Ruth Rogers

When I was about ten years old and Wes was about 15, we were sitting across from each other. A large beige crockery bowl sat between us, overflowing with fresh garden peas. After the blessing, we both pulled on the big crockery bowl at the same time–neither one turning loose. The bowl had probably long since been cracked, because it split in two. Peas rolled all over the table. Everyone laughed, and Dad laughed so hard that he had to leave the table.

Wes and I had to leave the table also, but not because of laughter. Mom thoroughly thrashed us with a switch on the legs (as only she could do) because of the wasted food.

The good part was that we did get to eat later, and we didn’t have to clean up the mess.

Juanita and Madeline got in the habit of hiding dirty dishes in the oven, pretending that they were finished with all the dishes,

and then going on off to bed. I don’t know why they continued doing that, because they always got caught! Mom would check the oven before she went on to bed, and she would wake them up in the middle of the night–no matter how late it was or how cold it was–and make them finish the dishes.

One night when I was about eight years old, I tried their trick. Sure enough, Mom checked the oven. She pulled me out of bed in the middle of the night–just as she always did them–and made me get up and finish washing the dishes.

I was five years old, wearing waist bloomers and tops with square necks–nothing but smart mouth and honest.

Lloyd was 15 or 16 years old and already fiddling at dances. He got a new pair of pants to wear to a dance and asked me if I liked them. I honestly said, “No.??? He slapped both sides of my face–hard. Of course, he got in trouble, but it didn’t stop my face from smartin’.

Johnnie & Wes really had fun–at my expense.

Johnnie told me in recent years that they loved the way I reacted to them–so it made their pranks very fun. One day they had been out to the barn. When they came in, they said, “Shut your eyes and hold out your hands. It’s a surprise.” They filled my hands full of slimy, hairless, tiny baby mice. I threw the mice at them.

Another time, there were a lot of people sitting out in the yard. Johnnie and Wes had no shirts on, and they were catching fireflies and sticking them on their skin so that they glowed in the dark. They chased me; and I ran into the house and dove under the bed. They followed me all the way.

They would put blankets over my head and hold me down, because I was claustrophobic and would fight like a pole cat. I hated it!

Johnnie called me Chachie Mae, Freck, Fatso, Short, and Lula Belle (after the cartoon character Lula Belle, because she fought back).

I started school at age five at the city school in Barnsdall. All but the three little ones went at the same time. Lloyd drove to school in the two-seated buggy.

Later Emitt, then Johnnie drove. Ten kids piled in. After the buggy wore out, we had to take the wagon to school. Mom put quilts and straw in it.

School was 9-4. There was a recess in the AM and PM, along with a one-hour lunch. We played games like red rover, hide ‘n seek, jumped rope to chants, hopscotched, and played jacks. I was good at jacks! The boys played ball. They also played marbles for “keeps”. The teachers probably didn’t know that one!

The school had a cloak room where we hung up all our coats and hats. It was a one-room schoolhouse, with one teacher. There was a big potbellied stove that vented up and out.

I hated Miss Renfro. She was in her 20’s or 30’s. She partied half the night and came to school cranky. She would make the unruly pupils hold out the palms of her hand, and she would hit them with her thick ruler. I loved school and didn’t get spanked. I liked English, reading, math, and penmanship but hated history and geography.

We took 2-gallon syrup buckets for lunch. Summer and fall the buckets contained extra breakfast biscuits (and Mom made the best biscuits in the whole world). Syrup and butter would be put in something with a lid. We’d all gather round and eat. In the winter we had country-cured ham in the biscuits. We cured the delicious ham in our well house in the winter. We would drink out of the same dipper at school. Later on we did have collapsible cups.

At the end of 8th grade, when I was 13, I wanted to finish school. Dad said if I would stay home two days of week to help Mom out with the laundry and other chores, that I could go. Earl, Frank, Bill, and Lois were still at home at that time. I didn’t feel like I could miss out on that much school and still learn the curriculum and get good grades. So, I quit after 8th grade, as my older brothers and sisters had done. Because of the teaching we received, an 8th grade education in those days was equivalent to a High School diploma today. The youngest three (Frank, Bill, and Lois) did get to finish high school.

When the chores were completed, we had fun.

We swam behind the barn in the old swimming hole. The swimming lessons? The older kids pushed the younger kids in and let them sputter for a while–thinking they were drowning. Then they would “rescue” them. They said that was the only way they’d ever learn to swim. My initiation was at age 11. I sure did not like that! To this day, I cannot swim. My philosophy was, “stay out of the water until you learn to swim”.

There was a cave in the pasture, and we played there on weekends. What a treasure trove for youngsters!

Mom and Dad (along with many other Pentecostals in those days) trusted God for their healing and did not go to doctors when the kids were young.

Mom had all the homeopathic medicines down pat. She was “on-call??? to the sick neighbors. We all got dosed with a paste of sulfur with syrup in the fall and something else in the spring “to clean us out good.???

