The Dale Segrest story started here. His Brothers, Wade and Chan were also born here. Here, in this house. This is the Little House. Needless to say, this photo was made many years later, and the Little House was in much better repair when Dale was born here.
1) Introduction to Little House Stories
The Little House essays are just one of series of essays that collectively tell my personal story. I introduced the whole life story in an introduction to the entire series that include the series on the Shorter School, Huntingdon College, Marriage and Family, Law...
2) Birth At the Little House
Four short months after the “day that will live in infamy” I was born in the Little house. The Little House was a two-room shack near the north edge of Calebee Swamp, close to a branch that led directly to the swamp. This picture of Daddy, Mama, Wade and me was made...
(3) Mama
Mama was not born in Macon County. She was born at Morris in Blount County. She was the Daughter of William Dee Mote and Myrtie Stubbs Mote. She was part of a large family with five brothers and five sisters. Grandmother Mote’s family—the Stubbs family—was a large...
4) Daddy
Daddy’s family was a major influence in my early years. His parents, Grandma and Grandpa Segrest were both still living when I was born. Grandpa died two years later, in 1944, and a vaguely remember him. He apparently liked to lay on a bench in the...
(5) The Fish Killing
When we were small, Daddy told us lots of stories about his young days, and catching fish from Calebee Creek, which was about a mile south of the Little House. Based on one incident that I remember, that happened when I was very small, I know that Daddy’s fish tales...
(6) The Little House Surroundings and More
There were no lawns at the Little House. Grass was not allowed in the yards. The yards were keep clean with a “brush-broom”. A brush-broom was made of bushes that grew down in the branch head. They were cut off at the ground, the bottoms were bound together in a...
(7) Christmas At the Little House
Christmas at the Little House was a greatly anticipated event! The living room was decorated fully. There was holly. Sometimes mistletoe. The Christmas tree would be a cedar. All the greenery came from nearby woods. Decorations were well planned, and carried...
(8) Aunt Pinini
Well, although I had lots of aunts and uncles, Aunt Pinini was not actually one of them. Her house was there when Daddy bought the place, and I don’t know how long she had lived there. She was there before Daddy and his family built the Little House, and she...
(9) The Chicken House
Daddy built the chicken house from the remnants of Aunt Pinini’s house. It was down the hill a short distance from the house, to the southwest. It’s main door that faced down the hill, so you had to go around the chicken house to get to the door. Once you...
(10) Play
In today’s world of technological games, and sophisticated toys, one might well wonder how kids could possibly entertain themselves in the environment that I have described. We enjoyed ourselves greatly, and the games may have stimulated imagination just as...
(11) The Branch
A well-worn footpath led directly from the Little House to Uncle Earl’s house. Unlike the road that went around the draw where the branch started, it went through the pasture and the branch. The path left the Little House, headed east towards Uncle Earl’s,...
(12) Monday was Wash Day
Back in those days, Monday was wash-day—the day for washing clothes. Early memories of wash day are very special. I mentioned that there was no running water at the Little House. There was no water at all at the Little House, in my earliest...
(13) The Cow Pen
Just across the branch and a little south of the path to Uncle Earl’s was the cow pen. It was fenced and we always “brought up” the cows at night to stay in the pen. Inside the pen was a cow shed. It was about an open shed—a trussed roof held up...
14) Uncle Earl’s Place
The Old Segrest Homeplace Although they arrived in Macon County soon after it was ceded by the Creek Indians, I have never heard of my Segrest forebears owning any plantation. Other Segrests who were a part of the same Nineteenth Century migration...
(15) Grandma and the rose cutting
If you went out the front door onto Uncle Earl’s front porch and looked to the right, in front of the porch and about six feet away, Grandma had a nice rose bush. It was the vine type, and was on a frame. Mama really like those roses, so Grandma gave her a...
(16) Adventures in Uncle Earl’s Barn
Uncle Earl had a barn right behind his house. We didn’t have one at the Little House, but Daddy and Uncle Earl did a lot of their farming together back in those days, so we didn’t need a barn. Our mule, Pete, stayed at Uncle Earl’s and spent nights in...
(17) Buying Shoes
I will have to be honest. Most of the time, us kids didn’t wear shoes. But there were occasions when we needed to have shoes, so arrangements had to be made to purchase them, and I remember what we did about buying shoes when we lived at the little...
