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Della
Agnes Mullins was the young lady who was courted by and became the bride
of George Ernest Smith. The young couple eloped when they got
married, and as the years went by, their family grew to include a total of
eight children, Magdalene, Charlie Lee, Clifford, Turlie, Sally, Helen,
James, and Howard.
George
Ernest Smith went by the nickname “Crip” because measles and typhoid fever
left him with a limp. But the nickname was one that was used
affectionately and was never intended to make fun of his disability.
The little
store he ran contained all the staple goods folks used such as flour,
meal, salt, beans, coffee, and canned goods. After an ice box was added,
bologna and cheese were sold, too. Fresh eggs and chickens bought from
neighbors were also items that were sold at the store, and tobacco
products and coal oil could be bought there.
During the
summer months, blackberries were brought to the store by neighbors and
left for a truck that came along for the purpose of buying the berries and
taking them to a cannery for processing.
Shelves in
the Roadside Store also contained medicines for home remedies such as
Cardui, Black Draught, and Carter’s Little Liver Pills. Turpentine and
castor oil, along with Octagon soap and Merry War lye, were also products
that were sold.
The Smith
family lived in a little house near the store. The house was described as
having a wood stove in the middle of the room downstairs, and the upper
floor was one big room with three beds. Two beds were in the downstairs
room.
The
children were all born at home without the presence of a doctor. They all
slept three to a bed, and when company came to spend a night, they would
sleep across the bed to make room for everyone.
Helen
described Ozone as a good place to grow up in. She said their childhood
was a happy one in spite of the fact that their father died from cancer
when most of the younger children were quite small. The family raised
their own food and cut fire wood for use in their wood stove during the
winter months. The girls all helped their mother can fresh vegetables they
grew in their garden every summer, and they were very proud of all their
hard work when the jars were all filled at the end of each growing
season.
The Roadside Store
is pictured long after its last days of operation. The porch on the front
of the store, where many pairs of feet treaded across through the years,
was already torn down when this photograph was taken.
Clothes
for the Smith children were often bought from Ruby Winningham (mother of
Livingston Mayor Hosea Winningham), who sold used clothing in a building
near her home in the Possum Trot Community, just in the edge of Pickett
County. Helen remembers that Ruby had shoes for sale, too, and that she
and Sally had lots of fun trying on all the high heels while they were at
Ruby’s looking for clothes. Sometimes their clothes were hand-me-downs
from cousins, and evidently there were lots of Smith cousins. Helen
remembers a census taker coming by and taking a head count of all the
families in that area. Evidently, this fellow had encountered quite a
large number of folks with the last name Smith around Ozone, all of which
had large families, some with as many as 10 children.
After
knocking on doors of Smith homes and continuing to come up with large
numbers of children at each house, he finally asked the lady of one house
if some plant up north was manufacturing Smith kids and sending them all
to Ozone to live.
The Smith
children went to school at Ozone, a building that later became a general
store that was last run by Paul and Mary Taylor.
The Ozone
school was just down the road from the Smith home, and evidently the love
of reading was instilled in at least two of the Smith children. Turlie and
Helen have both always loved to read and are still avid readers.
The school
building was the place where a frightening experience was had by everyone
present one stormy, rainy day. Lightning hit a tree near the school while
the children were in the classroom, and several students were injured from
the lightning strike, but evidently none of the injuries were
life-threatening.
While Crip
Smith operated the Roadside store, credit was something he extended to
customers from time to time.
Helen told
me that on one occasion, a fellow in the neighborhood was having a hard
time financially, and her father allowed the man to run up quite a large
bill. In order to take care of the bill, Crip and the man worked out a
deal where the debt would be paid by trading some property the man owned,
with Crip paying a certain amount of cash to boot in order to settle the
bill.
The
property contained 10 acres, and Helen told me they gave this property the
name “The Jenny Ranch”. She couldn’t remember why it was given this name,
but she does remember how very proud they all were to have the “Jenny
Ranch”.
It goes
without saying that every family growing up back then, as well as now,
didn’t get by without facing some hardships, but one of the things that
helped get the Smith family through hard times was that they all loved
music.
There was
always singing around the house, and many times after the store closed in
the afternoon, both the Smith parents, Crip as well as Agnes, would get
out their guitars and pick and sing. Friends and neighbors would also
gather in after the store closed for a time of music and singing.
Helen told
me her mother didn’t especially like being in the spotlight, and didn’t do
much picking or singing by herself, but at the end of an evening of music,
someone would always request that Agnes play “Wildwood Flower”, to which
she would usually reply, “Now you all don’t want to hear me play.” But she
could usually be persuaded to end their music sessions with that song.
