It's around 1946 and the war is over. All of sudden, Dad and Mom decide the grass is greener over yonder.!! I think it's more Moms idea than Dads. For years they have heard how you can just live off the land in Arkansaw.

So...they sell the house and lot back to Willie Porter, and it's off to Arkansaw. I remember the trip well, Fussing and fighting the whole trip.
Secretly I had started smoking, and the trip was very nerve racking to me. I would use the excuse that I had to go to the bathroom and we would stop at the next station. I would run in and roll me a smoke and get a few puffs and then back to the car. I suppose they thought I had the trots the whole trip.

While I am on the subject of smoking, I will tell about the time I first smoked in front of Mother. Up until now she somtimes looked in my eye's and would say. " You been smoking gene". Then she would proceed to beat me with anything handy, rope, garden hose, belt ect...ect.
I had made up my mind to not take anymore beatings, so when she thought I had been smoking, I just left the house and went off somwhere, and left her screaming.
Well one afternoon Dad took Mom and me fishing out to Bob Crosby Bridge, and we parked down under it in some soft sand. When we got ready to go the car got stuck in the sand and Dad went for help to get it out.
It become late and it was very dark out side the car and I was dying for a smoke but Mom was in the front seat. I stood it as long as I could and began to roll me one. About the time I had it rolled Mom asked. " What are you doing gene". So I told her I was rolling a smoke and asked her " Do you want one". I never had a problem with her after that. What she didn't know, was that Dad had bought me a pack or two in the past.

NOW...ON TO ARKANSAW

When we got to Arkansaw, we stayed one nite in the car on the side of the road, and then it's back to New Mexico
But now we have no home and no place to go to.

We moved into an old adobe house with no roof or windows on the air base road while Dad looks for a job. In a few days we moved to the old Tobe Brennaman place west of town. Its the same place Uncle N.B. and Aunt Velma lived at one time, And George Oldaker and family have also lived there.

In a few weeks we moved back to Montana Street next door to Grandma Oldaker. Its the same house the Hass Family moved from. George Oldaker and family lived there after the Hass's moved, and then George moved out and we moved in. It was across the street from the house we built. And so there we were, back to square one.

The house wasn't big enough for us all, so Mom built a one room small house, if one could call it that. It was behind the main house and she would often decide that is was in the wrong place, so we would jack it up and put the skid pipes under it and push and tug until it was in a different place on the lot. I think we moved it at least a dozen times. finaly it wound up in the first place we had it.
God it was cold in the winter time sleeping in that thing with no heat. I dont know how my Sister Joyce stood it. At least me and Brothers Claude and Larry all slept togather and could keep a little bit warm, but she had a bed of her own and I know she probaly was very cold. The smaller children including my Sister Jewell slept in the house with Mom and Dad as she was very small at the time.
After cotton picking season was over, we took the seams out of the cotton sacks and used them for putting over windows, or doors to keep the cold out, and somtimes we used them for bed covers.

I JOIN THE NATIONAL GUARD

At fifteen I lied about my age and joined the National Guard and went to drills and also to Ft. Bliss for summer camp. For some reason I never got to fire a rifle, But the main reason I joined was because we got to watch the wrestling matches free in the Armory there.
Every Saturday night they had wrestling and I got to watch Gorgeous George and many others working out and at the matches too. They showed us boys wrestling holds and how to break them, We thought that was the neatest thing,

WE JOIN THE BOYS CLUB

One day the police picked me and Charles and Robert up in town and told us we needed to join the local Boys Club. It would keep us out of trouble. So one day at the club they were having boxing and a skinny black guy was in the ring taking on all comers. We talked Charles into getting in with him since he was a good boxer.

Charles would take a swing at the guy and he would just suck in his tummy, Then Charles would swing at his jaw and the guy would nod his head. Jezzzzz the guy was gonna Murder Charles.
We wasn't gonna let this happan, so me and robert got in the ring too.!!
WEll..they kicked us out of the boys club for unsportsmanlike conduct. That was the end of the boys club for us.

