The following is the result of conversations with Esther Wrinkles over the course of a couple of pleasant afternoons combined with some material that she had previously provided to the Historical and Genealogical Society Journal of Douglas County for it’s May 1998 publication.
“I was born June 28, 1917. My parents were Rufus and Alice Hutchison Keller. When he was two years old my Dad’s Mother Elizabeth Packard Keller passed away. He was raised by his Uncle Jewel and Aunt Ellen Proctor. The kitchen in their house had dirt floors for years. Dad would go to the barn and feed horses while Aunt Ellen fixed breakfast. He would break the ice and wash his hands and face on the way to the barn. My Dad never went to high school just grade school, until he was eighteen years and older, but he was an excellent student and fast! He was never beat at spelling and ciphering; wasn’t a problem in their book he couldn’t solve.
“I went a two-month summer term of school to Ethel (Ross) Proctor, when I was four years old. I walked 1 ½ miles, sat with my Uncle Herbert Hutchison. He was then about an eighth grader. I was bashful and wanted to sit with him. I went the summer term to Ethel Proctor, then first term to Eula Schudy; the rest of my grades to Willie Freeman, through the eight grade. In the winter I had to wrap my feet with gunny sacks and tie with a binder twine string. When I got to school I would pull them off and lay them in the corner until time to go home. Also would take turns sweeping after school for $1.50 a month. One month a boy built fires for the same. They finally got $2.50 to walk the distance and be so cold to build a fire. I was accidentally pushed in the creek by some of the big boys pushing one another along a fence along the creek bank. Ice froze my shoes and I was so cold I cried with them. They would tell us there were bears in the bluff, then have to walk us home. We were afraid. My brother Cecil and I hid behind some bushes on the bank when we seen our first Model T. A Mr. Plunger Bownds sold Abraham Coonts one new for $200.00. Was lots of money then. After I graduated from the eight grade, I went back a year to Oliver Coats. I thought it was great because my Dad went to him too. We enjoyed that year. We got to do things we hadn’t ever, like pushing these old skinner wheels (we called them ) at noon, clear up to Manford Smith’s or to Clever Creek. I milked my Uncle’s cows, then walked 3 ½ miles to school. It was the same at night. I got five cents for milking. My uncle was blind and couldn’t see to do things, and my Aunt was hard of hearing. I walked nearly four miles to Denlow with my Aunt Ellen. She carried five dozen eggs in a basket and part way on her head. She got five cents per dozen, and got sugar and coffee with the egg money. I was out of school a year because my Mother wasn’t well, then went to high school at. I walked to school or rode a horse some. I stayed home on Thursday till 11 o’clock and helped my Mother wash, then walked the four miles to Denlow for the half day. We either had to carry our wash water up a hill or take the big iron kettle to the spring, heat the water there, wash and boil the clothes, rinse and carry the clothes up the hill to hang them on the line.
“We had ciphering matches with Fairview, Bakersfiled, Dogwood and Cold Springs. At Dogwood in 1933, the time came to cipher against my teacher. If I got first choice, I turned him down on multiplication of fractions, and if he got first choice he would get me on addition of fractions. I got first choice and turned him down, which made me happy. He would say, “I taught you all you know.” It was hard for him to admit to losing. I was happy about beating the teacher, but I had to pay for it. I got the measles. It was cold we all stood around a wood stove. I was standing close to Johnny Evans. I thought he really had pimples. What I didn’t know was “it was measles.” We went there, a bunch of us, with my cousin, Orvil Hicks, in his Model T. Ford. We pushed it up hills because it only had low and reverse, then not too much power. A time when we ciphered, a cousin, Joe Hutchinson, would come and join in with us. He didn’t like to get beat. To try to add to the frustration with me, he would peck out loud with the chalk on the blackboard and add out loud to bother me, because I got so I could add both outside lines for addition as we went. Most times, we had three and four lines. That was what I called nervous fun. Made me nervous, but fun to turn him down. We had some hard to beat back then. We studied hard all week to get to cipher or spell from noon or last recess on Friday or every other Friday. We never went miles away to do all this. The most was around ten miles and we had to have our lessons caught up before our teacher would let us do either. Forty pupils and earlier sixty, and one room schools. They don’t have ciphering matches now. The are missing lots of fun. We did have fun and enjoy things back then in the late 20’s and 30’s. Could get a candy bar or lemonade for five cents if we had the nickel.
“After two years of high school I married Raymond Mears. We had two sons, Lonnie and Donnie. My Mother passed away, June 11th, 1936, when she was only 40 years old. My sister Irene Dooms (now) was only four years old. We, Lonnie, Donnie and I stayed there with Dad (Rufus Keller), brother Cecil who was a teenager and Irene. My little boy, Donnie Leon Mears, was burned to death in dog house looking for a pup Andrew Proctor had give him the day before. As time went on, my sister, Irene, went to school at Ava. No bus came closer than three miles. She had to meet the bus night and morning and cook for our Dad.”
