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The Cherokee Scout i0C
and Clay County Progress Pcr Copy
Volume 80 _ Number 23 - Murphy, North Carolina, 28906 ? Second Class Postage Paid At Murphy, North Carolina ? Tuesday, December 23, 1969
Mother And Seven Children In Shack
Facing The Other Side Of Christmas
By Wally Avett
Staff Writer
We drove to the end of a
dirt road, walked 150 yards
down a muddy path slick with
ground frost and there it was, a
three-room tarpaper shack,
home for a mother and her
seven children.
"The Good Lord gives me
the strength," she says
patiently. "And I get $170 a
month and the commodities.
She and the Cherokee
County welfare caseworker, a
trusted friend, then smiled at
each other and between them
ticked off the commodity
items for the reporter's
notebook - "40 pounds of
flour...four or five boxes of
powdered eggs and milk, just
mix it with water...
"14 cans of cream, it comes
in good...we got some green
beans this month...yes, we get
meat - chopped meat, seven
cans. Got turkey this
month-nobody likes it too
much except the oldest
boy?and there's dried beans,
rice, rolled wheat and oats
Many items are not included
in the commodity program and
there are six hungry children
and a two-month-old baby boy
and she spends $60 of the
welfare check for more
'"awT calling the house a
tarpaper shack probably is not
completely fair. In some places
the imitation brick siding,
ragged and worn, still hangs m
place. The landlord cliarges $b
a month for rent.
Then, there is the electricity
bill, about $5 a month. The
front room, which -serves as a
living room and a bedroom, is
lit by a lone, bare bulb. There
is also an old refrigerator and a
newer wnnger-type washing
machine, both run y
electricity. ,
The washing machine also
bites into the check; like any
other consumer, the mother
has to make monthly payments
on it. There is no running
water inside the house, no well
nearby. The spring is about a
quarter-mile away and the trips
have to be numerous because
neither the mother nor any of
the children can carry a very
large container of water the
distance.
"It takes 16 trips to fill up
the washing machine," she
savs "And more for the rinse
water. But it's better than
before ? we used to just have a
scrub board."
The four older children go
to school and the three small
ones, boys aged f^ J^o and
the baby, stay at home, ive
got the five-year-old trained to
watch the two-year-old and
keep him off the baby while 1
go to get water when I'm
washing," she says. "The
two-year-old will try to get the
baby off the bed while I'm
gone so I don't let any grass
grow under me while I'm going
to the spring."
The older children are also
helpful, she said, especially the
oldest boy, who now acts as
the man of the house. The
cooking is done on a
woodstove in the kitchen and
the front room is heated by
another woodstove.
The 13-year-old cuts some
wood for heating the house
with a bowsaw. A better grade
of wood, cut to suitable
lengths, is sometimes
purchased for the kitchen
cookstove at $5 a cord. The
oldest boy has had to miss
school some days to cut wood
and the other children miss
more than they should due to
sickness and colds.
There is no television and
no paint covers the inside
walls. The bare wood has been
scrawled on by the children
with pencils and crayons and
the mother has pinned up some
of their art work brought home
from school. On one wall hangs
the remnants of a shattered
mirror.
Some of the windows have
glass, others have cardboard or
rusty sheets of tin, which let in
no light but do keep out some
of the cold winter wind. The
floor is rough, wooden
planking with cracks and holes
showing the dirt beneath.
There is no rat problem,
however. A movement under
the woodstove turned out to
be a fat tomcat. It was
explained that he and a
companion take care of any
stray rodents. There are also
two or three skinny dogs, who
bark at visitors and get by the
best they can amid the empty
cans and other debris in the
muddy yard.
The mother, now 30 years
old, doesn't want to move. The
Social Services Department
(formerly Welfare) thinks
almost any other house would
be an improvement and would
like to get the woman and her
children closer to Murphy and
more in the mainstream of life.
"This place seems so much
like home to me," she says.
"We lived here, in another
house which used to be here,
when I was a girl. I can still see
my mother in every comer."
Her mother has been
dead for several years and her
legal husband, she says,
deserted her after the fourth
child. She says she does not
know where he is or if it is
true, as rumors have it, that he
may have divorced her in a
court somewhere and married
another woman.