Uncle Sam Mobley ( Jarids Brother ) is working at a moving and storage company and Dad gets a job there. Its a very hard job, moving all sorts of stuff like pianos and house hold goods, also they unload frieght from rail cars. I dont know how Dad stands up to it, as he has very bad asthma and reacurring kidney infections.

COTTON PICKING TIME

I hate picking cotton, It's ok until my back starts hurting, but after that its torture. Picking cotton was always part of my growing up years after we moved to New mexico. Any time Mom or Dad was out of a Job, we picked cotton, And somtimes we picked when they had a job.
But they didnt like to leave us alone, because we would get lazy and play around.

Somtimes they would let keep the money we made on saturday evening, But by then all we could think of was getting out of the hell of the cotton patch.
My sister Joyce could always pick more than I could, and it caused many problems for me. Mom would tell me, " Dont let your sister beat you today", or you will get a cotton stalk across your back. and the first thing I knew Joyce would be ahead of me. Jesus, she must of had machines for hands!!.

MY FIRST DATE

One Saturday Evening I had fifty cents made and thought I would have a great time that night, But I visited my good friend Pancho. While there his mom talked me into dating his Sister, so she rode on front of my bike and we went to the movies. After paying to get in and then cokes and popcorn, I was broke. Needless to say I never dated her again, it was just too costly, and girls didn't want to date guys unless they had a car anyway.

Pancho was a good friend of mine. His real name was Frank, and his family were very nice. A few years later we were thinking of joining the Navy togather, but he failed the test, and I went on into the Navy.
Later he joined the Army and went on to the Rangers and made Sargent, and become a Paratrooper.

THE FIRST TIME I RUN AWAY FROM HOME

I decided to run away from home, So me and Charles Oldaker hitch hiked to Loving, But we went by way of Lovington and Hobbs first to visit Charles's Sisters, Mott and Annie and Blanche. They were married and had families. We caught a ride with two men and two girls. The men were drunk and started a fight with the girls.
When they stopped to fight, Me and Charles got out and went out into a field thick with sticker weeds, and got a double hand full of rocks and layed down in the stickers.
It was just as we figgered, They decided to look for us and give us a whipping.

They got back in the car and started driving into the field looking for us with the head lights. We knocked out both headlights and the windshield, and put a few lumps on their heads then took off back to the highway, leaving them there. We stayed with Mott and her husband for a few days and then went on to loving and stayed on the River with the Brother of his Sister Pearl's Husband. As he had a family we had to stay in a Wet Back shack with no heat or plumbing and it was wintertime.

We were hungry and starving, so we borowed a tractor from Toni and drove it to Loving. I had a dollar, so we bought a sack of Duke's tobacco and some flour and backing powder and some cans of corn, Then drove the tractor back to Toni's.
At least we had pancakes to eat and somtimes we flavered them with canned corn, just dumped the corn in the pancake dough. At least it was filling for a while. We tried breaking the ice along the river edge to catch carp with our hands. We tried eating a few, but they were too bony.

We worked a day or two for Charles's brotherinlaw, We didnt't get any pay but At least we got to eat dinner when we worked for him. He told us " No work No eat". About Christmas time, Mom and Dad came and got me and took me home. I was ready to go back this time.

It was back to picking cotton. Mom and Dad would keep us out of school till after the cotton picking was over, and somtimes it was in January before we started. This kept us back a coupla grades and at fifteen I quit the 5th grade.

I GET MY FIRST CAR

I got my first car, an old Model A coupe. ( God I wish i had it now ). I think I picked cotton and made 35 dollars and bought it for that. It didnt run for long, because I would go downtown and try to do Wheelees, and make it jump when the lite turned green. Dad almost pulled his hair out trying to figger out why the clutch kept going out.

