Mom’s Cousin Laurla

(Here is a little more history for Jeff and any other family history buffs.)
The story of Mom’s double first cousin Laurla (Lurlie) Justice is, in my opinion, one of the saddest of the many stories Mom can tell.  Laurla was the oldest daughter of Bob Justice (Grandma Rachel’s brother) and Bea Looney ( Grandpa John’s sister).  Laurla was a full sister to Olen and Aaron.  
Laurla married Hobert Estep and they had five children, three boys and two girls.  Hobert was a coal miner and found work in a mine near Grundy, Virginia at Garden Creek.  It was there in July of 1942  that Laurla and all five of their children were killed by a slate dump explosion.  A build-up of gas exploded within the slate dump causing a massive landslide which destroyed several miners homes and dammed up the creek along which they were built.   Laurla was trapped in the debris.  She pleaded with rescuers to cut off her leg so she could escape but there was evidently nothing they could do and she drowned in the rising creek waters.
The event made national news and articles like the following appeared in newspapers across the country…

(Don’t you just love how the coal company steps up right away
to blame ‘weather conditions’.)

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Here are links to several other accounts of the incident:

6 Killed, 4 Hurt By Slag Blast .
St. Joseph Gazette - Jul 21, 1942
least six persons were killed and four others seriously Injured tonight when a slag pile at the Oakwood smokeless coal mine here exploded and burled miners' …

Hunt Bodies Of Children .Three Believed Trapped In Huge...
Reading Eagle - Jul 20, 1942
... were known to be dead as a result of the blast, which buried the miners' cabins at the operation of the Oakwood Smokeless Coal Company last night…

Six Buried Alive In .
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix - Jul 21, 1942
Ritchie chief bookkeeper at the Oakwood Smokeless Coal Company at whose operation the tragedy occurred said the bodies of Mrs Robert Estop and two of five…

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Hobert Estep was at work in the mine when this happened and came out to find his entire family gone.  He began another family but died in a car wreck just a few years after Laurla and their children.    They are all buried in the cemetery at Fords Branch very near Jennie’s Great Grandmother’s gravesite.

Whenever we weed-eat, clean and decorate Jennie’s family’s graves, I always check on Laurla and her children too.  I know it is what Mom would want me to do.

Georgia On My Mind

Amber said that Jevon was home from Georgia this weekend. He has been working up there for several months. It is a thrill for him to come home and see the family.

This past weekend, he was working on his four wheeler with Caitlyn.  Her brain went to working on how she could get her Dad to stay home.

Caitlyn - "Dad, if you stayed here and didn't go back to Georgia, you could work on your four wheeler all you want. Don't you think that is a good idea?"

Jevon - “Sure Caitlyn, but if I stay here, I can't make money so that you and Momma can go get your nails and hair done, and buy all those pretty clothes."

Caitlyn - “Well, in that case Dad, you go on back to Georgia all you want to!"

Story from Grandma Jeff
Photos from Amber’s Facebook

JEFFERY HEN - EGG SHELL IS IN DEMAND

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( It has been quite a while since we last visited the henhouse.  If you need to refresh your memory of what was going on, click on HenTale in the LABELS list. )

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While Roo and Bear was gone, Patricia Hen and Sandra Hay were both in need of egg shell to lay their eggs.  The elder hen has visited Jeannie Hen and Cluck weekly checking on their egg. While in the picking ground Patricia Hen and Sandra Hay's husbands were asking around, wondering where they can find some egg shell. "Our hens can't lay their eggs!" said the roosters.

Jeffery Hen only knew one thing to do. She went over to Jeannie Hen's house and while she was on her way there the elder hen came out of the house. Jeffery Hen said, "Elder Hen, there are two hens in need of egg shell to lay their eggs."

The elder hen went back into the henhouse and told Cluck about what was happening.

Jennie Hen said, "Our egg should hatch anytime now." Jennie Hen got off of her nest and looked at the egg. She said, "Look! I think I see a crack!"

Cluck and the elder hen flew up to the nest and noticed the crack. Cluck flew back down and went outside to tell Jeffery Hen to wait there, that the egg was hatching. "Please don't tell anybody, we are not ready to announce it yet."

Jeffery Hen didn't know what to expect. Inside the henhouse the crack was getting bigger and out popped the most beautiful yellow chick they have ever seen.

Cluck gathered up all of the egg shell and took it outside to Jeffery Hen.  He said, "Jeffery Hen, take half of this egg shell and give it to one hen and the other half to the other hen. Please don't let anybody know that the shell is brown. That was our secret, we didn't want anybody to know our egg was brown."

Jeffery Hen took the egg shell.  On her way to Patricia Hen's house she was wondering what the brown egg shell tasted like.  She took a bite from it.  When she got to Patricia Hen's House she gave her half of what was left of the egg shell.  She tried to give it to her in a way so she didn't see the brown side. Patricia Hen had the egg shell eaten in less then a second.

Jeffery Hen next went on her way to Sandra Hay house.  Patricia Hen left for the watering hole to get a drink of water.  On her way to Sandra Hay's house Jeffery Hen took another bite of the brown egg shell.  When she finally got to Sandra Hay's house, she laid out the egg shell with the brown side down. Sandra Hay was in such a hurry to get it eaten that she just swallowed it whole. Quick as she got it down she was off to the watering hole for some water too.

