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After Pa worked all day in the fields, he would sit up half the night preparing his

sermons for the coming weekend. He attended school only through the eighth grade, but I’ve
heard teachers, professors and others with college degrees tell him he had an education
equivalent to any university student.

I’ll tell you about a remedy, or I suppose this would be classified as a “preventative of
disease.” In 1918, the final year of the Great War (World War I), the Spanish influenza broke
out all over the world. Hundreds of thousands died in this epidemic in America. Ma’s
brother, Jess, went overseas during this war. He wrote to Ma, telling her how many soldiers

were dying from the flu. She wrote back and enclosed some sulfur for him to put into his
shoes. He did as he was told—and didn’t get the dreaded flu.
During this time, Ma put sulfur in our shoes, but as an added precaution she also put a

ball of asafetida around our necks. Asafetida is from the real offensive-smelling fennel plant.
Ma wrapped this stuff in a clean white rag, tied it with a piece of twine, and left the twine
long enough for us to hang around our necks like a necklace. The ball of asafetida was about
as big as a grape. Wearing this stinking substance around the neck was supposed to keep us

from catching the flu.
All the children had to wear these asafetida necklaces but hated them because they

smelled awful! I just loved mine, though. I liked to suck on it. I later found out that asafetida
has a so-called “alias” odor which is a combination of onion, garlic, and leeks. Even now, I
love onions, garlic, and leeks.

Tribble was bom February 4, 1914, not too long after we moved into the new house. I
was 5 years old when he was bom. 'Tribble was a busybody. He explored and meddled in
something every minute from the time he started crawling. One day in 1916, Ma and Pa went

somewhere and left Pa’s sister Mabie and me to take care of Tribble. He was about 2 years
old, and I was around 8.
Ma always bought potash or lye in a wooden crate very much like a wooden orange

crate. The potash was formed in perfect round resin balls and was real white and creamy.

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