CHAPTER EIGHT

THEN CAME THE BIG WAR

On January 24, 1936 Kay and Marie were getting Melvin and Ray Lil ready to go to the hospital in the Brantner Ford. Melvin, always meticulous in his dress, was so excited he broke his shoe string; but for once, he didn't let it bother him. Later that day, John Calvin, their only child, was delivered by Doctor Payne in the new Payne-Shotwell hospital. When it grew late in the day and Melvin had not returned, Kay grew increasingly worried as Marie was due to deliver any day. He borrowed Bob Beck's car and went to the hospital to remind the happy Melvin to bring the car home.

Actually it was several days later, on Saturday February 8, that Marie told Kay she was ready for the trip to the hospital. A typical cold, blue norther was blowing as Kay set the crank on the Model A, and pulled the wire that he had rigged through the radiator to the carburetor choke. Normally it took several pulls on the crank, but not today. Kay said that he nearly lifted the front of the car off the ground with the first pull. It caught on that first crank. Charles Ronald, their first hospital baby, was added to Dr. Payne's list of Beck Community newborns about five o'clock that afternoon.

Texas was enjoying its centennial celebration of independence from Mexico that year and it was faddish to name baby boys "Tex." A neighbor, Mrs. Byerley, was one. Marie's youngest would always be grateful that she didn't succumb to the temptation. Marie actually thought the new baby was ugly, but Gladys Beck took up for Ronnie and he was not fed to the pigs. A year or so later Gladys would have her firstborn, and Bobby would be Ronnie's first real playmate.⁽¹⁾

The state erected many centennial statues and monuments in 1936--some paid for with school children's pennies. The older students at Sudan were bussed to Lubbock for the South Plains celebration in the Texas Tech stadium. There were also lots of pageants, gatherings, bands, and speeches for the children to remember.

When Irene, 12, came in from school Marie said "Here!" and put her to baby-sitting so she could finish her chores and begin supper. Marie had plenty of sitters for Ronnie, and they took turns carry and playing with him. He was their baby doll--until they wanted to do something else. In the summer Irene used the large clothes basket for a playpen and watched him outside. (In 1989 she saw slides of a modern school reading center in Houston and they were using large clothes baskets as cozy places for first-graders to read.)⁽²⁾

As the children reached about the fifth or sixth grade they had afternoon classes in art and music appreciation. The teacher wound up the Victrola and they listened to records of classical music, and were required to learn the name of the composition. Cards with reproductions of famous paintings were flipped and they learned the name of the painting and the artist. Quite a few kids took "Expression" and entertained with readings at school programs. The children had available, according to their age, a band, choral clubs, baseball, volley ball, tennis, and basketball. In 1937 the school started football. There were many programs relating to the season or something patriotic. School plays were well attended by adults.⁽³⁾

Each year there was a school cantata, with each grade performing a musical number. Mothers made the children costumes out of crepe paper. When Doris was in the fifth grade (1936) they asked her to sing with the third grade because none of them could sing very well. They were sunflowers, with a yellow crepe paper heads, and she was so embarrassed because she was so much larger than they.⁽⁴⁾

Five-Room House, But Still a Path

The little three-room house was becoming quite crowded with five children to bed and breakfast. Kay and Marie decided to build a new house. A hired hand and his wife, who lived in a trailer house, stayed on after the crop harvest. About April 1, after the land was plowed and ready for planting, the furniture was moved out of the three-room house into the two-room cotton-picker shack. Kay and a hired man tore down the little house in two days, working carefully so as to reuse the lumber.⁽⁵⁾

The new house that the two men built had four large rooms and one smaller, and was stucco finished, with a small porch in front. Several neighbors came over and the wood shingle roof was done in one day. Their wives had come also with dishes of food. Kay hired a carpenter to build "nice cabinets" and put in sinks, doors, and windows. The interior walls were papered and they painted the woodwork. Money was still scarce, but consequently, labor and materials were cheap. The house cost "a few dollars over $500.00." It was a pretty little house, and they were very proud of it.⁽⁶⁾

The old house had faced north, toward Sudan. The new house, however, faced south toward Beck gin, but the west side nearest the road would always be considered the front yard, and the east side toward the windmill, the back yard. A large living room and kitchen were on the south side. A large bedroom with two double beds for the girls was on the northwest, Kay and Marie's bedroom on the northeast. A long closet and a small bedroom for Ralph (and later Ronnie) separated the two bedrooms and was entered through the parents bedroom (not the greatest arrangement as Ralph got older).

The living room contained a wicker couch, the library table, chairs, Marie's treadle sewing machine, and the Philco radio. Lighting was by Aladdin lamps, which burned white gas and had mesh wicks. It took care to clean the sooty glass lamp chimneys and not ruin the crisp wicks.

The kitchen had a wooden divider to separate the eating area--the table that Ambrose built, with wooden benches along the sides for the children, and a cane-bottom chair at each end for the adults. The floor was covered with linoleum and the cook stove backed up against the divider, facing the sink and cabinets.

