The following story, as told to me by my grandmother, is continued from the Haws Page.  I will repeat a small portion of the story for continuity.  There will be links to photographs near the bottom of the page.

Mom and Claude got married after a period of time.  After that, Mom wouldn't let me go to the dances anymore with Martin by myself.  She'd only let me go if she and Claude went along and followed in their car.  After awhile, she stopped letting me go altogether.  You see, right after Claude and Mom got married, they started going to church.  And Mom was dogmatic; because she went to church, she said I had to go, too.  That was when I started to get rebellious.  Up to that point in time, our home had always been smooth.  But I began to rebel about having to go to church. I didn't like going to church.  I wanted to get out and dance.

Somewhere along the way, I met a guy by the name of Bill Twig.  I liked him an awful lot.  I think he is the only one I ever really loved.  He had red hair and he was a big guy.  Now up to this time, I'd never lied to Mom.  But hadn't wanted her to get married and I was upset she'd married Claude anyhow.  Mom was always afraid I'd get in trouble and that's why she was so strict on me.  I know that's why I was so strict on you and tagged along everywhere, cause I treated you like Mom had treated me.  Well, anyhow, Mom was afraid I would get in trouble by Bill Twig.  So she wouldn't let me even talk to Bill.  She cut it off.  For about a week, I didn't want to eat or sleep; I wanted to die.  I couldn't see Bill; I couldn't go to the dances; I couldn't go anywhere.

There used to be a whole group of us that hung together, and Mom had seemed ok with that cause there were 6 or 8 couples.  I would play the banjo.  Bill Twig had taught me to play the banjo.  I'd play the banjo and the whole group would dance.  That was my pure pleasure.  That was the only pleasure I had.  And as long as Mom knew I was with this group, it was OK.  But never later than 9:00 p.m.  We all used to do some crazy things.  Some of the kids in the gang were Frank Eyeman and his sister, and Desta and Kenny and Jerry and Helen and Buttercup and Nelly and Roaka.  And Jerry was my buddy.  There was no messing around; we just had good clean fun together.  One time a new boy came into the group and got smart with one of the girls.  The other boys beat up on him and told him not to ever come back again.

Well, anyhow, so Mom had told me I couldn't go down and be with the group anymore, because of Bill Twig.  But one time Mom and Claude had gone to church and I didn't go with them.  I think I said I was sick or something.  The Blue Bridge went across from Cumberland, Maryland to Ridgley, West Virginia, and it had a big concrete place where Green St. went out one way and River Rd. went this way down along the edge of the Potomac River.  I met my friends down by the bridge.  I was leaning against the concrete wall playing my banjo.  I'll never forget it.  I was playing, "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More."  A bunch of them were singing it.  They had a big circle formed there; they would move aside for cars.  There were about 4 of them in the middle of the circle dancing the Charleston.  They were all having a wonderful time; nothing wrong was going on.  About this time, here came Claude and Mom walking by.  Mom saw me.  She took her hands and parted the circle and walked over to me.  She reached over and got me by the hair of the head and drug me out of the circle and drug me down the street a ways.  Then after she drug me down the street, she took her fist..and she beat me in the back with her fist.  She beat me for about a half a block as hard as she could.  It was only the second beating I ever remember getting from my mother.  Mom yelled and screamed and said what an awful thing; what if the police would have come; what if it would have been written up in the paper, etc.  That beating did something to me inside that turned her against my mother.  From that point on, I got sneaken.  Mom wouldn't let me play the banjo anymore, so I bought myself a Victrola.  You know, the kind you crank up.  You could store a few records in it.

Anyhow, Mom didn't trust me no more.  She was afraid I would get my name tarnished.  I figured it was Claude drilling this stuff in her head.  So me and Claude became enemies.  I knew that before Claude came along I hadn't had these problems with my mother.  I told her once, "We got along good until Claude came along.  He split up our family."  Mom told me that she had married Claude to make a home for us, and I told her she had ruined it for them.

I became more and more rebellious against my mother.  I would lie to her.  I'd say I was going to a girlfriend's house, but instead I'd go out with my friends.  My friends asked me why I didn't leave my mother and Claude.  By then I'd met a new boy in the group.  His name was Frank.  Frank Minnick.  Your grandfather.  And Kenny Dickson and Desta were a couple.  Desta didn't have a mother and father; her aunt had raised her.  Kenny Dickson liked Desta a lot.  Whenever I could slip away, Kenny and Desta would pair off together and me and Frank would pair off together.  I was past 15 now, and Frank was 18.

NOTE:  The story will now be continued on the Minnick page.

 

	Click here for picture of Leoda and her mother, Bessie, holding musical instruments
	Click here for picture of Bessie FLICK Haws Hartley.  The gentleman with her might be Claude Hartley.  I'm still trying to find a box of pictures that has writing on them that may help identify some of the unknown persons.

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