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One day sister Stella and I were delivering buttermilk, sweet milk and butter to two families in Gainesville and so one day we had some left so Stella said I believe I'm going to stop and give those old ladies this buttermilk as they were sitting on the front porch, so we stopped and Stella asked them if they'd like some buttermilk and of course they said yes ma'am, so Stella told them to bring a pitcher or some thing to pour it in and here they come with one of those old time pitchers that goes to a wash bowl and it was full of grease and filth so I punched Stella and told her she couldn't put that milk in that dirty pitcher and she said be quiet, so she poured it in their pitcher and drove on. She said their used to that, they don't know the difference. Well, it wasn't long after that when all three of them were burned to death in the poor house. Old Aunt Rocksine had a daughter that wasn't very bright and married a man in the same shape she was in. They'd walk from this side of Gainesville to Pearlington every week to see his mother as she'd always give them groceries. His name was Andrew Huston and his wife's name was Mary and the mother Mrs. Huston lived right here where Della and I live now. She was a fine old lady every one who knew her said she was as smart as could be. Every now and then she'd get my father to come to Pearlington with the horse and wagon and take her to see Andrew and Mary as she said she felt sorry for both of them. She?d only spend one day and a night with them and she'd always take a load of groceries with her. Could you imagine what kind of a bed they'd have to sleep on? It was boards by the wall wide enough for two to sleep on with moss and gunny sacks over the moss, as they had no sheets. They only had a little one room shack the kitchen part was small and their bed in the other end was just room for them to turn around. One time when my daddy was digging his sweet potatoes he hired Andrew and Mary to come and pick up the potatoes as he plowed them out. This was in October, real cool weather. So when they come to the house for dinner, they came into the kitchen to get warm by the big wood stove as it had six lids, a reservoir, that held 10 buckets of water which we had to bring from the spring down hill about three or four city blocks from the house. The water came right out of the bank and in the summer time was like ice water, then in winter was luke warm. We kept our buckets and jars of milk, butter and etc., in the spring as people then, didn't know about refrigerators or freezers. About the year of 1910 & 12 some company began to make ice, so people would have a large box made and put sawdust in it and buy 2 or 3 fifty lb. blocks of ice from a delivery wagon that come by your house, 139
Hover, Eva Pearl Daniels Autobiography-147