Articles & Stories
Life Was Simple in Ten-Mile Creek In Perry County, Ky.
Writer
Shares Treasured Memories Of The Hard
But Good Life Of The Mullins Family Of Eastern Kentucky
By Golden Mullins Noble - 2006
As
a child growing up on Ten-Mile Creek near Hazard in
Perry County, Kentucky, I look back and think of the simple means
of living that were a far cry from the modern conveniences of
today.
There were five girls and three boys born to my parents, Floyd
and Cassie Holliday Mullins. We were reared in a very simple,
three-room house which was by no means air-tight. We were so
thankful to even have a house.
Since all the neighbors that lived in the hollow had the same
living conditions, we felt as important as everyone else. We
had no transportation and were unable to go very far from home,
so we did plenty of walking.
Mother and Dad were the disciplinarians in our household. From
very young children we were taught to obey our parents, and if
we did not obey we knew what the consequences would be. We knew
they loved us, and we respected them.
Each of us children was assigned a chore, and we did it. I remember
very vividly of having to stand in a chair to wash dishes after
family meals.
"Cliff
John," who once lived in this rock cliff, peddled fruits
and vegetables in the Ten-Mile Creek area of Perry County during
the 1930s and 1940s. Golden Mullins Noble has vivid memories
of this man as he exchanged fruits and vegetables with her mother,
Cassie Holliday Mullins, for butter, milk, eggs, and fresh pork.
(Photo courtesy of Golden Mullins Noble.)
We
had a woodburning stove that was used for cooking and baking
and also for heat during the winter months. Mother used heating
irons to iron our clothes. She made the most of our clothing
and each piece had to be ironed. Dad made the furniture for our
house. My grandfather, Elias Mullins, owned a sawmill where Dad
sawed the lumber to make the furniture. Grandfather was an Old
Regular Baptist preacher. I went with him many times on his preaching
circuit.
Dad built a wooden shelf to store our cookware. He attached it
to a wall in the kitchen. Near this shelf was a table used to
keep the water bucket, dipper, and wash pan. In the other part
of the kitchen was a long, wooden eating table with benches on
each side. Our house had two bedrooms and in each were two beds
and a fireplace. A sewing machine, which was a necessity, was
kept in Mom's and Dad's room.
Containers of milk were hung in the well to keep cold, but later
we were able to purchase a small icebox and a white kitchen cabinet
for the dishes.
We each knew what had to be done to prepare for the cold, snowy,
winter months, so at daybreak we were up and ready for work.
After a breakfast of homemade biscuits, sausage or bacon, eggs,
gravy, and milk, we were off for the cornfields or the garden.
We worked until noon when we were called home by a large dinner
bell. The noon meal was prepared by one of us girls. It seemed
that I was volunteered for that job quite often.
After the noon meal and a short rest it was off to work again,
until just before dusk. After the day's work the cows had to
be brought from the pasture and milked, also the animals had
to be fed and cared for. Cows were used for milk and butter,
chickens for meat and eggs, hogs were used for pork and lard,
and beehives for honey. Horses and mules were used for transportation
in peddling, for plowing the fields, and to run the gin mills,
which pressed juice from the cane to make molasses.
I always looked forward to late fall when it was time for molasses
to be made. We owned a machine which was called a gin mill that
was used to press liquid from the stalks of cane. As the horse
walked around in a circle, pulling a bar attached to the presser
on the machine, a large tub was placed under the presser to catch
the juice. When the tub was partly filled, the juice was put
into a molasses pan which had several compartments. A large trench
had been dug under the pan and a wood fire was built. Parts of
the pan were heated at different levels, since all the juice
had to be made into molasses at different intervals. The juice
was boiled and stirred with paddles until it was formed into
thick molasses. The foam that formed on top of the molasses is
what we ate with a stick of cane. We called this a "stir-off."
We planted almost every seed and plant that we knew of; such
as beans, sweet and field corn, peas, tomatoes, squash, cabbage,
lettuce, onions, beets, okra, peppers, radishes, carrots, Irish
and sweet potatoes, greens, peanuts, watermelons, and cantaloupes.
We also had an orchard of apple, pear, peach, and plum trees;
which fruits were used for cooking, canning, or eating raw. Nothing
was wasted. The food that was not used during the summer months
was canned, pickled, or holed-up for the winter. We dug deep
holes in the ground and stored our potatoes and cabbage for winter.
We also canned and dried our meat. Hominy, made from field corn,
was a favorite of the family. In the late fall we would gather
the field corn and a portion of it was taken to Grandpa's grist
mill to be ground into meal.
Even the dried out blades (fodder) from the field corn were pulled
and put into shocks which were used to feed the horses and cattle
during the winter. We also made our own medicines from herbs
found close to our home.
Some necessities we could not produce such as sugar, salt, and
coffee. To get these items we saddled up Mom's horse, got all
her peddling goods ready to take and sell at the coal mining
camp about 15 to 20 miles away. We made sure she would have an
ample supply of blackberries and blueberries which we children
had picked from the wild. We carefully wrapped the eggs in catalog
pages. Canned food in glass jars was wrapped and placed in the
saddle pockets. We also gathered lots of fresh fruit and vegetables
for the trip.
The horse was always well-loaded as Mom climbed onto the saddle
around dawn. We would always listen for the horse's hooves to
come back down the dusty road, because we always knew our Mom
would bring us candy and other goodies.
I treasure all these memories and I am so thankful for my parents
who instilled in me the need for good moral character and respect
and also good work ethics.
A few weeks ago an engineer who works for a coal company came
upon a cliff while surveying which had once been used for someone's
home. He took a pictures of the cliff. Since he knew I had been
reared only a short distance from this cliff, he brought the
pictures to me and inquired about who had once lived under this
cliff.
I remember, very vividly, seeing "Cliff John," as we
called him, coming from his cliff home, carrying on his back
a coffee sack full of fresh fruits and vegetables he sold to
Mother, which she would take on her peddling trip. Many times
Mother would invite him into our home to rest and have a meal,
but the invitation was always refused, but he never refused the
milk, eggs, butter, or fresh pork which Mother paid him in return
for the fresh fruits and vegetables.
When I saw these pictures they brought back so many sad memories.
I always felt sorry for this poor man, and I wish I could have
helped him, but it was not within my power, since I didn't have
the very best of living conditions myself.
Mother made sure that her children attended school every day
possible and that we went to Sunday School every Sunday. It was
at Sunday School, under the direction of some wonderful missionaries,
that I accepted the Lord as my Savior, for which I have always
been grateful.
I can remember as a very young child lying in my bed at night
and dreaming of some day being able to have a good job, a big
house, able to drive a big Cadillac, and yes, even owning a store
of my own. I'm blessed that the Lord has allowed me to have all
that and even more. He has not only allowed me to have needs
but my wants by my doing my part of hard work and being honest
with my fellowman.
Golden Mullins Noble, 3108 KY HWY 28, Hazard, KY 41701, shares this article with our readers.