I remember so long ago, I wasn't even born yet

I am going back into my earliest memories. They are getting jumbled, but if any of you know better jump right in. This is a work in progress and will be revised.

The first thing I remember is Ruby’s grandfather. He did not believe in killing, but he was caught up in the Civil War, and had to fight. He went into battle, shooting his gun into the air.

Ruby’s mother was Roxiana Dunaway. Her mother died when she was small, and she had one brother. Her father remarried, and had many more children.

Roxiana and Tillman came to the Delta sometime around 1900. They lived in with a brother and his wife, Cassie (?). They had a blacksmith shop, and from where they lived they could see the train station. They could watch the bodies of the people who died from malaria being loaded on the train to be carried back to the hills. When Cassie and her baby died, they carried them back to the hills, too, and stayed there for a number of years. Many, many years later Marvin and Ruby bought a small plot of land and house in Ruleville. The land and house cost $3,000, and the banker said, no matter what, just be sure to pay the interest each year. And that’s what they did, scraped together to pay the interest for a number of years. They had a big garden, and Ruby thought she owned the land they gardened, but it turned out the land belonged to someone else. It was suggested she had used it for so long, the land legally belonged to her. She said, no, she remembered, she wondered how she was going to feed her family when they moved to town, and this man (does anybody remember who he was?) let her use as much land as she needed for free for her garden, and now she couldn’t manage a garden like that any more, and she didn’t need it. Now, I’ll wander…she no longer had the big garden, but she had rows and rows and rows of day lilies. But enough…back to the house Marvin and Ruby bought. When they were gardening they turned up detritus that had been used in a blacksmith’s shop, and they could see the train depot from the house. Was it the same place Tilman and Roxiana lived? (and Sandra went to the train station with someone, and saw an Indian..a real Indian with feathers and everything…being the oldest, she saw many things the rest of us missed).

Ruby was born in Webster County. She had an older sister and many brothers. I’ll name them later. I’ll name many more people later. She liked to ‘skin the cat,’ or hang by her knees from a tree branch. If her mother caught her skinning the cat, she got in trouble. She and her sister Ada had to fetch water? from some distance. Ada would tell Ruby if she carried the full bucket the first half toward home, then Ada would carry it the second half. Ada reneged. Did Ruby leave the bucket? Did Ada and Ruby both get into trouble? Ruby for leaving it, and Ada for not doing her part? Seems like they did.

The family moved from the hills to Inverness. Ruby had to leave her black and white cat. As the wagon pulled away, Ruby could see her cat sitting on a fence post.

Ruby played basketball in Inverness, and she got malaria. She didn't die, but she did get married. f She wanted to be a teacher. She said aege for edge, and mountane for mountain. I loved it when she said those words, and I wondered where the pronunciation came from.
…………………………to be continued……….
Scarlett says:
I remember the story about the old blacksmith leftovers showing up. And I did see an Indian. I had walked to the depot with Grandaddy to get something that was coming in on the train. And there was an Indian. Nell thinks she know who it was. (It wasn't really an Indian, but somebody who lived there and did things like dress up like and Indian.) But in my memory banks, it will always be an Indian.