Each week my uncle sends out an email to family and friends following are 
excerpts from these emails. . . .
 
. . . I still have a memory of 18 below here in Cumberland County TN. During the 
winter of 1935 we lived in a big 9 room house in the Pomona community that had 
three stories, 4 chimneys, and no insulation and heated by a fireplace and three 
stoves. The house also had 8 ft. ceilings. The stove in the kitchen was a big 
Home Comfort stove that burned a lot of wood, but put out a lot of heat. Mother 
did all the cooking on this stove and it had a water heater attached next to the 
firebox to heat water. A throw valve directed the flames and heat to the big oven
that warmed the 12 ft. by 20 ft. kitchen and we kids huddled there to do our 
studying and reading. The big fireplace in the parlor put out a lot of heat also
but your back would get cold while your front was burning up. I also took a lot of
3 ft. long wood the I had to cut and bring into the house. The Kitchen wood was 
stored in a an old room just outside the kitchen door near the stove and woe unto
me if I fail to have a sufficient supply stacked there at all times. A whole cord
of wood would last about three weeks. Some times daddy or a hired hand would help
me but I spent at least three hours a week doing the wood cutting and bringing it
into the house from the wood yard.
 
There was no school when the weather got below freezing for the two room 
school house in Pomona was impossible to heat with one medium size Franklin 
stove in each room. In the (big) room that accommodated grades 4 thru 8 there 
were about 25 kids ages 10 to 18. One boy came to school with his feet wrapped 
in tow sacks with grass string wrapped around his ankles to hold the sacks on. 
He had no shoes or boots till I told daddy about him and daddy bought him a fine 
pair of boots. Better than mine but I was not jealous. I was 12 years old and in 
the 6th. Grade. During the depth of the great depression there were a lot of cold
hungry kids and desperate fathers that had no job and therefore no income. The NRA
program finally was established to give a bit of food to the most desperate families,
but the suffering continued till the start of the war in 1941 when times improved
and jobs were more abundant. . .

Uncle Simp
Hello All:
 
I am reminded this morning of my uncle Simp who would say when you asked 
him how he was "I feel no count" Uncle Simp would answer. He was 5 years 
older than my daddy having been born in 1893  He was only 5 years old when 
his father died on APRIL 28TH 1893 ,leaving his mother  ,my grandmother Rosie 
Marlow, with 5 children including my daddy who was only 3 weeks old. They could
not have survived without the help of her father-in-law who along with all the 
other relatives were as poor as Job’s turkey. Survive they did. Many years later, 
Uncle Simp and several other relatives were forced to move off their farms when
the Norris dam was built in 1933.  By that time my family was in Cumberland County.
TN, Daddy had  acquired  two thousand acres of land at a tax sale in 1932 at the 
beginning of the great depression and offered to sell Uncle Simp 100 acres for 
$2.00 per acre which was what he paid for it. Simp used his proceeds from the TVA
sale of his property to buy this land and with the help of my daddy and his two 
grown sons built a two story 6 room house and a sizeable barn. One of his sons
joined the CCC which paid $30.00 per month and $20.00 of this went to the parents.
Hard times were everywhere but most people survived some how. My Daddy was more 
affluent than most and we did not go hungry as so many of the Pomona community 
did. We had both a car and a truck and the only telephone in the Pomona community.
Daddy helped his brother Simp by giving him some cows and hogs to start a herd.
Also a team of mules. Several years later (after WW-2) Simp repaid his debts in
full with the help of his oldest son. Some time when Uncle Simp was in his 
mid 70`s he got sick and fell into the hands of a drunken Doctor who nearly 
killed him with drugs.  One of his daughters who lived with him sent word to
the other siblings that their father was on his death bed and they should come
immediately if they expected to see him alive. The middle daughter cam from
Cleveland Ohio and when she found bottles containing 11 different prescriptions
on his bed-side table.  She demanded a hearing from both the doctor and the
pharmacist. Not being satisfied with their comments, she ordered an ambulance
to take him to Vanderbilt hospital in Nashville TN. She took the 11 bottles of
drugs with her and the treatment was to take all the drugs and flush them down 
the drain After 5 days with no drugs uncle Simp began to improve and three week
later he was released to come home.  He insisted on driving his car from the 
hospital to Crossville (about 95 miles) and two weeks later called me asking to
go squirrel hunting with him the next morning early.  I arrived the next morning
to find breakfast on the table and hot coffee in our cups.  Then he told me that
he had been mistaking most of his life about how to drink whiskey. He had been 
of the opinion that a person should not drink till after 5 O'clock PM but had 
discovered late in life it was AM instead of PM..  He then proceeded to add 
two ounces of moonshine whiskey and a tablespoon of sugar to his coffee saying
this was the way to get the heart started in the morning.  Uncle Simp never had
any heart trouble to start with and he never got sick anymore till he died in 
1980 in his sleep at home.  I repeated this story to my Doctor and asked him if
maybe I was overdosed.  He did not think that was funny and told me to quit 
taking them anytime I was ready to die.  I haven't mentioned it to him since.

Since I don’t have much of interest to tell all you folks this morning, 
I thought some of my kinder and Grandchildren might be interest in a bit of
family history Another thing I remember Uncle Simp telling. At one time he was 
the Campbell County road supervisor and the engine of one of the trucks went 
out of operation. It was discovered that there was no oil in the engine. Simp 
began to berate the driver of the truck for burning out the engine with too much
oil. No Sir " I ain't never put no oil in the engine so don’t blame me.  
You all be good and I will try to do better in the future. 

Harold

Childhood Memories

Randy:   
Here are a few remembrances from my childhood in Chattanooga. I was about 4 
years old, Margie about 5/12 and sis a toddler barely walking. One afternoon 
Margie and I decided to go downtown to see daddy at his poolroom on S, Main 
Street in Chattanooga. We had previously tried to catch a street car that ran 
near by our house. But the conductor would not let us on even though we had our 
nickels fare. Mother was across the street talking to a neighbor so we decided to
walk but sis started to cry when we were leaving. We knew she could not walk, 
so we loaded her in a play wagon we had received the previous Christmas and 
set out on our journey. This was a sturdy wagon with wooden sideboards that sis 
could not easily get out of even if she wanted to -which she didn't  Mother 
returned to the house and found us missing.  Thinking us gone to the Piggly-
Wiggly grocery store about 2 blocks away, she called them to tell them to send 
us home. We frequently went there to get candy and we were well known to the 
owner and clerks. Some times we had mama's permission to go, and some times 
not. She then called Daddy to tell him we were missing. On his way home he 
found us on 25th Street near the intersection with Rossville Boulevard, me
pulling and Margie pushing the wagon. He put us in his car along with the wagon
and to home. We were guileless and saw nothing wrong with this adventure, 
but we soon found out different.  Daddy scolded us but Mother gave both Margie a 
spanking that hurt  I remember thinking at the time that she was a mean old 
Mama and we had done nothing to deserve the whipping I think I have told you 
this tale a long time ago but here it is again Margie and I started to school
at the same time to a red brick grade school about a half mile from where we lived.  
Mother had held Margie back because she wanted us to be in the same grade 
during our schooling.  The first day she coached us thoroughly to insist on 
being in the same class.  She told me to cry if they attempted to put us in 
separate classes.  Sure enough her premonitions were correct and we were assigned
to different teachers in different rooms.  I had just turned 6 years old and Margie
was 7.  Miss Peoples was my teacher and after letting me cry awhile she took me to
the front a seated me near her.  Harold, she asked, "did your mother tell you to cry
if separated from your sister"?  Yes-mam was my truthful reply.  I though so, stop 
crying and I am going to call your mother to tell her why the school has two first 
grades 1A and 1B for beginning students and next year you can both be in the same 
2nd, grade. I stopped crying then and was getting tired to put on crying any longer.
Mama’s wish was granted for we went through school in the same grade and graduated 
from high school in the spring of 1948 together. I was 17 and ¾ Margie was 19+  
more later       Daddy


