From our Mother's side of the family we were given strong encouragement to attend school, church and church (Sunday) School. The church and Malesus High School (high school from 1910 until 1956) were our ``Alma Mater''--our soul mother. But a lot of learning comes from work and community contacts and context. As a family we had a lot of assigned daily chores which had to be attended to even on school days and so we learned some responsibility early in life. But we had free time, and times we worked with other youth and other adults. We had times we were free to roam as far as our feet would carry us and get us home for milking time--which was usually no more than three miles in any direction from the homeplace.
The neighbors we visited and played with varied with the years and the neighboring tenants but there were cousins and neighbors who seemed as permanent as an oak tree. We cherished these buddies and among them were James and Eugene Watlington, cousins who lived in Jackson, Tenn. and the J. Lev Harton family who lived ``on Meridian Creek, Parkburg Road'', less than two miles away. The Hartons were one of the founding families of the Ebenezer Methodist Church and the school at Malesus. It was there that Clara Matilda Hammond and Lev Harton got to know one another and they married November 29, 1911 after Clara had taught school a year or so in Hanover, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, where her parents had been raised. Therefore the Hartons and Hammond-Watlington families had school, church, kinship and neighborhood ties. We had a home away from home if we could get to Aunt Clara's. And the feeling was mutual.
It was very near the same with the Albert Watlington family and Aunt Mable Stephens' home in Jackson, Tenn. Aunt Mable and Uncle Will had helped raise Albert, her youngest brother, after the death of his mother and remarriage of Mack Rob to the Widow Pacaud. So these Harton and Watlington cousins were very special to each family and they cherished getting together. In fact the Hartons and Watlingtons shared many family reunions that included the Jackson families. In turn the Hartons had relatives among the Chesters and in Jackson that also became special friends. Summer family gatherings were common and the families were able to visit one another quite often. When Uncle John Watlington's family came from Louisiana to visit there was always a family reunion.
Near the Harton farm there were Hunts, Newsoms, Seavers, Robleys and Keys. Friends help make friends and so for skinny dipping and baseball there were always enough neighbors to make it a party. Frank Robley, and his brothers Neal and Sam were long time friends of Ulrich and neighbors also. Though Frank had no children, he was a friend of young and old and we always stopped by his house on the way to the Hartons and drank from his fine spring of water. He shared his walnuts with us in the Fall and apples when he had them. In fact his ``Shindoll'' apple orchard was a favorite place in late Summer for it had a variety of apple trees, and occasionally a watermelon patch.
You had to be careful about those watermelons though. Once Lloyd Hamilton had to get some help to pick out the bird shot from harvesting a neighbor's watermelons.
About 1930 the Azbills moved into the community from Henderson Co. with two boys and a house full of girls that helped them get acquainted in a hurry. Mr. Azbill knew how to make good sorghum molasses and his son Hubert learned from him. They helped us many seasons to prepare and cook good sorghum molasses. They lived on Parkburg Road at the G.M. & N. R.R. at first, then moved to a farm home next to Billie Hamlett.
To the north and east of the homeplace were the Murchisons, Greers, Davises and Hamletts. Robert Earl Hamlett was the only child of Mr. Billie and Miss Martha (Davis) Hamlett and became a favorite playmate of Elton and Joe Watlington, although he attended a rival High School at Pinson. The Murchison children were older but one grandchild, Harold, was the age of Elton or Joe. He died tragically as the mule he was riding to the field along the Old Pinson Road became frightened and he fell off and was dragged to his death as he became entangled in the harness of the mule. This impressed a family of boys accustomed to be careless about horses and mules.
Mr. Shock Murchison's family was an early one in West Tennessee. His farm was between the Meridian Creek and the Old Pinson Road, north of the Hammond place. A brother had land west of Meridian Creek, and Della, James and Charles Murchison were from that Murchison family. Mr. Shock Murchison lived and died on his homeplace nearby and they had thirteen children who lived to adulthood including Lela, Walter, Liston, Magnus Napoleon (Poley), Nell and A. J. Poley and Hettie Teuton Murchison later purchased the family farm, built a new house, and raised cattle on it.
Mr. Billie Hamlett inherited a large block of land from the Hardin and Hamlett families and the O. W. Hammond farm was a part of land first deeded to the Hardin family. The Hardin land ran from the Lester's Chapel Road to join the Harton family land east of the Meridian Creek.
Other neighbors to the east were the Curlins, Rivers, Jamerson, Latham, Bells, Scott, Threadgill and Beller families. The Charles Hammond family had owned lots of land along Old Pinson Road and on both sides of Harts Bridge Road but had moved toward Bemis as the younger generation became involved in the Bemis Brothers Cotton Mill and gin operations.
The nearest neighbors to the east were the various occupants of the old Pacaud Place, where Florence Pacaud lived as she and Emma Mai Hammond became life-long friends. Mack Rob married the widow Pacaud, Mrs. Ella B. Swink Pacaud, in 1906 and Ulrich became acquainted with Jennie Hammond while living on and farming that place. After the Pacauds moved to Jackson the house had a number of occupants but the farm land became unproductive. By 1920 it was a rental property and among the families that lived there were Pete Brannon, Aubry and Lizzie Haynes, Myrtle Hamilton, Mrs. Georgia Fortune, Mr. Sam Singley, Peyton Petty, Ray, Roy and Christeen Fortune and Paul Fortune at a later time.
Our first experiences with short wave radio I guess had been at Uncle Will Stephens in Jackson where electricity, street cars and telephones were common place. But out in the country, Mr. Sam Singley, a well driller and jack-of-all-trades, was the first neighbor to have a short wave radio receiver. He used the battery of his old truck, so he only hooked it up at night when he wanted to get some news. But we would slip up outside his window and hear voices from far away places. When there was a famous boxing match sometimes we would get invited inside to hear it at the moment it was happening in some far off place like Madison Square Garden.
Mr. Sam Singley used our RFD mail box over on Highway 45, since the carrier didn't use Watlington Road at this time. He subscribed to the ``Jackson Sun'' daily newspaper and let us have the privilege of reading it every day until dark. He wanted it up to his house along with his mail when he finished his supper. That was a real bonanza, to have the daily paper without buying it. But then one boy had to deliver it in the dark up a dirt path. It got scary at times even for a ten year old.
Among other neighbors to be remembered are the Jimmy Jones family who rented the tenant house on the Frank Robley farm on two, maybe three, occasions. Marvin (Buddy) and Josephine were close friends of the older Watlington boys. Josephine graduated with Kenneth at Malesus High School and Marvin graduated a year earlier (1931). Marvin later operated the Marvin Jones Feed Store in Jackson until his retirement. They attended the Methodist Church and Marvin is still a member there. Mrs. Jones' parents also lived as neighbors and that provided an additional contact with them.