(18) The Trip to the Gin
One of my most memorable farming events from the Little House years was a trip to the gin. In those days, financing was interesting. For poor farmers, it often involved credit with other people in the farming business. I think that Daddy had borrowed...
19) The School Bus
Wade and I both started school while living at the little house. Wade started in 1944, and I started in 1948. I will tell more about the school experience when I get to that topic. In this essay, I want to focus on the school bus. The school...
20) Starting to School
In September 1948, there was a huge change in my life. The preschool days of playing long days year-round at the Little House came to and end. The big yellow school bus drove up in front of the house, and I got on. I would be getting on a bus, except for summer...
21) Ice
We didn’t have a refrigerator in my early days at the Little house: we didn’t have electricity. But we had an “icebox” that sat in the kitchen. The “ice truck” came as far as Uncle Earls place about once a week. It was loaded with ice. The ice was protected by...
22) Water and Wells
When I was born, we did not even have a well, let alone indoor plumbing. Before the well was dug, we had to get water the best we could. Sometimes we got it from the branch, in buckets. But usually we would get it from Uncle Earl’s. He had a well as far back as I...
23) The Oak at Uncle Earl’s House
One of my favorite places at uncle Earl’s house was the Oak tree. It was no ordinary oak tree. It was huge, even in the nineteen forties when I was very small. Writing this in 2021, it seems almost dreamlike, those days of tree climbing, over seventy years ago. ...
24) Wood Cutting
The only heat we had at the Little House was a single fireplace in the front room. Daddy usually cut the wood for the fireplace with an ax. Often, he would bring long trunks of trees to the yard in a “woodpile,” and would cut them into firewood length with his ax....
25) Wade Goes Visiting
My older brother, Wade, was born in 1938. Before his birth, the B & SE Railroad crossed the 80 acre tract on which the Little house was built, about a quarter of a mile below south of the Little house, next to Calebee Swamp. The railroad had been closed and...
26) Mules
The Encyclopedia of Alabama, which can be found on the internet, reports that, “By 1930, when the mule population peaked, mules outnumbered horses 332,000 to 65,000. In monetary terms, Alabama mules were valued in 1930 at $32.4 million, or about $97.00 per animal,...
27) Uncle Willie and Aunt Ida
During the entire time that I lived in the Little House, Aunt Ida and Uncle Willie lived in an even smaller two room shack that was bout one hundred yards behind Uncle Earl’s house. They were brother and sister or Grandma Segrest. There father was the Reverend J. E....
28) Baling Peanut Hay
One of the more memorable events of my early childhood at the Little House has to do with baling peanut hay. Uncle Jody owned and was still living in the house that Daddy and Mamma eventually bought up on the “big road.” Across the big road and southwest of his...
29) Purchasing the Land
In 1936, Daddy bought the one hundred sixty acres that included the spot where the Little house would be built. Later in 1936, he and his siblings built the Little House. That is also the year that Daddy and Mama were married. While building the Little House, they...
30) Picking Cotton
Daddy and Uncle Earl farmed cotton and corn. They also raised gardens for food. The corn was mainly for food for the mules and cows. Cotton was the main cash crop. There were lots of tenant farmers in Macon County, but not in our part of the county. A finger of...
31) Mr. Frank and Ms. Jo
Mr. and Mrs. Frank Pierce, “Mr. Frank and Miss Jo,” were the next nearest neighbors to the Little House, other than “Aunt” Pinini, Uncle Earl and Grandma, and Uncle Willie and Aunt Ida. Mr. Frank and Ms. Jo lived on what is now Segrest Lane, a couple of hundred yards...
32) Getting the Mail
Unlike the school bus, the mail did not come to our door at the Little House. Back in those days it was known as RFD (Rural Free Delivery). A letter addressed to F. C. Segrest (my dad) RFD Milstead, Alabama would have made it to us. Mr. Charlie Shaw, the “mailman”...
33) Aunt Willie, Uncle Raymond and The Store
Aunt Willie was Daddy’s sister, and Uncle Raymond Butler was her husband. They had no children. In my earliest recollection, Uncle Raymond had been drafted into the army in World War II. He was a medic, and on his return, it was not unusual for family, and maybe...
