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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 29/125

Everybody in my classroom—beginners to fifth graders—laughed hysterically. My
short way of counting to 100 caused an. uproar, but I don’t think the teacher was pleased!

Because the school yard’s well went dry in the summer, Miss Payne let two girls or
two boys go about three-fourths of a mile down the road to an old vacant house. The well at
this house was full of water. Oh, it was a big treat to get permission to leave school!

Ebenezer Cemetery was located right at the school so we had to go through the
cemetery to get to the well. Lots of the joy was shallow seeded for me because other stu­
dents said the old house was haunted. Some of the kids said they could hear a sewing ma­
chine running in the house, but I never heard anything. But it sure did give me an eerie

feeling. Just getting to the old house through the cemetery didn’t calm my nerves either. But
I would have drawn my last breath before I would have owned up to'being scared.

Many of our relatives were buried at Ebenezer Cemetery: Great-Grandma and Great­
Grandpa Kennedy—because William Kennedy served in the Confederate Army, he has a
veteran’s grave marker; Ma’s sister, Frances, her husband, and most of their children who
have died are planted there; one of Pa’s brothers who was bom premature—but no one

knows where his grave is located. In 1977, Pa and I visited the cemetery, and Pa kept trying
to locate this baby’s marker. He concluded that it was outside of the fence on the eastside.

One day when school was turned out, and we were going home, we passed right by
Mr. and Mrs. Earnest Douberley’s home. The Douberleys were the grandparents of my
brother Rodney’s wife, Norma—although neither Norma nor Rodney was bom then. But
beyond the house was a field full of big green watermelons. Oh, how I loved watermelons!

By the time we got to this watermelon field, all the other schoolchildren had reached
their homes except Pa’s brothers and my mother’s sisters—and me. The brothers were

Walter, Henry (“Bill”), Preston (“Press”), Drew, Roy, and their sister Mabie. My mother’s
sisters were Kate, Clara (“Babe”), and1'Hilda. The grown boys told me to get the biggest
melon I could find and bring it back to the fence where they would be waiting. I wasn’t
scared of anybody or anything, and I was as strong as a mule.

When I found the biggest melon in the patch, I heard all this screaming and yelling.
Someone was shouting out threats and punishments. Then I looked up and saw Mrs. Addie

Douberley coming down that road after us. The boys were yelling for me to hurry and bring
the melon. I tan' to the fence fast as I could lug that big melon. I thought to myself if I hadn’t
got the biggest one in this field, it wouldn’t be so heavy to tote!

When 1 reached the fence, the boys were there with their arms stretched over the
fence. One of them took the melon, and one of them grabbed me. They both tore out down
the road as fast as they could run. I guess the one who had me knew I was give out and

couldn’t keep up, so he carried) me.

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