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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 89/125

B.C. always stopped at our house first^-even before daylight. Sometimes Eric had left
for work by that time, but I didn’t have to be at work until 8:30, so he never woke me up. If

I wasn’t up when B.C. got there, he would fuss and ask me if I was going to sleep all day!
He always insisted on leaving something. Sometimes I felt that I’d almost rather not have his
vegetables than to have to get up before daylight! B.C. had a regular route of customers-^
and that’s how he made his living for a few years.
Eric was the oldest child in his family. He had three brothers and two sisters: Athol,

Edith, Doris, Noland, and Emest. One son had died at birth. All four boys have since died;
they all had cancer. Both of Eric’s sisters are living. Edith lives with her daughter, Sarah, in
Cocoa or Melbourne. Doris lives in Lake City.

B.C. was a free-hearted man and was always helping his neighbors. If any of them got
sick, he was always there to help. When people had typhoid fever or the Spanish flu after the
war (World War I), B.C. didn’t hesitate to help them. He got a clean white rag, a small
bottle of distilled turpentine, put sulfur in his shoes, and stayed with people day and night.

He poured the turpentine on the rag, wiped his nose, and kept breathing the entire time he
was at somebody’s home. He stayed with the patient until he got well^or died. I can’t
remember hearing him say that one of his “patients” died1. He was so good at nursing that

people sent for him and offered to pay him whatever they could. He would go but wouldn’t
take any money.
If he knew of anyone who was sick while he was on his peddling rounds, he stopped
by to see if that person needed anything. If they asked for something, he would get it and

bring it back to them. If they could pay him for it, that was fine, but if they couldn’t, that was
fine, too.
B.C.’s first love was football; his second love was football! He also'loved baseball and

good old gospel singing. He would ask us to drive him 100 miles to attend a singing conven­
tion. One of the most important things in his life was the comic strip in the Sunday paper. He
couldn’t have made it through the next week if he hadn’t read the Sunday funnies! He really
enjoyed them. He read something, clapped his hands, stomped both feet, and had a laughing

fit. I never had much of an appreciation for the comic strip. In fact, Eric was the one who
always read them to Sharon. She loved them, .as much as her granddaddy did.
B.C. and I “locked1 horns” quite a few times, but I believe that he thought quite a lot of

me. He knew that he could trust and depend on me.
I truly loved my mother-in-law, Sister Lee. She was like my second mother. She was
one of the best people who ever lived. She helped people until she got to the point that she

needed help herself. All mothers back in the early 1900s had so much work to do. They all
had large families and no modem appliances such as washing machines, dryers, refrigerators,

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