The yard on the south and west side was fenced with cedar posts and mesh wire, and some Bermuda grass was set out. The east fence soon was covered with grape vines. The blooming willow stump that Ambrose put in the front yard was planted upside down and the resulting low spreading branches were ideal to climb on. Humming birds would spend the entire summer feeding from the trumpet-like pink and white blossoms. Ray Lil planted a cactus in the front corner of the yard and it became very big.

On June 3, 1936, Kay and Marie got their driver licenses, which became a requirement that year. The license was good for three years. (Marie's license indicated she was five-foot-four and 140 pounds.)

Except for an infected navel, the baby had gotten off to a good start. About six months after birth, Ronnie began having ear infections--a problem that would continue into adulthood. Often both ears became infected and Marie spent many an hour holding warm flannel cloths to the ears. There were no antibiotics, so the only treatment was mineral oil was warmed in a spoon with a match and poured in the ears. Frequently, Dr. Payne had to lance one or both eardrums to relieve the pressure of the inner ear. By age 16 Ronnie was deaf in the right ear because of scar tissue on the eardrum. At 20, he had a mastoidectomy in the same ear.

That fall Melvin, Ray, and little John Cal moved to California. Kay would arrange for other blacksmiths to operate the shop for several years.⁽⁷⁾

Back in the Spur country, other events were shaping the lives of the relatives. On October 31 Joe and Reba Thornton's 21-year-old son, Lavon, married Mildred Lewis. Lavon was a favorite nephew and cousin, often visiting the Brantners and Gastons with his parents.

Telephone communication was still limited to a few phones, and in addition to the seasonal phone at the Beck Gin, the Hoovers and Brantners in Spur had also been given the number of Joe Foster, who managed the Higginbotham-Bartlett Company. Joe would deliver any message as a courtesy to friends and customers. So, on a cold winter morning, December 20, Joe came to the church building with the heart-breaking news. Kay's sister, Ruby Thornton, older than he by only ten months, had succumbed to uremic poisoning during pregnancy. She left behind three small children and a grieving husband.

The Brantner family headed for Spur immediately. Sweet Aunt Ruby, with the dancing eyes--the hugger who was always glad to see the children--was buried in a grey silk dress, holding a red rose. At age 38 Ruby was laid to rest in Red Mud Cemetery near her mother Lugenia, who at age 41, had also been taken in the prime of life. The little Brantner children stood in Red Mud's mournful falling dusk with tears flowing, looking upon motherless cousins, and tried to understand the ancient mystery of death's unfairness.⁽⁸⁾

At a very young age, Doris began begging Marie for cloth scraps so she could do her own sewing. Doris was eventually permitted to use the treadle machine, ans when she was about nine, a neighbor paid her Doris 50 cents to make her a dress. After years of use, when the old Singer was worn, Marie would get so mad trying to get it adjusted. By this time, Kay had developed asthma problems and kept a half-pint of whiskey to sip when an attack came. One day Marie got mad at the machine and poured whiskey in the oil holes and the machine sewed like a drunken sailor. After that she frequently got the machine tipsy.⁽⁹⁾

In 1937 Lon and Ada Hoover quit the farm and moved into Spur and operated a laundry until about 1943.⁽¹⁰⁾ Lon's grandsons always enjoyed visiting the laundry, partly because of its unique noises and smells, but primarily because Lon always emptied his unclaimed collection of "treasures" that had once occupied little boys' pockets.

One big event for the Brantners in 1937 was being "able" to buy a new car--a brown Chevrolet. Kay had to go to Oklahoma to pick it up and he got Ed Fowler to drive him there. The kids, like Marie in 1928, "had never seen a more beautiful car before or since."⁽¹¹⁾

Joyce started school that fall. She said, "Every morning Mother sat me on the cabinet by the sink and dampened and combed my hair in long Shirley Temple curls. It was very scary to ride the bus as the kids were so big. The bus driver had everyone move to the back as the bus filled. I always tried to sit close to Ralph for protection. Every school day, it was Irene's job to see that everyone was ready for school; coats on, books and lunches in hand, with Doris and I standing like little soldiers. Ralph often dawdled, probably to aggravate her, so that she would yell to him, 'The bus is coming," or ' The bus won't wait.' Ralph often played the harmonica while we waited for the bus."⁽¹²⁾

Mary Jo Gaston and Virgie Jean Baccus became Joyce's close school chums as well as neighbors. Because Mary Jo lived close by, she and Joyce played together a lot during their grade school years. They gave each family's hired-hand shacks many a cleaning and curtain hanging and thus enjoyed life-sized playhouses. Later on, Ronnie was often written into the daily script when Joyce was charged with seeing after him. Trey Gaston kept his grain combine parked in front of their shack so it became a convenient B-29 bomber for Ronnie while the girls played dolls during those early war years.

The Tin Man Cometh, and Gable Says the "D" Word

The movie theater in Sudan would cooperate with the school in the showing of films (now classics) to the students. The children would carry their dimes to school and were marched downtown, by grade, to the movie theater, which did continuous showings for two days until every child had seen the show. Irene and Doris enjoyed seeing both "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With the Wind" which were released in 1939. During the 1943-44 term, Ronnie and his second-grade buddies tried to hide their tears from the girls as they watched "Lassie Come Home."

