Once there was a place, in another time and space,
called , Alberta City, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. The borders of this hamlet were ill-defined, but known to all who lived there. It was bounded on the North by Holt, Alabama, the East by Cottondale, the South by Circlewood and the city of Tuscaloosa to the West. The actual division line depended on who was marking the line.
In the late forties about the only paved streets in the area were the Birmingham Highway( University Boulevard ), the Holt Road
(Twenty-fifth Avenue East) and Fifteenth Street to the South.
This area was developed after WWII and became the home for many returning veterans and their families. It was home to paper mill, foundry, Veterans Administration Hospital, and tire plant employees. There were few professional people in the area.
Basically it was “home folks” who made up most of the population. Home origin areas varied, rural Tuscaloosa County, surrounding counties, South Louisiana and a few Yankees accounted for most of the people.
Much of the area had no sewerage service until the very late 1940’s, so privies were a common sight.
Chickens and other livestock were kept by many people.
Many small businesses served the local area.
There were small family owned grocery stores in the community, Alberta Grocery, Armistead Brothers Grocery, Holcombs Store, Shelton’s Grocery, Yarbrough Grocery,Franklin's Grocery
J.B. Davis and Son,Daffrons Grocery and Jones Brothers Grocery.
Most of the grocery stores sold on credit and delivered to the homes. When one of the local industries laid people off or cut back on production these small stores carried the accounts until the customer returned to work.
There were two “ tourist courts” and one motel, the famous “Moon Winks”.
Alberta City was served by two Baptist Churches, one Methodist and one Nazarene.
This was small town America at its finest.
Children there grew up in a time when parents didn’t have to worry about deviates and all the dark and sinister things parents worry about today. There was one local pervert who was known by and taunted by every group of children in the area. No one really worried about him.
A youngster could leave his home shortly after breakfast and be gone all day with a group of friends. Mama’s knew they were mean enough to take care of themselves. There was one short two block section of seventh street that was home to thirty children under the age of sixteen at one time. Many other areas had a similar count.
Alberta City was served by Tuscaloosa County Schools until about 1950. The Alberta Junior High School had grades one through eight. Students then went to Holt High School.
In 1950 a petition was passed , a vote taken and Alberta City was annexed by the City of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This was a cause of discord since many people feared the higher taxation and additional rules to be enforced.
The annexation vote was good for the area for it brought better services such as sewerage lines, paved streets, poli9ce patrols and street lighting.
Children from Alberta Junior High now went to Tuscaloosa High School in the city school system.
Alberta City maintained its identity as a separate community for many years after the annexation. Even today the area is called Alberta, with the City being dropped by those to young to remember.
This was a time when air conditioning was only to be had in downtown Tuscaloosa commercial businesses such as Kress, Woolworth, McClellands and the movie theatres.
All of Alberta City residences had window fans or attic fans for cooling.
The aromas from the evening meals wafted out and children would seek invitations for supper if the smell of a favorite dish came from a neighbor’s window. This was in the days of dinner at noon and supper in the evening.
Not everyone owned an automobile in those days but neighbors always made sure anyone needing a trip to the doctor or hospital had a ride.
There were many instances of people being carried for medical care in Birmingham,Alabama, Nashville or Memphis Tennessee by one of their neighbors, at no cost.
The city bus line enabled people to go to downtown Tuscaloosa at a reasonable cost.
Early ventures out of Alberta City for children was by city bus to the downtown Queen City Swimming Pool. Children as young as ten were allowed to ride the bus in a group. At times a ten year old might also have the responsibility of a younger sibling.
Most of the children didn’t have the funds for swimming lessons, so they observed a lady giving lessons to children who could afford them. Many of the Alberta City youngsters learned to swim before the paying students.
When the students left Alberta for Tuscaloosa High School they became known as the “Alberta Bunch”, a name many proudly answer to today.
The Alberta City children took advantage of the changing world they grew up in and entered many professions. Today they are scattered around the world but most still feel a connection to that place and the people they knew as youngsters.
It has been said that you can’t go home again, this is true in many ways for the home once known exists no more.
The paper mill and the foundry are gone, the people of the forties, fifties and are gone, Alberta City is gone. The Alberta City home is now only in the heart and minds of those who lived it.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Wouldn't it be Wonderful?
It seems that when a person is elected to any political position they get the, ‘Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” disease. The symptoms of this disease is that they begin to dream these wonderful projects that enable them to spend other peoples money.
We had a local elected official who for years tried to convince me that his “projects” were done with “free money”.
"It comes from the “Feds” or the “State” so there really is no cost!" I could never make him understand that neither of these Fairy Godmothers had any money if they didn’t take from someone.
We have seen some really interesting “Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” projects in the past few years. Our local elected school board got the bug and proceeded to undertake a three high school, two hundred million dollar building project. This is a city school system that has lost enrollment for the past twenty years.
The ‘Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” dreamers on the board decided that if they razed the local high school and built three new schools it would bring families and students back into the system. The local high school has had one of the lowest graduation rates of any school in the state for years. What expense?
“ But we can operate three schools as cheaply as one”, stated the Chairwoman of the Board. Three cafeterias , three athletic facilities, three utility bills. How can this dream be?