Hello All:
 
More memories of my childhood in Chattanooga: In my first year of grade
school I was 6 years old and somewhat a weakling.  Mother always gave me a
dime to buy my lunch at the school cafeteria. A bully in the second grade
who was a lot bigger and stronger than me would occasionally waylay me and
take my dime . One day when I returned home from school, mamma asked me why
my clothes were so dirty and buttons torn from my shirt. I told her of the
boy wrestling me to the ground and taking my dime. She asked why I did not
fight back .and I replied that the boy was bigger and stronger than me and I
could not whip him. She said: " Harold,  the next time he attacks you, you
bite him!"  A few days later, he tried it again, and I followed mother's
advice and bit him HARD.  He screamed like I had bitten his arm off and
teachers and custodians came running for the screaming and crying continued.
They were about to punish me till I told them the circumstances for me
biting him. That boy never tried to take anything from me again. In fact he
gave me a wide berth.

Our home was on East 24th Street and in 1929 the TN. river flooded that
section almost every spring.  I can remember water as far as I could see,
and as high as the second step to enter our house.  Everyone's house in that
section on 24th street was elevated 4-5 ft. above the ground for just this
reason.  Daddy and a neighbor rigged a chicken wire screen over a culvert
under 24th street and when the water receded got a truckload of fish!  The
whole neighborhood had all the catfish they could eat for several days.  TVA
built Norris Dam in 1933, and later Watts Bar Dam, and even later, the
Chickamauga Dam, and several other dams on the Tennessee River which ended
the flooding.  We had moved to Cumberland County in 1931, where I started
school in the little 2 room school house in Pomona community, 6 miles west
of Crossville. 
 
Crossville's main street was a muddy, sloppy place when it rained, and
cattle and hogs, and chickens strolled up and down at will.  Years later
when I was in business at Marlow Motor Co., a fellow came in to buy a new
car from me, and got to telling tales about his experiences in Crossville in
1906.  The Tenn. Central Railway had just recently been built through
Crossville.  He was driving a wagon pulled by a team of mules and it was
loaded with lumber he was hauling from a sawmill to load on a flatcar at the
depot.  His route was along what is now 70 East and when he reached the
junction with main street in town his wagon sank to the axles in the mud and
his mules also sank to belly deep in the mud.  He cussed and whipped the
mules, he said, but finally gave up, took his lunch pail, went down to the
depot, and got on the first train that came through.  He did not come back
to Crossville for 50 years !!!, He said he often wondered what happened to
those mules and wagon of lumber.  He knew he dared not be anywhere near
because his employer was big and mean, and would have certainly beat on him
for something he could not have avoided. 
 
One more paragraph about Chattanooga:  In 1928 my daddy was discharged from
the US Calvary at Ft. Oglethorpe, Ga, which was a Calvary post 15-20 miles
southwest of Chattanooga.  My sister Margie was born in a hospital in Ft.
Oglethorpe, the only one of mother's 6 children that was not born at home.
Daddy had a T-model Ford and most weekends he gave a taxi service into and
from Chattanooga to other GI's who wanted to go to town.  This proved to be
profitable, and he eventually bought two more autos and hired drivers for
them.  During that time, GI passengers on leave wanted whiskey and women,
(just the same as they do now) so daddy got acquainted with bootleggers, so
he could make a little more money and satisfy his taxi customers. (He never
did tell me about the women, if there was any).   Prohibition was in full
swing during those years, and Daddy became the Kingpin moonshine distributor
in Chattanooga and Hamilton County.  He paid off  the judges and most of the
law officers, for prohibition was not very popular with anyone, and the
politicians and police always had their hand out for more money.  Daddy told
me in later years that he bought liquor from the moon-shiners on Lookout
Mountain and Suck Creek Mountain by the hundreds of gallons and sold it by
pint bottles, with something near a 500% markup.  In 1930 -31 he owned 3
pool rooms which served as distribution points for his liquor.  One of his
modes of transportation within Chattanooga was a horse drawn milk wagon
which plodded along the streets between his warehouse, and the pool rooms.
In the warehouse was where he kept the bulk of his liquor for he hauled it
off Lookout Mtn and Suck Creek Mountain by the truck-loads, 200-300 gallons
at a load.  The milk wagons carried a quantity of milk and ice, but also a
quantity of moonshine liquor in 5 gallon jugs.  It was inconspicuous at 4 in
the morning for a milk wagon to be on the streets.  Hundreds of milk wagons
plied their trade that way.  In 1932 prohibition was repealed, and this put
Daddy out of business.  Nobody wanted moonshine liquor when they could get
bottled-in-bond legal whiskey. ("Bottled-in-bond" was part of the label on
legal whiskey).   He saw the handwriting on the wall, sold one of his pool
rooms, gave one to his brother, Melvin Marlow, and sold the pool tables, and
abandoned the 3rd one.  I don't know what he did with the taxi business, but
when we moved to Crossville, he had a ¾ ton truck with a stake body and a
1930 Buick, 4 door, automobile that mother was learning to drive.  She never
learned to drive the gear-shift vehicle very well, and hated to drive, and
did very little driving.

Good bye.
You'all be good.   Harold 

Uncle Simpsons wife Lottie Woods

Tim:
I can tell you very little about Aunt  Lottie.  You remember from
your childhood that she was a small woman, a dutiful wife to Simp and
apparently a good mother to her six children.  She had six children namely
in order: Charlie who is still living here in Crossville , Dewey, Cecil,
Jemima , Your mother, and Anna B. the youngest. Jemima is also still living.
All the others are now dead. Cecil died relatively young in a car wreck on
Us 70 N when the car he was driving hit a bridge abutment.  
 You probably know some things about your great grand-father.  His name was
Maynard Marlow.  He was conceived in 1862 when his father, Thomas Marlow,
was AWOL from the union army and came home to see his wife and three
children who were having a hard time trying to stay alive. Maynard died on
April 29th 1898 from blood poison as it was called then  (Tetanus now) The
story goes, as I was told, that he had a tooth ache.  In those days the
local barber pulled teeth and did it in a very unsanitary manner. He kept
his forceps in a spittoon filled half full of water and seldom washed his
hands or the forceps. As a result Maynard got tetanus (also called lock Jaw)
and was dead a week or ten days later. An interesting bit that my son Jim
got from the C M McClung genealogy library in Knoxville was the report that
both father??  and Son , Thomas, enlisted in the union army at the same
time, Thomas was captured and held in a prison of war camp for a short
period but was freed in an exchange of prisoners.  Thomas lived till 1923
and was of considerable help to His daughter in law "Rosa" and her 6 kids
when  Maynard died. Millie  Ann Wilson Marlow, Thomas` first wife, died
April 10th 1896
Jim tells me that the genealogy library in Knoxville has a vast collection
of census records, birth and death records as well as marriage license
records and land deeds too. You may be interested in spending some time
there. You can probably find information  about Lottie  Wood's family there.
Sorry I can't tell you more.    Harold Marlow