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a 'doggone'!"

During this period the family boarded a Shetland pony named Jackie for some folks in town. He was too mean for the girls to ride but Ralph enjoyed him. Ralph was on his way in becoming a cowboy. When he was about 16 or 17, he interned one summer on the Red Lake Camp of the Matador Ranch that his Uncle Joe Thornton managed.

The U.S. government is perhaps at its constitutional best when it is doing for the citizenry what cannot be accomplished in a lower jurisdiction. The Tennessee Valley Authority, born in the depressed Thirties, controlled flooding in 201 counties in seven southeastern states that drain into the Tennessee River, increasing the prosperity of agriculture, bringing electricity to rural areas, and enhancing the income and lifestyle for all in the area. In similar fashion, the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) brought about significant economic and social change to areas such as West Texas.

Kay was nominated to the first REA board in Lamb County, as REA selected school board members from the various county school districts. He served for several years. He and Marie enjoyed the dinner meetings in Littlefield, and Kay attended some of the state meetings in Austin. He would always remember a national meeting in St. Louis, the farthest from home that he had traveled at the time.

With electricity on the way, the house had to be wired and light fixtures purchased. Marie rushed to Lubbock and bought a Montgomery Ward refrigerator and an electric iron. The beautiful new refrigerator stood in the kitchen for all to admire, awaiting the day that the electricity would be turned on (the following spring).

Other events were happening in 1939 that would signal a change or directly affect the Brantner's lives. The World's Fair in New York was exhibiting more inventions and appliances to improve lifestyles. DuPont had invented a new synthetic yarn and nylon stockings made their debut October 24 in Wilmington, Delaware. The new stockings reached the general public the following May. In Detective Comics issue #27, Bob Kane's Batman made his debut.

The situation continued to grow worse "over there" in Europe. On May 22 Adolph Hitler of Germany, and Benito Mussolini of Italy signed their "Pact of Steel" alliance.

Doris graduated from the 7th grade on May 23, 1940, the night that REA turned on the electricity. It was fun to go outside and see the lights on inside the house and at the neighbors. In addition to the refrigerator, they also bought a new electric radio "which the girls thought was a wonder." No more worrying about the batteries running down in the old Philco. No more messy, smelly icebox. No more stinking gas iron and sooty lamp chimneys. The wonderful old Philco radio, icebox, Coleman lamps, and gas iron that had once lifted their lifestyle, was giving way to something better.

On May 24 Irene graduated high school as valedictorian. She was only sixteen, having been permitted to skip a grade. As the oldest and first grandchild on the Hoover side to graduate, the clan turned out in force to attend the graduation ceremony.

That fall Irene entered Draughons's Business College in Lubbock, Texas. The sixteen-year-old would never live on the farm again. Years later, as she recalled the everyday experiences and events that were woven into the fabric of Plains life--many of them hard or burdensome--she also remembered the beautiful things:

• The smell of a fresh plowed field.



• The lush beauty of green summer crops lying row after row in level fields as far as one could see.



• The beauty of the sky after a rainstorm with the rainbow bowed completely end to end.



• The wild prairie flowers that bloomed in early spring, so lovely that bouquets were gathered for the house.



• A waist-high cactus in front of the house, planted and tended by Aunt Ray when she lived nearby. It bloomed every year with large magenta blooms so unusual and beautiful that even strangers going down the road stopped to see it.



• The little hummingbirds that came in the summer, year after year, for the nectar in the blooming willow tree planted by Grandpa Brantner.



• A two-tier birthday cake with one large and one small tier, baked by a busy Mother so that each of her same-day birthday girls could each have a tier with her own candles.



• Wearing sun hats with stitched brims made to match the dresses - to be "chic." A peach-colored formal dress with a ruffled bolero for graduation.



• Breathtaking sunsets with indescribable colors, seen almost daily in that big sky.⁽¹³⁾

It was about 1940 that Kay bought his first tractor--a Ferguson with a three-point hydraulic hook-up and an electric starter. Tractors were now common on the Plains, especially the Farmall with its front crank, and Deere's "poppin'" Johnny that was started by spinning a fly-wheel.

The old horse barn was no longer needed as built, so Kay erected a larger tin (galvanized sheet metal) barn in its place. This was a BIG barn, that is, until it was seen again many years later through adult eyes. A lot of memories centered in and around this big barn. It was in this barn that:

• Kay was reversing the rear wheels on the tractor from narrow to wide, or vice versa, and in working the heavy wheel onto the lug bolts he was feeling for the lug bolt through the hole and pinched off the tip of his left index finger. He went to the house with his bleeding hand behind his back and told Marie that he needed to go to the doctor. She took him to Dr. Payne at Littlefield, who sewed up the finger and bandaged it with a metal guard over the finger tip.



• They cut up the pork on hog-killing day when a cold wind was blowing. The process is described elsewhere.



• One of the field hand's boy showed Ronnie how to roll and smoke a Bull Durham cigarette. They stayed well away from the cottonseed bin--one of the farm commandments written by Kay P. on noggins of stone.



