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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 1/125

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I was bom in my parents’ house in Columbia County, about ten miles south of Lake
City, Florida, on July 27, 1908. My parents were John Dicks and Pearl Tyre Dicks, who
were both 19 years old when I was bom. I was the first of seven children in our family—-the
last child bom being Rodney, who came along in 1933.

The old house in which I was bom—the one we lived in before the new house was
built in early 1914—had wooden windows that swung shut and fastened with an eye and

hook. When opened, they swung outside against the wall. I can remember the old rock
chimney that rose above the roof as the smokestack for the fireplace in the front room—
which we also called the “parlor.” The parlor contained an old bureau with a mirror. That
solid oak bureau was the first stick of furniture my parents bought in 1906—the same age I

am. My brother Lenvil now owns the bureau, and I ihope that bureau will continue to stay in
the Dicks family.

In addition to the bureau, the parlor contained a couple of straight-back chairs which
Grandpa Tyre made. The chairs had cowhide seats and they sat fairly well—if you were a
small person. But Grandma Dicks was a large woman^-I’m shaped' very much like her,

except she weighed more than I do. She was too heavy to be weighed on the cotton scales—
she weighed over 200 pounds.
Pa used to say, “She hangs over those chairs on all sides. When I get enough money,

I’m going to buy some chairs big enough for Ma to sit in when she comes to visit us.”
Well, one day, after we moved to the new house three or four years later, he got
enough money and bought two of the biggest rocking chairs he could find. She could barely

get in them, but they beat those straight chairs. These two rocking chairs, which have
wooden seats, are now owned by Delvey and Cindy Dicks. They bought them at the family

auction after my parents’ death. These chairs are five years younger than I am.

One winter night Ma and Pa decided to have a peanut shelling and invited all the

neighbors. It was so cold that Pa piled the fat wood in the old rock fireplace to make a
roaring big fire. All the guests had to push their chairs way back in a circle around the walls

of the room to keep from burning. Some sat on our cowhide bottom chairs and some sat on
wooden boxes. Nearly everything back then came in heavy wooden boxes. After shelling a
few bushels of peanuts, the floors would be several inches deep in peanut hulls.

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