Taking Aunt Alean to Pacetown, Mo. on a journey down memory lane...

 Aunt Alean was almost 95 before she passed away and her mind was still sharp and she loved to talk about history and especially the early years when she was a child living on the "old home place".  So one day I took my recorder and we decided to take a drive to see how much still looked familiar to her even though where she grew up was long gone.   We were  in the truck and there use to be a road that went directly from the old home place to a little town called Pacetown.  She said as a child she would  walk barefoot from her house to the little store there to get items her mom (my Grandma Hicks) needed and then walk back.   We found the old road going through to Pacetown was no longer driveable so we took another route along the highway to get there.

Our first stop was to see this building which she said was the old store she use to walk barefoot to.  She remembers taking  eggs to trade for groceries  they needed.  

This little church is across from the store and Aunt Alean said she use to go to church there some.  I see the name on it is Pleasant Ridge -Pacetown Missionary Baptist Church.  I can't read the fine print to tell when it was established.  Wonder how it feels to be 95 and going back to see where you use to walk and spend time as a young child?  

She was born just a few miles from this little town and lived there till she married her first husband. At that time they rented a place near Spooky Springs  which I believe is also in the general area.

 Once he joined the service she went back home to live with her parents and lived here with them after her first child was born until her husband came back home from the service.  So she spent many years in this vicinity.

This is a hand painted picture of the "old Hicks home place" .  She described the rooms to me .  The bedrooms (only two) were on the main floor and the family room and kitchen were on the lower level which was built into the hill side.  I only wish I remember this place but I was too young when my grandparents moved into town to remember it much.  And actual pictures have not been found to exist yet.  

Here Aunt Alean is looking at a newspaper clipping of her and her sister Artie and other classmates.  She attended White Hall School as a young girl and walked to that school with her sister.  Artie was killed in a car accident in 1967 and Aunt Alean is about the last of those classmates still living.

Aunt Alean is on the front row in the plaid dress and her older sister Artie is on the back in a matching plaid dress. I'm sure my Grandma Hicks made their dresses.  She was well known in the area for her sewing skills and for her quilts.   I so love these old pictures and stories!

 

 This is a picture of Aunt Alean  with  Artie.  The old home place is in the background

Aunt Alean  told me in this picture she is with her dog Old Tip and is counting her pennies.  She said she was this little when she started walking to the little store at Pacetown.  That's probably why she is counting her pennies.  I love this kind of family history! She had a special little hoe made for her and she would go to the sweet potato patch with her mom every day and hoe the sweet potatoes.  She was a hard worker from the start.

Another picture of Aunt Alean as a young child.  She has a fascinating story beginning at her birth where she was so little the doctor spent the night not expecting her to live.  If you would like to read more about this fascinating, strong-willed woman I will be posting more of her life on this blog.  She was  an inspiration to me and  knowing her has been a blessing!