The plan came about because there were more “Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” dreamers than there were mathematicians.
A school building that would have been the pride, the flagship of ninty-eight percent of the systems in the state was razed, destroyed…” so the students could feel good about themselves” It doesn’t matter that some of the few that stay long enough to receive a diploma can’t read it. They feel good about themselves.
We now have three failing schools at three times the operating costs. Enrollment is still falling.
Oh “Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” if education wasn’t a bottomless pit that you can’t throw enough money into to overcome its problems.
Self esteem cannot be bought it must come from within.
Now our city fathers, in their infinite wisdom, have another “Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful”, boondoggle nearing completion.
A fifteen million dollar amphitheatre in the middle of an old garbage dump, near the river. Alabama in the Summer is a steam bath everywhere. The humidity runs to 98% on a cloudless day.
Temperatures easily reach the high ninety’s with a number of one hundred plus days thrown in for good measure.
In the Winter we get a cold Northwest wind and rain. So let’s build an entertainment center with no roof, concrete seats facing the Northwest. That makes sense? Next question who is going to appear in this arena? Next question , who is going to book these great acts. Someone with a $600,000.00 management contract?
Next question who is going to attend these great concerts?
The University of Alabama built a $500,000.00 amphitheatre that never got any support. They had the sense to close it down so why is a $ 15,000,000.00 boondoggle going to fare any better.
‘Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” if frogs had wings, then they wouldn’t bump their little bottoms
We had a local elected official who for years tried to convince me that his “projects” were done with “free money”.
"It comes from the “Feds” or the “State” so there really is no cost!" I could never make him understand that neither of these Fairy Godmothers had any money if they didn’t take from someone.
We have seen some really interesting “Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” projects in the past few years. Our local elected school board got the bug and proceeded to undertake a three high school, two hundred million dollar building project. This is a city school system that has lost enrollment for the past twenty years.
The ‘Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” dreamers on the board decided that if they razed the local high school and built three new schools it would bring families and students back into the system. The local high school has had one of the lowest graduation rates of any school in the state for years. What expense?
“ But we can operate three schools as cheaply as one”, stated the Chairwoman of the Board. Three cafeterias , three athletic facilities, three utility bills. How can this dream be?
The plan came about because there were more “Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” dreamers than there were mathematicians.
A school building that would have been the pride, the flagship of ninty-eight percent of the systems in the state was razed, destroyed…” so the students could feel good about themselves” It doesn’t matter that some of the few that stay long enough to receive a diploma can’t read it. They feel good about themselves.
We now have three failing schools at three times the operating costs. Enrollment is still falling.
Oh “Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” if education wasn’t a bottomless pit that you can’t throw enough money into to overcome its problems.
Self esteem cannot be bought it must come from within.
Now our city fathers, in their infinite wisdom, have another “Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful”, boondoggle nearing completion.
A fifteen million dollar amphitheatre in the middle of an old garbage dump, near the river. Alabama in the Summer is a steam bath everywhere. The humidity runs to 98% on a cloudless day.
Temperatures easily reach the high ninety’s with a number of one hundred plus days thrown in for good measure.
In the Winter we get a cold Northwest wind and rain. So let’s build an entertainment center with no roof, concrete seats facing the Northwest. That makes sense? Next question who is going to appear in this arena? Next question , who is going to book these great acts. Someone with a $600,000.00 management contract?
Next question who is going to attend these great concerts?
The University of Alabama built a $500,000.00 amphitheatre that never got any support. They had the sense to close it down so why is a $ 15,000,000.00 boondoggle going to fare any better.
‘Wouldn’t it Be Wonderful” if frogs had wings, then they wouldn’t bump their little bottoms
Friday, August 13, 2010
Brain Damage
It has become apparent over the past few years that a large segment of our population has somehow become severely brain damaged. This has affected their lives in many ways.
Their hearing is so bad that they must travel in vehicles with the volume turned to the max. If you attempt to speak with them they can only respond with, “Huh”. I don’t know if this can be corrected with hearing aids. In addition to their severe hearing loss they have also lost the ability to properly dress themselves.
They are only able to bring their trousers up to their buttocks and clinch them there with a belt. This of course impeds their stride so they are forced to walk like a duck to hold up the trousers. We are treated to a great variety of under short patterns as their buttocks are exposed to the rear and their genitalia hang over the front. In an attempt to maintain some semblance of decency the poor souls are forced to walk with their genitals and pants front grasped in their hand. This of course is another problem should they ever be forced to seek gainful employment. There aren’t many job skills that require only one hand. In addition to the pants problem they are sometimes forced to wear long shirts outside the pants. This would be dangerous in a mechanical work environment. They have not been able to grasp the intent of a visor on a cap. They don’t know that it is there to keep the sun from blinding them so it often is placed about three quarters around the head. In addition to these clothing handicaps they sometimes must wear a hooded sweatshirt in one hundred degree heat to hide their disabilities.
The government in their infinite wisdom has realized the impairments these people are suffering. They have made a valiant effort to assist them by furnishing them the luxuries of life in addition to the necessities. Why should they not have plasma television sets, free cell phones, autos with twenty-six inch wheels, free high speed Internet, a six pack for breakfast and a EBT card for the ATM so they can have cash for any needs the government might have missed?
