Next we moved from Third Avenue to the Bailey farm. Bob Bailey asked our father to be his overseer at the Bailey house out on Carters Creek Pike. Mr. Bailey was a nice, kind man with a wife that thought she was superior to the Queen of England. Mrs. Bailey was a haughty lady and not very kind to her servants. Mrs. Bailey was a sister to Henry Mayberry. They were from very well-to-do families. The Baileys had three daughters and two sons. They had several houses with black people on the farm. The Baileys had a big orchard of peaches and apples and black folks were not allowed to shake the trees. They had to pick the fruit from off the ground. ![]() The Bailey house was beautiful. [I thought it was the finest place in the world.] Mrs. Bailey had the servants wear black dresses with white aprons. They stayed busy cleaning and polishing silverware. Jessie Lee and I were at the Baileys one time, and Mrs. Bailey gave us a box of old hats to take home with prices on them. Aunt Donie was visiting us; and when she saw these old out-of-date hats, she wrote a note on the box and sent us to take the hats back to Mrs. Bailey. . She told her that she and Mama had some hats more up to date that they would sell her. Mr. Bailey was such a kind man and always really nice to everyone that came in contact with him. I thought one of the daughters, Miss Louise, was most beautiful. I saw her one time with a pink satin dress on, playing the piano; and I think I will never forget that scene. I loved to go over there because of Mr. Bailey. He was such a wonderful person, and everybody in the neighborhood liked him very much. We lived in a very nice house. A little creek ran through the yard and I would make paper boats and try to float them. . We picked violets. I played alone, it seems, a lot because I guess Dorothy wasn't really old enough to be interested in playing. There were orchards, huge crows, and all kinds of animals. There were bats and white squirrels around, and I loved it. I remember a white squirrel and would watch for that white squirrel all the time and want to feed it. I loved birds and animals and always was looking out to see if I could see one. I loved it all. I loved pets. While I lived at the Bailey farm, I had a pet lamb. It was the sweetest little lamb, but we had to get rid of it. It made me very sad because it would knock me down every time I would go out in the field. I had more pets than anyone. I had a little duck that followed me everywhere, and I jumped off the porch one time and killed my duck. My brother William was born while we lived at the Bailey place, and I remember that there was a little quilt that was William's; and I wanted to get it all the time to wrap the lamb or squirrel or my cat in. I had a cat called Kitty Gray; and it left home, and we didn't know what happened to it. It was found in a trap, dead. They used to set traps for wild animals on the farm or anything that ate in the garden. So that's where my cat went. I had a time, didn't I? I started to school at five years old at Forest Home School, a one-room school house. [The little house is still there.] I was not old enough to go Jessie Lee Gentry Lavender and Louise Gentry Binkley outside the abandoned Forest Home School about 1970. Overbey's Store was close to the school and not too far from where we lived. That store still stands. The farmers would gather there in the cold weather and sit around the stove. Mr. Overbey was such a kind man. He was always sweet to me. He carried clothing, food, lamps, horse saddles, all kinds of feed, and, of course, candy. Mr. Overbey would always give me candy, and I would be so glad to get to go. I would ride horseback behind my father. of course, my father would buy so many things because he did all the shopping mostly. One day I rode with my father on the horse to buy something. It started to rain real hard. Mr. Overbey gave me a pretty little chamber pot and put it on my head so my head wouldn't get wet. You will notice that I speak of my father more than I speak of my mother. But my father took me along because I was so quiet and bashful and wouldn't bother anything or wouldn't interfere with anything he had to do. [You wouldn't think that now, would you?] We rode horseback and sometimes in the buggy. I don't recall doing that so much as I do riding with him on the horse. Of course, I was always ready to go. I started to Fourth Avenue Church of Christ at a very early age. I don't remember just exactly when. We had some neighbors by the name of Holts also some Newcombs . Others I do not remember the names. My parents had parties they called candy breakings with food and buck dancing. A bucket of candy was covered up with a cloth, and sticks of candy were in there. Each person would reach in the bucket that had a cloth over it and break a stick of candy. That way they chose partners--short stick or long stick would match. Anyway they did a dance where the lady put her hand on the man's shoulder. Mattie Lou and Ollie Hall Holt were there. Ollie got in the dance; and as they went around, her sister Mattie Lou smacked Ollie's hand down off the shoulder and said, "You stop that. Or I'll tell Pa on you." Jessie Lee stayed busy finding out about the neighbors and talking about Bessie May Baugh, a girl that she went to school John Thomas "Tommie" Butner, Mother's uncle, who stole Ora Newcomb's heart. We never know what's bothering a child. I went over to the Newcombs' house one day and accidentally stepped on a dog's tail. The dog bit my finger. I heard if a mad dog bit you would die just like the dog. I had heard so much about mad dogs that I worried long after we moved from the Baileys', afraid that the dog might go mad and then I would also. I was so sad the day Mr. Bailey died, and Mrs. Bailey was fairly nice to me when Daddy took me to the house. I wanted to go. I had picked some wild violets along the way. I wanted to take them over to Mr. Bailey's. And it was a very sad day for me as a child. After Mr. Bailey died, his son Will came to take over the farm. That was when my father was so unhappy with the place. Mr. Will was ugly with the black people and didn't like the way Daddy treated them. Daddy would let them have vegetables and fruit when there was plenty and now and then a chicken for Sunday. Mr. Will jumped Daddy one day and called him a son of a bitch, and Daddy knocked him down. Needless to say, we left pretty soon. ![]() ![]() |