My daddy: Dewey Harrison Marlow

Dewey Harrison Marlow, My father and your grandfather or great grandfather
was born on April 9 1898 in Lafollette Tennessee to Maynard and Rosa Marlow.
He was the youngest of 5 children born to this couple.  The oldest was a
girl named Julie born to them   November 1888. Then came Sam, born April
1892, then Simpson born  Dec. 1894, and Melvin born in June of 1896.  Daddy
was the youngest and was only 20 days old when his father died of blood
poisoning.  Poor Rosa, she was a widow only 30 years old with 5 young
children to try to raise.  In 1898 there was no welfare or any other charity
to help people.  Fortunately her father-in-law, Thomas Marlow, and the older
children helped her or they would all have starved.   All the Marlows were
as poor as Job's turkey as were most people in  Lafollette, Tenn. Coal
mining was the only work available there and most boys went to the mines
when 12 years old to dig coal. Maynard worked in the coal mines as did his
brothers and his older sons when they became old enough.  Daddy did too when
he became 12 years old.   He completed the 6th grade which was as much
educations as most boys and girls got in those years.       
I have only a faint memory of going with Daddy to attend Uncle Sam's
funeral. He died from blood poison he got from a pitch fork that he stuck
in his foot while cleaning a stable in his barn. He had three boys and all 3
of those spent some weeks with us in Pomona when they were teenagers.  They
were several years older than me.  I maintained contact with all 3 until
they all died.  
 When daddy was 16 years old he persuaded his mother to let him join the
Army.  She certified that he was then 18. No birth certificates were issued
in those days. Daddy fought in France during WW-1 and was back in the USA in
1919 when he finished his current enlistment. He promptly enlisted in the US
Calvary for another three years and was sent to Camp Chaffee, Arkansas to
begin training in that branch of service, which was much preferred over the
"foot slogging" army.
   While there he met Lessie Katherine Lewis, my mother, at a YMCA
sponsored dance.  She was working as a sales person at a big department
store in Little Rock Arkansas along with an older sister.  The two girls
were visiting their Aunt Audrey who lived in Little Rock and both got jobs
at the department store and decided to stay a while. The cotton farms in
Oxford Mississippi had little appeal to young girls and they were probably
fascinated with the city life.  They obtained lodging at the YMCA which was
considered a perfectly good place for single girls.  The court ship was one
sided at first.  Mother and her sister Azalee made a pact that they would
never get married. Daddy begged her to marry him but she said no.  He was
transferred to Ft. Oglethorpe Georgia a short time after the proposal. They
continued to write to each other and in January 1921 daddy got a leave and
drove his T model to Arkansas and would not take no for an answer.  They
were married January 29th, 1921 in Pulaski County Arkansas.  
On their return trip they decided to return via Sparta, Crossville, 
Harriman, to Lafollette, to introduce the new bride to Daddy's family.   At
that time, Daddy liked the looks of Cumberland County, and the stately, old, 
mansion type buildings in the Pomona Community just 5 miles west of
Crossville.  They took up residence in the housing provided for
non-commissioned officers in Ft. Oglethorpe.  Daddy at that time was a
sergeant.  My sister, Margie, was born in the hospital in Ft. Oglethorpe on
Feb 20, 1922.  She was the only one of Mother's 6 children, born in a
hospital.   Daddy was discharged from the Calvary during 1922 and rented a
house on 24th street in Chattanooga, that later burned.  He built or had a
house built on a corner lot at 1902 East 24th street, just 4-5 doors from
the house that burned.  It was a 5 room house plus bath and a screened in
back porch that had indoor toilets, running water, and electricity.  He made
a major mistake by having 3 swinging inside doors that we kids as toddlers
frequently got our fingers mashed.  There was a detached garage with a
sizable shed where we had our coal pile and tool storage.  The garage was
open on both ends with hinged doors that met in the middle.  The door
opposite the house was usually locked, but the one near the house remained
unlocked most of the time.  The house had a porch around two sides with 5
or 6 brick steps leading up to the porch, which was about 4 feet above the
ground.   The whole house was elevated 2 - 2.5 feet because of frequent
flooding when the Tennessee River overflowed. 
I was born on August 8, 1923 at 1902 East 24th street, Chattanooga.
Mother's 15 year old sister, my Aunt Anna B. who recently died, was visiting
during the summer break from school.  She tells me that she attended my
birth, but momma says not so!!  She hid behind a chair to observe what was
going on!  “Nosey gal!"  Frances Juanita, my younger sister, was born at
the same place on Jan. 12, 1926, and younger brother, Ray, was also born
there on June 9, 1927. Daddy and Mother had the big bedroom, Margie, sis, 
and I had a smaller bedroom.  When Ray came, he slept in a baby bed in Momma
and Daddy's bedroom.  
 :  In 1922 my daddy was discharged from the US Calvary at Ft. Oglethorpe, 
Georgia, which was a Calvary post 15-20 miles southwest of Chattanooga.
Daddy had a T-model Ford and most weekends he gave a taxi service into and
from Chattanooga to other GI's who wanted to go to town.  This proved to be
profitable, and he eventually bought two more autos and hired drivers for
them.  During that time, GI passengers on leave wanted whiskey and women, 
(just the same as they do now) so daddy got acquainted with bootleggers, so
he could make a little more money and satisfy his taxi customers. (He never
did tell me about the women, if there were any).   Prohibition was in full
swing during1928, 29, and 30. Daddy became the Kingpin moonshine distributor
in Chattanooga and Hamilton County.  He paid off the judges and most of the
law officers, for prohibition were not very popular with anyone, and the
politicians and police always had their hand out for more money.  Daddy told
me in later years that he bought liquor from the moon-shiners on Lookout
Mountain and Suck Creek Mountain by the hundreds of gallons and sold it by
pint bottles, with something near a 500% markup.  In 1930 -31 he owned 3
pool rooms which served as distribution points for his liquor.  One of his
modes of transportation within Chattanooga was a horse drawn milk wagon
which plodded along the streets between his warehouse and the pool rooms.
The warehouse was where he kept the bulk of his liquor for he hauled it off
Lookout Mountain and Suck Creek Mountain by the truck-loads, 200-300 gallons
at a load.  The milk wagons carried a quantity of milk and ice, but also a
quantity of moonshine liquor in 5 gallon jugs.  It was inconspicuous at 4 in
the morning for a milk wagon to be on the streets.  Hundreds of milk wagons
plied their trade that way.  In 1932 prohibition was repealed, and this put
Daddy out of business.  Nobody wanted moonshine liquor when they could get
bottled-in-bond legal whiskey. ("Bottled-in-bond" was part of the label on
legal whiskey).   He saw the handwriting on the wall, sold one of his pool
rooms, gave one to his brother, Melvin Marlow, and sold the pool tables, and
abandoned the 3rd one.  I don't know what he did with the taxi business, but
when we moved to Crossville, he had a ¾ ton truck with a stake body and a
1930 Buick, 4 door, automobile that mother was learning to drive.  She never
learned to drive the gear-shift vehicle very well, and hated to drive, and
did very little driving. The Buick did not have a synchronized  transmission
and the only way to not clash the gears was to double clutch when shifting
gears.  Automat transmissions were far in the future, at least till 1939 or
1940 when I think Oldsmobile was the first to make one. I remember our first
trip to Crossville with a load of household belongings. I rode with daddy in
the truck which was piled  high and covered with a tarp. Mother followed in
the Buick with a few bed clothes and other items and the other three kids.
The house that Daddy bought was one of the 4 or 5  big mansion type houses
he had observed in 1921 on his trip back home to show of his new wife to his
family. He saw an add in the Chattanooga  Times  newspaper for this house
and 120 acres for $4.000.00 and came to Crossville and bought it.