Now that you are aware of the problem reach out with compassion to these poor souls.
Their hearing is so bad that they must travel in vehicles with the volume turned to the max. If you attempt to speak with them they can only respond with, “Huh”. I don’t know if this can be corrected with hearing aids. In addition to their severe hearing loss they have also lost the ability to properly dress themselves.
They are only able to bring their trousers up to their buttocks and clinch them there with a belt. This of course impeds their stride so they are forced to walk like a duck to hold up the trousers. We are treated to a great variety of under short patterns as their buttocks are exposed to the rear and their genitalia hang over the front. In an attempt to maintain some semblance of decency the poor souls are forced to walk with their genitals and pants front grasped in their hand. This of course is another problem should they ever be forced to seek gainful employment. There aren’t many job skills that require only one hand. In addition to the pants problem they are sometimes forced to wear long shirts outside the pants. This would be dangerous in a mechanical work environment. They have not been able to grasp the intent of a visor on a cap. They don’t know that it is there to keep the sun from blinding them so it often is placed about three quarters around the head. In addition to these clothing handicaps they sometimes must wear a hooded sweatshirt in one hundred degree heat to hide their disabilities.
The government in their infinite wisdom has realized the impairments these people are suffering. They have made a valiant effort to assist them by furnishing them the luxuries of life in addition to the necessities. Why should they not have plasma television sets, free cell phones, autos with twenty-six inch wheels, free high speed Internet, a six pack for breakfast and a EBT card for the ATM so they can have cash for any needs the government might have missed?
Now that you are aware of the problem reach out with compassion to these poor souls.
Brain Damaged
It has become increasingly apparent that a large segment of our population has suffered great brain damage. They aren't able to hear very well so they travel in vehicles with the volume on their sound equipment turned up to the max. If you attempt to speak them they can only respond with , "Huh" due to their hearing loss. They are also severely impaired when it come to being able to properly dress themselves.
They don't have the ability to pull their pants up to their waist, therefore everyone is exposed to their buttocks from the rear while their genitals hang over the front. In a vain attempt to maintain some semblance of decency they must use one had to grasp their genitals and the front of their pants. This will of course problem if and when they should ever be required to seek employment. There aren't a lot of jobs for one-handed people. In an effort to compensate for this inability to bring their trousers up to the proper level they are forced to wear extra long shirts. They also must in some cases wear pants that have been cut short.
Mosquito's love this attire.
The government in a great humanitarian gesture makes all effort to support these people with all the luxories of life
The Price of Children
This is just too good not to pass on to all. Something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice.The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:* $8,896.66 a year,* $741.38 a month, or* $171.08 a week.* That's a mere $24.24 a day!* Just over a dollar an hour.Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite.What do you get for your $160,140?* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!* Glimpses of God every day.* Giggles under the covers every night.* More love than your heart can hold.* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:* finger-paint,* carve pumpkins,* play hide-and-seek,* catch lightning bugs, and* never stop believing in Santa Claus. You have an excuse to:* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,* watching Saturday morning cartoons,* going to Disney movies, and* wishing on stars.* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day,and cards with backward letters for Father's Day. For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,* taking the training wheels off a bike,* removing a splinter,* filling a wading pool,* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.You get a front row seat to history to witness the:* first step,* first word,* first bra,* first date, and* first time behind the wheel.You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match. In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, So . . one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!
Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren
This is just too good not to pass on to all. Something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way. It's nice.The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down. It translates into:* $8,896.66 a year,* $741.38 a month, or* $171.08 a week.* That's a mere $24.24 a day!* Just over a dollar an hour.Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't have children if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite.What do you get for your $160,140?* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!* Glimpses of God every day.* Giggles under the covers every night.* More love than your heart can hold.* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites* Someone to laugh yourself silly with, no matter what the boss said or how your stocks performed that day.For $160,140, you never have to grow up. You get to:* finger-paint,* carve pumpkins,* play hide-and-seek,* catch lightning bugs, and* never stop believing in Santa Claus. You have an excuse to:* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh,* watching Saturday morning cartoons,* going to Disney movies, and* wishing on stars.* You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect spray painted noodle wreaths for Christmas, hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day,and cards with backward letters for Father's Day. For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck. You get to be a hero just for:* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,* taking the training wheels off a bike,* removing a splinter,* filling a wading pool,* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.You get a front row seat to history to witness the:* first step,* first word,* first bra,* first date, and* first time behind the wheel.You get to be immortal. You get another branch added to your family tree, and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren. You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice, communications, and human sexuality that no college can match. In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits, So . . one day they will, like you, love without counting the cost. That is quite a deal for the price!!!!!!!
Love & enjoy your children & grandchildren
Friday, August 6, 2010
Cara
CARA
Cara Belle Keeth was the first-born child of Jefferson Davis Keeth and Mary Gray. She was born December 20th 1884 in Panola County, MS.
She was only one generation from the War of Northern Aggression.
