Page 43 - memories-of-golde-dicks-markham-(1996)-golde-dicks-markham

Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 28/125

He would then say to himself, “Now who in the hell are you?”

I was 8 years old in 1916, and I’d hide and eavesdrop on him to hear him talk to
himself. As a child, I thought this was very funny; I’d get hysterical. I’d tell Ma what he said
and she would laugh, too. I don’t know why Great-Grandpa Kennedy left Florida to go back

to Georgia. No one in Florida knew exactly where he was. Aunt Mollie had moved to Geor­
gia about the time that her father came to live with us, but she came back to visit him.
One day when Ma, Tribble, Emerald, and I were visiting Grandma Tyre, two men
stopped in front of the house to ask directions to Ebenezer Cemetery. They were driving a

wagon which contained a corpse. Grandma Tyre asked the men who was in the wagon—it
was Great-Grandpa Kennedy.
Grandma Tyre told them to wait because she wanted to accompany them. The body

was her father. My mother and her mother walked behind the wagon from where Rodney
now lives to Ebenezer Cemetery for the burial. Great-Grandpa Kennedy served in the Con­
federate Army in the Civil War. He and his wife have grave markers near the northwest side

of the cemetery.
Grandpa Tyre wasn’t what I would call a “gentleman.” He made harsh threats—
children were scared to death of him. But the old saying “his bark was worse than his bite”

described him, and I used to laugh in his face at his threats. He eventually joined the church
when I was young. I saw the biggest change in him that 'I have ever seen in any other per­
son—and I’ve seen quite a few.

in6 cur

My first school' days.in the summer of 1913, when I was 5 years old, were spent at
Ebenezer School. The school was in an old, unpainted building which the Masonic Order

owned. Children attended school for only three months in the summer.
I walked to school .the first day with my uncles. They said the teacher would ask me if
I could count to 100; I told them I could. The boys then added that it would take a long time

to count my way and the teacher would1 be very pleased if I counted a shorter way.
But I [didn’t know a shorter way to count! They taught me and I rehearsed it several
times. Sure enough, that first day my teacher, Miss Alma Payne, asked who could count to

100.1 raised my hand up real 'high and got all excited. I knew I was really going to make the
teacher happy.
Miss Payne told me to stand up and count.

I stood up and proudly said, “Ninety-nine cows and a bobbed-tail bull makes 100.”

28

www.LakeCityHistory.com LCH-UUID: C15F5985-B57F-498C-9C99-F425FA07E049