TO BE CONTINUED AT A LATER DATE.  My eyes and fingers are getting
tired now.  I need to do some more thinking and remembering also. All this
happened more than 50 years ago.
Daddy

my daddy continued

The big house that daddy bought  and we moved into in i931 0r 1932 Had 9
foot high ceilings with 3 chimneys There was a big fireplace that would
accommodate wood 4 ft. long and 20-24 inches in diameter. It was in the
family living room where we stayed most of the time. Another chimney was in
the Kitchen where we had a large warm morning cook stove with a damper that
could direct hear around the oven for baking. It also had a 15 gallon water
heater that was heated by resting next to the firebox.  The stove had a
healthy appetite for stove wood which became my job to keep the box filled
every day and fire wood for the fire place during winter time.  Our parlor
we called the front room, was a large room we used very seldom. There was a
chimney opening in the room for a big warm-morning heater also used very
little.  All the chimneys had double throats with stove pipe openings
upstairs.  The front door was approached via a front porch that was rotten
and falling in when we first occupied the house.  Daddy soon had a concrete
porch constructed and the upper level of the porch rebuilt too. There was a
door upstairs directly above the front door that opened onto the upper level
that had a 4 ft. high banister around it. There were two back doors leading
off from the kitchen. The door on the north side that opened onto a screened-in
porch and had a deep well with a windlass to draw water for t5he house.  It
also became my job to keep the oaken bucket in the kitchen filled as well
as the hot water reservoir on the cook stove.  The other door opened unto
the big unheated room we called the back-room.  There we stored our salted
meat in big wooden boxes when we killed hogs in the fall we seldom killed
beef except in the coldest part of winter.  Usually we shared half or more
of the meat with neighbors who paid us if they had the money.  Daddy and
mother were generous with the neighbors who were very poor.  I tried to keep
several days supply of stove wood for the kitchen in this room which was
handy to the kitchen. A back stair way led up to the biggest room in the
house which was as wide as the whole house and about 25 feet deep.  A pull
down ladder from this room went into the attic where we kept excess
furniture and other little used items.
Just off the south side of the back porch was a combination cellar
and smoke house. The dirt floor was about 4 or five feet below ground level
and the building had double walls with sawdust fro insulation between the
walls. We stored all the canned fruit and vegetables there and put our milk
and butter into a deeper hole in the floor.  We never had any thing to
freeze there even when the temperature once dropped to 24 below zero; At
times daddy hung hams and shoulders from hogs from the rafters and made a
small fire from hickory twigs to smoke cure the meat. The building was about
15by 20 feet and was very well built. We also stored apples and pears in
this building.  There was an orchard with at least 30 trees with several
varieties of fruit which were so prolific we fed a goodly part to our cattle
and hogs. 
 The ground was very hilly and grew an annual crop of rocks, we picked up
and piled rocks every spring but the winter freezes pushed a new layer up
every year. There were several acres of good timber on the farm and daddy had
a saw-mill to move in and saw several big stacks of lumber. Some he sold and
a lot was given to various churches to add on to their buildings or to
rebuild when fire destroyed the church house. We had no electricity till
1937 when a power line was built in front of our house.  We used kerosene
which we called coal oil for lamp light. Most of the time but occasionally
daddy would liter a gasoline lamp that used a mantle and gave a much brighter
light. We had a radio (Atwater Kent) that used two types of batteries and
about a half dozen knobs to tune with.  We listened to Lum & Abner a lot and
other radio programs till the batteries ran down. Daddy had a propeller
driven generator mounted on the roof that kept the auto type battery
charged.  The mast was hinged in the middle to direct the propeller
crossways from the wind, We tried to remember to collapse the mast but once
we forgot and found the thing on the ground 30 feet from the house and a
hole in the roof where a high wind tore it loose from the mountings. A few
times we heard the noise and managed to collapse the mount before the wind
again tore it from the roof. I remember on night being awakened by the noise
and vibration and awakened daddy to collapse the mast.  The rope was too
high for me to reach.
Another thing Daddy had done after we were settled in was to get a drunken
house painter he knew in Chattanooga to come live with us for several weeks
and repaint our house.  He stayed sober most of the time but daddy had to
get him to climb down from the 18 ft, high ladder for fear he would fall. I
remember he paid the man $2.00 a day which he spent mostly for moonshine
whiskey of the worst kind. Daddy got a gallon of good whiskey and gave the
painter a glass full most every night when the painting was over.  We all
breathed a sigh of relief when he got through and daddy took him back to
Chattanooga.                                        MORE LATER