Her grandfather, William Jasper Keeth perished at Rossville, GA after the battle of Chattanooga, TN. Her father was only an infant and never knew his father. The family coped with all the horrors of the War and the Reconstruction period following.
She told the story that her mother sent her to the spring to fetch a pail of water and she eloped and married John Dee Evans on September 22nd 1903 in Tuscaloosa County AL just prior to her nineteenth birthday. She had made plans to be married and had secreted clothes to carry with her. She stated that she returned some two weeks later and her mother asked, “Cara, where is my water?”
Cara and John Dee had planned this wedding since Jeff Keeth was planning to return to Arkansas. He had moved the family to Arkansas from Mississippi when Cara was only a small girl. This trip was made on a wagon train from near Sardis, Mississippi to the area of England, Arkansas. They later moved to Grant County, Arkansas.
The wagon train crossed the Mississippi River in the area where the bridge now crosses to Helena, Arkansas. When they reached the river the men of the wagon train unloaded their wagons of all their household goods then secured the beds of the wagon to the frames. They drained the water barrels, replaced the bungs and tied the barrels to the wagons to act as floats. Many trips were required to make the river crossing carrying only a small amount of goods each trip. Cara stated the mules swam and often were a mile downstream by the time they crossed this river of almost a mile in width. The mules had to be rested prior to making the return trip so progress was very slow. She said it took about two weeks for the wagon train to make the crossing and a great many possessions were left on the eastern riverbank.
Jeff Keeth was consumptive and finally died of TB in December of 1911 and was buried in Morris II Cemetery, Grant County Arkansas.
Cara had born much of the burden of rearing her siblings until she married.
All the families of her siblings in Arkansas speak of Cara in reverence.
She is almost legend in the Keeth family for the care and sacrifice she made for her brothers and sisters. Cara had a love and concern for her Arkansas family that lasted all her life. All her life she would ride the Greyhound bus to visit them if no other means of travel was available.
Cara didn’t escape responsibility when she married Dee Evans, if anything it increased.
She gave birth to Lovie Belle Evans, the first of her twelve children some sixteen months after she married. The frail baby died shortly and Cara bore another, Marvin Dee Evans, about twenty months later. She then lost her third child, Theo Estelle Evans, just a little over a year later.
This pattern of bearing a child every year to eighteen months continued until she had born nine more children.
The twelve children are as follows;
1. Lovie Belle Evans
2. Marvin Dee Evans
3. Theo Estelle Evans
4. Euel ( Howard Euel) Evans
5. Ethel Irene Evans
6. Willie Lee Evans
7. Rufus Brewster Evans
8. Cliff (Clifton Coger Byron) Evans
9. Neva Mae Evans
10.Louise ( Annie Louise) Evans
11.Evelyn ( Vista Evelyn) Evans
12. Lizzie ( Lela Elizabeth) Evans
Cara lived in an era and area of poverty and constant toil. In addition to her child bearing and homemaking work she also assisted Dee in eking out a living for their ever-growing family.
On December 13th, 1925 at the age of forty-one Cara was left a widow with ten children aged three to nineteen. John Dee Evans at the age of forty-four suffered an apparent aneurysm and was brought home by his mule team after hauling a load of logs to mill. He perished shortly thereafter never regaining consciousness.
When she had buried Dee at Liberty Hill Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, known as Evanstown, she set out to keep her family together.
No man has ever worked harder than this lady worked during these years.
The poverty that was across Tuscaloosa County, Al was compounded some four years later as the “Great Depression” hit America and the world.
Cara said she could hardly tell the difference she was so poor already.
A cousin of Dee’s, Tullie Evans, convinced Cara that she could take her brood to Arkansas and “pull” cotton rather than pick it and make a lot of money. This was an ill-fated move and did more to disrupt her family than any thing before. The older children began to marry rather than make this trip, so the one’s left to work the cotton fields were not able to make a living. The move to the area of Des Arc and Cotton Plant, Arkansas was a disaster for the family and Cara was forced to return to Alabama.
Cara labored at farming and growing goods that she could trade with the “rolling store” to feed and clothe her family. The sacrifices she made for her family are beyond measure. She made the younger children do without some things in an effort to “keep the boys at home” and to salvage what work she might get from them. This ploy only worked for a time though and she found her family making their way into marriages and her still with young ones to raise. The older children gave what assistance they could when they married but the full brunt of the load was Cara’s. Times and the economy were such that not much help came her way.
Cara lived the Depression until the beginning of World War II.
The last of her children married as the war started and Cara accompanied some of them to Mobile, Al where she found herself a job at “public work”
This wartime economy opened doors for Cara and her family that they had not had before. There was a demand for people to work in defense work and Mobile, AL was a Mecca for people off the farm who had never had a paying job. Cara found employment at fifty-eight years of age with the Bemis Bag Factory, making paper bags on an assembly line.
Cara worked the war years and then returned to Tuscaloosa County, AL with all her extended family and relatives because, “ Mobile was going to be a ghost town!” Mobile of course did not become a ghost town but the ghosts of the past, poverty, haunted Cara and her family for years after they returned to Tuscaloosa. Times weren’t as hard as before the war but Cara found herself “scrapping out” cotton to make quilts and doing other menial tasks to aid her and her growing family to live. ”Scrapping out” cotton was the task of going to neighbors fields after they had harvested their crop and salvaging what little bit of cotton that was left in the field.
