akers, and I built one anyway, and pushed it around Riverside, where we lived.
Note from my friend Linda - 6/17/2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this excerpt from your autobiography. It took me back to days when I was a child who could roam around freely. We smoked crossvine (easy as it has a hollow stem.) I played with a friend in her brothers' treehouse; we took turns being Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and crept into storm drains. With another friend I constructed elaborate tents with quilts hanging on her mother's clothes lines. I walked to and from piano lessons over a block away by myself each Saturday. When I was old enough I walked home from school over a mile by myself. No one worried about my safety as long as I followed the rules. There was no way for anyone to track me or locate me, other than Mrs. McLendon who sat on her front porch across the street from our house. A wonderful freedom from surveillance that children today don't have. Thank you for reminding me of this.