When I was four, I swallowed a large safety pin. (After all, Mom always had something in HER mouth–either thread or a pin, or something.) I started gagging and thought I was going to die. Mom got out the castor oil–gave me a tablespoon–and watched my stools for the monster pin.

While still very young, I decided that I was old enough to use the ax and decided to make “chips??? for kindling. Mom told me “No,??? but I did it anyway. After getting a few chips, the ax slid off the wood and laid my shin open about 1/2 inch deep, 1 – 1/2 inches long. I was scared and just knew I was going to die. Mom didn’t show any sympathy for me whatsoever. She said, “That’s what happens when you disobey.??? She finally got the bleeding stopped, cleansed it, put Watkins salve on it, and pushed it together. She tied it up with a strip made from old sheets that she had disinfected in the oven and kept for the purpose of bandages.

At age five or six, I was sitting in a chair backwards–my legs through the back of the chair. The chair fell over, and I sprained both ankles at the same time!

Mom had a large goiter on her neck from thyroid problems. Later, it was so large that the doctor said she had a 50/50 chance of dying if she had it removed. By that time she had several little ones, so the goiter stayed.

Mom and Dad were in a wreck on their way to church one day. I rarely missed church, but I had a weird feeling that I shouldn’t go and told them that I was staying home to wash my hair. I knew something was wrong before I ever heard the news. A drunk man, going very fast, hit them and pushed the pickup bed into the cab. Mom was spitting up blood, but she wouldn’t go to the doctor. Mom told me that she didn’t get a doctor for Marion when he died, and she could still hear his cries of pain in her dreams. For that reason she wouldn’t get a doctor for herself. She had problems from the accident until her death at age 68.

Dad got a Hupmobile while we were at Barnsdall.

It was a big, wine-colored car–very fancy–with velvet seats. Madeline tried to drive it one time and ran right through the gate. Wes and Johnnie drove it when they were home, but Dad had to drive it when they left home. Dad drove W I L D. It had a clutch, and he would just about jerk us to pieces. He never did learn to drive it right. Dad would pull out in front of someone and say, “They better get out of my way.???

One day Dad picked up Doris’ dad in town. While bringing him home down a long hill, Dad forgot to brake. He was yelling “Whoa”, while the car kept going faster and faster.

When Richard was overseas, James was little, and Orpha was pregnant with Larry, I stayed with them. Dad came to take Orpha to the hospital. The car broke down–and someone else had to take her on to the hospital.

A preacher came through close to where Mom and Dad lived and held a “meeting”.

Mom received the Holy Ghost (as evidenced by speaking in tongues) first, then Dad. The oldest kids were very young at the time. Dad’s aunts, Lena and Zadie, came into the church. Their families were Pentecostal. Hazel, Lena’s daughter, became Pentecostal. Mom’s folks were good Baptists, and they had a fit. Her brother told stories on her, and they persecuted her. They never accepted it.

Free Pentecostal churches did not have a lot of stability in those days, and many times we were not close to a oneness church. That probably should have been the first criteria before we moved. For a couple of years we were across from an Assembly of God church and attended there. While we were in Barnsdall, a Jesus Name church was started. Preachers traded off from week to week. Gilbert Raymond (Dad’s sister’s boy) started preaching there in Barnsdall. We rode in the back of an old pickup truck to and from church. We would ride in the back and hang onto the bars for dear life. It was 5-7 miles from the house. Many times we would be 1/2 hour late or more due to the evening chores.

Even when we were unable to attend church regularly, Mom never wavered. She would pray for hours on end–many times in the middle of the night. The reason my brothers were saved is because of Mother’s prayers.

By 16 or 17 years of age, the boys were let go. They did anything they thought they were big enough to do. Mom and Dad were still very strict on the girls at that age, as was the custom. We were not allowed to do anything–not even to go to town.

Because of this, the boys tended to get into trouble. Before they came to the Lord, they were typical men of the world. Lloyd fiddled for dances and went to shows. Emmitt was saved and living for God before we moved to Sperry. Johnnie said he never drank, but Wes said he drank some. Earl drank a lot, but all that changed when he came to know the Lord in his mid-20s. At age17 he came home drunk late one night. Mom had been burdened and was up praying in the Spirit. He could hear her praying from the minute he got to the gate. He tiptoed in, trying to sneak past her, but that did not block out the sound of her prayers. In later years, he told of hearing the services at the Sperry Pentecostal Church from the house and being convicted. Many years later he became pastor of the Sperry United Pentecostal Church. The boys all became strong, stable men of God and have wonderful testimonies. Several of the boys later became preachers.

Ruth received the Holy Ghost at the Chelsea church. Ruth and Orpha never backslid, but they did date out of the church. Thank God for their husbands, Houston Marrs and Richard Briggs, who became wonderful God-fearing men and pillars in the church at Sperry, Oklahoma.

Thank God for our glorious Apostolic heritage.