Cara would “card” the cotton removing seed and making batts of the lint.
These batts she used for insulation in the quilts made in varying patterns she had pieced from scraps of cloth. Quilting was a labor of love for her.
Cara never maintained a home after her youngest child married and moved away but she warmed the homes of all her children as she “ visited.”
Grandchildren were in great abundance in those days and Cara loved and enjoyed them all. All the grandchildren were taught not just by their parents but also by that great matriarch, Mama Carrie. That is the title that she had grown into over the years as the grandchildren came along.
She was a fountain of knowledge and love for all around her. Even though she had a minimal education she had, through reading and study, educated herself far beyond many of her peers who had formal education. The greatest education she had though was the life she had lived, worked, endured and yes, enjoyed.
Love, honesty, thrift, manners, proper behavior, caring for others, she taught these and many other things to five generations of children, from her siblings to her great grand’s.
Here we have a lady that took what life dealt her and used it to make the world a better place for all who knew her. I knew her and loved her from my earliest memory. As a youngster I often tried her patience and she would tell me that if I didn’t straighten up and do right I would be dead or in jail before I was forty years old. This was told to me in love of course and I reminded her of it a short time before she died. She said, “ Ah yes but you got yourself straightened out.” I did, but with some guidance from her.
When I married she took Jane as one of her own and loved her just like she did all the other grand’s. My children, though they were young, have fond memories of Mama Carrie for she loved and taught them as she had done with so many others before.
She went from wagon train trips to watching men land on the moon and took it all in stride never surprised by the world but ofttimes disappointed by it. Even with the challenges she faced during her life she never gave in to self pity but was always up to the task at hand, be it running a middle-buster plow or changing and consoling a baby. Cara loved life and all it gave her. She lived for the family that God gave her.
Cara Belle Keeth was the first-born child of Jefferson Davis Keeth and Mary Gray. She was born December 20th 1884 in Panola County, MS.
She was only one generation from the War of Northern Aggression.
Her grandfather, William Jasper Keeth perished at Rossville, GA after the battle of Chattanooga, TN. Her father was only an infant and never knew his father. The family coped with all the horrors of the War and the Reconstruction period following.
She told the story that her mother sent her to the spring to fetch a pail of water and she eloped and married John Dee Evans on September 22nd 1903 in Tuscaloosa County AL just prior to her nineteenth birthday. She had made plans to be married and had secreted clothes to carry with her. She stated that she returned some two weeks later and her mother asked, “Cara, where is my water?”
Cara and John Dee had planned this wedding since Jeff Keeth was planning to return to Arkansas. He had moved the family to Arkansas from Mississippi when Cara was only a small girl. This trip was made on a wagon train from near Sardis, Mississippi to the area of England, Arkansas. They later moved to Grant County, Arkansas.
The wagon train crossed the Mississippi River in the area where the bridge now crosses to Helena, Arkansas. When they reached the river the men of the wagon train unloaded their wagons of all their household goods then secured the beds of the wagon to the frames. They drained the water barrels, replaced the bungs and tied the barrels to the wagons to act as floats. Many trips were required to make the river crossing carrying only a small amount of goods each trip. Cara stated the mules swam and often were a mile downstream by the time they crossed this river of almost a mile in width. The mules had to be rested prior to making the return trip so progress was very slow. She said it took about two weeks for the wagon train to make the crossing and a great many possessions were left on the eastern riverbank.
Jeff Keeth was consumptive and finally died of TB in December of 1911 and was buried in Morris II Cemetery, Grant County Arkansas.
Cara had born much of the burden of rearing her siblings until she married.
All the families of her siblings in Arkansas speak of Cara in reverence.
She is almost legend in the Keeth family for the care and sacrifice she made for her brothers and sisters. Cara had a love and concern for her Arkansas family that lasted all her life. All her life she would ride the Greyhound bus to visit them if no other means of travel was available.
Cara didn’t escape responsibility when she married Dee Evans, if anything it increased.
She gave birth to Lovie Belle Evans, the first of her twelve children some sixteen months after she married. The frail baby died shortly and Cara bore another, Marvin Dee Evans, about twenty months later. She then lost her third child, Theo Estelle Evans, just a little over a year later.
This pattern of bearing a child every year to eighteen months continued until she had born nine more children.
The twelve children are as follows;
1. Lovie Belle Evans
2. Marvin Dee Evans
3. Theo Estelle Evans
4. Euel ( Howard Euel) Evans
5. Ethel Irene Evans
6. Willie Lee Evans
7. Rufus Brewster Evans
8. Cliff (Clifton Coger Byron) Evans
9. Neva Mae Evans
10.Louise ( Annie Louise) Evans
11.Evelyn ( Vista Evelyn) Evans
12. Lizzie ( Lela Elizabeth) Evans
Cara lived in an era and area of poverty and constant toil. In addition to her child bearing and homemaking work she also assisted Dee in eking out a living for their ever-growing family.