• It was on top of this barn that Ralph once flew a perfect kite he had made for Ronnie. The kite was made of thin strips of pine board and plain kraft paper, but colorfully decorated with characters cut from the funnies. Later, he tied it to a fence post and it flew all afternoon unattended. Ronnie was too little to fly it, but he watched it until dark.

While Walt Disney was giving the children Pinocchio, Congress, in September, approved a Military Draft Law by one vote, 203-202. Far away from the Plains, manufacturers saw the 40-hour work week come into effect.

Buddy Hoover, Marie's brother, learned through Kay that the Sudan school needed a cafeteria. He and Robbie Jo moved to a house adjoining the school grounds on the east, converted the front to an eating area, and lived in the back. It was ready for the start of school in the fall. They ran it through the spring of 1942. Buddy also drove a school bus during time. Kay had resigned the school board because of a rule disallowing the hiring of Board relatives. Buddy and Robbie Jo had two boys; Billie Gene was about Joyce's age, and Arnold Wayne was one year younger than Ronnie.

Gladys Beck and Marie were close friends as well as neighbors. Therefore, Ronnie and Bobby spend lots time together, at one house or the other. Ronnie rode everywhere he went, either on his tricycle or stick horse. On his way to Bobby's he would stop at Ted's grocery. Ted would pretend to fill up the trike with gas and would tie Ronnie's wagon on to the trike with new binder twine from the ice house. Bobby had a big pile of washed sand that had been hauled in and lots of nice. big heavy metal cars and trucks, and they spent many hours doing what boys do. Bobby also had a pedal car that he would let Ronnie drive around the gin yard area where they played in the off season.

The toys were less expensive at Ronnie's house, but just as much fun. He had nice wooden apple crates from Ted's grocery that served as barns. Old oil cans and oil filters from the trash can served as 55-gallon drums for the miniature farmstead. They drove old rusty nails into the wind-swept dirt and looped string (from chicken feed sacks) from nail to nail for cattle fences. Red and white corn cobs gave them two breeds of cattle. Cigar boxes with sticks and string attached became guitars, as the two boys tried to sing the matinee ballads in their own imitation of Roy and Gene.

There were plenty of alone-times for the pre-schooler when he wasn't playing with Bobby. But a farmstead and an imagination can keep any boy occupied indefinitely. There were also quiet times under the cottonwoods, watching the silvery shimmering of the leaves--or watching the cumulus clouds changing from one imagined image to another--or watching the horizon dance in the heat waves--or watching a dust devil gyrate across the field like a baby tornado.

There were also growing responsibilities for a 5-year-old:

• Before noon he had to watch for the mailman, who drove a big-nosed Hudson that could be detected for miles as he worked his way toward Sudan on Route 1.



• At noon he had to wave in his daddy from the field with a white dish towel. Kay would be watching and would respond with wide sweeps of his straw hat.



• Chickens were mother-and-youngest child responsibilities, handed down like clothes. The tin chicken house had a concrete floor and a roost that hung by wires. When Marie lifted up one end, he had to crawl under the roost and scrape out the chicken manure with a hoe. At egg-gathering time he also had to heroically climb the feed stack when "some old sister" started a nest up high. He had his own syrup bucket for carrying eggs, water, or whatever. And he had to search out and report all nests that the old sisters would hide around the farmstead.



• He had to rescue chickens from the hog wallow. This overflow from the water trough was so deep with mud that an old sow could bury all but her snout when the weather was hot. When some dumb old sister ran out into the mud and bogged down, Ronnie would strip off his clothes and save the chicken. It was convenient to wash off in the cow trough. Who says that a five-year-old can't help put food on the table?



• He had to keep his mother company when she went visiting. This was difficult when there were no kids to visit and he wasn't permitted to prowl the place. Marie often visited Mrs. Woods, an elderly widow who lived just north, across from the Gastons. They would sew and talk, and Ronnie would sew with them. His first project was a purse to hold marbles, and Marie showed him how to put an old zipper in it.



• He had to meet the school bus each afternoon. Marie showed him where the hands on the clock would be at bus time and he would go sit astraddle the long board that held the mailbox. The mailbox became horse, bull dozer, locomotive, or whatever, until the yellow bus came into sight. Then he pretended to be asleep, knowing full well that all the bus riders were looking at him with some combination of amazement and admiration.



• He had to "set the table" at supper each day, and at noon on Saturday. Teaspoons were handy little tools for digging dirt as well as dessert. This was probably the reason there was only one teaspoon per person, and one of the spoons had been flattened somehow. None of the kids wanted to use the flat spoon. So he turned over everyone's plate and put their spoon underneath. It became a game of "Who Has The Ugly Spoon!" And it was whomever Ronnie thought had been ugliest to him that day--which was usually Joyce, or who would throw the biggest fit if they got the spoon--which was Ralph.



• He had to help Ralph water the hogs down in the alfalfa field, near the granary. Water was hauled in a barrel on a trailer behind the tractor. The water troughs were near the electric fence wire and Ralph would lay a wire from the electric wire into the trough. Those big old sows would come running and plow their snout into the water, only to back off shaking their heads. Had Kay known, he would have wired the boys up to one of his stern, no-nonsense lectures.

