The following is a brief account of our lives and times in the late twenties, approximately between
the summer of 1926 and the year 1929, as remembered through the eyes and ears of a then six through eight year old child. Actually, I was about five and a half years old the summer that we returned to Edison from St. Augustine, Florida.
As I remember it this trip back to Edison was planned as a short visit but for some reason it was decided that we would stay. Daddy returned for a few days to tend to business and to have our things packed and shipped back. Aunt Erie, Uncle Barto and Myrtle Holloway were also living in St. Augustine at this time and moved back to Edison some time later.
We moved temporarily into part of Uncle Sam Massey's home on the outskirts of town and I was soon enrolled in the first grade. Albert entered the seventh grade and
J. R.. was about three years old. It was here that I remember Mama playing the organ and others standing around it singing, some looking over her shoulder to read the song book be lamplight. I remember Uncle
Willie especially on these occasions, maybe because of his deep voice.
Other pleasant experiences included the afternoon walks we would take down toward Bay Branch area and gathering wild flowers. Sassafras grew along the road bank and I was interested in learning what it was as Mama had recently made some Sassafras tea intended to help the measles along that
J. R.. and I had come down with, but to little avail and we settled for ginger ale instead.
I also remember playing on the porch of a large open hallway of a log structure located a short distance to the rear of the house and grounds. The rooms at that time were being used to store farm
implements and the like. I recently learned from Gordon's letter that this was the first home built by Mama's Great Grandfather, Thomas W. Holloway.
That same year we moved about two or three miles out of town to a house near (Great) Aunt Lizzie and (Great) Uncle Jordan
Strickland's. This general area was referred to by many as "Lewis Town" and for good reason. After crossing Bay
Branch there were very few families other than Lewis or Lewis descendants or those with family connections. To name a few: Great Grandma Sally, Grandpa Marion Holloway and family, (Great) Aunt Lizzie and family, (Great) Uncle Gene and (Great) Aunt Belle and their family. The families of Aunt Daisy and "Aunt" Bonnie McCorkle (Mama's First Cousin) and others. Aunt Irene's family and Uncle Willie and his family also lived in this vicinity either before or after, if not at this particular time.
It was like being back home as Aunt Daisy's present home is the original home place and farm of Grandpa Marion and Grandma Alice Holloway. Mama was born and raised here as were all of their other children. After Mama and Daddy married they lived just a stones throw across the road from this house. Albert, Alice,
J. R.., and I were all born there.
This second time around we lived near Aunt Lizzie's for approximately two years and Daddy was engaged in farming. Gordon was born here. June came along after we had moved back to town on Depot Street. This completed our immediate family.
Love,
Eugenia