On December 13th, 1925 at the age of forty-one Cara was left a widow with ten children aged three to nineteen. John Dee Evans at the age of forty-four suffered an apparent aneurysm and was brought home by his mule team after hauling a load of logs to mill. He perished shortly thereafter never regaining consciousness.
When she had buried Dee at Liberty Hill Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery, known as Evanstown, she set out to keep her family together.
No man has ever worked harder than this lady worked during these years.
The poverty that was across Tuscaloosa County, Al was compounded some four years later as the “Great Depression” hit America and the world.
Cara said she could hardly tell the difference she was so poor already.
A cousin of Dee’s, Tullie Evans, convinced Cara that she could take her brood to Arkansas and “pull” cotton rather than pick it and make a lot of money. This was an ill-fated move and did more to disrupt her family than any thing before. The older children began to marry rather than make this trip, so the one’s left to work the cotton fields were not able to make a living. The move to the area of Des Arc and Cotton Plant, Arkansas was a disaster for the family and Cara was forced to return to Alabama.
Cara labored at farming and growing goods that she could trade with the “rolling store” to feed and clothe her family. The sacrifices she made for her family are beyond measure. She made the younger children do without some things in an effort to “keep the boys at home” and to salvage what work she might get from them. This ploy only worked for a time though and she found her family making their way into marriages and her still with young ones to raise. The older children gave what assistance they could when they married but the full brunt of the load was Cara’s. Times and the economy were such that not much help came her way.
Cara lived the Depression until the beginning of World War II.
The last of her children married as the war started and Cara accompanied some of them to Mobile, Al where she found herself a job at “public work”
This wartime economy opened doors for Cara and her family that they had not had before. There was a demand for people to work in defense work and Mobile, AL was a Mecca for people off the farm who had never had a paying job. Cara found employment at fifty-eight years of age with the Bemis Bag Factory, making paper bags on an assembly line.
Cara worked the war years and then returned to Tuscaloosa County, AL with all her extended family and relatives because, “ Mobile was going to be a ghost town!” Mobile of course did not become a ghost town but the ghosts of the past, poverty, haunted Cara and her family for years after they returned to Tuscaloosa. Times weren’t as hard as before the war but Cara found herself “scrapping out” cotton to make quilts and doing other menial tasks to aid her and her growing family to live. ”Scrapping out” cotton was the task of going to neighbors fields after they had harvested their crop and salvaging what little bit of cotton that was left in the field.
Cara would “card” the cotton removing seed and making batts of the lint.
These batts she used for insulation in the quilts made in varying patterns she had pieced from scraps of cloth. Quilting was a labor of love for her.
Cara never maintained a home after her youngest child married and moved away but she warmed the homes of all her children as she “ visited.”
Grandchildren were in great abundance in those days and Cara loved and enjoyed them all. All the grandchildren were taught not just by their parents but also by that great matriarch, Mama Carrie. That is the title that she had grown into over the years as the grandchildren came along.
She was a fountain of knowledge and love for all around her. Even though she had a minimal education she had, through reading and study, educated herself far beyond many of her peers who had formal education. The greatest education she had though was the life she had lived, worked, endured and yes, enjoyed.
Love, honesty, thrift, manners, proper behavior, caring for others, she taught these and many other things to five generations of children, from her siblings to her great grand’s.
Here we have a lady that took what life dealt her and used it to make the world a better place for all who knew her. I knew her and loved her from my earliest memory. As a youngster I often tried her patience and she would tell me that if I didn’t straighten up and do right I would be dead or in jail before I was forty years old. This was told to me in love of course and I reminded her of it a short time before she died. She said, “ Ah yes but you got yourself straightened out.” I did, but with some guidance from her.
When I married she took Jane as one of her own and loved her just like she did all the other grand’s. My children, though they were young, have fond memories of Mama Carrie for she loved and taught them as she had done with so many others before.
She went from wagon train trips to watching men land on the moon and took it all in stride never surprised by the world but ofttimes disappointed by it. Even with the challenges she faced during her life she never gave in to self pity but was always up to the task at hand, be it running a middle-buster plow or changing and consoling a baby. Cara loved life and all it gave her. She lived for the family that God gave her.
Monday, August 2, 2010
GOD’S CHILDREN
We in the USA kid ourselves and bury our heads in the sand.
If we don’t acknowledge anything then it doesn’t exist.
We call ourselves,” The Land of the Free and the Brave” and never stop to realize that each and every day we lose more of our freedoms and we really aren’t brave enough to demand that a radical 13 to 14 percent of our country stop running it in the ground.
We talk of the atrocities committed by despots in other lands and never admit that we, by turning our backs and burying our heads, are doing worse than any dictator in the world has ever done.
The Jewish people claim that Hitler killed some six to seven million people during his reign of terror. Stalin is said to have executed people by the millions and Pol Pot followed them as a mass murderer of his people.
We are currently waging war, against followers Saddam Hussein in Iraq to stop his murderous ways.
When do we stop and realize that we are worse than all these combined!!!
Since the 1972 Roe versus Wade decision by our United States Supreme Court we have sat idly by and allowed some 50,000,000 of our people to be murdered. I say our people but these babies that have been mutilated, tortured and murdered under the guise of “ A woman’s right to her own body”, birth control method, were not our children but GOD’S.
