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 in front of Uncle Earl’s house. Their house was northeast of the Little House, with only a field owned by Mr. Frank in between. They were older and had reared a houseful of children, all of whom did well in life. But Mr. Frank and Ms. Jo were colorful and entertaining old people!
Like everyone else, they were farmers. They were self-sustaining with gardening, milk cows, pigs, and chickens. Unlike anyone else in the community, they also raised turkeys. They would kill, dress, and sell he turkeys, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas. My wife, Betty’s folks were regular customers for turkeys. The older they got, the more colorful, and we enjoyed many stories and laughs at their expense. The stories were many!
Mr. Frank’s dad had been a Union Naval Officer in the Civil War, but married a local girl after they met in New York—at least that was our understanding of the story. At one time, he had extensive land holdings. But I think Mr. Frank owned only about 100 acres. Mr. Frank’s brother, Mortie, the school bus driver may have owned a little more. And they had siblings who had inherited some of the land.
One story that I heard again and again was about the segrest household (Uncle Earl’s place, but in his childhood) ran out of matches. One of the kids went to Mr. Frank to borrow a match. The response was classic: “I ain’t got but two, but let me light the lamp, and I’ll let you have both of them!”
Another story had to do with Mr. Frank’s cows getting into Daddy’s corn patch. He was a poor fence keeper. The cows did a good bit of damage to the corn, and Daddy went to talk to Mr. Frank about keeping his cows up. Mr. Frank told him, “Cows won’t eat corn—they may knock a little down…”
And then there was the story of Mr. Frank reading Gone with the Wind. The book had obviously only recently been published, and one of his kids checked it out from school. It had been left on the mantle piece, next to the lamp. This was before electricity was installed in the 1940’s. Mr. Frank got up to blow out the lamp, picked up the book and started reading, and read all night! Only while writing this piece did I remember the interesting fact that his dad was a Union Naval officer.
The relationship with the Pierces was great. I remember one time when I was very small, one night Mr. Frank came to see us. That was a little unusual, but he showed up to “set a spell” as the saying went. By the time that he knocked on the door, I had already undressed—buck naked, as they say. About 3 or 4 years old. So, I dived under that bed. I never realized how long he would stay, and eventually I apparently started making noises. So, he took it upon himself to look under the bed and find me. Wow!
I’ll be posting several stories about Mr. Frank and Ms. Jo!
Recent Comments