Crip Smith
also used his musical talent to compose a song he titled “Down by the
Roadside Store”. It has been said that as many as 200 verses make up the
song, and several verses are contained in a family history book written by
Hollis Ramsey of Allons. The verses of the song all have to do with people
of the community and incidents that occurred in the neighborhood, and many
folks who are familiar with the Ozone Community would probably recognize
the names contained in some of the verses.
I asked
Helen about her memories of Christmas when she was growing up. She told me
she couldn’t remember ever getting any toys, but they always had fruit and
candy. The one thing she said about not getting any toys that stood out in
my mind was that she didn’t feel like she had missed out on anything by
not getting toys at Christmas. She was quite happy and content with what
they had. She said she never felt like they were poor people. They always
had food to eat and a warm bed to sleep in, and that was always enough.
As the
Smith children grew up, Charlie went off to Indiana to seek his fortune.
The first job he had was washing dishes in a Greek restaurant, but he
later landed a job in a Catholic Hospital called St. John’s, where he
eventually worked his way up to chief baker.
Charlie
was drafted while working in Indiana, and went off to serve his country in
the Korean Conflict. He had been in the Army about a year when Clifford
was drafted and also sent to Korea.
When their
father became ill, Charlie received a furlough to come home, and on the
night before he was to leave for the United States, Clifford arrived to
begin his tour of duty. The military arranged for the two brothers to
spend a night together before Charlie left the next day to come home.
Charlie’s
wife, Joyce, told me that Charlie hated to leave Clifford in Korea, but
because his father’s illness, he was needed at home. She said Charlie
assumed the father role after his dad passed away, and always gave the
younger kids in his family a hard time if they weren’t doing what he
expected of them.
Howard
would sometimes hide from Charlie to avoid being questioned about playing
hooky from school. But Charlie definitely had his family’s interest at
heart.
After he
returned home from service, he built a larger home for them near to where
the first home they lived in stood.
The work
Charlie did as chief baker while in Indiana evidently played a part when
he did come home after serving in the military. He, along with Hurfert
Sells, went into the restaurant business together, and ran what was known
as the Black and White Café on North Church Street in Livingston. Charlie
eventually bought Hurfert out and was the sole owner of the business for a
while.
It was
while he had the Black and White Café that he met and married Joyce
Ogletree during the year 1955.
Joyce told
me how she and Charlie once spent a night under the same roof before they
had ever met, and never knew the other one was there. It seems Joyce had
gone home with a girlfriend to spend the night, and as it turned out, the
girlfriend was a relative of Hurfert Sells, and the home of this girls’
parents was where Charlie and Hurfert roomed. After Joyce and her friend
had gone to bed, Charlie and Hurfert came in for the night from the
restaurant. The young couple slept under the same roof never knowing that
down life’s road the very person who each would share life with, which
would include raising a son and daughter, was sleeping nearby.
Charlie
died at the young age of 53, as did his brother, Howard. Magdalene is also
deceased.
All of the
Smith children have continued to love music even today.
Turlie is
a member of the house band that plays every Saturday night at the
Independence School, and while none of the girls ever learned to play the
guitar, they each like to sing.
James, who
is a big fan of jazz orchestra bands such as Billy Vaughn, tells the story
about how in his younger days, he was always too shy to play the guitar
very much in public, and that the only way he was able to overcome his
shyness was to have a drink or two. On these occasions, his friends and
fellow musicians all told him what a really good guitar picker he was, and
after hearing this a few times, he began to believe them.
But this
proud feeling of being one who could be called a really good guitar player
came crashing down around him when Ralph Sells brought a tape recorder to
one of their music sessions and taped some of the music. It was only after
Ralph played back the taped session that James says he realized that in
spite of everything, he would never make the Grand Ole Opry after all, and
from listening to that tape, he made up his mind that his musical career
was definitely over.
When
comparing our lives today with those of the days when the Roadside Store
was an important part of not only the Smith family, but families of that
community, I wonder what kind of stories will be written about places
where we shop today to buy what we consider our necessities. I would find
it hard to believe that trips to Wal-Mart could ever be anything
interesting or even worthwhile to read about and certainly not anywhere
near as colorful or as much fun as going by the Roadside Store would have
been, especially after closing time.
Although
the days that the store was in operation were before the time I lived in
Taylor’s Crossroads, in my imagination I can almost hear the guitar music
and a verse or two from the homemade lyrics of the song “Down by the
Roadside” being sung by Crip Smith, as well as Agnes Smith’s version of
“Wildwood Flower”. As Helen said to me, “It was a good life,” and I tend
to agree.
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