My grandmother on the left. Circa 1911.
~~~
I've mentioned in another story that my maternal grandmother, Autry, pictured above, lived on a farm in a house that had some strange occurrences. They had quite a large family, too. Thirteen children plus four grandchildren who's parents had died. All were expected to work the field both to plant and to reap. The younger ones did what they could, which often meant run here or bring that. Autry was one of the younger children.
During one particularly hot day in the field, Autry was sent to the house to fetch some water. She went in the kitchen and heard someone knocking on the wall between the kitchen and the next room. She thought her brother, Glen, was playing a trick on her and called out to him. "Glen, what are you doing in here?" No answer. So she went to the room where the knocking came from and no one was there. Just then there was the sound of someone knocking on the wall of the room across the hall. She called out again. "Glen! I know that's you! Now, stop it!" She went across the hall to that room. Again, no one was in there. Then the knocking began in the room next to that one. She knew she hadn't seen anyone come out of there and that scared her something awful! She ran back to the field and every last person was out there working. No one had left the field.
All these years of knowing this story and it's just now dawned on me that if I remembered it correctly, this meant they had water in the house! How very unusual for a farm house to have inside water in the early 1900s. Ordinarily, the water would have come from a well, and I'm sure theirs did, but why was she in the house? Just another thing I wish I could ask her about. I miss my Grandma.
~~~~
