School

Well we got settled in by the first of the next week. Mama enrolled me in school at Southside elementary. M.C. went to Young Jr., Betty rode with someone back down to Ashford, because it was her last year I think. Ellis was delivering groceries for a little store across the railroad track from our house (Carpenters). Louise was still working at Cash Drug store, Bud was in the Army and Sarah hadn't started to school yet.

Now it was time for me to start school. I don't remember how I got there but I was so scared. They put me in Gloria Jean's room, she was like a big sister to me. Our teach was Mrs. O'mary. Back then the elementary schools went from the first grade through the sixth grade. I really don't remember much that first year except that I couldn't tie my shoes and had Jean doing that. I do remember failing the first grade though. Never did catch up with Jean.

Neighbors

While living in the country we had no close neighbors. About all the people I saw was family. I didn't have any friends because there were none near by. Maybe a cousin would come on Sun. but other than that it was just family. I think that's what made me so shy when we moved. Because we had close neighbors, bunches of them. Living next door at 502 was my Mama's brother, Uncle Jake and aunt Nancy and my cousin Gloria Jean. Jean was 6 mo. older than me. I found out later that Uncle Jake played a big part in our move. Next door to them was the Hightowers, they didn't stay there long. At 506 were the Beasley's (Roy) and his wife ( don't remember her name and she died soon after we moved there. They had 3 children. Betty was the oldest and she had already married to Buford Fowler. They would soon move into the Hightower house. Mack was the son and him and M.C. became good friends. A daughter Sue, and she and Sarah were good friends. Next to them were the Armstrong's (Floyd) and his wife. They had a daughter name Elmeta (ms)and a son named Hodges. We grew up together and were best friends for years. At 510 were the Chancey's I really don't remember much about them except they had some girls and a son named Obe. They also had a television, the first one I had even seen.

The move

Our neighbors must have thought we were the Beverly Hillbillies, but man I thought we were up town. There wasn't but eight of us living there to start with because Bud had already joined the Army. It had a living room a kitchen a small bath room with a shower and two bedrooms, kinda small for the eight of us but it served the purpose at the time. The lot was about 50 ft. wide and 75 ft. deep. The street was still dirt, I don't think we cared because we had never seen anything paved but a highway. It had a paved walk going to the street and hedges in the front. It had a kerosene heater in the hall with a 55 gal drum sitting out back on some concrete blocks. I don't think we could ever afford to fill it up but I sure do remember walking down to Cherry's store and getting 5 gals later on in life. Oh yes, it had a little building in the back yard, maybe an 8x10, but it didn't last long. I'll get to that later. All in all I think this was the best move Mama and Daddy ever made because we moved yearly in the country. I was a happy little boy, had all this and ever had Sis living back with us again. Not bad for a six year old.

The Hutto clan moves to Dothan

Well I don't know if this was planned or not,but we moved to Dothan on Nov. 3,1953, it was mama's and daddy's 25th wedding anniversary. You would have thought we had moved into a castle, or that is what I thought. The address was 500 Barnard, st. That sucker had an in door bathroom, running water and electricity, but we were already use to the electricity you know, but it had switches in the wall instead of a string hanging from the ceiling. It was made out of block and had a little wash room attached to the back but I don't think we had a washing machine at this time. I maybe wrong but I think I remember Mama still washing clothes in a pot in the back yard. The laundry room came in handy later.

Other things I remember about that place is that it had two front doors, one went to the living room and kitchen and the other one went to the two bed rooms. I remember that there was a light in the ceiling and it had a pull cord and the cord was tied to the bed where you could turn the light on from the bed. Daddy would farm during the week and on weekends he would cut people's hair on the front porch, for like a dime each. I never did know how he learned to cut hair. Back to those school days at Ashford like I said before, I hated school but there was one thing I did like about it. At recess we got to go across the street to a place called the canteen and we could buy cokes and crackers, both for a nickle. I don't remember much about the school because I only went there from Sept. to Oct and then we moved to Dothan. We had some neighbors that live back of us on a dirt road. We would walk through a field about a half mile to get to their house. I think their name was Griffin. There was a ditch near their house that had water in it. M.C found an old car hood and tried to float on it, never worked.