It was probably in 1941 that Kay and Marie bought Ralph his first .22 single shot rifle for his sixteenth birthday. It was to be a surprise, but Ronnie caught Ralph as he got off the school bus and gave him the good news.⁽¹⁴⁾

The following December, the small Brantner clan convened at Joe and Reba's for what Joyce called a story book Christmas. Joe and Reba lived in a large house on the Matador Ranch which had a rock fireplace for heat. Reba was used to serving true ranch-style meals as she also cooked for the cowboys on the ranch. She was especially proud of her kerosene refrigerator. Luther Thornton and children were there, along with the Rankins. It was always a job arranging beds for everyone. Marie and Ronnie shared a bed with Ray Lil and John Cal Rankin, using each end of the bed. The two mothers had to end the toe tickling before sleep could happen. A big snow fell that night, adding to the holiday mood. On the drive out through the pasture, a coyote was spotted and Ralph took a shot at it. Uncle Joe wrote later that he had found a dead coyote in the area.

A somewhat common framed print during that time was a nighttime snow scene of a coyote looking down on a ranch home. Reba had one of these pictures and Ronnie was impressed with how it typified the visit and the coyote incident. Many years later he obtained a copy of the same picture from a sister-in-law who lived near Azle area where the Thorntons retired, and who had bought the picture in a garage sale. This was quite a coincidence!

One morning Ronnie rode his stick horse down to the field to check on his daddy and the plowing. Kay saw a young cottontail and nailed it with his 12-inch Crescent wrench. He cleaned it and Ronnie threw it across his horse and carried it to the house. That night at supper, each person had a piece of fried meat on their plate and the older kids were asked to guess what it was. As the guessing and eating continued, Ralph was busy putting the skeleton back together. Joyce suddenly jumped up from the table and yelled, "It's a rat!"

This was the year, perhaps, either before or after cotton harvest, Kay helped T. C. Gonzales or one of the other hands convert a regular trailer into a small trailer house. They used the curved wooden sections from wagon wheel rims to streamline the tin roof line.

The war in Europe had been raging. France and several other countries had been taken by Germany, Great Britain was being bombed nightly, and the Nazis were knocking on Moscow's door. The U.S. position in 1941 was to stay out of the war, aid the British with war materials and to warily stop sending strategic materials such as scrap metal to Japan. The war was still "Over there" and many people were more concerned with such things as Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak that began that May 15.

The "Tiger!" "Tiger!" "Tiger!" that the Japanese transmitted back to their carrier on December 7 changed U.S. attitudes quickly as 2,403 sailors and civilians lost their lives in the Sunday sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. The next day President FDR gave his famous "Day of Infamy" speech and Congress voted to declare war, with only one vote opposing.

The next three years would significantly alter everyones' lives militarily, economically, socially, politically, and probably some other "ly's." For starters, over 407,000 of the one million U.S. casualties would lose their lives.

In the summer of 1942 Son and Era McKay and boys were living in Sudan and Ronnie, age 6, was spending a weekend with them. It rained hard during the Saturday night picture show and Ronnie, Joe Dell, and Jack got wet jumping a borrow pit on the way home. A group of kids drove out to the Brantners and woke them with the news that Ralph and Harold May had been hit by a truck in a near head-on car wreck between Amherst and Littlefield. They kept volunteering to wake and dress Ronnie but Marie could not remember where he was until the initial shock wore off.

Ronnie spent an afternoon with Ralph in the hospital at Littlefield and was shocked when the nurse came in and administered a rectal thermometer to Ralph. He was still hospitalized when it came time for Ronnie to have his tonsillectomy. Aubrey Newman's daughters, Laura Fay and Charlene were visiting Ralph, and Ronnie met Charlene coming up the curved wheelchair ramp that led to the second floor (in lieu of an elevator). She told him she was sneaking in a Coke to Ralph, and he thought this was a most daring thing--just like in the picture shows.

Ronnie was due for a pre-school tonsillectomy and was to go from Ralph's room to surgery. Because Ralph had company, he used an adjacent empty room to put on his flour sack pajamas that Marie had made especially for this event. The ether mask that followed soon after was more intriguing than frightening. He spent one night in the hospital, but he and Marie were awake all night as he fussed and tossed. He remembered staring at the funeral home's neon-lit clock across the street all night and getting all the ice cream he wanted the next day. He kept those pin-stripe pj's a long time, as they were for hospital stays only.

Ralph came out of the wreck in one piece, but the Chevy was a total loss. The garage loaned Kay a silver-colored pickup and he rigged Ronnie and Joyce a board to sit on in back. Both were humiliated, having to ride around in plain view of everyone. Ralph later bought a Ford coupe, about a '38 or '39 model. Kay bought a used blue Chevy sedan, probably a '38 or '39 model. Each time the family drove the Sudan-Littlefield highway, the skinned bark on the elm tree reminded them of the wreck.

Ronnie and Ralph shared a small bedroom. Ralph said that some night he would bring a wife home and Ronnie would have to sleep under the bed. Ronnie spent many a night watching the car lights from Sudan-way work their circle around the bedroom walls, and wonder if that was the night.

