c1928-All babies were born at home when I was eleven, and Harry was next to the baby. There was just foourteen months difference in their ages. Some time in the night on March 5, I heard a little baby cry. I said "Mom, is that Harry crying? If it is make him shut up." And Mother whispered come here. See what I''ve got?" I ran into the bedroom and there was a little tiny baby in Mom's bed. I said, "Oh, where'd you get it?" Mother said "Shhh, the doctor brought it. Go back to bed." I saw it the next morning, and our neighbor came over and gave it a bath. Mother named it Jackie. The doctor said" You named it right. He's another Jack Dempsey!" He weighed eleven pounds and a quarter.
c1933-One year everyone in the family got scarlet fever. We all had high temperatures and red rashes. We were quarantined for a long time. Jackie was the last to get it. He was so little and so sick. His throat just sweeled until he couldn't breathe anymore. I can still see my mama on her knees holding him as he pursed his lips into a whistle, desperately sucking the air. She was crying and rocking him. Not long after that the silver tracheal tube was invented.
Buck had a bicycle that I always wanted to ride. Someone gave us all a 50 and I gave mine to Buck so I could ride his bike. I rode it about a block and then he came and grabbed it from me. I was so mad because I didn't think I got my money's worth. I rode it down a big hill once. I had seen the other kids do it. The bike always slowed down for them at the bottom, so I decided to try it. I didn't know you had to use the brake and I crashed into a tree. I still have cinders in my knee from that day.
Daddy used to take each one of us on his knee at night and sing a song. He would sing a different one for each kid. When I visited Buck the summer before he died, he sang one of those.
"Come little leaves," said the wind one day,
"Over in the meadow with me and play.
Put on your dresses of red and gold,
Summer's gone and the days grow cold."
The song I liked most was this one.
I don't wanna play in your yard.
I don't like you any more.
You'll be sorry when you see me,
Sliding down my cellar door.
You can't holler down my rain barrel.
You can't climb my apple tree.
I don't wanna play in your yard,
'Cause you won't be nice to me.
I loved to sing when I was a girl, and my mama loved to hear me. Whenever she would have a visitor she would ask me to sing for them. I would sing songs like "Brighten the Corner Where
You Are" or "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." I sang in the children's choir at church. At the end of the service we would sing a hymn and the preacher would invite those who wanted to join the church to come down to the altar. I always wanted to join the church, but Mama didn't think I understood what it meant. After much begging, one Sunday as I was sitting in the choir, the invitation was given as usual. I looked at mom pleadingly and she gave me a nod. I marched right down, totally unaware that the whole choir was behind me! When the others were asked why they came down, too, they said, "Well, Mary came down, and we just thought we were supposed to follow her!
Because my name was Mary Van Camp, sometimes the kids would call me "Pork & Beans."
I would bloody their noses!
Papa always made spagetti on Sunday. He said you didn't need bread with spagetti, because the spagetti was the bread. He also made pickled eggs. A big jar full they were beautiful from soaking in pickled beet juice. I loved them.
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Aunt Mary's Memories
