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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 85/125

Uncle Charlie was a good black man who had become like family to us. We just let
him do what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it. He was with us from 1928 to 1938.

While my brothers and sisters were still living at home and going to school, they all

enjoyed visiting us. When Tribble was in his early teens, he and Pa came to Lake City one
day. Tribble was feeling bad and asked Pa if he could come to our house to lie down.
As I was turning down the bed for him, I noticed his face was very flushed. He was
burning up with fever. After he crawled into bed, I bathed'his face, head, and arms with a

cold wet washcloth. Then he started having chills.
When Pa came by to pick him up at sundown, I said Tribble was too sick to leave so
Pa went home. Tribble was so sick that I could1 hardly hear his voice when he spoke. No
aspirin then so I just kept sponging him off.

Eric and I owned an icebox—no electric refrigerators then. An ice man came every
other day with a block of ice. I chipped off little pieces of ice, put them in a pan to make ice
water, and wet a washcloth to cool his head. I put sweet spirits of niter on his temples and
the pulse at his wrist. I had watched Ma do this when any of us had a fever. It wasn’t very

long before Ma and Pa were back. Ma stayed the night, but Pa went home to stay with the
other kids, Emerald Opal, Fay, andLenvil, who was just a baby.

Pa had been pastoring at the Aucillia Baptist Church, west of Lake City near Tallahas­
see. The Bishop family from this church often took Pa into their home. Pa remained friends
with Mr. and Mrs. Bishop even when he no longer was their pastor. Members of the Bishop
family asked him to preach at both of their funerals.

The Bishops’ son was a doctor who practiced medicine in Alachua and then Lake City
where he opened a medical office next to Young’s Hardware. He was our doctor until he
died. Pa may have preached at his funeral, too.

Pa asked Dr. Bishop to examine Tribble. The doctor said Tribble had double pneumo­
nia and1 was critically sick. Neither Ma nor I changed our clothes except when we could find
time to take a bath. During the next six weeks, we took turns sleeping.
Dr. Bishop checked on Tribble every morning. After a week, he told Ma and Pa that

Tribble wasn’t responding to the medicine and that he wasn’t going to make it if he couldn’t
get the pneumonia broke loose in his lungs. Dr. Bishop consulted Dr. Harkness to see if he
had any suggestions. Dr. Harkness changed Tribble’s medicine. Both doctors continued to

come, usually twice a day. I kept busy all day cooking, washing dishes, washing clothes. We

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