Subject: My Daddy continued  Big house in Pomona Community

When we first moved onto the house in Pomona there were several out
buildings in back of the house.  I remember an old barn that one side had
collapsed and god only knows what held up the rest of it. There was also a
chicken house and a corn crib located in the barn yard all in the final
stage of standing erect. The barn yard was fenced from the house.  There was
a wooden picket fence in the front that was also in the final stage of
standing.  A large 2 acre garden was on the south side of the house and
front yard.  Soon Daddy got busy building a new barn and doing some repairs
on the old one. Later Daddy had a hay fork installed to pick up hay from a
wagon, lift a goodly bit of hay to the ceiling of the barn and lock onto a
railing going all the way to the back of the hay loft. A long rope was
attached to the fork that was pulled to lift the hay up to the ceiling via a
pulley arrangement and to pull the loaded hay fork to the place where we
wanted to dump the hay.  It took three men to operate this system but it
saved much back-breaking labor. One man was needed to operate the fork when
it was lowered to the load of hay, another in the hay loft to trigger the
release  and another to the other end of the rope where the horses were
pulling on the rope in back of the barn.  There was a pulley arrangement at
the rear of the barn from the top of the hay loft to the ground. We usually
did the pulling with our car, but had to be careful not to pull too far or
would damage the barn.  A barrier was placed to indicate the maximum travel.
 A new corn crib was built as well as a hen house.  The hen house had a
front door that we closed at night when the chickens were inside on the bars
provided for a roost.  Possums were a threat to the chickens as well as
foxes and some stray dogs . He also had a new outdoor toilet built over a
new excavation and the old one removed and the the  hole filled with dirt..
During 1935 a new and better toilet was built (free of charge by the
Government in a W.P.A. project) to furnish  employment for impoverished men
during the deep depression.  A single car garage was built shortly after
ward and was used to park the Buick.  The Truck was parked inside the
hallway of the new barn when winter came and snow fell. In real cold weather
a bucket of hot coals was placer under the oil pan on the vehicles to
facilitate starting  Along about 1934 Daddy traded for a Willis-knight auto.
It was a small car with a small engine that got good gas mileage.  Even
though the Dewey Marlow family was somewhat affluent, both daddy and mother
were frugal for no prospects of better times were forecast for the future.
The great depression of the 1930`s was in full swing.  Millions of people
were going hungry and country people ate only what they raised on their land
and the wild animals they could kill or catch in traps.  A possum was a
feast and a mud turtle was also considered good eating.  Even corn-bread was
scarce and we had to put a lock on our crib to keep people from helping
themselves.  Daddy never turned anyone away that asked for corn to make
bread but did say no to a fellow or two who he suspected wanted the corn to
make moonshine whiskey
Once in a while a pig or a sheep or a calf went missing.  We had more of
each and did not report any thing to the sheriff. Some poor family was
desperate for something to eat and was too proud to beg.  
I remember one boy my age coming to school with burlap bags wrapped
around his feet for he had no shoes.  When I told daddy of this, he bought
the boy a new pair of boots.  A better pair than I had, for his had a knife
pocket on the right boot and mine did not. Of course he had no knife to
carry. One of Lawrence Lowe's` boys was found dead in his bed one morning in
an unheated upstairs room. The boy was 12 years old and weighed less than 50
lbs. Starved? We all thought so. I can still remember some kids that had
only a boiled potato in their lunch bucket and maybe a piece of corn bread.
I shared my lunch with my best buddy Roger Cox for he was usually cold and
hungry. The Cox family lived next door to us.  Their father was killed in a
truck wreck while working for the county road department. His widow had a
hard time trying to rear 5 children on their small farm and the small
stipend the County paid her for the loss of her husband.  Daddy and mother
helped them as did other neighbors for they were a Christian family who were
never accused of stealing anything.
In 1935 or 1936 my daddy and Mr. Fred L Hamby made a deal with the
county fair grounds people to start a livestock auction using their stock
pens that were used during the annual fair. This proved to be a valuable
service to Cumberland County for now the farmers had a ready market for
their livestock.  Both daddy and Mr. Hamby were well known as good and
honest men and were trusted to sell their cattle for the best price
obtainable.  If Daddy did not think the bids during the auction were high
enough he bid on the on the stock himself.  He got a lot of unwanted cattle
that he brought to our place and reentered them the next week or two to get
his purchase price back. Some times he did not.   If the cattle or hogs met
the slaughter house standards, he  hauled them to the slaughter houses in
Knoxville TN. to sell.  At first this was not  a very profitable business
and in 1939 two more partners were acquired.  
 Mr. Burr Cole and Mr. Ralph Welch were both good farmers with good
reputations. I worked some Tuesday afternoons helping with the herding of
the animals into and from the auction ring.  Over time the partnership was
buying a goodly part of the offering and transporting them to other markets
in Chattanooga or Cleveland TN. where they brought a bit more money. I was
16 years old in 1939 and was driving daddy's truck at times with a load of
cattle to and from these places. One trip that I will never forget.  I was
driving daddy's truck from Cleveland TN. to home.  There was a crossing near
where the Watts Bar Dam is now that the riverbed was wide and in the summer
and fall the water was only a foot or less deep.  That was a shorter route
to Crossville than the ferry to Dayton TN. and the road on to Crossville.
Cheaper too. The ferry charged three dollars for a truck load of cattle.  I
had just crossed the ford there near Spring City when I took a curve a
little too fast.  The cattle were thrown to the side of the truck and
overturned the truck.  I had a SICK calf in the cab of the truck that was
too little to ride with the big cows in the bed.  The  ,SICKNESS , loose
bowels, and the calf let me have a full dose when we overturned. I managed
to get the drivers-side door open and clambered to the ground. There I was
covered with calf DOO  and one dead cow and 7 others scattered and gone.  I
managed to wash a bit of the mess from my head, face and arms ion the near
by river but a lot remained on my clothes.  Up the road about 200 yards I
saw a house with a light shining and when I got close enough I saw a
telephone line leading into the house.  I swallowed my pride, knocked on the
door and finally a man came and wanted to know what I wanted. I told him of
my predicament and asked him to call my father whose was at home. This was
after midnight. He insisted that I come in and do the calling myself even
though I smelled terrible.  Daddy told me to go back to the truck and leave
some lights burning to notify traffic of the situation,  He arrived in his
car a little while later and Mr. Cole followed with his truck which was the
same size as the overturned one. Daddy did not fuss at me as I expected . He
later told me that he would have probably done the same thing with an over
load of big cows and at night on a strange road. I really was not going more
than 20 or 25 miles per hour but the sudden shift of three or four thousand
lbs. to the side of the bed was enough to overturn it. He sent me home with
the car and he and Burr Cole waited till daylight and found the missing cows
which they brought home. They paid a farmer $5.00 to dispose of the dead
cow.
 Enough for now more to follow.             Harold