Ronnie started school that fall with Mrs. Clifford Jinkins as his teacher. She was very gentle, kind, and nurturing. She always smiled through a presumed sadness and the kids thought she was a widow or something. They loved her, felt sorry for her, and wouldn't dare disobey her. She had each child select a picture from a catalog or magazine that would represent them. The picture was pasted on a card with the child's name on it. The cards were hung with strings on a large poster board. When a kid exhibited poor citizenship, he or she got their picture turned over and the whole class knew who had broken a rule. It was very humiliating to have your picture turned over.

Mrs. Jinkins' "old maid" sister-in-law, Reba Jinkins, was the grade school principal and looked "mean as all get out" to first graders. She drove Ronnie's bus and was standing by the door when he went to get on. He forgot that she was loading according to when one got off. As he tried to invisibly slip by those "evil eyes" she grabbed his shoulder and said, "Wait a minute!" Terrified, he wet his pants.

They played baseball before school, and as Ronnie was chasing a ball, he ran between two posts and hit his forehead on a board. Mrs. Jinkins administered a wad of cotton to the oozing bruise. A layer of cotton fuzz stuck and the big boys on the bus called him "cotton head," and he thoroughly enjoyed the attention. He also would swipe letters that Joyce got from her girlfriends and sell them to the big boys for a nickel.

The draft was taking boys at age 18 with no deferments. The males and females remaining had to fill the gaps. Ralph drove a school bus for a while (as did his Uncle Buddy Hoover), and would keep it at home at night.

In high school Doris would often get stys on her eyes and the doctor told her to take vitamins. They were big capsules and she couldn't swallow them. Kay had her in the back yard with a big glass of water trying to teach her to throw the capsule to the back of her throat. She couldn't manage it and was bawling when the pill rolled out of her mouth. A hen pecking the ground nearby grabbed it and ran off. They both ended up crying with laughter and Doris finally chewed up the pills with sour pickles.⁽¹⁵⁾

War rationing began in March, 1942 with 190 million copies of War Ration Book One being printed. Each book had 28 stamps for sugar, coffee, and shoes. A sugar stamp permitted you to purchase 8 ounces of sugar per week. Families were given one book for each member of the family. In December FDR ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration. The family had a few stamps left in their copies of Ration Book Three when rationing stopped.

Clothing styles often do not answer to any rationale except change for change sake. Outlandishly flowered skirts became vogue, accompanied by Mexican huaraches or wooden sandals. Ralph made Doris and Joyce wooden shoes from pine 2 x 4s, which were thick soled with a distinct flat heel. Toe straps were made from cloth and tacked onto the shoe.

Ralph also made a hammock out of burlap feed sacks. He told his sisters that rats had been nesting in the sacks so that he wouldn't have to share it with them.

In the fall Ralph and Doris helped Kay head the maize in the field north of the house. They pulled a trailer slowly and worked on both sides, cutting the heads and pitching them into the trailer. Ronnie, though only six, could steer the tractor down the row by aiming the radiator cap. Ralph would jump on the tractor at the end of the row and turn the tractor and trailer.

On January 18, 1943, a ban on pre-sliced bread went into effect, aimed at reducing demand for metal replacement parts. This was typical of the many and varied measures that were becoming necessary to meet the demands of war.

At this time Kay, age 43, had to register for the draft, indicative of the severity of the war. His "Notice of Classification" was dated January 21, 1943, and indicated he was classified IV H. The draft card carried his full name of Kay Parrak Brantner, and that was how Kay signed it.⁽¹⁶⁾

Ralph graduated in May and knew that he would be drafted following his 18th birthday, July 4. In order to pick the branch of service he wanted, he volunteered for the Navy. He rode the bus from Sudan to Lubbock and was sworn in June 29. He left June 30 for California.

The day Ralph left was a tearful one. Only the parents know how they felt, sending a child to war, and only a poet could adequately put it into words. Kay went to the cow lot to be alone. Marie went to the back yard and sat on the running board of the Chevy, sobbing.

The war dominated everyone's life. It was the main course in conversations. War news was eagerly sought and people listened to the radio, read war correspondent reports in newspapers and magazines, and watched the movie news reels. Nothing since has so unified the country's conscience and focus.

Farming is a hazardous occupation, but the Brantners experienced relatively minor mishaps. Other than Kay's finger incident related earlier, one other accident comes to mind. Late one afternoon, Kay was cutting something with a cold chisel, using the hammer head on a roofing hatchet. A piece of steel broke off the hatchet and hit Kay in the calf of the leg. To Marie and Ronnie's amazement, a spurt of blood was shooting through the leg of Kay's overalls. Marie stopped the bleeding and carried him to Littlefield for another patchup by Dr. Payne. Ronnie would check out the missing piece of steel every time he picked up the hatchet.

The men in the community came to see Kay several times about being the road commissioner. But the war was getting worse and Kay thought he had all he could see to. Kay had rented the Brown place a few miles south, as their son was in the service and they had no one to drive a tractor. With Ralph gone, that left Marie and Doris to help Kay with the tractor driving, and Joyce to do more of the housework. Doris and Ronnie had turned 16 and 7 respectively, in February; Joyce would be 13 in December.

