Abilene = Hico Again - Clyde

We left the Hico area sometime in 1938.     Our next stop was Abilene. In those days Abilene’s population was about 26,000 but it far outstripped the population of Hico or Iredell.   I don’t remember too much about our year in Abilene.  Daddy worked for the Griffith family.  They owned a “chicken ranch” about a mile from the present campus of ACU.  Often Daddy had to work seven days a week, and when he did my mother and I crossed Rainy Creek, and then walked across a football field to the campus where he would worship.  When Daddy could get off on Sundays, we attended the Northside church.  Paul Southern, who would later become head of the Bible department at ACC, was the preacher.

There’s a lot I don’t remember about our year in Abilene.  One memory that does stand out is my encounter with a bolt sticking up out of the concrete.   I fell on the bolt and it narrowly missed my eye.  It created an enormous gash.   I can still remember walking down to the “chicken ranch” with my mother.   We got in Roy Griffith’s car and rode to Hendrick’s hospital in Abilene.  They didn’t have an emergency room in the hospital in those days, so they just took me into the operating room.  There Dr. Jack Estes sewed the gash back together. I still have a scar near the left corner of my eye as a reminder of this episode.

According to the prevailing theory of the time, a gash like that would heal better if they sewed it up without deadening.  So that how I got sewed up.   I screamed to high heaven.  Finally Dr. Jack made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.  He said, “Norman if you won’t cry I’ll give you two nickels.”   I hushed my mouth, gritted my teeth and qualified for the nickels.  Doesn’t sound like much.  But this was 1938 and ten cents was more money than I had ever had at one time in my life.

I remember another episode at Hendricks.  My mother was rushed to Hendrick’s hospital with a pregnancy that had gone bad.  Again Dr. Jack Estes performed surgery.   That’s the basic reason I’m an only child. Things were much less controlled than they are today.  Daddy was allowed in the operating room.  I don’t exactly know what they planned to do with me, but I remember running up and down the halls of the hospital screaming, “I want my Mama.”  Ultimately they took me into the room of a little boy who had been hospitalized.  He had toys.  I wasn’t interested in the toys. I wanted my Mama, but I did calm down.

We then moved back to the Benton Place for a while.  We lived a little while in town, and we finally moved to the place where the snake episode took place.  I think I’ve already told that story.

By 1941, the country was mobilizing in anticipation of World War II.  Camp Barkeley was one of the army camps that came into existence.  Daddy found work there, and we moved to Clyde.  With the exception of the four years we lived at Elmdale, I remained at Clyde until I left home.  Daddy and Mama lived there until they died.  I was excited about moving to Clyde because the soil was sandy and I thought it would be fun to play in the sand.  I soon discovered that the sandy soil was filled with grassburs (also known as sandburs).  In the years to come I would discover goatheads, bull nettles, prickly pears, devil’s pin cushions and a lot other West Texas vegetation that wasn’t all that friendly.