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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 24/125

cold water a couple of times, and added a little salt. The butter and' the buttermilk were
delicious! I could eat as much as I wanted.
Grandma’s cookies won my heart. She had to bake a lot because she had so many
boys. You couldn’t fill those boys up. She always saved some for me by putting them in the

tray of her trunk, locking it, and putting the key in her pocket.
I frequently ran away to Grandma Dicks’s house. As soon as Ma realized I was miss­
ing, she would take me back home and switch me. But I would still go back to Grandma’s.

The last time Ma fetched me, she had a long switch. She nettled my legs all the way homel­
and I didn’t run away anymore.
Grandma and Ma made those rag dolls for Roy and me to play with. I’m sure that

Grandma taught Ma how to sew—crude as it was. At this time, Ma didn’t have a sewing
machine. I can remember Grandma and Ma sewing together on the front porch. Grandma
had to make her own clothes because she could not have bought any size large enough. She

didn’t travel to Lake City very much except to a doctor—-which was seldom. Her brother,
Scott, sold bolts of material in his commissary in Lulu, and since her parents lived in Lulu,
she traveled there frequently. I guess Uncle Scott gave her anything she wanted. Grandpa

accompanied Grandma to Lulu to get his com ground into grits and meal.
About all Grandma had time to do was cook and sew. Grandpa hired a black woman
to wash the clothes. It would take that woman from daylight to dark to do all their washing,

which was mostly denim overalls. He paid her a nickel to do the laundry fof their family—all
eleven of them.

Grandpa Dicks’s name was Henry. When people spoke of him out of hearing distance,
they sometimes called 'him “Old Gray.” Back then, most everybody had a nickname. Grandpa
Tyre’s nickname was “Square Bob.”

I always thought Grandpa Dicks was pretty fond of me. He wasn’t a very affectionate
man, but I can remember his kindness toward me, patting me on the head and often giving
me money. I was his oldest grandchild.

Grandma Dicks more than made up for Grandpa’s lack of affection. She always put
me on her lap and gave me a tight squeeze. This display of affection continued even after I

was big enough that my feet reached the floor. I felt like I may have been special because
Grandma and Grandpa lost two of their girls before I was bom. I wasn’t very old when
Mabie died but I can still remember her.

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