When we allow a law to stand that says it is all right to kill GOD’S children then are we not responsible and answerable to GOD.
We like to call our country, “A Christian Nation”. Who are we deceiving? Ourselves, that’s who.
We can play church and talk of the good things we do in the name of our Lord but until we face reality and stop this wholesale murder of GOD’S children we will never know the full goodness and love of GOD.
Eric Robert Rudolph was on the FBI’s “Most Wanted List” for bombing a “Death Camp”abortion mill in Birmingham, AL . he ultimately paid with his life for this action.This bomb killed an off duty policeman and severely injured a nurse, Emily Lyons. I cannot condone the action of Rudolph but I must ask,
“ Is he anymore guilty of murder than Emily Lyons?” He has killed ,at most, three people but how many has she killed? He broke the law and was a wanted man, yet she by judicial decree, killed within the law and is now an object of pity for injuries suffered. Where is the pity for her victims? Yes! Victims. She at least has her life, such as it is, but the little lambs of GOD she killed have no pity except by the FATHER
Did not the little ones of GOD suffer and die at her hand and those of so many more abortionists across this land? Whose hands is the blood of the innocents on? OUR’S, every person in this land is guilty by association, indifference and our failure to stop this wanton murder.
Through out the history of the world every species has always fought to protect its young. The lowest animal will fight you to the death to protect its young for it knows that only through the young can its kind survive. We in the United States have sunken lower than the basest of animals and all the tyrants of the world.
WE HAVE LEGALIZED THE MURDER OF GOD’S CHILDREN!
How do our abortion clinics/ mills differ from the death camp of Auschwitz Germany and others? Ours are legal by judicial decree but theirs were authorized by their governments also. We prosecuted the remnants of the Nazi Regime and charged them with war crimes and crimes against humanity. How do we differ?
We must all pay the price for the murder of GOD’S children. How? GOD only knows the price that he will exact from us.
We have killed a generation of our children, the true children of GOD.
In Matthew 18-10, Jesus said, “Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven”. In Matthew 18-14 He said,” Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish”.
I have seen the anguish and heartache in a family caused by putting a child up for adoption. The entire family has suffered many years not knowing the condition of the child. How in Heavens name then can people deal with the outright murder of a child through abortion? How can we as a people allow this to continue?
In my study of the prophecy of the Bible, I find no indication that the United States is a power in the end times when our Lord returns. Have we at that time already paid the price for our sin in these murders and no longer exist as a nation?
We are taught that in heaven all tears will be wiped away. Are they wiped away after these innocent children of GOD confront their killers? Do these baby killers even get to heaven? It is said that there are no big sins or little sins but all are sin in the sight of GOD. I cannot fathom the infinite love of GOD being shed equally on His children and the murderers of the children. A price will be paid in some way.
There has been speculation over the years how Jesus might have looked.
Some believe that the Shroud of Turin might be a latent image of the visage of Christ.
If you want to really see and know the face of GOD look into the face of a little one and see the love and trust in those little eyes. Do we never expect to see the disbelief in the eyes of those we have allowed to be murdered? The sweet innocence of a child is one of the most precious gifts of GOD, yet we have allowed them to be betrayed and murdered in their innocence.
I will not go into the gory details of describing the deaths of GOD’S children but suffice it to say they perish in a chamber of horrors. If a child would live with mere millimeters more exposure how can it then be anything but murder. The doctors, nurses, family planners and any other devious name they give themselves know this is murder but for the expediency of liberals they push this agenda under all kinds of subterfuge.
Are they anymore guilty in the sight of GOD than we are? We also know this is murder of the innocent children of GOD, yet we allow it.
What is next on the liberal agenda?
Do we next decide that it would be better to eliminate some of the older generation due to the cost of health care to maintain them?
When a society gives in to murder of GOD’S children where does it stop? Does it stop is the big question.
My question is where and how do we stop this infanticide? Do we sit on our hands and await the mighty judgment of GOD?
Think of the slaughter of the innocents as you say your daily prayers and seek GOD’S guidance that we might halt this continuing atrocity.
We in the USA kid ourselves and bury our heads in the sand.
If we don’t acknowledge anything then it doesn’t exist.
We call ourselves,” The Land of the Free and the Brave” and never stop to realize that each and every day we lose more of our freedoms and we really aren’t brave enough to demand that a radical 13 to 14 percent of our country stop running it in the ground.
We talk of the atrocities committed by despots in other lands and never admit that we, by turning our backs and burying our heads, are doing worse than any dictator in the world has ever done.
The Jewish people claim that Hitler killed some six to seven million people during his reign of terror. Stalin is said to have executed people by the millions and Pol Pot followed them as a mass murderer of his people.
We are currently waging war, against followers Saddam Hussein in Iraq to stop his murderous ways.
When do we stop and realize that we are worse than all these combined!!!
Since the 1972 Roe versus Wade decision by our United States Supreme Court we have sat idly by and allowed some 50,000,000 of our people to be murdered. I say our people but these babies that have been mutilated, tortured and murdered under the guise of “ A woman’s right to her own body”, birth control method, were not our children but GOD’S.
