Person:Jehu Adkins (1)

Eyes: Blue

Pa Paw lived alone in the house that was built when his fatherwas alive. Divorced since 1936, it was his belief that you onlymarried once so this was his home for life....alone. His homewas an unpainted dog trot with clay, mud and straw chimneys.This was the house that his father and mother built with thehelp of Charlie Walker. His mother and two old maid sisters,Ophelia and Lillian died there. We lived in the city of Rustonbut I spent many happy days visiting there chasing chickens,picking corn and sneaking roll your own cigarettes with hisPrince Albert tobacco. Funny that he had tobacco and papers butI never saw him with a cigarette. Never.

Once we had to help him kill and clean the chickens. Our jobwas to pick the little feathers out of the chickens eitherbefore they were put in the hot water or after, I can't rememberright now, but I DO remember the stench. It cured me fromwanting chicken for a long time. Thank goodness my chickencomes in little packages now or no one here would be eatingchicken.

We also helped pick black-eyed peas and - watermelons, tryingto avoid the bullnettles. Not those light green watermelonsyou see today in the Grocery stores, but the large, round, darkgreen ones, ....Black Diamonds I think they are called . Hewould put them up on the back porch and break them open. Thewarm watermelon aroma would fill the air and we would dig in. Ifthere was any cooking done my Mother would have to load his woodburning stove first. His kitchen table was covered in shiny oilcloth with red flowers. On the other side of the kitchen was hispie safe where he kept his cheese along with the few dishes thathe had. These dishes were left from his mother and father.PaPaw always had a little carnival glass bowl full of change andwhen my Mother, my brother, and I came to visit he would tellus to go get what we wanted. We were greedy and always pickedthe quarters and dimes and left the nickles and pennies. He knewthis of course and never mentioned our greediness, bless him.Sometimes we would spend the night. On very cold nights, wewould warm ourselves in the room where is fireplace was then runacross the open hallway to our unheated room, jump in the ironbed and pull the large pile of covers over us. When the breathcame from our mouths, you could see the vapor billow up into theair. The only light came from a coal oil lamp and the onlyheat came from the large fireplace in Pa Paw's room. He built anout house for us but we were always scared to go there. Bugs andsnakes, you know. We would use the "chamber pot" in the houseor out back behind the smoke house. Using the "chamber pot" inthe dead of winter was an experience. No one wanted to get outof a warm bed for that experience, no matter how much you had to"go". Water was pulled from the well by a bucket and pouredinto a crock which sat in the house with a ladle which hadturned orangeish from the iron ore in the water. His living roomfloor was covered with a linoleum that resembled a hooked rug.The iron bed where he and Grandmother slept and where my Motherwas born was never used by him for as long as I can remember.Itwas covered in his papers and other things he wanted to keep insight. My son now has this bed. PaPaw slept in a single kind ofbed with a thick cotton mattress on it. It took on his shape ashe slept with sort of a shape of himself in the middle. Heseemed to like it this way so no one every tried to get him tochange it. When he lived at home I never saw him in anythingexcept his overalls with usually a khaki shirt underneath. Hewore a large brimmed tan colored hat, kind of like a Stetson,which set off his cool blue eyes. He always had his boots on andhis socks were the brownish ones with the white toe that peoplemake stuffed monkeys out of. When my Mother talked him in togetting electricity, she also got him a phone. This phoneprobably saved his life when he had a ruptured appendix and wasable to call my Mother. He had an appendectomy and contractedperitonitis but recovered. He never went back home. He wentinto Alpine Nursing Home. I spent many hours with him while hetold stories of his family during these years. He added so manydetails to my genealogy and had a great memory. He rememberedhis great aunts and uncles, who they married and their childrenand who they married, etc. etc.

PaPaw never remarried. He believed that you only marry once. Heknew the Bible by heart and would always ask Bill and Iquestions, not trying to see what we knew but really askingquestions about things he did not understand. We would havethose blank "I don't have a clue" looks but he never chastisedus. I never knew half of the things he was talking about eventhough I am a Christian, went to church and Sunday school everyweek, and knew the Bible, I did not know it as well as he did.He knew stuff I had never heard of before and thirsted forknowledge of everything Jesus said. He had it memorized and hewas Primitive Baptist. Primitive Baptist people washed eachother's feet. They believed it was a sacrament like communionand marriage. His church moved too far for him to walk so hedid not go when he got old.

After he finally agreed to get electricity in 1970, helistened to preachers on the radio. I can remember thosepreachers hearing those preachers on the radio, screaming untiltheir voices left them. Pa Paw seemed to get something out ofall that so I kept my mouth shut. He also read his PrimitiveBaptist paper and would send us articles from it. He would alsosend articles from The Guardian, the Homer, LA newspaper. Iwish I had saved them.

It was said he could play a fiddle and the Jew's Harp. I neverheard him play the fiddle but I have an "invite" to a dancewritten by Nobie, and telling him to be sure to bring hisfiddle. He was just a teenageer when this was written. Mybrother now has his fiddle. PaPaw died as he lived. When the nurses found him in his roomhe had died on his knees, next to his bed as if he was praying.}

1. ↑ Jerry Gallagher, Research.
2. ↑ Jerry Gallagher, Research.
3. ↑ Jerry Gallagher, Research.
4. ↑ Standpipe
5. ↑ Alpine Nursing Home
6. ↑ Adkins Cemetery