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Tuesday
March 16, 2010 Since 1922 |
An idyllic childhood in Cove
By Wanda Orton
Contributor Published October 7, 2009 Pat and I worked together at The Sun that summer of '52 when I was fresh out of Robert E. Lee High School, and she -- a 1950 graduate of Barbers Hill High School -- was a news intern from Baylor University.
Two things that made a lasting impression were:
1. The fact that Pat, in her spare time, read "War and Peace" while sitting in a boat on the waterfront in Cove, and 2. Her mother, Gladys Avera, made delicious peanut butter cookies.
Pat brought the cookies to work and I still have the recipe, jotted down on an index card. As I began to write this column (which, by the way, is about Pat Avera Dyer growing up in Cove) I made a batch of those peanut butter cookies. It set the mood.
One of my favorite things to do as a writer is to coax others into sharing early memories. It occurred to me that anyone who read "War and Peace" in a boat must have grown up in interesting surroundings so I asked Pat to share.
In her words:
"I spent a lot of time in the woods and down in the marsh. I loved climbing trees, picking bouquets of Blue Flags (wild Iris), and watching birds, especially the Blue Herons.
“Hunting was good in Cove -- rabbits, squirrels, ducks and geese. Also fishing was great, and crabbing, crawfishing, shrimping. Daddy had a three-horse motor and wooden boat. We would go to the bay from time to time -- Daddy, Mother, my sister and I.
"We would spend the night, use kerosene lanterns and gig flounder. Sometimes we could pick up soft shell crabs. We could pick up crawfish in season from Old River marsh.
"Back then, 565 was narrow and more curvy. It was a shell road. Shell dust would come into the house. Windows were open -- no fans or air conditioning. We had a fireplace. Daddy would get lumber from the woods with a hand saw and ax.
“Grandpa (Henry Icet) grew cane and made syrup. He grew watermelons and many other crops. He had cattle and horses out on the prairie. Had pigs, geese, chickens, lots of fig trees. He made boats, coffins, shoed horses, could build anything. Grandma (Armilda Griffith Icet) cooked on an old wood stove. She was a great cook.
"Cove had a schoolhouse for some years, but students went to Barbers Hill school by the time we were old enough. There were wild grapes for jelly -- I still make that -- and blackberries and always a good garden.
"My sister Sylvia and I mowed our grass with a push mower. Daddy would give us a dollar apiece. We finally got electricity -- I think in 1945 -- and party-line telephones.
"Joseph's Store and Post Office was a mile down the road from our house. All our cousins were older and we lived away from our friends from school, so it was lonely. We got a milk cow and I milked her in the evening. Mother milked her in the morning.
"We always had chickens. Had a tree stump just outside the chicken yard with two nails. We could place a chicken's neck inside the nails to hold it steady, and then chop off its head with a sharp ax. Then it would flop around the yard for awhile and we would have fried chicken for Sunday dinner. My sister and I both learned how to clean chickens at an early age.
"Grandpa had a channel dug down the hill back of his house. I got a rod and reel for my 12th birthday.
"Big change came when I-10 was built. Daddy could go to Anahuac for jury duty easier. He had had to go by boat or through Liberty.
"Barbers Hill was a great school. I played a trumpet in the band and graduated with the Mid-Century class -- 20 of us.
"Elizabeth Gill taught us English our senior year, her first year at BHHS. Now I'm living back in the house I grew up in. Glad to be here in Cove."
Wanda Orton is a retired managing editor for The Baytown Sun.
Contributor Published October 7, 2009 Pat and I worked together at The Sun that summer of '52 when I was fresh out of Robert E. Lee High School, and she -- a 1950 graduate of Barbers Hill High School -- was a news intern from Baylor University.
Two things that made a lasting impression were:
1. The fact that Pat, in her spare time, read "War and Peace" while sitting in a boat on the waterfront in Cove, and 2. Her mother, Gladys Avera, made delicious peanut butter cookies.
Pat brought the cookies to work and I still have the recipe, jotted down on an index card. As I began to write this column (which, by the way, is about Pat Avera Dyer growing up in Cove) I made a batch of those peanut butter cookies. It set the mood.
One of my favorite things to do as a writer is to coax others into sharing early memories. It occurred to me that anyone who read "War and Peace" in a boat must have grown up in interesting surroundings so I asked Pat to share.
In her words:
"I spent a lot of time in the woods and down in the marsh. I loved climbing trees, picking bouquets of Blue Flags (wild Iris), and watching birds, especially the Blue Herons.
“Hunting was good in Cove -- rabbits, squirrels, ducks and geese. Also fishing was great, and crabbing, crawfishing, shrimping. Daddy had a three-horse motor and wooden boat. We would go to the bay from time to time -- Daddy, Mother, my sister and I.
"We would spend the night, use kerosene lanterns and gig flounder. Sometimes we could pick up soft shell crabs. We could pick up crawfish in season from Old River marsh.
"Back then, 565 was narrow and more curvy. It was a shell road. Shell dust would come into the house. Windows were open -- no fans or air conditioning. We had a fireplace. Daddy would get lumber from the woods with a hand saw and ax.
“Grandpa (Henry Icet) grew cane and made syrup. He grew watermelons and many other crops. He had cattle and horses out on the prairie. Had pigs, geese, chickens, lots of fig trees. He made boats, coffins, shoed horses, could build anything. Grandma (Armilda Griffith Icet) cooked on an old wood stove. She was a great cook.
"Cove had a schoolhouse for some years, but students went to Barbers Hill school by the time we were old enough. There were wild grapes for jelly -- I still make that -- and blackberries and always a good garden.
"My sister Sylvia and I mowed our grass with a push mower. Daddy would give us a dollar apiece. We finally got electricity -- I think in 1945 -- and party-line telephones.
"Joseph's Store and Post Office was a mile down the road from our house. All our cousins were older and we lived away from our friends from school, so it was lonely. We got a milk cow and I milked her in the evening. Mother milked her in the morning.
"We always had chickens. Had a tree stump just outside the chicken yard with two nails. We could place a chicken's neck inside the nails to hold it steady, and then chop off its head with a sharp ax. Then it would flop around the yard for awhile and we would have fried chicken for Sunday dinner. My sister and I both learned how to clean chickens at an early age.
"Grandpa had a channel dug down the hill back of his house. I got a rod and reel for my 12th birthday.
"Big change came when I-10 was built. Daddy could go to Anahuac for jury duty easier. He had had to go by boat or through Liberty.
"Barbers Hill was a great school. I played a trumpet in the band and graduated with the Mid-Century class -- 20 of us.
"Elizabeth Gill taught us English our senior year, her first year at BHHS. Now I'm living back in the house I grew up in. Glad to be here in Cove."
Wanda Orton is a retired managing editor for The Baytown Sun.