34) Country Stores
During my eight childhood years in the Little Houses, the country side in rural Macon County was peppered with country stores. I have mentioned the fact the Aunt Willie and Uncle Raymond actually opened a store during that time. Uncle Raymond’s parents had owned and...
35) Chan’s Birth
Perhaps the biggest event that occurred during my eight years at the Little House was the birth of a younger brother. Like my older brother, Wade, and me, Forrest Chandler Segrest, Jr. was actually delivered in the Little House. He arrived on August 3, 1946, when I...
36) Uncle R.V. and Aunt Ruby
Some time after Wade’s visit to Uncle R. V. in 1940, Uncle R. V., who was somewhat older than Daddy, bought a place on the big road just beyond Aunt Willie and Uncle Raymond’s store. They built a house and barn, and operated a farm. They had five children: Ralph,...
37) Farm Financing in the Forties
During the eight years that I lived in the Little House, the United States had entered World War II, and was struggling still to overcome the Great Depression. Depression conditions were still very apparent in rural Alabama. One of the programs that geared up during...
38) Bradford’s Chapel
Church was part of my life from the beginning. We attended Bradford’s Chapel Methodist Church in what was then the Milstead Community. It was the only Church in the Milstead Community. There is a cemetery there, and many of my ancestor’s are buried there. My Daddy...
39) Mr. Frank’s Tractor
I have told of Mr. Frank Pierce’s mules in other essays. We enjoyed Mr. Frank and his mules. But eventually Mr. Frank got a tractor, and that may have made even better stories. We were use to hearing him give directions to the mules. “Gee”—go right, or “haw”—go...
40) The Coming of Utilities
My first four years in the Little House were without utilities. Electricity and Telephone came in about 1946, when I was four years old. Those years were also the years of World War II. Interesting times. I think that electricity had to come first. The City of...
41) Weather and Storm Pits
During the years that I lived in the Little House, there were no weather satellites. There was no weather radar. We may have heard “weather forecasts” on the radio. There may have also been forecasts in the newspapers. But given the state of technology the...
42) Uncle Bud and Aunt Runnie
At the time I was born, Uncle Bud (Marvin L. Segrest), Daddy’s oldest brother owned a 200 acre farm that adjoined the place where the Little House was built, and lay west of the Little House. Uncle Bud’s place went all the way from the swamp, and the old B&SE...
43) Uncle Jody and Aunt Ella
Uncle Jody—James Woodrow Segrest, Sr—was Daddy’s youngest brother. In 1942, he bought the place up on the big road, across the road from the mailbox where Segrest Lane comes into the big road. It was a hundred acres in all, with 60 acres north of the road—except for...
44) The Richardson Family
Daddy, Uncle Earl, and Uncle Jody were the youngest siblings in their family. Their best friends, growing up were the “Richardson boys”: Will, John Henry, and Floyd. They hunted, fished and played together, and many stories were generated. I think all three were...
45) The Sheppard Family
The Sheppard family had moved into our Milstead Community a good many years before I was born. There were 13 siblings in the Sheppard family, and some of them were already adults before the family moved into the community. Ruby, one of the siblings had married Mr....
46) The Ledbetter Boys
In the essay about the Sheppard family, I mentioned the Jewell was one of the thirteen siblings. She and her husband moved into the community close to Mr. Albert Reynolds and her sister Ruby, and also close to her parents and younger siblings. She raised six sons. ...
47) The Mailman
Mr. Charlie Shaw was the Milstead mailman. He delivered mail on a rural route for fifty years or more. He drove his own car, I think. He knew everyone on his route. Our mailbox was Rt. One Box 45, Milstead, Alabama. I never heard of a route two. The mail was...
48) The Rolling Store
In the Little House days, there was a “rolling store.” A large truck carried a supply of merchandise and circulated through rural communities selling the things that the poor country people needed. The rolling store came as far as Uncle Earl’s house, and most of the...
49) My Black Doll
When I was about 4 years old, I acquired a doll. It was not just any doll. The way I remember it may Aunt Willie Butler was involved. She carried us to a store, I think in Tallassee, AL. It must have been Christmas, but all that was a long time ago. She was...