Each of the kids were a part of Sunday School, and were learning memory verses each week.  They were good kids...could be mischievous at times, but well behaved kids.  When the Christmas programs came around, they would all take part in some way.   They were realizing that they could sing, and singing made people smile.  Paula remembers her first solo like it was yesterday.  She stood up in the front of what seemed like to her a lot of people, and sang in her sweet little soprano voice.  The song she sang was an old hymn called "I Would Not Be Denied."  Not sure if any of you remember that song...and Paula probably didn't even understand what she was singing...but she liked that song, so that's the one she chose to sing.

Willie and Helen would just beam when any of their kids did something in church.  It didn't take the kids long to realize that when they were using their talents at church, it made their mom and dad very happy. 

As Willie studied his Bible in preparing to teach Sunday School each week, he started to feel a tugging on his heart.  He had heard sermons about listening to the call of God on your life, and he knew that the tugging he was feeling was God giving him direction.  He prayed and asked God for clear direction in his life, and as he did that he realized God was calling him to be a preacher.  I'm sure in the beginning, he probably gave all kinds of reasons why he shouldn't take that step in his faith.  But the operative word was faith, and when it came down to it, Willie had faith.   If God was calling him to be a preacher, He would also equip him.

He didn't even share it with Helen that God wanted him to be a minister.  It came as a surprise to Helen on that Sunday morning when he went to the front of the church to share with the congregation that he was being called to be a minister.  She knew that he was a special man and was close to God and knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was going to be faithful to that calling and let God guide him.  She was supportive and assured him that she would help him in any way she could.

His first sermon was that next Sunday in his home church!

 

It didn't get any easier for Helen to take her children to a babysitter, especially when it came to Paula.  She was her baby and she hated to leave her in the care of others.  She and Willie were so thankful they had found Mr. and Mrs. Hill to help them while they were at work.  When they took Paula over to their house, Helen could just tell that this was going to work out.  Paula was very comfortable with them and they were so reassuring. 

The experience that Helen had with Mrs Priestly when she was working at the Shoe Company, had put a bad taste in her mouth and had caused her to be very cautious.  She will never forget the day she talked with a neighbor of that babysitter.  The lady next door told her that Mrs. Priestly locked Jimmy out of the house all the time.  She just sat inside on the phone rocking Paula.  When Helen went to the house and saw for herself what this neighbor lady was telling her was indeed true, she knew that she would have to think long and hard before ever going back to work.  She was NOT going to let anyone mistreat any of her children.

As it turns out, working for Sears was going to be good for her, so finding the Hill's was such a blessing.  Mrs Hill even invited Helen to come there to eat on her lunch break.  How can you beat that? 

Mrs Hill decided that she would give Paula some curls.  So she dampened Paula's hair, divided it in strips and tied it up with rags (strips of fabric).  Paula was around 3 1/2 to 4 and thought it was fun having her hair all wound around in the rags.  She had rags tied in bows all over her tiny little head.  She went outside to play and in a couple of hours her hair was almost dry enough to take down. 

When Paula's hair was completely dry, Mrs Hill carefully untied each bow and let the curls naturally fall.  When all the rags were gone...Paula had the cutest little head of curls you ever saw.

This table and chairs in this picture are very similar to the table and chairs we had growing up.  One of the differences between this one and our actual one, is that we kept the table leaves in to make it bigger, and there were 2 - 4 more chairs.  Our kitchen floor was covered with linoleum that Sondra remembers mopping a lot.  We'll have a story later on about something that happened on one of those very occasions.

I remember sitting at that white table for many a meal enjoying time with the family.  It is around that table that we are going to focus today's story.  During one of those delicious meals that Helen made for her kids and her husband, something happened that caused that meal to be interrupted.

Linda recalls being a little girl, minding her own business, just eating her supper when one evening, the unexpected happened.  Well...it was unexpected to her, but not to her mom.  One of the kitchen chairs was broken, and didn't have a back in it.  I'm not sure if Linda always sat in that particular chair or not, but tonight that is where she sat.  Saying that she was "sitting" in the backless chair, is a little bit of a stretch...she was leaning as far back as she could and sort of rocking back and forth. 

She was quite possibly our family's first "rocker"!  (haha)  Her mom warned her, "Linda, stop leaning back in that chair...you are gonna rock out and choke on your food!"  Well our stubborn little Linda, with her mouth full of beans and cornbread didn't listen to her mom.  She was hungry and had a little more in her mouth than she probably should have and was "rockin out".  And just as her mom predicted, she fell backwards in that old chair and fell to the floor.  When this happened...It not only scared her pretty good, but the fall caused her to choke on her beans and cornbread. 

Bless her heart...she must have thought mom had said "Rock On!"  instead of "Stop Rockin"...either way, she learned a valuable lesson that day.  I wonder what it was?

This is an aerial picture of the Sikeston International Shoe Factory that was taken around the time that Helen worked there.  Factory work is not for the faint at heart, because the hours can be long and tedious. The most important thing for Helen to remember when working her shift was to stay focused on what she's doing.   When you have an assigned job that you do over and over again, if you lose your focus, you could stitch your finger or worse.

I did a little research about the factory, and learned that shoes of various sizes were made there.  In 1933, a young 15 year old giant (7ft 10in...365 lbs) from Alton, Illinois would special order his size 32 shoes from the Sikeston International Shoe Factory.  Imagine sewing on those huge shoes.  Of course, Helen worked there several years later, I just thought the 15 year old's shoes were an interesting fact.