I didnt get to drive it long because of the breakdowns. One day I was driving down a street and noticed a tire and wheel rolling along beside me, then I felt the rear end drop, Yikes...it was my tire and wheel I had seen.
Next thing that happened was a cracked head on the motor, so it was back to a bike. Besides I didnt have a driver license anyway. One winter we were in someones car and the streets were solid ice. We would get going on the street in front of the house and turn the stearing wheel into a hard turn and step on the gas, then the car would go round and round on the ice...Wheeee what fun.

I never got to go on any dates and never got the gang together for rides, when I had my car...It just didnt last that long.

I made friends with a boy called Nelse Narramore, who lived futher up sunset street, and his daddy had an old cut down coupe that he used for a tractor. We would pull a hay cutter with it, then change to a rake and once we had the hay in a row, we would hook a trailer on the old coupe and haul it to the barn.
I loved doing this because I got to drive it, and they had good meals too. It seemed as if I was always hungry for some reason.

Nelse's mother and sister Wanda could play a mandolin and guitar and fiddle, and his sister's husband Bob Wolf played a five string banjo. They played several times a week on the radio at KGFL Roswell. The radio station was owned by a Mr. Whittmore and Roy Rogers and Lefty Frizzel got their starts there.

Sometimes Nelse's mother would try to teach me to play the mandolin, but I just couldnt figger it out. One time I went up there, and they were all mad at Old Man Narramore. John was his name. he had cut the electric power off and they couldnt play the electric guitar.
He was just tired of all the noise, But Nelse's momma made John sorry for that. She followed him around singing " John was mixing mud cause it was in his blood, when up run a little mouse and he plastered it onto the house and now we got a little mounted mouse".( He didnt like that either )

NELCE IS MURDERED

Sad to say but my time with Nelse was growning short. He got a job delivering papers and the first week a dog ran out to bite him, so he got off his bike and throwed a rock at the dog. A man came out from the house and shot Nelse dead.
I mixed the cement for Mr Narramore, at the cemetry and we made a base for Nelse's tombstone. It was a sad day to lose such a good friend

Me and Charles met Lefty Frizell a few times, but we didn't run with him as he was a coupla years older and drank and played the nite clubs on weekends. He was in Jail a few time too. He made up a song about bedbugs in jail and he sang it to us once. I was around fifteen years old at this time.

WE MOVE AGAIN

Mom and Dad bought a lot out on Prairie Street in the north east part of Roswell. Well...what can I say, House building again. Poor Momma, I know of 2 houses she had built and this was a third...Well me and Dad helped when she could pin us down. This one was 4 rooms next to and behind the Jingle Bob Drive in Movie.
We could watch the movies sitting in the yard, except for one thing. For a long time after we built the house, the drive inn people would park several cars and pickups facing our yard with the lights on to prevent us from watching. Its a wonder I am here today telling this because I could barley keep my temper under control. I wanted to take my 22 rifle and shoot the head lights out.

We were 2 miles from the Country Club Golf Course, and I decided to break in there as a caddy. It was hard because the regular caddys didn't like new people comming in. I finaly got to caddy there, but the other caddys had their regular golfers and I had to take whatever came along.
This was allright with me because I would caddy double on sundays and make as much as they did.
In the summer, before cotton picking time I would spend Lots of time at that golf coarse. I could make more than I had at the old City Golf Course

I GET MY SECOND CAR

Me and my Brother Claude went to aspermont one time. Mom took us and we begged to stay a while with Grandpa Jarid and Grandma Ora. I noticed an old Thirty Seven Model ford in the junk pile behind Grandpa's house.
It cought my eye, even tho it didn't have any tires or tubes and it was missing a starter. Grandpa agreed that I could have it, if I worked a week mixing cement for him. Well I worked the week and then Uncle Alby Mobley took me to the dump ground and we found four tires and tubes. We patched the tubes and put boots in the tires.