There was a lot of eating in shifts in the fields that year, on one farm or the other. No one tired of fried chicken, hot or cold, and iced tea in fruit jars. While the song "Rosie The Riveter" popularized the woman's war role in the ship yards, the women in bandannas and pants on the tractors helped maintain the flow in the food and fiber channels.

There were no hoe hands to be found. Finally, Kay got Joe and Jack McKay to help Marie and the girls hoe. They fixed the boys some iron cots in the back yard. Finally, the crops were laid by in late August. The McKay cousins came back in the fall to pull cotton.

Gas was rationed so Kay, Marie, and Ronnie boarded the bus at Sudan for Norman, Oklahoma. Ralph had been sent there after his initial training in Modesto, California. This was an exciting first bus ride for Ronnie. They met Ralph at a visitors pavilion and he took them to a tourist court (or apartment) he had rented for the weekend. Everyone was impressed by the sea of white uniforms everywhere, the saluting as officers passed, etc.

Ralph was later sent back to California and on to the shipyards in Hawaii as a welder. He got to come to Sudan on leave and show off his navy whites and blues to his sisters. And as it usually happens, one leaves home a boy and comes back a man.

Kay had a Hammermill feed grinder behind the barn that fed directly into a bin inside. Ground sweet sorghum was fed to the milk cows. Ronnie enjoyed going to the field in the fall to get a load of feed from the shocks to grind. But he didn't like the grinding part. The field mice tunneled under the shocks and Towser, the rat terrier, literally scooped up the mice like a vacuum cleaner as they were uncovered. Ronnie's job, besides watching Towser, was to hand down the bundles to Kay at the Hammermill. The noise was horrible and the dust was equally bad to the 6 or 7-year-old and he begged his daddy to buy him goggles. Kay didn't.

There was also a bin in the barn used to store cottonseed that would be fed to the milk cows. It was a fun place for a kid to burrow, provided they didn't go to deep and have a cave-in smother them. The seed bin was once a good place for all the men to sleep when a bunch of relatives from Spur came visiting. Kay always warned the field hands not to smoke their Bull Durham roll-your-owns near the cottonseed.

Kay built a cotton "sled" that permitted two people to strip cotton after frost had killed the leaves (there were no defoliants or desiccants). It was a two-wheel trailer built low to the ground. It had two sets of slightly curved metal fingers that combed the bolls from the stalks from two (every other) rows. The fingers were hinged and mounted on a single bar that was connected to a crank in the center so that the fingers could be raised or lowered. Marie drove the tractor and Kay raked the cotton to the rear. They would sled two bales a day, fork it into cotton trailers, and pull them to the gin each night. The unopened bolls that were stripped were spread on the ground and those that eventually opened were ginned. The sled was unique and they could hardly get the work done because so many neighbors stopped by to see it operate.

Kay hired his grain threshed. Railroad boxcars could be leased, filled, and the grain sold to the government, which is what Kay did.

In the spring of 1944 Ronnie's second-grade class took their dimes to school to buy savings stamps. It was an honor to be selected as one of the two boys that got to walk downtown to the Post Office to buy the stamps for the class. The stamps were in sheets similar to postage stamps. Each child had a folding booklet and when it was full it was the same as a savings bond.

On May 19, 1944, Doris graduated from high school, Joyce graduated from grade school (seventh grade), and Ronnie finished his second year. It was a disastrous crop year, as a hail storm wiped out the cotton crop. One rain flooded the road while the family was doing their Saturday shopping in Sudan. Water was over the culvert in front of the Gastons and folks were afraid to cross. Finally, a neighbor heading for Sudan tried it and proved the culvert was intact and safe to cross.

This was the summer that Doris fainted one hot afternoon while working under the cottonwood where the tractor was always parked. She hit her head on a sharp cultivator sweep and cut a large gash on top of her head.

After considerable family discussion regarding family finances, it was decided that Doris would enter Texas Technological College that fall. She worked in the dormitory dining room to help pay for her room and board.⁽¹⁷⁾

Irene had finished Draughons and was working as a secretary for the Ben E. Keith Company, a large wholesale produce firm. Norma Hoover was also working in Lubbock and they shared an apartment. Irene would catch the bus to Sudan for weekend visits, arriving late Saturday night after the kids got out of the picture show. She always brought Ronnie a surprise toy. She would make the bus ride back on Sunday afternoon.

Ronnie's third grade class was putting on a play and he had to be a talking cat. Marie bought some brown material for a suit. The tail was stuffed with cotton and had a coat hanger in it. When it came time to start the play, Marie had not arrived, so Ronnie persuaded the teacher to stall. Finally Marie got there to see some mediocre acting, but great maneuvering of that stiff cat's tail.

A Crop-Year At Lorenzo

Kay's asthma had been bad for about two years and the doctors couldn't do much for it. They recommended he leave the Plains and do inside work if possible. Thus, it was decided to sell the place and move some place where the climate would help him. They sold the place to the Earl Myers family, who were neighbors and attended church with them. Kay sold the farm for $75 per acre. Two years later Earl sold the farm to Bob Beck.

