My Mother Juanita Balk

Mother (Karen and I were always required to use Mother rather than Mom) Juanita Lucille Phillips was born May 12, 1920 in their farm home 12 miles south of Freedom, Oklahoma. She was a late life blessing of Martin Granville Phillips Jr. and Effie May Webb Phillips. Her nearest sibling Milton Harley was 8 years older. Most of the other 5 siblings were already or nearly grown. Her neices and nephews were her age. She as child worried about her "elderly" parents dying. She attended Golden Belt School thru the eighth. It was a one room school about 3 miles from her home. She was often the only one in her grade. She related a story of a very early "hot school lunch program". It consisted of the teacher making alternately cocoa and vegetable soup daily to serve with whatever students carried in lunch pails. The students brought vegetables to go in the soup. Since she was reared basically as an only child she had the privilege of riding a horse to school. Other families with several children didn`t have that luxury. The families didn`t have Christmas trees in their homes. Their tree was at the school. Parents provided a gift for their children. She told once at about age 6 or 8 of going to the party and seeing the most beautiful doll on the tree. She wished all evening it would be hers. Lo and behold she took it home. She told of her mother making part of the morning biscuit dough into a cinnamon roll for her lunch. Was she a bit spoiled? Maybe but didn`t seem to be-was kind and generous to her peers. More recently she told the story of traveling by train from Waynoka to Arkansas to see relatives and got to eat at the Harvey House restaurant.
More next time.