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Memories of Golde Dicks Markham (1996) Golde Markham Dicks 67/125

Ma caught me, and, like a pro in a wrestling match, she threw me to the ground and
started rolling me just like I was a rolling pin. I was burned so bad I couldn’t wear clothes
above my waist for weeks. Back then people doctored themselves the best they knew how.

I feel our family can give Emerald credit for all of us being on this planet—especially

in one piece. In 1922, Emerald was 7,1 was 14, and Tribble was 8. Opal would have been a
little less than 2, and Fay would have been just a few months old. On one particular week*
night that year we drove to Lake Butler in the Model-A Ford for a church activity.
I’ll never forget the trip back home that night. Pa was driving; Ma was holding Fay in

the passenger side of the front seat; Tribble was sitting on the right side of the back seat, and
I was sitting in the middle of the back seat holding Opal. Emerald was sitting on the left end

of the back seat, right behind Pa. We were driving down Route 100 at a pretty good clip
when suddenly the lights went out. It was black dark!' Pa let up on the gas, and in just a
second or two, the lights came back on. He had steered the car and kept right on the road. It
gave us all an eerie feeling. Pa didn’t know what made the lights go out.

After a while he picked up speed again. As we got to Olustee Creek, just before
entering Lulu, the lights went off again. It happened so fast! Pa took to the right shoulder of
the road, but he evidently forgot to let up on the gas.

He headed right for a deep ditch!1 Emerald1 leaped up out of her seat and landed her
belly right on the back of Pa’s neck. She put her right arm on (the right side of Pa’s head, her
left arm on the left side of his head, grabbed the steering wheel, and turned the car back to
the left. She saw that he was going to take us across that six- or eight-foot-deep ditch.

Pa yelled at her, “What are you doing?”
She shouted back, “Keeping you from wrecking us!”

He argued that he was still on the road, but none of the four wheels were on that road.
The lights finally came back on again. Pa took it slow and easy from1 there on home. Back
then, the driver fed gas with the right hand with a lever on the right side of the steering
wheel. The spark lever was on the left side of the steering wheel.

Emerald was pretty famous for taking care of emergencies. Ma left the farm one day
and left Rodney with Emerald. Rodney started crying and nothing could quiet him. She had
seen Ma give Rodney paregoric for the stomach cramps, so she gave him 'some. But Ma

would give Rodney two or three drops; Emerald gave him a teaspoonful. Rodney slept the
remainder of that day, that night, and part of the next day before waking up!

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