Christmas Prayer
The five-year-old is shown at the
breakfast table in the drafty kitchen. A
sprig of holly in the window was the
only Christmas decoration although
the mother said she hoped they would
be able to get a tree. (Staff Photos by
Avett)
The man who has fathered
her youngest children is a
drinking man, she says, and he
won't help her get a final
divorce from her husband and
then many her. "If we can't do
it right, we won't do it al all,"
she says. The caseworkers,
however, doubt her resolve and
are not certain that the
relationship is finished.
She adds that seven children
is enough and speaks movingly
of prayer meeting and a new
preacher in the community.
The caseworker, however, says
the mother said the same thing
two years ago, that six children
would be enough, and then
became very active in religion
after the birth of that
illegitimate child.
The caseworkers have talked
to her about voluntary
sterilization but she will not
agree to their suggestions.
However, several birth control
devices are available to her,
they seem more attractive, and
the caseworkers hope that
seven children will indeed
prove to be enough.
Married and with the first
baby at 17, she lived a meager
existence with the husband.
"He worked in the sawmill or
cut pines for pulp wood," she
recalls. "Then they got so little
for the pines they called it
'starvation sticks."
And starvation, the
caseworker says, is what
marked one of the children. He
is in school now, in the first
grade, but he is mentally
retarded to a degree and his
educational future is uncertain.
"She apparently just about
starved to death when she was
carrying him," the caseworker
says. Hie condition has a
scientific name and has
recently been spotlighted in
black communities in
Mississippi. It has to do with
the protein taken in by the
pregnant mother and
transmitted to the developing
child. Hie deficiency affects
the baby's brain and can never
be corrected.
So, this particular Uttle boy,
the caseworker said, having felt
starvation even before he was
born, grew up in a
pine-and-briar thicket in
Cherokee County and "was
like a little wolf." When he was
about five, he was taken to
Western Carolina University at
Cullowhee for a check-up at a
mental health clinic.
"He didn't understand, he'd
never seen that many people,"
the caseworker recalls.
Knowing only that he was
fighting for his life, he
struggled with all his strength
against the four adults holding
him and severely bit the doctor
conducting the examination.
That boy, and his brothers ?
and sisters, will get all the
trappings of Christmas. They're
already on the Jaycee Toys for
Tots list and on the Lions Chib
list for a bountiful Christinas
basket.
"Without thoae dubs,
Christmas would really be
bleak for them," the
caaeworker said. "But what
makes me mad" and her boa
twisted in Instant fury" Is that
the community will now forget
these people until next
Christmas ? saying, in effect. If
you can get by somehow for
the next 12 months wel me
you next (
the arm at i
nome,dweet home
Imitation brick siding and bare tarpaper flank the
front door of the house. A sheet of rusted tin roofing
coren the broken window at left, keeping out some
of the wind. The ramshackle wheelbarrow is used for
hauling firewood.
ftn Otct- a4,6,Ca*tecl tyctle
6,o*ne the tree
May the message of Christmas renew in our hearts
the hope and promise of that night in Bethlehem
when the Star shown brightly above. As we
celebrate the birth of the Christ Child, let us
especially rejoice on this happy holiday, filling
our hearts with peace and contentement, and
extending many kindnesses to others in the true
meaning of the season. May you have the very
merriest Christmas.
7&c Sta^ 76e Scout
Fund-Raising Drive For Hospital
Brings In $2,728 In First Week
'Response to the Murphy
Hospital Authority's appeal for
money to renovate Providence
Hdspital has been heartening -
but the drive has a long way to
go and the great majority of
pebple have not yet responded.
BQ1 Christy, Citizens Bank
assistant vice president and
MHA treasurer, reported
Monday afternoon that $2,728
h*S been raised by 121
donations.
This is far short of what is
needed, according to MHA
chairman Jack Owens, Scout
publisher. The renovation
program is now being studied
by a contractor, he said, and at
the present time members of
the authority don't know what
thl coat will be.
However, he added that it
wW probably be In the
S.000 to $40,000 range,
i, he said, cannot be let
HmIHi CoiKil
flais Meatiig
3The State of Franklin
Health Council, Inc., will hold
Ita'annual business imetlng on
Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. at the Hinton
Rural Life Center in Hayesville.
Ppopie from Graham, Chtrokee
and Clay counties are iwited
? attend.
until the money is available
and the renovation plan has
been approved by the state
Medical Care Commission.