Jeffery Hen started back to the picking ground.  When she got there Cluck flew to the top of his henhouse and announced the hatching of Jennie Hen's egg.

Wedding Day

Here’s another old photo from a box in Dad’s room.  This one, I think, is a photo of our Uncle Homer on his Wedding Day.  

The envelope they are holding appears to read ‘Our Marriage Seal’. 

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit, I have no idea which wife this might have been.  I seem to recall he was married more than once.  I can remember Homer and his family living on Road Creek briefly when I was young but he lived in Chicago much of his life. 

( Luci – Do you think you could get the story behind this photo from Mom and Dad ? )

Was Aesop Wrong?

I’m sure everyone recalls one of Aesop’s most quoted fables…

The Ants and the Grasshopper  

THE ANTS were spending a fine winter's day drying grain collected in the 

summertime.  A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly  

begged for a little food.  The Ants inquired of him, "Why did you not treasure  

up food during the summer?” 

He replied, "I had not leisure enough.  I passed the days in singing." 

They then said in derision:  "If you were foolish enough to sing all the  

summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter."

It is thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow.

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A comment on the StalkerClan earlier today has me wondering if Aesop may have gotten this one  wrong.

Luci said... What did I do wrong. You all are up there having all that fun in the snow while I am sitting here snowbound again and this time listening to Rock Me to Sleep Mother.

Think about this for a moment.

• Luci ( the Ant ) spent her summer collecting grain.  She labored all her days, studied hard in school, made good grades, went to college and worked thirty plus years for the government ( toil without recompense ).
• Jeff ( the Grasshopper ) spent her summer days in singing.  Her youth was spent playing, riding motorcycles, climbing trees, chasing boys and worrying Mom to no end.

Now, winter has come and how have things turned out?

• Luci ( the Ant ) is snowbound in her ant farm, crying ( tears all in vain ) to the tune of ‘Rock Me to Sleep Mother’.
• Jeff ( the Grasshopper ) is lounging in a hot tub on a mountaintop, singing and passing the time until she goes back to the warm breezes of Florida.

So, was Aesop wrong?  Or is it may be that his moral lessons just don’t apply in the StalkerClan world.

Ski-Trip Update

Cameron got his glasses broke on our first day here.  Thank God for Dad!  He has a solution for everything.

Traci via Facebook

Rock Me to Sleep, Mother

This poem by Elizabeth Chase Allen was quite popular during the Civil War Era.  I ran across it recently and enjoyed it, hope you do too. – Clyde

Someone has set the first few verses to music.  Click the button to listen.

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BACKWARD, turn backward, O Time, in your flight, 
Make me a child again just for to-night! 
Mother, come back from the echoless shore, 
Take me again to your heart as of yore;

Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care, 
Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair; 
Over my slumbers your loving watch keep;
— Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!


Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years! 
I am so weary of toil and of tears,
— Toil without recompense, tears all in vain,
— Take them, and give me my childhood again!
I have grown weary of dust and decay,
— Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away; 
Weary of sowing for others to reap;—
Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!

Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue, 
Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you! 
Many a summer the grass has grown green, 
Blossomed and faded, our faces between:
Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain, 
Long I to-night for your presence again. 
Come from the silence so long and so deep;
— Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!

Over my heart, in the days that are flown, 
No love like mother-love ever has shone; 
No other worship abides and endures,
— Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours:
None like a mother can charm away pain 
From the sick soul and the world-weary brain. 
Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep; 
Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!

Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold, 
Fall on your shoulders again as of old; 
Let it drop over my forehead to-night, 
Shading my faint eyes away from the light;
For with its sunny-edged shadows once more 
Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore; 
Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep;
— Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!

Mother, dear mother, the years have been long 
Since I last listened your lullaby song: 
Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem 
Womanhood's years have been only a dream.
Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace, 
With your light lashes just sweeping my face, 
Never hereafter to wake or to weep;
— Rock me to sleep, mother,—rock me to sleep!

Grandson Group Photos

Here is another old photo I scanned recently:

That is Mom and Dad with their grandsons in about 1983. 

It takes a much wider angle to get a photo of them with their grandsons today.

 

West Virginia Invasion Underway

It appears the annual Ratliff Family invasion of West Virginia has gotten on the road.

Looks like Jeff is doing her usual good job of keeping an eye on the kids and making sure everyone stays safe.

Have the Emergency Rooms in West Virginia been alerted yet?

Photos from Traci via Facebook

Mr. Looney’s Class

I found this photo on Facebook yesterday.  Luckily I had graduated before Uncle Willie came to Elkhorn to teach, so I was never in his class.

I can’t figure out what that big bronze colored device on his desk might be.  I thought at first it might be a scotch tape dispenser but that wheel doesn’t look right and I’ve never seen one that huge.  It’s probably some instrument of torture for poor students.  Maybe that wheel is the proverbial grindstone we were supposed to keep our noses to.

A Recent Luci Photo?

While checking on Mom and Dad’s place at Road Creek this week, I ran across what appears to be a recent photo of Lucille.  Thought I should share it with everyone…

This actually looks better than she normally does, I wonder if she has been back to Glamor Shots again?