When Helen got her job at the shoe plant, she realized that she was going to need a reliable babysitter to watch her 3 young children, Linda, Jimmy and Paula.  Willie and the two older kids couldn't help out...they would be in school.  She found a lady, Mrs Priestly (not real name), that assured Helen that she could easily watch her three children.  The first few days went well, without any issues as far as she knew.  The kids seemed happy enough when she picked them up, but something just didn't seem right...she couldn't put her finger on it.

One afternoon, Helen got off early, and anxiously went to pick up her babies.  Mrs. Priestly wasn't expecting Helen to arrive this early, and didn't hear her drive up.  When Helen walked into the yard, there was Jimmy, dirty from head to toe and crying really hard.  He had snot running down to his lip, with dirt smeared in it. When he saw his mommy....he ran and jumped in her arms.  He told her that he couldn't get in the house and needed to pee pee really bad.  She could tell that he had been crying for quite a while and she was furious. 

She walked up to the door and tried to open it...sure enough...it was locked.  She could see through the small window that Mrs. Priestly was busy talking on the phone, ignoring the girls and totally ignoring little Jimmy outside.  Helen banged on the front door as hard as she could.  Mrs. Priestly was startled when she answered the door and saw Helen standing there.  Jimmy ran to the bathroom and Helen gathered up the girls stuff and put in a bag.  When Jimmy was finished, his mommy gave him a big ole hug, not caring that he was probably getting her dirty with his little hands. 

Helen then turned to Mrs. Priestly to give her an ear full about how disappointed she was in her activities...especially  talking on the phone instead of taking care of the children that were put in her charge.  She decided at that very moment she would no longer be employed at the shoe factory...these kids were too important to leave with someone like Mrs. Priestly.  There were good babysitters out there...this was just not one of them.

Helen knew that she couldn't work at the factory safely if she was worried about the care that her babies were getting.  She would have to stop working for now...or until she was able to find one of those caring babysitters.

When Helen came home from work, she loved to have her time in her rocking chair.  Paula's favorite thing was to climb up in her mom's lap and be rocked.   During the winter months when it was so cold outside...the warmest place in the house was in that rocker by the coal stove.  When Paula had earaches (which was often), the place she wanted to be was her mom's lap.  Helen would put a washcloth on the top of the coal stove, then place it on Paula's ear as she rocked her ... it was the only thing that seemed to help.  

One of those times when Helen was relaxing in her rocker, enjoying the back and forth sway, she noticed that she was more tired than usual.  Her head was hurting, and feeling a little achy.  When she swallowed, she noticed that her jaw hurt all the way down into her neck.  Her glands were definitely swollen.  She wasn't sure...but this could be the mumps.

About the time that Helen realized that her problem was more than likely the mumps, she had a little girl climbing up in her lap crying and holding her jaw.  Guess what Paula had?  Uh huh!  She had the mumps, right along with her mommy.  It is no surprise that Paula came down with the mumps at the same time as her mommy.  The mumps are highly contagious, and she was never too far away from her mom when she was home.  How in the world was Helen going to take care of her baby girl and feel better herself?  She would do what she had to do, to help her and Paula get better. 

To start out with...they would get in Willie and Helen's bed and get extra rest.  There was not much else you could do when you have the mumps. It just had to run its course.   Helen would put warm wash clothes on their jaws and then cold ones...whichever made it feel better at the time.  The best thing they could do was try to stay comfortable.  Helen made sure that she slept if Paula was sleeping, that was her best chance of getting the rest she needed.

Eventually, they both were starting to get hungry.  They were still running a fever, but really wanted something to eat.  Paula climbed up in her high chair ready to eat.  Helen fixed them something that she thought they both could eat...soup.  Helen was able to open her mouth just enough to eat a few bites, but Paula just couldn't do it.  She would hold her jaw and take a tiny sip and cry, then she would try again and do the same thing.

What an experience for the two of them to go through together.  Mumps times 2 is not fun!

This is not an actual picture of the shed behind the house on Murray Lane (something about this old shed put me in mind of ours)...and when the Tollison's lived there (in the house, not the shed LOL), the shed wouldn't have looked this run down and old (and our yard was mowed).  I borrowed this picture off of the internet just to show you how it could have looked...so look at this shed with your imagination and think of it how it would have been 50 some years ago. 

The shed had two rooms...one side was used to store coal for the coal stove in the living room.  That was one of Larry's jobs everyday...to carry in the coal, so that there was always enough to heat the house.  The other side of the shed was used for various things...storage, etc.  Not sure if anyone was taken to the coal shed for a "whoopin" or not, but it was in the very back of the yard, next to the alley.  If you yelped from a switch to the back side, at least nobody at the house could hear ya!

Larry decided to make the shed's large room, his domain for a while.  He loved to work on bikes and was pretty good at it.  He put a sign in the front yard with the words, "Bike Repair" on it and opened up a little side business.  He would take bikes in to work on them in the evening and on the weekend. 

Larry made extra money when he started fixing bikes.  Word got out about his venture, and he always seemed to have somebody's bike in his little bike shop. 

...Larry, did you ever have to take a "trip to the coal shed" for anything other than to get coal and fix a bike or two?