Mama told me later that Hugh was a cowboy, had gotten his pay and was riding home when a man shot him in the back and took his money.
I was sorry I had ever wondered.
Mama told me that her brother Henry and the blacks around Duncan were not very friendly toward each other. At least one time, the blacks held hands and formed a human chain across the road to keep Henry from coming by. But Henry whipped up his horses and drove right through the crowd. After that he carried a long blacksnake whip to use on them if they ever got close to his wagon again.
Part of the tradition that was handed down to us from the Gaddies and the Johnsons was that there were only three things to drink— water, sweet milk, and buttermilk. You might include clabber if you like. But then, clabber was more of an "eat" than a drink. Soda pop was for the wealthy and foolhardy, and coffee was not permitted for three reasons: it cost money, it was unnecessary and it was not good for you. Money was for necessities. Any drinks stronger than these mentioned were strictly forbidden.
Even the sound of the word "whiskey" carried with it an inkling of sin and dishonor. Whiskey without drunkenness was improbable, and drunkenness was about as low as a person could go.
Mama grew up to hate whiskey because of its effect on men and because it tasted bad. However, there was always a jug of it under her father's bed—for medical use only. Any symptom of disease was treated immediately with whiskey. Mama hated the taste of it.
Mama told us about a man—perhaps an uncle—who was sick in bed and who was fond of whiskey. As he lay in bed, a few friends and kinfolks stopped by to see him. And one by one he asked them to mix him a little toddy. They did.
And wouldn't you know it, five or six toddies all in one man at one time made the man forget he was sick on disease and it made him fairly sick on whiskey which was what he had planned to be.
After I came into the Johnson family, Mama's people lived so far away I didn't get to know much about them.
We didn't get around to visiting them much. But I remember we did go to Duncan one time to visit some of them. It seems that the trip was made in about the year of 1916. We went in our 1914 model Reo car.