My Daddy continued---more life during the great depression of the 1930`s


Daddy told me later in life that for 6-8 years he did not earn any money at
all but used his savings to support his family. I guess that was true for I
remember we kids got only what we needed, not what we wanted.  I wanted a
bicycle in the worst way but could not convince daddy to get me one. Only in
1935 while I was with daddy and two carpenters making repairs to our house
in Chattanooga did I get a prett6y sorry used one.  The house in Chattanooga
was damaged in a house fire. He got Shelby Davis and Dallas Hughes both fair
carpenters and neighbors to go with he and I to make the repairs. We were
about three weeks in getting the job done and saved several hundred $`s by
doing it ourselves rather than the contractor that the Insurance recommended
. School was out and I got to go along.  We carried some personal items with
us and batched in the partially destroyed house while doing the repairs.
The carpenters were paid $3.00 per day and keep. I was paid 50 cents per day
as a "go-fer"  I don't think daddy ever found what caused the fire and the
tenants were suspected to have set it in order to collect some insurance on
their furniture.  They were also 3 months behind on the rent. We found a
bushel basket of whiskey bottles in the outside garage that was not damaged
by the fire. Daddy had to pay the fire department for coming to put the fire
out,
 but the insurance later reimbursed him.
In 1937 an electric power line was erected along the road that ran
alongside our house. Daddy got the drunk that had painted our house to come
to Crossville and do the wiring for our house. He knew very about
electricity and did several thing wrong that we had to get a local man to
correct.  Only one qualified electrician in Crossville MR. Ben West ,and he
was covered up with orders and was 4-5 months behind for almost all the
families along the new lines wanted to be hooked up.  Daddy even had two
lights installed in the barn so that the cows could be milked  instead of by
lantern light which was dangerous around a barn full of hay. It was a red
letter day for me when we got an electric water pump installed and I was
relieved from the laborious job of drawing water. 
Margie and I both graduated from Cumberland County High School in
the spring of 1941 We were the first family members of both parents that had
ever graduated from high school and they were dutifully proud of us.  Of
course all six of their kids went thru high school and most of us had some
College too.  During WW2 Daddy continued with the stock yard and in 1944 he
bought a warehouse alongside of the railroad in Crossville and started a
business he called Farmers Supply Warehouse.  H sold mostly farm needs such
as feed, seed and fertilizer but later began to buy potatoes from the farm
customers and Graded and merchandised them under the Farmers mountain grown
trademark.  When I returned from the Army in April of 1946 both Marie and I
worked for Daddy at this business.  My sister Margie and her husband Mutt
Lewis worked there too.  By that time the business had grown into a pretty
good money maker.  WE sold a lot of cattle feed.  We sold the Challenger
brand of feed, Hales sold Purina, and Graybeal sold the Wayne brand.  One
afternoon after closing time Mutt and I had a talk with the Wayne Feed
Salesman and he offered us the Wayne brand exclusively If we would give him
an order for four carloads of feed.  He knew we were selling two or three
railroad cars of Challenger feed per week and His Graybeal outlet only one
or two per month.  A good deal for him for he worked on a commission basis.
Not So.  We stacked the Wayne bit in the back of our warehouse and continued
to sell the Challenger brand. He was furious and threatened to sue but we
had a signed contract and his lawyer advised against suing.
 It did not make MR. Frank P Brown who was the store manager very happy
either, or the Graybeale brothers either, but nothing they could do. They
had refused to sign a contract knowing there was no other store available to
handle the Wayne Brand, or so they thought. The Challenger brand of feed was
somewhat cheaper and a bit better feed also.  Farmers Supply Warehouse got
most of the feed business thereafter.
An interesting side line.   One of our customers bought a lot of
shorts (a flour byproduct than contained the hard wheat seed husk) some
times two or three tons at a time in 100 lb. Bags.  He also bought two or
three hundred gallons of black-strap molasses when he got the shorts.  I
asked daddy "just what does he feed this combination to"?  Daddy grinned and
replied "son you have a lot to learn in this business, those are the
principle ingredients in making moon-shine whiskey".  I had never thought of
that. Tom Flynn, a building contractor was just finishing the new addition
to the original warehouse.  It was of brick and concrete block construction
, was 60 feet wide, 100 feet long and contained two stories ( now houses
Marlow Motor Company). The floor was reinforced with huge steel beams for
extra strength to hold up the tons of feed and fertilizer we loaded onto it
and it had a rounded roof that was covered with asphalt. The upstairs roof
was from 12 to 20 feet high and we stacked feed as much as 15 bags high A
lot of tonnage could be loaded this way and a very str0ng floor was needed.
Daddy saw an ad in the Knoxville TN. Newspaper for dealers to handle
the new Kaiser-Frazer automobile line and he and I went for an interview
with Mr. Higginbotham who was the distributor for east Tenn. for these
vehicles. Neither of us had the least idea of how to run an automobile
dealership but we knew there was too many of us to al live off the income
from the Farmers Warehouse  We needed to seek another source of income and
we figured we could learn.  Seth Williams, who was the Ford dealer in
Crossville could hardly read or write, but was a successful dealer and we
were knew we were a lot smarter than he was. So we signed up as the
exclusive dealer for Cumberland County. The down stairs of the new building
remained vacant with only the rear of the space rented to a mechanic for his
private repair service.  This became the home of Crossville Motor Co. which
we called our new business.  Automobiles were not built in the years from
mid 1941 till 1946 for all the automobile plants were converted to war
production.  A long waiting list was required to buy a new car for several
years till enough were built to fill the demand  which occurred in 1949.
People bought the Kaiser and Frazier cars because they could buy no other
new cars without paying several hundred dollars extra to an unscrupulous
dealers These cars were far ahead of the time. Big, boxy and clumsy looking
but they had a good Continental red seal  6 cy, engine which was universally
accepted as one of the best engines built,  A Lipe-Warner transmission was
also generally  recognized as a very good transmission and was the only
choice available.  Daddy and I both sold several of these vehicles. We sold
more than the general distributor in Knoxville did in the years 1948 and
1949. Most of the buyers were pleased with the cars until they got ready to
trade two or three years later and found them valued poorly.
 In 1948 we applied to the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors Corp.
for a franchise and were awarded same. A few months later we obtained a GMC
truck franchise.  GM made us move the Kaiser Frazer bit to another location
and disassociate from active management.  We made a family friend, Mr. J. B.
Pitchfork manager and rented a corner of which later became Shanks building.
At the time we used the building it contain-d a bus station and a gas
station too..  Both these businesses had recently gone out of business and
the building was available. 
 We were allotted only one Pontiac a month for the first two years of our
franchise.  In 1950 the industry had pretty well filled the backlog and we
got more cars GMC was a bit more generous and we got most all we wanted. I
remember 1948 GMC trucks sold for $888.00.  That was a very bare truck. A
spare tire and wheel cost extra, a heater was not factory installed, a rear
bumper was also dealer installed.  These items increased the price another
$100.00.  Available in three  colors- Red, Green or Black. Short or Long
wheelbase with a narrow bed. One engine, a 248 cu. Inch. 6 cylinder.
One day daddy came back from Knoxville an announced we were dealers for Rio
trucks  Rio only made big trucks, nothing smaller than 1-1/2 ton size and
several  larger ones we sold several of these while TVA was still buying
coal from the Clifty strip mines. Too high sulfur content, and TVA bought no
more coal from Cumberland County mines.
Daddy had a serious heart attack in the fall of 1949.  He lingered near
death for several days, Dr, H.F Lawson Told me he could not live and to
prepare mother and the family for his imminent death.  Another doctor Named
Mitchell said "whistle pretty" his derisive name for a rival did`nt know
what a tough man daddy was and not to pay any attention to him. Daddy did
survive and lived a normal life till on Sunday afternoon July 23, 1953, he
had a fatal heart attack. Mother called me and I rushed to their house just
in time to reassure daddy that I would look after mother and take care of
her. Then he died on the upstairs balcony that opened from their bed room.

END OF STORY    Harold
PS. I may think of some other things later that might be of interest to you.
If so I will write more.


Subject: more rememberances from my youth Harold Marlow

Randy:  You wanted me to tell you some things about my growing-up years.
Here are a few more remembrances. During the 1930`s Cumberland County had a
no-fence law.  So did most if not all of TN. This law permitted farmers to
let their cattle run freely wherever they wanted to. Most everyone had a cow
or two or some hogs to let loose every spring to graze on the thousands of
forest that essentially belonged to no one.  We did this too. All farmers
had an ear marking for their cattle just as the westerners branded their
cattle.  The markings were registered with the county court clerk and served
to identify every ones stock.  If you did not mark your cattle, they could
be stolen and you had no proof they were yours.  Our mark was a split in the
left ear and a crop off the right ear and was applied soon after birth of
the animal. It was a permanent mark and if done properly was hard for anyone
to change.  
I remember daddy and I, and a neighbor driving a bunch of our dry
cows and steers a few miles from home into a forest bordering on  meadow
creek.  This was past the place that later became the "Jap camp".  A bell
was hung around the neck of one or two of the leader animals for location
when we wanted to see them.  We took salt to them every few weeks and they
learned to come to the salt licks. In early spring the woods were set on
fire to hasten new grass to grow and get rid of trashy growth.  The trees
were not harmed for the fire was never big enough to catch a tree on fire.
Most years there was a good mast. [lots of acorns and other nuts} 
In the early thirties there were a lot of chest nut trees growing wild in
the woods and our hogs would get really big and fat on eating the chestnuts.
The cattle were brought in a few weeks earlier than were the hogs for the
nut crop did not fall from the trees till Octoberr or later. We had dogs
that caught the hogs for us for they were too wild to herd after a summer
and fall of freedom.  Some dogs caught a hog by a hind leg, some by getting
a bite in their jaw.  The Jaw was a better method for the hog was not able
to bite the dog if the dog had a good hold. We tied the feet of the hogs and
loaded them on a wagon to take to the barn where they were pinned up till
killing time or they were sold. We rode horses a lot of the time, locating
the stock and taking them salt  Daddy had two big Persian mares {sisters on
year apart} that we rode mostly for they were gentle and rode easily even
with no saddle.
These mares {Molly and Polly} were good field workers and good brood
mares also. They produced fine colts every two years.  One year Daddy had
them bred to a donkey to produce mules.  Mother really got mad when she
found out what daddy had done and blessed him out for doing this to the
beautiful mares.. The mule colts grew to 1,000 lb. size and were  trained to
work on the farm . Daddy was offered $400.00 for the pair, which he refused.
That was a big price in 1934. but  they, and their mothers were his pride
and joy. The mares lived to a ripe old age of 18 or 19 years old. They ate a
lot of corn and hay and did no work their last few years. I don't remember
about the mules but I think daddy later sold them while I was away in the
Army.
Another memory that comes to mind.
During the school years of 1937 and 1938 I was in High School.  I had
acquired a better bicycle and two boys my age had bikes also. We rode
hundreds of miles most every summer.  Our favorite trip was to the site of
the new city lake dam site.  MR. Smith was in the process of building the
dam and it was interesting to see the process and later to see how rapidly
the lake began to fill.  In 1939 during an extended cold spell of -10 to -28
below zero the surface of the lake froze to a thickness of two feet or more.
Sever fools, me included, drove our family cars on the ice and had great
sport sliding round and around on the ice.  I shudder to think what would
have happened if we hit a rotten spot in the ice and we went under. I hope
none of my kids or grandkids ever did anything this foolish.  
  More remembrances to follow whenever I  am in the mood.
Daddy