When we allow a law to stand that says it is all right to kill GOD’S children then are we not responsible and answerable to GOD.
We like to call our country, “A Christian Nation”. Who are we deceiving? Ourselves, that’s who.
We can play church and talk of the good things we do in the name of our Lord but until we face reality and stop this wholesale murder of GOD’S children we will never know the full goodness and love of GOD.
Eric Robert Rudolph was on the FBI’s “Most Wanted List” for bombing a “Death Camp”abortion mill in Birmingham, AL . he ultimately paid with his life for this action.This bomb killed an off duty policeman and severely injured a nurse, Emily Lyons. I cannot condone the action of Rudolph but I must ask,
“ Is he anymore guilty of murder than Emily Lyons?” He has killed ,at most, three people but how many has she killed? He broke the law and was a wanted man, yet she by judicial decree, killed within the law and is now an object of pity for injuries suffered. Where is the pity for her victims? Yes! Victims. She at least has her life, such as it is, but the little lambs of GOD she killed have no pity except by the FATHER
Did not the little ones of GOD suffer and die at her hand and those of so many more abortionists across this land? Whose hands is the blood of the innocents on? OUR’S, every person in this land is guilty by association, indifference and our failure to stop this wanton murder.
Through out the history of the world every species has always fought to protect its young. The lowest animal will fight you to the death to protect its young for it knows that only through the young can its kind survive. We in the United States have sunken lower than the basest of animals and all the tyrants of the world.
WE HAVE LEGALIZED THE MURDER OF GOD’S CHILDREN!
How do our abortion clinics/ mills differ from the death camp of Auschwitz Germany and others? Ours are legal by judicial decree but theirs were authorized by their governments also. We prosecuted the remnants of the Nazi Regime and charged them with war crimes and crimes against humanity. How do we differ?
We must all pay the price for the murder of GOD’S children. How? GOD only knows the price that he will exact from us.
We have killed a generation of our children, the true children of GOD.
In Matthew 18-10, Jesus said, “Take heed that you despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven”. In Matthew 18-14 He said,” Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish”.
I have seen the anguish and heartache in a family caused by putting a child up for adoption. The entire family has suffered many years not knowing the condition of the child. How in Heavens name then can people deal with the outright murder of a child through abortion? How can we as a people allow this to continue?
In my study of the prophecy of the Bible, I find no indication that the United States is a power in the end times when our Lord returns. Have we at that time already paid the price for our sin in these murders and no longer exist as a nation?
We are taught that in heaven all tears will be wiped away. Are they wiped away after these innocent children of GOD confront their killers? Do these baby killers even get to heaven? It is said that there are no big sins or little sins but all are sin in the sight of GOD. I cannot fathom the infinite love of GOD being shed equally on His children and the murderers of the children. A price will be paid in some way.
There has been speculation over the years how Jesus might have looked.
Some believe that the Shroud of Turin might be a latent image of the visage of Christ.
If you want to really see and know the face of GOD look into the face of a little one and see the love and trust in those little eyes. Do we never expect to see the disbelief in the eyes of those we have allowed to be murdered? The sweet innocence of a child is one of the most precious gifts of GOD, yet we have allowed them to be betrayed and murdered in their innocence.
I will not go into the gory details of describing the deaths of GOD’S children but suffice it to say they perish in a chamber of horrors. If a child would live with mere millimeters more exposure how can it then be anything but murder. The doctors, nurses, family planners and any other devious name they give themselves know this is murder but for the expediency of liberals they push this agenda under all kinds of subterfuge.
Are they anymore guilty in the sight of GOD than we are? We also know this is murder of the innocent children of GOD, yet we allow it.
What is next on the liberal agenda?
Do we next decide that it would be better to eliminate some of the older generation due to the cost of health care to maintain them?
When a society gives in to murder of GOD’S children where does it stop? Does it stop is the big question.
My question is where and how do we stop this infanticide? Do we sit on our hands and await the mighty judgment of GOD?
Think of the slaughter of the innocents as you say your daily prayers and seek GOD’S guidance that we might halt this continuing atrocity.
Monkeys
Monkeys --Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string
and place a set of stairs under it.
Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all the other monkeys with cold water.
After a while another monkey makes the attempt with same result, all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water.
Pretty soon when another Monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it. Now, put the cold water away. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.
The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the snot out of him. After another attempt and attack,
he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted. Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.
The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.
Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs
OR even why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. Finally, after replacing all of the
original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water.
Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know, that is the way it has always been done around here. And that, my fellow monkeys, is how Congress operates -
And precisely why we need to REPLACE all the original monkeys this November.
and place a set of stairs under it.
Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all the other monkeys with cold water.
After a while another monkey makes the attempt with same result, all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water.
Pretty soon when another Monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it. Now, put the cold water away. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.
The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the snot out of him. After another attempt and attack,
he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted. Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked.
The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm. Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.
Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs
OR even why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey. Finally, after replacing all of the
original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water.
Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know, that is the way it has always been done around here. And that, my fellow monkeys, is how Congress operates -
And precisely why we need to REPLACE all the original monkeys this November.
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