Pugtown and the Ducks in Church

Pugtown and the Ducks in Church
I grew up in a little town on the outskirts of Davidson County called Pugtown.I lived in a wooded area on a dirt,dead end road.There were only two houses on the road,our house and Grandma Prevette's. Grandma was very dear to me.She was a mom and a buddy to me.She was a short fat lady who combed her blondish gray hair stright back and twisted into a bun on the back of her head with plastic pins.She wore gold rim glasses and an apron with print dresses and was so neat.

Grandma Prevette loved to cook and most of the time could be found in her kitchen.She would get up early in the morning to begin.I can remember the aroma of gingerbread coming from her kitchen around Christmas time every year.

Grandma made gingerbread cookies and put them in a white flour sack and hung them on a nail until serving time.She cooked on a old wood stove and she washed on a old rubboard.She had a day for everything.Monday was wash day and Tuesday was ironing day.She heated her irons on her wood cook stove.Her ironing board was the end of her dining room table.Wednesday was baking day when she would bake pies,cakes,cookies and cobblers.

She had straw mattresses and feather pillows.She didnt have much but she kept her house neat and clean.Her work was hard but she was up early,and by eleven O'clock she would be sitting on her front porch stringing green beans. getting ready for another day.On sundays,the whole family stopped by for dinner.

Grandma mowed her grass with an old reel mower.She had a old jhonny pot she took in at night and put it under the bed.In the mornings,she took it out to the little outside toilet where it was emptied and washed with disinfectant and then allowed to sit in the sun all day.

Grandma loved bluegrass music. You could often find her sitting in front of her Zenith radio listening to bluegrass and gospel music,patting her foot she dipped strong Galax snuff.

Then there was Grandpa Prevette,who worked at Earlanger cotton mills.My brother Lawrence and I would always meet him after work.He always saved us something in his old black lunch box.One day I would get a sandwich and my brother would get a pie or cake. Grandpa traded around with us.

Grandpa was an average size man who parted his hair on the side. He wore gold rim glasses and denim shirts, and bib over alls. I remember he'd take me to the Earlanger Company store with him.He always bought me something like paddle balls or bubble stuff.Once I blew bubbles all the way home.

I remember Uncle Grady Hinkle operated a store on Highway 52. Grandpa took me there and Uncle Grady always gave me a little bag of candy.I remember those times with heartfelt joy.

Then there was Grandpa Jhon who was my great grandpa,and who lived with grandpa and grandma.
He had a white mustache and white hair.He was a medium build man and he wore overalls and walked with a cane.I read his bible to him.

Then there was my Grandma Benoy.She had silver hair and parted it in the middle and pinned it on both sides with siver pins.She wore print dresses and a bib apron.She carried her snuffbox in her apron pocket.She heated with wood and she had no electricity. She used kerosene lamps and used a out house. Us grandchildren carried water sometimes for her in a silver bucket.Grandpa Benoy died at an early age and left her with six children.She had two sets of twins.

At the age of fourteen,my mom went to work in Earlanger Cotton Mill to support the family.My mom and dad raised my two brothers and me in a three-room house here in Pugtown.We had lots of love,but we also had it hard.Mom washed on a wringer washing machine and cooked on a wood cook stove.We also had an outhouse and our toilet tissue was Sears catalogs and old new papers.

There was this old man whose name was Jhon Pleasant who came down from the mountains every Christmas and stayed around two weeks with us.We were always happy to see him. Young and old loved and welcomed him. He was a wise,jolly,good,old man.Us kids thought of him as Santa.He'd sit around at night and tell old stories that were just so interesting to everyone.

Families were families back then and neighbors were family.We'd sit in the yard until late at night and neighbors came over to roast marshmellows.

We had our little white church where we went to worship and we had our homecomings under the seven oaks at Mr.and Mrs. Waktkin's.I would always look for banana pudding and be sick for the rest of the day.

My family was blessed with the talent of music.
My brothers Lawrence & Ronnie,and also my Grandpa and Grandma Prevette played music.People came from all over the county to play music with my brothers.Sometimes during the week and on week ends we'd have a hoedown until two or three O'clock in the morning.

Daddy owned some land where he let preachers put up tents,so one time a preacher put up a tent and everyone around came to the meetings every night.We went and we had these two ducks that followed us and while we were singing,they waddled down the aisle and added their ''Quack "quack''to every thing we sang.

We had dogs,cats,chickens,pigs,cows,horses,and ducks.We loved our animals and they loved us.

Daddy killed hogs in the winter and all the neighbors came over to help make sausage and lard. Daddy always made three or four
gardens and Grandma Prevette canned lots of things.We had a old well on the back porch where we drew water in a bucket and poured it over into another bucket with a dipper to drink from.

I remember the first television in our neighborhood.Everyone went to that house to watch at a certain time every night.In Pugtown,I grew up with best friends Clorine and Rachel.We were close as sisters and we had good times together.Rachel and I spent the night at each other's house and we were always together.

I remember this black man everyone called Will
who delivered ice to our house.He drove a black and orange truck with ice and coal phone number written on it.He also had a bell he rang and when we heard this bell we all ran home and hid under the bed.All you could see was eyes peeking and this old man would laugh. He'd tell us he was going to take us to the ice plant and freeze us into blocks of ice if we didnt be good.Then he'd stand us in the corner. All Pugtown kids were scared to death of him.

Rachel,Clorine and I rode the Pugtown school bus together.We called it the Orange Blossom Special.
I remember we had a old wind-up Victorola,and that it was Grand Old Opry all night on Saturday night on a old cabinet radio.We had Grimes Mill where people went to get meal and flour.

Our Christmas' were poor because my mom and dad were both disabled to work but some how Daddy always made them happy ones.He'd go out and cut down a tree.Then we'd make our decorations from cigarette papers and cotton.Daddy always managed some way to get apples and oranges and one stick of candy, and we always had a good Christmas dinner together.We were happy together.We had lots of love so we didnt know how poor we really were.

Us Pugtown kids used to go around on Valentines night and slip a Valentine under everyone's door and then we'd knock on thier doors and run and hide and watch them come to the door to get them.We had so much fun.

I remember in my teenage years cruising uptown Lexington. This was in the 50's and 60's.We had 45" and 78" record players.Me and my cousin Becky Benoy and Judy Crisp,Bea Lanier and Janet Waller, we'd cruise and smoke them old long Pall Mall cigerettes and wearing our turtleneck sweaters and neck scarves.We thought we were the cat's meow back in the days of Elvis Presley,the Beatles, and Fats Domino music. We would cruise the Old Hickory Barbeque where all of us teenagers loved to go at the end of South Main Street. We also loved to go to the old American Legion on Saturday night to dance the jitterbug,waltz and the shag; but we mostly just cruised around town in our '57 Chevy with shiny chrome and whitewall tires, up and down Main Street. My brother Lawrence had a red convertible that we loved to sport on Sunday afternoons.
Going to the old Lexington Drive-in and the Welcome drive-in was a treat for us teenagers back then. A carload could get in for one dollar.
Then I met my husband and we also cruised down Main Street in his '61 black and white Ford. We had just a plain and simple wedding. We had just a plain and simple wedding. We were married on the Fourteenth of August in the house I was raised in, before friends and family. We had a lovely wedding with a lovely cake. We raised our five children in Davidson County and we've been together thirty-six years.