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LIFE
IN CLARAThe
following was written by my uncle, Ray Johnston, and my aunt, Edith Johnston-Hall.
They grew up in Clara. |
| The
Johnston family in Clara, circa 1929. |
We
will try to tell you about Clara. Clara was a farming
community mostly of German extraction. We had a full-blown school, 12 grades,
where Edith and Revah both graduated. Clara was absorbed into the Burkburnett
school system, and the three boys all graduated from Burkburnett.
Our
school was the focal point for the community. There were school plays, community
singings, valentine parties where we exchanged valentines which we made ourselves,
and Easter egg hunts, using honest-to-goodness hard boiled eggs rather than the
fancy candy ones which can be bought today.
There was entertainment planned
for adults as well as for meeting the needs of the children. There were box suppers,
ice cream dinners and the domino and "42" games brought much good-natured banter
and laughter…heart warming and happy times which drew us closer together as a
community.
Christmas time was especially full of activities with the
entire community joining in the festivities. We always had a BIG tree decorated
with donated ornaments which were stored and used from year to year. After a time
of greeting and visiting with neighbors, at LAST the school superintendent would
give his welcome speech, say a prayer and then we would hear Santa in the distance
doing his "ho-ho-ho" thing! He would rush in with his big bag thrown over his
shoulder. Then he went to the tree and passed out all the presents before he opened
his bag which had enough sacks full of fruit, nuts and candy for everyone. At
that time we were only thinking of the present -- not realizing that memories
were being made, but aren't memories great?
Osborne Store was about
a mile from the school where the mail boxes were posted. The postman came by every
day to deliver our mail. Most of the people would gather at the mail box to collect
their mail and gossip where we solved all of the world's problems-we thought!
The
three boys worked for farmers in the Clara area. Russell started for the Merten
farm driving a tractor pulling a turning plow, combine and just about anything
they wanted him to do. Mostly, I remember him pulling a combine driving a grain
truck along with the combine which dumped the grain into the truck as it harvested
the grain. He would then drive the truck to the storage barns where he shoveled
the grain into the storage barns then back to the field to repeat the process.
I particularly remember that the three boys worked for Mr. Bassett doing
everything that he needed us to do. Follow the binder and shocking the bundles
into shocks where it remained until the thrashing crew came through the country.
They would collect the shocked grain and take it to the thrasher where the grain
was separated from the straw. We would help him plant his crops… cotton, grain,
whatever. I remember the first year I worked (I was 8 years old), Garland was
10 and Russell was 12. For our summer work, Mr. Bassett gave us a check for $25.00.
Mother promptly collected it for us and bought a life insurance policy for each
of us.
Garland started working for the Klinkerman farm, and I took his
place as he finished his high school at Burkburnett. I remember working for Walter
Klinkerman during the week and for the local cream station. Farmers collected
their cream from their cows' milk and brought it into town on Saturday where we
tested it for butter fat content and paid the going rate established by the creameries
who bought it from us. I had the job of preparing the accumulated cream for the
creamery truck to pick up on Saturday night at approximately midnight. My employer,
Vernon Thornton, was a good man to work for and he paid very well. Of course I
started about 6 a.m. and usually did not finish until well after midnight…was
a long day!!
Our Mother, bless her, would get up long before sunup to
fix our breakfast as we got to our various jobs at about sunup. We worked until
sundown, then back to the machine area where we made the equipment ready for the
next day.
Living in the country, we had a one-acre plot that the three
boys turned over with shovels. Mother and the girls would plant corn, beans, okra,
potatoes, carrots - most of the vegetables our family used. We usually had one
milk cow and sometimes two. We would save the cream and churn it into butter and
buttermilk. Mother would sell butter and eggs. She also would do canning and she
would keep 1/3 of the produce which all the family joined together to produce.
We also raised a lot of chickens as well as a calf to provide meat for our table.
Mother would sell eggs, butter, fryers and baking hens.
Our father was
extremely interested in education. He was elected to the school board when Revah
started to school and stayed there until Ray finished the 7th grade which was
when Burkburnett consolidated Clara into their school system. He tried to make
sure the quality of education we received was the best we could get in those days,
and we did get a good education in the Clara schools.
Our
community had quite a few things to entertain the families. We had a couple of
baseball teams which would play each other and any other team from the area. We
would have picnics on election days where all the people running for office would
each make his pitch for their votes.
Everyone around the area called
our neighbor, Mr. Bassett, "Daddy Bassett" as I remember. He always had LOTS of
turkeys and one year, there was an abundance of grasshoppers - like millions!
Daddy Bassett took advantage of the situation, and he would herd his turkeys using
a whip which he would crack over the turkeys' heads to keep them in a group. Of
course it was all open grassy range, so he moved the group from one place to another
and they happily gobbled up tons of grasshoppers. Great stories were told about
Daddy Bassett herding turkeys! Of course, it made the turkeys fat and sassy, kept
many of the grasshoppers out of our gardens, and better yet, Daddy Bassett didn't
have to buy as much grain!
It was a good life; we all worked hard as
it was in the depression, but we also had lots of fun along the way. |
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Clara today
Photo
by John Troesser, 2000 |
- Written by Ray E. Johnston and Edith Johnston-Hall; submitted (with permission)
by their niece, Judy Johnston, July, 2006.
See Clara,
Texas
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