Kay heard about, and rented a farm at Lorenzo, Texas from Gladys Beck's aunt, Mrs. Morris. When he returned from his look-see trip, Marie's first question was, "What kind of house does it have?" Kay answered, "A bungalow-style house." Marie wasn't sure what Kay's idea of a bungalow was, and he was more interested in describing the land and the barns.

Marie's brother, Ray was living at New Home, close to Lubbock. He had a six-wheel truck and agreed to move them. Gladys Beck was there as the last house items were loaded, bidding the family farewell, and reminding Marie that it was bad luck to move the broom. Gladys and Bob later moved to Lubbock and the two families remained friends all their remaining days.

It was a cold December day when the four Brantners arrived at the "bungalow" at Lorenzo. The butane tank was empty and they used all the quilts they could find that first night. They now had, however, their first telephone--a party line. Their individual ring (turns of the crank) was something like two long and one short.

Lorenzo was about 20 miles east of Lubbock and the farm was 1.5 miles from town. Ronnie was nine and old enough to walk to the Sunday afternoon picture show wearing his starched sailor cap that Ralph had given him. Marie would go to Lubbock for shopping and to see Irene almost every Saturday. She permitted Ronnie to walk to the filling station (they weren't called service stations until later, when they ceased providing service) on the highway and catch the bus to Lubbock. He knew which way to go from the bus station to reach the Lyric Theater on the city square. He would watch the western double features and the Batman serial and then meet Marie in a specific store or walk the prescribed route to Irene's apartment.

The filling station that served as the bus depot raised a sign for the bus to know when to stop. Once, when Irene was catching the bus back to Lubbock, she saw the bus coming and walked out to the stopping place. It turned out to be a bus load of prisoners of war that worked in the cotton compress in Crosbyton. She was very embarrassed.

On March 16, 1945 the marines captured the tiny island of Iwo Jima at a high cost of lives and casualties. After the famous picture of the flag raising was published, the Fort Worth Star Telegram offered reprints and Ronnie hung his proudly in the living room.

On April 12 Marie had gone to the school house to get Ronnie, who was sick at his stomach. He was in bed when the radio news came that President Roosevelt had died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Georgia. Germany finally surrendered on May 7, and the next day President Truman announced by radio that World War II had ended in Europe. The conflict with the Japanese in the Pacific continued.

Tragedy continued also on the home front. Lee W. Fry, son of Gene and Ruth Fry (Kay's nephew) had entered the service on December 21, 1944, and was undergoing training at Camp Hood, Texas. On the following April 11, while on bivouac, Lee was crossing a foot bridge over a stream of water, when the bridge suddenly gave way. Lee fell into the water and was drown before rescue was possible. It was understood at the time that "too many men had been ordered onto the bridge."⁽¹⁸⁾

Lee's body was sent home with military escort and he was buried April 18 with military honor. Once more family and friends gathered in the tabernacle at Red Mud, sang the sad songs about earthly death and eternal renewal, and pulled red dirt over another loved one. Lee was survived by two sisters and six brothers; three of the brothers were in the service and could not attend the funeral.

Arnold Wayne Hoover came to visit Ronnie at Lorenzo that summer. Marie let them stay home from church one Sunday. They brought the preacher home for lunch that day and found Ronnie and Wayne wearing rag loin cloths and playing Tarzan. Marie "could have throttled those boys!" Kay made Ronnie a beautiful wooden saber from a 2 x 4, using his drawing knife. Seems that Ronnie was also into "pirating."

Ray Lil and Melvin Rankin came from Madera, California on a visit. John Cal was reportedly a "boisterous" nine-year-old, so Ronnie hid all his good guns and stuff under the bed so they wouldn't get broken.

ENDNOTES

1. The nickname "Ronnie" stuck. As a teenager, the author thought the spelling was feminine for Veronica and changed it to Ronny. He also tried "Ronald," then "Ron," but Grandmother Hoover insisted on "Charles Ronald" all her life.

2. Lemley, "The K. P. Brantner Family."

3. Ibid.

4. Maness, "Life on the Plains."

5. Marie remembered the new house built in the spring of 1936. Doris recalled already living in it when Ronnie was born, thus built in 1935.

6. Marie Brantner, "Family History."

7. Erit Fry. Marie Brantner, "Family History."

8. Lemley, "The K. P. Brantner Family."

9. Maness, "Life on the Plains."

10. Clay and Bass.

11. Marie Brantner to C. R. B., June, 1973. Lemley, "The K. P. Brantner Family." Marie remembered the car as a '38 model. Irene wrote that the year was 1938.

12. Wooten.

13. Lemley, "The K. P. Brantner Family."

14. Author: I think this was a Wards Western Field, either bought on a trip to Lubbock or ordered from the catalog.

15. Maness, "Life on the Plains."

16. This card, in the author's file, is the only known written record of how Kay's middle name was spelled. According to Marie, Kay was named after a preacher in Robertson County, Texas.

17. Maness, "Life on the Plains."

18. The Texas Spur, undated article, "Funeral Rites For Pvt. Lee W. Fry...."