This is the start of our large family.
Here is my mom and dad, my mom's expecting my older sister, Mary. The first of us 9. Mary was born in Missouri and I was born in Arkansas. I was born at home with my sister watching from her crib(my mom always told me that).
My Mom, sister Mary and I.
Mom, Dad, Mary, myself and Billy
After we moved back to Missouri. My mom had Gary and Norman.
I can only remember living in Patton and my dad driving a truck.
He was hardly ever at home but was a good provider for his family.
My mom took care of the 7 of us and Ellen was born while we lived in Patton.
Then mom had 8 kids to care for. With the help of a neighbor (at times) and my oldest sister Mary.
It was a hard life for her. We lived in a 4 room house, 2 of which were bed rooms.
We had no indoor pluming and had to take bath's in a wash tub on the back porch.
We had an outhouse and we had to go outside to pump our water.
Our only heat was a coal stove.
But my mom was a very special lady, she did everything and never complained.
All of us kids are from 11 month to 3 years apart.
We were taught respect, about god and about right and wrong. My mom was a great believer in god and the bible.
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We moved back to California in Jan. of 1961.
I was 12 then. That August my mom had Evelyn.
My dad worked in the central valley on farms. He became a mechanic on one of the farms.
Mary and I worked a couple of years chopping cotton with our aunt Bessie and grandmother.
My five brothers, Bob, Ed, Bill, Norman, Gary and our dog a cocker spaniel named Mike, in 1962.
My three sister's and I. Mary, myself, Evelyn and Ellen, in 1962. My brother's didn't have a chance they were stuck in the middle of us girls.
