Earleen Allen Francis Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

kleen Allen Francis 14
Q. khm you played games with the other kids did you play together with
yauz brother and sister?
A. No, VE all had our am group, more or less, in our own roan at school.
Q. Did you have any other relatives living nearby? Aunts, uncles?
A. No, rmt livlng a r d us, but they came to see us £ran elsewhere.
Fraa Pactucah, Kentucky, and Benton, Kentucky, and Clinton, Kentucky.
Q. khich relatives ere these?
A. My mother ' s sister and my mther ' s mthr and my nother ' s brother.
k brothers she had and tm sisters.
Q. Psld they all cam to visit you?
A. Sooner or later. Ran tine to tine.
Q. hd did you go to visit than saw times too?
A. fS £ather mrked for the railroad and w could get passes, you huw,
and ride a pass. So e did mre going than they did, because they had to
pay ~EI-I they cam and mney wis scarce in those days.
Q. Wen you took those trips, did your hole family go together?
A. Daddy didn't always go. He'd let us go. k couldn't go dxm school
was going on, became R cdd not be kept out of school. And m never
wmt on holidays, it ms dmys in the sumaer. We'd go mybe in June to
visit one, then in July vie ' d go to visit another me, and then before
school d d
open up e'd go to visit an~ther une sameplace. Wlt never
when school was going m, because mhr ddn't let us stay out of
school.
Q. I-bw long wuld you stay when you wmt to visit these relatives?
A. A mek, about a ~ e k .
Q. Did they have children you could play with?
A. Ch yes, they had children. I& slept on pallets on the floor and it
ws always sum~rtime. We could run wild.
Q. &at ms the biggest holiday of the year?
Q. And what was Christmas like in your family?
A, Oh, e had a Clhrishnm tree. It didn't have m y decorations on it,
though, 1ik they have nm. k had ones that = made out of paper; w
made than at school and that sort of thing. We'd string popcorn and the
little gifts w! wanted to give to each other, w'd wrap than and put them