Then Grandpa decided I should work another week for the car, So I worked Another week mixing cement for concrete. In the mean time my Mother had wrote to him saying she would come down and kick the hell out of him if i didnt get the car.
Grandpa still didnt like the idea of losing a free worker, So one day when he went to town, I made up my mind to leave.
We didn't have any food in the house,and Grandma had picked some dry peas growing in the field next to the house. She put them in a skillit and fried them for a while, but I still couldnt eat them.

Then I pumped up the tires on the car with an old hand pump and talked Grandma and my Aunt Doris ( Taylor Mobley's Wife )into helping me and Claude push the car to start it since it didnt have a starter. Ohh.. and it didnt have any brakes either.

It worked!! The old Ford started and off we went, Me and Claude and a baby apossom he had. It was a sticky scene when we would come to a town with traffic lights. I slowed down as much as possible before I got to the lights and then jammed the gears in reverse then just before the motor would die I shifted out of it.

But we had another problem, around Bronco Texas the motor started knocking, and I knew it was out of motor oil. I stopped at a station and got the guy to give me five quarts of used motor oil.
The Car was smoking and knocking again when we pulled up to our house in Roswell. That was the last it run, I had knocked out the rod inserts and mains.
Dad made a trailer out of the rear end after I went into the Navy.

I HITCH HIKE TO ARKANSAS IN WINTERTIME

Charles Oldaker went to Arkansaw to visit his kinfolks, and after a few months I decided to join him. After all I just knew he was having a good time and I didn't want to miss out. So in January of 1949 I set out for Arkansaw

So.. off to Arkansaw I go. I left Roswell in the morning and by late evening I was in Oklahoma City. Gads.. all I was wearing was Levi's and a thin Levi jacket and it was frezzing cold. I walked across the whole City and after dark I was on the east side of town.
A rancher gave me a lift, but he turned off after twenty miles

I Walked along the highway until 11 oclock, and no cars had came by, and I was frezzing. It was sleeting, when finaly a car came along. I got in the middle of the highway and when the car moved over I moved too so they had to stop.
The Man and Woman gave me a ride into Muskogee and let me out. By then it was around one oclock and as I was walking thru town the police picked me up and took me to the station. they called Roswell and checked me out and told me I could go. I told them I didn't want to go and to put me in a cell, at least it was warm inside.

The Sargent wouldn't let me use a cell, but told me to use the change room, I slept on a bench and next morning it was covered with oranges and a sandwich and a few ciggeretts.
As I was walking to the outskirts of town two Salvation Army Wimmin picked me up in an old Station Wagon with wood sides. They went from town to town making the rounds of the cafe's, and if they got a good donation, they would buy me a hambuger. It was slow, but at least I got a hambuger once in a while.

They let me out at the State Line and I cought a ride into Ft.Smith Arkansaw. After walking across that town I headed south and cought a ride to Waldon and then cut back west to Cauthron, where charlie's Aunt Mary lived. I cought a ride out a country road to their farm and charles was there.

We had heard of Aunt Mary Oldaker for years and at last I met her. She was a sweet old Lady. She was country to the core and so was her son Raliegh. He still used a Mule to plow with and to pull wagons.
I was treated to the best meals I ever ate. Big homemade Butter milk bisquits and ham and bacon from the smokehouse, and pleanty of fresh milk and lots of butter.

We stayed a few days and helped cut pine trees and poled them by cutting the bark off. They were used for telephone poles and it was a big industry there. I tried smoking Arkansaw home grown tobacco while there. Jezzzz, two puffs and I couldn't breath deep for hours.
Then me and Charles hitched hiked about 30 miles to Waldon, Arkansaw and found his Aunt Nolie Shaw living on top of Bonstiene Mountain at a place called Pine's Cabins.
We agreed to cut trees for poles in return for a place to stay, and got to stay in a warm cabin with thick quilts on the bed and a warm fire. But we knew once the weather turned nice, we would have to pay up, so after two days and nights we took off for New Mexico.