Dear Randy and other kinfolks:
You suggested the other day in our phone conversation that I tell of
running away from home: I did just that and Aaron did it twice. Ralph told
the folks he was going.
It was the summer of 1939.  I had just completed my second year of
high school, was almost 16 years old.  Three of us boys all the same age,
decided to cut paper wood to earn ourselves some money.  Daddy had bought
the Lloyd Dayton place that adjoined ours that was on the opposite side of
the road several years prior to this time.  There was also about twenty
acres on the same side of the road as ours but was past the Cox`s  place
next door.  At that time Paper wood would bring $6.00 per Rick when
delivered and stacked at Mr. Al   ?///? Wood yard in Crossville. He was the
buying agent for the Southern Woods Lumber co. in Alabama.  Only Maple and
black gum would do and the 4 foot long pieces had to be at least 5 inches in
diameter and all the bark peeled off of it. We worked hard for 4 or 5 weeks
till we cut most of the desired trees from Daddy's field.
It was hard work pulling a crosscut saw and swinging an ax.  Daddy also
wanted us to pile the brush for burning when the brush dried enough to burn.
Some of the wood had to be hand carried out of the woods too. Mr. Harry
Spencer had an old 1 ton truck that would carry 2 Rick's of wood per trip.
He charged us 1/3 of the price we received. (four dollars per load) I
remember that I wore blisters on both hands the first week or two till my
hands toughened.  I saved all my money ($28.00) and Oliver Hughes saved
($26.00) of his.  That was by far the most money either of had ever had at
one time  We decided to go to Ohio and get rich. Some of the grown men told
of getting 4 or 5 dollars a day doing farm work there. In those days grown
men worked for one dollar a day and glad to get the work. The work day was
12 hours too.
We packed our suit cases one night and after daddy was gone to work
the next morning we caught a Greyhound bus on the highway that passed
through Pomona which was and still is US Highway 70 South, We paid our fare
to Rockwood TN. ($1.65) for we did not anyone to see us leaving and possibly
tell our parents.  From Roockwood we started hitch-hiking and soon got a
ride to Sunbright  TN. a few miles north  There we got stuck.   For two or
three hours we stuck our thumbs out with no success.  Along about 4 o'clock
we walked down a long hill to a village by the railroad track we were hungry
and bough some cheese and crackers for 15 cents. Remember this was 1938 and
a dollar then was equal to 10 or twelve now. In the store we met a fellow
who sized us up right away and when we told him our plans he suggested we
ho-bo a freight train as he was going to do. He took us down to a siding and
showed us how to ride the rails as it was called.  The train was made up of
mostly gondola cars for the hauling of coal These cars had a sloping wall on
each end that a broad steel plate lay flat about 5 feet from the end of the
car and the bed of the car sloped forward  to a height of 4 or 5 feet to the
end of the coal box. There was a v shaped iron brace to lean back on and he
suggested that we go the store and buy some rope to tie our bags and
ourselves to the v bars for we would be on the train a long time and could
go to sleep and fall to the tracks. This we did.  
All went well till the train (coal fired) began going through the
numerous tunnels and we near suffocated from the smoke.  No sooner out of
one tunnel till another for an hour or more.  I was under a car facing to
the rear and Oliver was in the next car coupled to mine and he faced the
front. I don't know who had the better location. The train did not go to
Cincinnati as we were told but to London Ky. And on to Charleston West
Virginia.  A kindly railroad employee told us to wait for the next train to
come in and it would take us to Cincinnati and this we did. after an hour or
two wait. Next stop was in the yards at Cincinnati.  Lucky for us the Ohio
River was near by and we both spent about an hour washing the coal dust from
our bodies and shaking some from our clothes.  We coughed and snorted black
coal for an hour or more.
Walking up from the river we saw a large sign saying men wanted. Now we were
in luck.  We went in and the boss issued us a mask and goggles and escorted
us to a room where men were placing boxes under tubes pouring out soap
powder.  This was our job that was to pay us thirty five cents per hour.
About an hour of this and our throats were so raw and eyes were burning so
bad that we met in the bathroom and decided that that was not for us. We
left without a word to anyone and never looked back.  We continued on our
way and finally reached Springfield  Ohio which was our original
destination.  A high school class mate gave us an address where he said he
was going and his brother there would find us a job and a place to stay. Not
so.  There was no such address. We were running low on money and was getting
somewhat worried.  Oliver got homesick and began to have crying fits. We
were sleeping at the bus station soon having spent all of our money and were
going hungry  On morning I got up about 3 AM and while strolling down a
nearby street I met a horse drawn milk wagon delivering milk door to door. I
remembered the milk delivery in Chattanooga and waited the milk wagon got a
block or two in front and slipped u to the front porch of a house and took
two of the three quart bottles and hid them in a hedge fence a short
distance away. Then I thought of another idea from our time in Chattanooga.
People left the money to pay the milkman in the empty bottles When they
placed them out the night before.  I hurriedly got in front of the Milk man
and in only three tries I had 65 cents from the bottles.  Then I figured I
had better try my luck any more.  By that time it was almost daylight so as
soon as a store opened I bought 3 loaves of Day-old bread for a dime and
three 10 oz. Bars of candy for another dime. Oliver was still asleep so I
ate one of the loafs of bread and one of the candy bars and drank one of the
bottled of milk.  I was beginning to get put out with Oliver's` pouting.
That morning we got a job trying to sell tickets that entitled the purchaser
to buy an 8 by ten portrait for $1.00. Three hours of door to door
soliciting got us cussed out a lot but no buyers .  Late that afternoon we
saw a churchyard bulletin that announced a supper that night.  All invited.
We invited ourselves and really ate like starved wolves. As we were leaving
a big fellow accosted us and wanted to know our business there.  I tried to
tell him we were visiting our Aunt and she said we would be welcome but he
said no by that name belonged to church. We had to confess we had run away
from home and had ran out of money for food or anything else.  He must have
taken pity for us and when we told of sleeping at the bus station till the
police ran us away and then in the city park till another cop ran us away he
loaded us and our suitcases and his wife and took us home with him. His name
was Mr. Tracy.  Mrs. Tracy made us pallets on their back porch which was
screened in. to sleep on that night.  The next morning he got us up real
early and told us he knew of jobs for us both if we really wanted to work.
The jobs were at a big nursery that was owned by a member of his church and
he had told him to bring us by and he would give us a try. We worked there
for several weeks and after a few days, the Tracy's  trusted us enough to
let us into their house.  We  were paid 25 cents per hour and worked 9-10
hours per day planting, digging and all sort of jobs involved in growing
plants and flowers. We so0n learned the city bus route to work and back and
the Tracy's` only charged us $4.00 a week for room and board and Mr. Did a
weekly laundry for us. The first week of August Mr. Tracy told us that his
vacation was the next week and they planned to go to his home town of
Summerset KY. For two weeks and would be glad to let us ride with him that
far toward our home. We didn`t want to do that at first but when he
mentioned he could not let us live in his house when they were gone, we
changed our minds and decided we did want to go that far with him for that
was less than 100 miles from Crossville and we could ride a bus the rest of
the way for $5.00 or less. Off we go, Oliver and I in the back seat along
with our suitcases.  Mr. Tracy had a big Buick Auto. He worked for General
Motors at the local bumper factory. We did not leave Springfield till noon
and was much after dark before we got to Summerset and both Oliver and I
were asleep.  We awakened in Crossville Tenn. Parked at the All Night café
and bus stop owned and operated by Mrs. Myrtle Prater called the midway
café. The Tracy's had plan from the first to bring us home if possible and
had called my parents to tell them that.  Unknown to me, Mrs. Tracy had
found my parents name and address in some papers in my suitcase and mother
and her had weekly correspondence by letters and telephone all summer. My
sister Margie told me that both daddy and mother were quite worried about me
and Oliver till they got a long letter from Mrs. Tracy assuring them we were
doing fine and that  they were caring for us. They were the best friends I
ever had and I really appreciated them after I had time to think on it.
 Daddy did not fuss at me. He told me the next time I wanted to leave home
to tell him and he would help me do it right and not leave them worried for
they would know    where I was. I never ran from home again nor did I ever
want to again.  
This is a true story.  Oliver Hughes and I remained friends till his death
at an early age with cancer many years ago. Your daddy -grandfather   Harold
Marlow