Esther said that with all the sadness that had occurred on that place; her Uncle Jewel had died there, then her Mother, then the tragedy of losing her little son and her husband leaving, she was near to a nervous breakdown and the doctor told her to get out of there. She drove her little Model A into Mountain Grove and at first helped out a cousin who was cleaning a big two story house for the Johnson Family. It had thirty something windows which she helped wash inside and out. The cousin was working at the shoe factory and Esther applied and went to work there in March of 1945. She stayed during the week there in Mountain Grove at her Dad’s brother’s house and came home to the farm on the week ends. She said that she worked a hard 40 hours a week and was paid $16.00. Her cousin was going with a boy named Clark Wrinkles who had a brother who had come home from the War in November of 1945. She said that Clifford was a very nice young man and that he was very good to her. The four of them used to pal around and had a lot of fun. On September 27, 1946, Esther and Clifford married. They bought their farm in Champion in 1947, and their son Larry was born that year. Esther said that Clifford was a good Father to Lonnie and Larry and she says “I have two I love: Lonnie and Larry and their families are good to me.” They lived in Champion until 1989 when they sold and moved to Vanzant in August of that year. “Clifford passed in l993 and we go on and do the best we can. The old days back then I can see now were the good old days—smelling the wood burning in the old wood cook stove of an evening when we built a fire to get supper. What would people do now to cook, bake, also that the iron to iron clothes and couldn’t keep it warm or even black or scorch them. I used to wash and iron white shirts for Gerald and Louis Proctor for fifteen cents. Most times was two or three times because the iron blacked them. Had to heat them on the cook stove and some or most time they got smoked. I went to a sale in 1945’s. Only had fifteen cents. There was a beautiful clear cut glass sugar bowl and cream pitcher to match I wanted. I got them for fifteen cents. I was happy. Later years, I sold them at a garage sale for $15.00. I have regretted it. Would be $50.00 or more now.”
In 1958, Esther went back to the Shoe Factory and worked there until 1970.
Before they left Champion, Esther and Clifford had been visiting with a number of neighbors around who had decided that it would be a good idea to have a fire department on the west side of Fox Creek. Back then the creek would get up and the Eastern Fire Department would have to go a long way around to get to anybody over on the other side of the creek. Esther and Sharon Mallernee (now Sikes) and Sharon’s Mother-in-Law, Thelma Mallernee, would drive all over the country around Champion and Skyline signing people up for the fire department. Esther said that she and Sharon drove many, many miles and on more than one occasion wound up in places they were glad to get away from. Early in June this year the Ladies Auxiliary of the Skyline Fire Department ran the concession stand at the Bluegrass Festival down at the Wagon Wheel Bluegrass Park. They cooked burgers and sold home-made pies. Esther said that in September of 1986, Dale Mallernee cooked burgers down at the Bluegrass Park and that was one of the first activities that the Skyline Fire Department had done as a group. The Fire Department was rolling at full force by 1987. She said, “We got it the hard way.” The women baked pies and served lunches at auction sales, and had garage sales and chili suppers to supplement the membership dues to support the activities of the fire department. The first Annual Skyline Picnic was held in the early 1990’s. Back in February of 2004, Esther received an Award of Appreciation from the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department as a Founding Member for her many years of Dedicated Service. When asked about how many pies she supposes she has made over the years, she said that she couldn’t hazard a guess. “It’s in the thousands.” For a number of years she would bake four a day two or three times a week for Plummer’s Junction, and that doesn’t count all those she made for Max Penner and others.
“He always wanted four different kind and once, a chocolate, a lemon, a coconut cream and another kind.” Danny Hull was just by on Thursday and asked her to bake a strawberry rhubarb cobbler and a lemon meringue for Saturday the 23rd. She said that she would bake them, but not on Saturday the 23rd because she’s having a Birthday Party! He was satisfied to have them Saturday the 16th and will enjoy them for Father’s Day. That will also give him a chance to attend Esther’s Birthday Party over at the Skyline School from 2 p.m.. until 5 p.m.. Any old friends or new friends are welcome to come celebrate with her, or to send her a card to Rt. 1, Box 845, Vanzant, MO 65768.
On Saturday, the 23rd of June, the community got together to celebrate Esther’s 90th birthday. The party was held at the Skyline School Cafeteria and was hosted by her sons and their wives. Well over a hundred of her friends and neighbors came out to wish her well. Her grace and enthusiasm are an inspiration. She’ll be baking pies for the Skyline Area Volunteer Fire Department Picnic to be held on August 10th and 11th.
[comments…]
Excitement in Champion is running high! The Champion School Reunion is about to happen and soon Champions from all over will be congregating on the old school grounds. The weather is auspicious for such a gathering with milder temperatures and the grass greened from recent rains. People will start arriving by ten or so on Saturday morning with lawn chairs and dishes for the pot-luck lunch. There will be music and wonderful fellowship as people catch up on the past year’s news. Some of those stories about the old timers may surface for the edification of some new comers to the beautiful place. Someone asked how many Champions it will take to reach from one side of town to the other. The signs do not appear to be more than a hundred yards apart. Measurements might be taken. Someone else said that now that everybody knows how to get to Champion and how proud Champions are of their signs, that it will just be a matter of time before they go missing. Surely not!