We lucked out and cought a ride with a guy pulling a new car with a towbar, and he took us clear to Guthrie Texas, just a few miles from Aspermont, where my Grandpa Jarid Mobley was at.
Well... we thought we had lucked out. But we had to ride in the back car, just me and charlie by ourself. The guy would stop at every little beer joint and after a few stops, he couldn't drive straight. Whew..We were sure glad when we got to Guthrie.

It was nite when we got to Guthrie and we walked out to the Junction at the east side of town. It was cold and freezing, so we built a little fire in a sand bank and tried to stay warm.
Next morning it was so foggy we couldn't see across the highway, then we heard a car comming very fast. It passed by us and then we heard a crash so we took off running thru the fog to see what happand.

There it was laying on it's side, a new Pontiac. We climbed up on it and opened a door and pulled two Men and two Women from the car. They were Lawmen and their Wifes. Two deputy's on their way to Arkansaw. We helped them turn it back on it's wheels and one of them put a quart of oil in it and they took off...Not even saying thank you or asking if we wanted a smoke.

We got to Grandpa's house that evening. It was two seperate rock house's and very small, each about the size of a small room. I think they may have been a port of entry for trucks at one time. They are still there today at the junction about 3 miles west of Aspermont
After looking the situation over we dicided to go on to New Mexico as the pickings didn't look so good.

About a year before, Charles's Daddy had been living in Aspermont and I had went down to see them. Me and him worked a few days for George and Jarid ( My Grandpa ) at Swenson, a few miles up the road from Aspermont.
They were working on a rock house at the only cafe there, run by an old woman. She was rich and very religious, and Grandpa said she was the biggest bootlegger around.

Each day at noon she would cook us dinner. That was the first time I had tasted steak. It was ohhhh so good.
We noticed Charles's Dad and my Grandpa would get happy every evening, so we watched them close and discovered they were buying whiskey from the old woman. So we watched where they hid it and when they wasn't watching we would sneak a few drinks from the bottle.

Anyway...On to New Mexico. We hitch hiked home and later that year I joined the U.S. Navy. It was a sad time when I left. it was winter time and very cold and Mom and Dad and kids were picking cotton. My bus passed them on the highway as they were going to the cotton patch.

What a sad day, My heart cried for my Mother and Daddy and Brothers and Sisters, Because I was leaving them and also for the way they had to live.
As soon as I got to boot camp I started an allotment. A twenty five dollar bond was sent to Mother every month. It wasn't much, but I was paid only 67 dollars a month and I wanted to share and to help the family that had to stay there.

One other thing, I allways came home and gave my money to Mother, be it from mixing cement, working on the golf course, picking cotton or any of all the other jobs I had as a teen. I knew the family needed it more than I did. If I needed somthing, Mom or Dad would help me get it if we could afford it.
I also worked at the moving company with Daddy when I was 17. I dont know how he stood up to that kind of work, as it was the hardest work I ever did

Bless their hearts. I dont know how Mom and Dad stood up to it all

I didnt say much about my Brothers and Sisters in this tale of mine. I didn't tell about them being cold or hungrey or tired from picking cotton or working. Nor did I say much about all my Mobley and Oldaker or Martin Cousins who were around me as I grew up.
They have their own story to tell as I have told mine.

One more funny story about Daddy and then I am out of here.
After comming home from the Navy, One day I decided to make a batch of home brew and I used apricot to flavor it. I let it brew for a week and then checked it. Darn..it turned out flat, so I was going to dump it when dad found out. He told me that he would take care of it, so I thought no more about it. about a week later he seemed to get happy every evening, so I watched him and seen him getting a glass of the brew he was suppose to have dumped.

He had added more stuff to it and got it to brewing again. I filled a jug from it and WOW..It tasted like Apricot Brandy and had a kick like a mule.