Christy gave the following
accounting: the authority last
week sent out 5,433 appeal
letters asking for donations,
using the county tax listings
for addresses. Of the total, 289
were returned marked "address
unknown."
Of the 5,144 which were
delivered to Cherokee County
citizens,ten were answered with
no donation - the letter,
complete with the penny
attached to 'buy' readership,
being mailed back to the
authority as a wry joke. Hie
121 who donated the $2,728
made contributions ranging
from $1 to $500. The average
donation was a little over $22.
Christy, Owens and other
authority members expressed
hope that donations from the
5,013 who received letters and
have not been heard from will
begin coming in after
Christmas.
The renovation is planned
to provide patients with a
psychological lift, help in
recruiting needed doctors for
Murphy and give the
community a serviceble,
attractive facility until a new
hospital is built sometime in
the future
Those who have donated so
far are:
Hugh and Edith Howard; D.
M. Reese; Mrs. Hariey West;
Vernie Ayers; Mr. and Mis.
Abe Zimmerman; E. R. Hunt;
Evelyn Minor; Peter J.
McKeon; Mr. and Mrs. Gamie
Nix; Mary Dockery; Lawson W.
Palmer; Holland McSwain;
Margaret Studies; James A.
Parker, Robert L. Sherlock;
Dallas H. Stalcup; Emory D.
Hughes; Lyda Mallonee.
Bessie Mallonee; Mr. and
Mis. Jeff Dalrymple; Claude
Am06; Mr. and Mis. George L.
Wright; Mis. Willard McClure;
Bessie Montgomery; Mr. and
Mis. Henry Hyatt; J. R.
Gladson; Clarence Hendrix;
Alice B. Jeffries; Happy
Jeffries; Don and Carol
Hogsed; A. E. and Pearl
Palmer, Bill Gossett.
Mrs. E. Rose; Mis. Dewey
Lloyd; Mis. W. R. Martin; Mis.
S. D. Jones; Joe M. Hawkins;
Leonard Moore; Isa Mae
Harper; Huishel Hayes; Oak
Park Grocery; Loy Lunsford;
E. A. Howard; Garland
Coleman; Frank Calhoun;
Helen Wells, M.D.
Charlie R. McDonald;
Robert Barker; Helen H.
Chambers; John Jordan; Elbert
Hughes; Phil R. Sandidge;
Bonnie E. Thompson; Mr. and
Mis. Walter Sneed; Mr. and
Mis. Ernest Kephait; Myrtle K.
Plejnmons; Fulton Thomasson;
Mis. W. V. Allen; Mr. and Mis.
Frank Coffey; Getchel
Sudderth; Cassie Dalrympie.
Frank L. Mauney; Cora
Graham; O. C. Payne; Boyce
Stiles; Sanford Grizzle; Emory
Stewart; T. C. McDonald;
James H. Kilpa trick; W. A.
Ashe; R. D. Chandler; Grace
Mauldin.
Charlie and Bessie Bates;
Jane McCoy; John A. Hall;
Arche Gibby; Joe R. Kephart,
Judy, Betty and BUI; Murphy
"66" Sta.; Grace and Don Hall;
M. M. Leatherwood; W. M.
Davis; Frank Feiguson; Pauline
B. Biuilt; Ed Townson Auto
Co.; Mr. and Mis. Geo. L.
Roberson; C. B. Wells.
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Dockeiy;
Mr. and Mb. Ralph WHcox; Mr.
and Mb. Sidney Radford; Mb.
Lillian Blair; Mr. and Mb. Lee
Coker; Margie Davis (Mb.
Bob); Mrs. Bessie Mae
Dockeiy; Mis. Alice Palmer; W.
A. Boyd; Zelda Thomasson;
Easley Mfg. Co.; Mr. and tym.
Frank Robinson; Clyde E.
Starks, Sr.
Mb. Addilee B. Brown;
Bobby Joe Shields; CrandaU
Moffltt; Mr. and Mb. Veil
Davir, Herman and Ruth
Robeison; Dair M. Shields;
Amanda D. Wells; Paul Rogers;
Callie Little; Mm. Claude
Panther, Sr.; L. W. Shields; A.
Greenawalt; Mis. George