More tales from the Farm House and The Loss of a Great Man

Marcus (Moxie) James Pevey born 4/23/1877 to Sam Pevey and Sallie Reed. Sam died when Moxie was 5 and Sallie died a few years later.

On March 10,1950, We said good by to our Granddaddy, the greatest man in our lives, it was a sad day for us...The week started like any other, Emile and Granddaddy had butchered 2 hogs while the weather was still cold, on Sat. GD loved Fried hog chitterlings, now that is one part of the hog I had no desire to taste, Granddaddy had a bad heart, but that didn't stop him...he had Clementine clean them and boil them good, then she fried him a big plate...needless to say he was a happy man.
All picture will enlarged when clicked on....

His father died when he was 5, from a heat stroke, he was chasing hogs that had escaped from the pin, he was found at age 31 laying under a tree next to a stream, they said he got to hot and drank to much water......When GD's Mom died from TB, he was about 9 so he and his older Brother Horace, 11.... was sent to live with other family members, Moxie stayed in Silver Creek and Uncle Horace was sent to family in Natchez. Granddaddy had tried to hop a freight to go to Natchez when he slipped under the wheels and lost his leg, he was only about 17 or 18. Below is the only picture know to exist of Granddaddy and Uncle Horace, they very seldom got to see each other. This was taken on the front porch of the Farm house, 6 mos. before Granddaddy's death. One of Horace's Daughters brought him over to visit.

This is a picture of Granddaddy in 1916 holding Momma, his only Daughter and pride and joy. He loved this little girl and always promised to protect her, no matter what, he even said death wouldn't keep him from being there if anyone was mistreating her.


Dean and I went to school that morning as usual, but we sensed something was wrong when we left, because Dr. Massengill's car passed us in the lane on the way to the Bus...little did we know our happy carefree world was just a couple hours away from disappearing forever.
When we returned from school, we had to walk a little over a mile up the railroad track to get home...yes folks actually did have to walk to catch the bus...when we passed the Hall's house, MS. Hall was sitting on her porch and hollered at us and said, "I heared yo Granddaddy died today, tell yo Momma, we're sorry". I will never forget the look on Dean's face, she said,"no, he didn't" I loved Granddaddy, but Dean worshipped him....we flew down those tracks to find Momma sitting on the porch, we knew then it was true or Momma would have been at work. Granddaddy had a massive heartache..early that Morning, Momma took it very hard, we were allowed to stay home from school the next day and the Funeral Home brought his body home to lay instate in the living room, for a day, so folks could come by and pay their respects, Too someone as small as Dean and I who had never been around death before we just couldn't grasp why so many folks were coming by and crying and whispering to Momma and Granny and every now and then, you'd catch them looking pitingly at us and shake their heads, or coming by and telling us to be sure and look after Momma, she really needed us now....I really didn't know in my tiny little world that so many people lived in Brookhaven and surrounding areas... Dean and I would set in the corner and watch the casket and know what was going on but it was so hard for our little minds to grasp the concept of death.... On the Wall of the living room hung a portrait of Granddaddy and it almost seemed like he was watching himself in the casket...I'd really never paid any attention to it before....

GD was laid to rest after a service at the First Baptist Church, I'm sure most of you remember the 50's....Blacks weren't allowed in the White Church's, well; not true, there were as many if not more Blacks in the Church that day as whites ...the Church was overflowing and it was a very large Church. He was buried at Rose Hill Cemetery and Momma was laid to rest beside him exactly 20 yrs later.

Below is the picture that hung in the living room.
This isn't a very good picture but when it's on the wall when you walk from one side of the room to the other the eyes follow you.

To understand the rest of the story you have to know how the house is laid out....The old farm house had a long front porch, with 3 front doors, one into GD and Granny's bed room, one into the living room and one into our bedroom. To get from our bed room to the rest of the house we had to go through the living room or go out to the porch and then into Granny's bedroom, on down to the dining room and kitchen. You could look out our bedroom window and look into the barnyard and the barn where the mules were kept and the loaf where the hay was stored..and corn crib, and car shed, the cow barn was on the backside of the lot.

Granddaddy told Momma he would never leave her and he was there to take care of her no matter what.
Shorty after his death, Granny started her rampage of cussing us and calling Momma names, she knew there was no one to keep her in check. Dean and I weren't allowed to eat in the dining room when Uncle Norman and his family came for Sunday dinner, we where set in the kitchen and to this day I hate the back of a chicken, that is all that was left when they finished, don't get me wrong we didn't go hungry, we just didn't get the good stuff like the 3 "perfect" cousins got.....OK.....I have since made my peace with them, I just don't have anything to do with them...lol...
Dean and I was terrified of Granny, for the longest we never knew when we would get hit or slapped, and all we had to do is not move fast enough. I remember one time Dean at age 9 got hit with a hand spade across her head, because she couldn't lift the watering can while Granny was planting flowers and accidentally spilled a few drops of water on Granny's apron. No!!! we didn't tell Momma cause we knew Momma would get on her and it would only be harder the next day on us. And we didn't want to cause her any more suffering than she already had. We grow up after awhile and stood up to her, it was hard to do because Momma had always taught us to respect our elders...but when she realized we weren't going to take it she kinda eased up.
Back to the picture, after a little while Dean and I started noticing when we walked through the living room the picture would watch us, no matter which way we were walking.....them hard steel eyes followed us, it really scared the be-jesus out of me...... have ya ever had the hair stand up on the back of your neck and your brain screaming to your legs, move it, move it, move it..and the legs freezing to the spot until the body kicks it into high gear, Well have ya,?...then you know how it felt...and our Honey dog, would fly through there.....after night fall we made sure we didn't go thought that living room, we would be locked in our bedroom until Mom got off from work at 11:00 pm. But to make things even more weird, was after dark you could hear someone walking back and forth outside our door in the living room, the sound was like someone was either wearing a wooden leg or using a crutch. Back then, I was scared to death; but later I got to thinking..... I believed it was granddaddy standing guard over us at night. Granny rarely came in the room late at night to check on us...she wouldn't admit it but I believe she heard it and was scared to make him mad.....Honey loved it cause she got to sleep with us. Granny didn't allow her in the house, but we would slip her in the porch door and if she heard Granny coming she'd scoot to the bottom of the bed, under the covers.
We weren't the only ones to hear it. Mom heard it and anyone in the house at night when the lights were off in the living room heard it...... it was very few times after his death that the living room was used.. Clementine wouldn't be caught in the house after dark. So I'm going to leave you with Granddaddy standing guard over this babies....
I don't want to make this too long, so next time the lost of dear friends....