Dear Folks;  
Some of you are interested in hearing of us boys running away from
home.  Aaron tried this stunt in the summer of 1948.  He and two boys his
age (I don't remember their names) decided to go west. I do not remember
their planned destination but they got only as far as St. Louis Missouri.
For some reason they attracted a policeman's` attention in St Louis and he
pulled them over.  Probably because they were so young and driving a brand
new vehicle.  He questioned Aaron, who was driving, and was not satisfied
with his answers.
  They were in Daddy's new 1948 Frazer automobile which in itself was rare
enough to attracted attention. Aaron explained that they were enroute to
visit relatives in Kansas City Missouri. He said that they had his Daddy's
permission to drive the family car for this visit.  The officer was
persuaded to let the boys continue on their way till he caught a glimpse of
the 38 special pistol that he saw half way under the front seat.  No way
could he believe a daddy would permit his 16 year old son to have a gun
along, so he took the boys to the police station where he called Daddy and
asked about the trip and especially the gun.  Yes, Aaron was his son.  No,
he did not know of the trip and there were no relatives in Kansas City and
certainly no permission to take his gun. Keep them in custody till he could
get there and he would bring them home.  I think Daddy took a Greyhound bus
and brought the run-away boys home. I suppose Aaron got a good whipping for
this escapade.  I was married and we had a new baby, Randy, and living in a
house apart so I was not privy to the family affairs.  
Aaron tried to get away a second time the following year but was apprehended
in Sunbright Tenn., the same day he left. He had the misfortune to hitch
hike a ride with the Pontiac dealer in Sunbright who was a good friend of
Daddy`s.  It was late in the day and already getting dark and beginning to
rain.  He told Aaron he could stay in his dealership and sleep on a couch in
his show room over night if he wanted to, When he closed up for the night he
called Daddy and told of his son being there and asleep in his building.  It
was only a two hour trip and Daddy was there before Aaron was awake and
brought him home.  He never ran away any more.
Ralph did not run away.  He and a friend, Cecil Turner, told their parents
they wanted to take a trip west and got their parents permission and some
money to buy gasoline. They had both just graduated from high school. It was
early spring of 1952. We had traded for a thoroughly used 1948 Mercury car
that Runt Burnett traded in on a new Pontiac.  I remember the car had over
two hundred thousand miles on the odometer and had made hundreds of trips to
Nashville to haul Whiskey back to Crossville. Nashville was the only city in
TN. at that time that had legal liquor stores it was illegal to have any
whiskey in your car or even in your home outside of Davidson County
(Nashville).   I remember we installed air shocks on the new Pontiac to
raise the rear end of the car when it was loaded with several cases of
liquor that weighed 400 0r 500 lbs. Compressed air would be used to pump up
the shocks that would raise the rear end to the desired height.  A heavily
loaded car was a dead give-away to law enforce officers that the car was
probably a rum-runner and the driver would be a good bet to pay a bribe to
not be arrested  That was a common procedure with the Tennessee Highway
Patrol.
The boys got to the Mexican border and were turned away for they had no
passport that was required nor did they have any proof of ownership for the
old car. What to do?  To Alaska for they heard that no Passports were
required to enter Canada. However their money was running short and the car
had bad tires that they constantly had to repair so they came on back home. 
The following year (1953) Ralph got a better car and off to Alaska to seek
his fortune.  Milo Boston went with him this trip. They made the trip into
Canada before they ran out of money again.  A roadside sign read "help
wanted" and they stopped and got work helping dig potatoes in British
Columbia province. Three days later they were flat broke, sleeping in the
Kaiser automobile and going hungry. In a conversation with another employee,
Ralph mentioned he was glad that this is Friday and they would get paid for
the three or four days they had worked.  Not so he was told. The company
keeps them a week behind on the payment of salaries and no advances for any
reason.  The only way he could get any pay was if he was fired, then he was
paid and told to get gone never to come back again. Ralph promptly sat down
and did no more work for several hours and finally the straw-boss fired him
and gave him a slip of paper to give the office on his way out.  Ralph
thanked the man and then told him why he was so happy to be fired.  He had
nothing to eat for the past 24 hours and had to be fired in order to get
money for food.  They continued on toward Alaska on the Alcan Highway (the
only dirt road to Alaska) but misfortune struck about 35 miles south of the
city of White-Horse.
A rock slide was in the road. Ralph tried to avoid hitting some big boulders
but in so doing he straddled a rock that tore a hole in the automatic
transmission of the Pontiac he was driving, He had the car towed into
White-horse and he and Milo got work doing something in the town.
 Daddy died on July 23rd. 1953 and we had no idea where we could find Ralph.
Charlie Johnson was the sheriff of Cumberland County then and he found Ralph
within two hours. The Canadian mounted police had a report of the accident
on the highway and of the car being towed into Whitehorse The police of
White horse knew of the two boys that had their car damaged and quickly had
them on the phone to me.  I wired some money to him via western onion for I
knew he did not have enough money to fly home and Mother wanted him to come
for the funeral.  He chartered a small plane to get him to Vancouver and got
US flights To Knoxville.  We delayed burial for an extra day and he arrived home
About two hours before the ceremony.  
Milo Boston was sent enough money to pay for the car repairs and an
additional two hundred dollars to buy gas and food and lodging to get home
with the car. Two weeks later he appeared in town. 
This also is a true story to the best of my memory. All this
happened 50 years ago and some things are now hazy in my memory.

Grand-pa