Compiled by Dani Sue Jones Overton Written by Beulah Elizabeth Kittrell Jones-her handwritten memoirs. During the hard depression years I became a teenager in the year January 11, 1934. I began thinking about boys when I was about eleven but not in a serious way at all (never!). I had a boyfriend. He would walk me to school and carry my books, his name was Edward. I became good friends with his sister, Mary Elizabeth. It seemed that during the Depression in the year 1931 or 1932, my Dad lost his business in Winterville N.C. He was in the garage business with Standard Oil Company. Money was tight then people that owed him on credit could not pay their bills. I remember before our house burned down in 1931 my Mom showed me ledgers on ledgers where people owed my Dad and could not pay him, My Dad left Winterville when I was eleven years old and we moved to Ayden and he opened up Standard Oil Co. again, but the times were so bad then-we lived in Ayden throughout my 6th grade-and then moved out on Thad Harris farm for a year and that was the only time I rode the school bus to school. That was the year I was in the 7th grade. We moved back to Ayden after that year-no money made on the farm-but the older children had lots of experience feeding hogs-picking potato bugs-but at least we ate with the 12.00 Dad got each month from the government pension. You could eat back then for 12.00 a month. Almost. It was during this time that Dad’s health failed him, because of stress and no money to be made. Our house was burned down when I was the age of 11. In those times (only the rich) did not have waterworks, so usually heated their water on a stove. We had oil stove that was used for cooking in the back of our house, in the kitchen, and we sat in the front. If one drop of water hit the flames, up it went. It seems Mama and Daddy had forgotten the water boiling for Dad’s bath. The soap was out and Dad given me a nickel to go over to Aunt Bettie Barber’s to get a cake of soap from her. She gave me a cake and gave me my nickel back and as I came out of her house-I saw a fire where the kitchen was and ran home screaming “The House is On Fire!” Mama ran to the kitchen and left all the doors open, I ran to the bedroom and got all the kids out while Mama and Dad were interested in getting the fire out. The night was cold and windy-March wind-it was probably the last of Feb that it happened. Mama and Dad had $1500.00 insurance on the house and furniture. The house was built back for $1200.00-people paid for everything in cash back then-Dad took his 12.00 a month and made house payments as they paid $1000 on the house and owed $200 more. While they were building the house we moved in with Aunt Bertha and Uncle Ben. Aunt Bertha and Uncle Ben later lost that house to A.W Ange during the depression. Lots of people lost everything and went bankrupt (during the depression) After the house was built, lots of people from everywhere, the first house in a long time to be built, to see the house. because of the depression. I was in the 5th grade when the house burned down. Mama never would leave her house or Aunt Bettie. Grandpa offered (Grandpa is Charles Tull Kittrell) the farm at Sanford-Mama wouldn’t go-so he gave it Uncle Grover and Aunt Bessie but they lost it during the depression. Hoover Cart Parades as I remember- When I was about 12 years old I remember going to a Hoover Cart parade. (Herbert Hoover was president and promised before his election-a car in every port and a chicken in every pot) however those dreams never were. People couldn’t afford to drive their cars, that is why my Dad lost his business, and people took the wheels off of their cars and put them on their carts and they called them Hoover carts. I remember the little girl who owned her own pony. My first cousin Bettie Trip stayed with them (they were Kilpatricks). Bettie Trip helped Mrs. Kilpatrick and Bettie graduated from high school while there. Aunt Betty Little helped her. Anyway the girl that owned her own pony, Ann Kilpatrick, was the queen of the parade. I’ve never seen so many Hoover carts since then or ever. The Hoover Carts were a protest against the administration. I remember it was hard on Mom and Dad with 6 kids. We got by two years because Mama rented our new house to the doctor of Winterville. At 13 we moved back to Winterville. I had the mumps right after we moved back and Mama was pregnant with Ann. Dad’s health kept getting worse and he was at Kecougton (dsjo-Military hospital close to Hampton VA) I was in the 8th grade. He opened up Esso gas station again, and was there several years while I was in high school. Then his health got so bad he couldn’t cope. He cured tobacco in the summer for his cousins, Billy and Hazzard May. After I married, his health completely failed him. He was fine in the hospital because he was on the diet. Home, he was off diet. Dad died in 1941 with a cerebral hemorrhage. He came home that night from a ball game in Greenville. My Aunt Bettie Barber (Elizabeth Little m Joe Barber) was just like a grandmother and as far as I was concerned, she was. She helped my Mom and Dad out during those depression years. She bought me shoes, coats, and made my dresses. I remember when I was going in high school (back then it was only eleven years, not twelve years) she made 6 or 8 dresses. I remember getting so tired standing while she fitted me. Aunt Betty Little (daughter of Sammy and Maide Little) always sent me clothes. I was one of the better dressed girls in school. My friends always wanted to borrow my clothes. I didn’t like them to, as some of them never used deodorant. I worked in tobacco during the summers of high school, and bought my socks, deodorant, cologne, and underwear. I made a dollar a day. It was more than what William’s (Wm Jones) Dad (Fred Jones) paid me, he only paid me .30 cents. Times were not easy then, and have never been too easy, but we worked and were happy-most of the time- After I was fifteen I began dating. I got married at eighteen. But I went to the beach, ball games, danced in my teen years. I was a normal typical girl. I had lots of friends, and I think of them every so often. Margaret and Nora May; Mattie Francis Forlines; (note by dsjo-Mattie Francis Forlines had a meal at her house in July 1994 after Mom’s funeral. Mattie Francis also put flowers on her grave) she was Mom’s best friend; Julia Twiddy; Marion Cox; Lillian Jolly; Ruth Barber and lots more. Myrtle May was my cousin and so was Louise Little (dsjo-Could not quite make out the name-but looked like Little) whom I visited a lot, and I loved them a lot. I remember going by Dad’s station for Mama getting .50 or .75 cents to get steak at .25 cents a pounds, eggs ran from .10 to .12, and flour was $1.00 for a 24 lb. The boys, Joe and Bill, and Juanita used to grind corn across the street in Aunt Bettie’s crib shed, they called it. After they finished grinding the corn, took it to the grist mill and it made into corn meal for corn bread. Daddy and Aunt Bettie always had collards in their garden. The boys, Joe and Bill, kept our grass mowed with a push mower.