Hazel Hall Hughes - Happy Birthday

Hazel Hall Hughes, September 2007











Hazel Hall was born on May 28, 1919. She is the daughter of Joe Hall and Martha Newsome, a half sister to Nancy Alice Hall Bentley.













I met Aunt Hazel last year when I visited Uncle John Vent and his daughters, Robin, Nancy Ellen and Lisa. After they called and arranged for me to meet her, Aunt Ernestene, Candy and I went over. Hazel is a delight. What she told me about her dad and her mom make up most of what I know about Joe Hall and Martha Newsome.













Today, on Hazel's birthday, I want to talk about her remembrances as a child. I took notes as fast as I could and tried to take down Hazel's words just as she said them. The following written in first person is what I took away from that first meeting.













Mary Bates had a store. She was getting older and needed help. Mom moved to a one room feed house. We lived there on Millstone. I walked to school. There were three schools at Millstone: Lower, Midde and Upper Millstone. I went to Middle Millstone. My teacher was A. C. Sergent. He also taught my son, Arthur. the school was just two rooms. One ahd up to third grade and the ohter went to the 8th grade. There were three schools: Millsone, Lower Millstone at the Forks and Upper Millstone. It used to be Craft, Kentucky.













Daddy was a postmaster. Daddy never wrote overalls. When he married Mommy he tried a pair on, but he didn't like them. He always had to wear dress pants. Daddy owned a department store. It was at the mouth of Thornton. He was a postmaster. The office moved to the mouth of Millstone. I walked to school at the middle of Millstone. At lunch I would go to the post office. At that time you had to stamp the letters going out and coming in. I would go to the post offic and there would be a pack of letters and I would stamp them.













My first gift my Dad gave to me and Lettie (her sister) was a paperback songbook. Oh how I wish I had that songbook today, but I was little and I didn't know how much I would want it later on. The second gift was got from Dad was a little gold compact with powder. The third gift we got was a child's umbrella.













At Christmas when I was five years old (1924) Dad gave me a little rocking chair. It was made by John Bentley. (Hazel still has this chair and Myrtle brought it out for us to see.) It got broken when we moved. Our things were on a wagon pulled by horses. The chair fell off and boke. The tops of the back to the chair and one of the runners broke off. It was repaired, but it was not the same. The seat was very unusual. It was made of bark. Dad paid Mr. Bentley five dollars to have it made. The back used to look like the arms do now.













She told us she had a picture of her son, Arnold, sitting in the chair. This is the picture.































There was a hat that I wanted that cost 49 cents. I wanted it so bad. I worked and worked for Uncle Jarvey Johnson hoeing to earn it. We had to go across the creek to get to Jarvey's field so we needed to cross it again to get back. Aunt Myrtle went across the creek going there, but she did not want to cross it on the way back. I carried her on my back. She was three years older than me. She was about the age of my sister, Josephine. They were the same age. My hat fell off into the creek. Mom whipped me for that. (We asked if she dropped Myrtle. She said no. We agreed we would have put her in the creek after losing that hat and Hazel just laughed.)













I had a cousin Marthy. She was older. We always got along unless she made Lettie cry. One day she did make her cry, and we got into it. There was a willow tree and mom made me go get a switch. I got a big one and she whipped Marthy. After she whipped Marthy she whipped me with the same switch. I was always so mad at Mommy for using the same switch.

























Hazel married Elzie Hughes. They were married for 43 years. They were married at the home of Martha Smith. They moved from Millstone in 1953.













This is Elizie Hughes sitting on the bridge at Millstone.













Hazel lives in Cleveland with her son and his wife, William Arnold and Myrtle Johnson Hughes.



















We lived next to Ish Everidge. Mommy asked if she could name my child. Mommy said the Everidges were so good. They had a son named Ben Arnold. She named my baby, William Arnold. Ben did not turn out well.