Tribulations

Copyright © 2007 by William E. Dewberry.

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Contents

~ The Early Years ~

~ After the Divorce ~

~ In the Military ~

~ Back to Civilian Life ~

~ The New Birth ~

~ Married Life ~

~ Job Assignment in Thailand ~

~ A Change in my Career ~

~ A Change in My Work With the Church ~

~ My Walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death ~

~ Life after Depression ~

~ Stressful Times at Work ~

~ Life after Retirement ~

Dedication

These words are dedicated to my loving wife, Uvonne, who has always eagerly supported me in all my endeavors.

Acknowledgments

With loving appreciation to my wife, Uvonne, who spent many hours bringing my manuscript to life. It was truly a labor of love on her part. Her encouragement, skills and joyful devotion truly motivated me to bring my thoughts and words into this final stage of completion.

And a special thanks to my niece, Judy, who encouraged me to seek publication and assisted me through the process of making my book a reality and a dream come true.

Prologue

At the age of seventy-six, I am in the latter years of my life and feel now is the time to share a brief account of some of the experiences of my life. I want to do so while I am still able to write and remember. I want to write this book for three reasons. I want my family to know about my early life. I want to write about a tragic period that occurred in my life after my children left home. And lastly, I want to tell my story about finding an enduring faith in God.

In everyone’s life span, there are some good times, some difficult times and many in-between times. People tend to have a better memory of the good times and the difficult times of their lives. However, they sometimes find it hard to talk about the extremely difficult periods of their lives. These can only be described as horrible. I have had some tough times in my life, as well as many good times, but there was this one extremely awful period in my life when I walked through the valley of the shadow of death. Only with my lasting faith with God was I able to survive such a troublesome time. I have never discussed the details of those tribulations with anyone until now.

~ The Family Tree ~

Born in Cleburne, Texas, in December of 1930, I was the sixth child born into the family of William Elton Dewberry and Alvenia Burt Dewberry. My father was the son of Christopher Augustas Dewberry, and his mother was Jessie Elizabeth Williams. Christopher was a cotton farmer, and Jessie was a concert pianist and a poet. The Dewberry’s ancestors were Scottish Irish immigrants who came to this country from Ulster, a province in the northern part of Ireland.

My mother’s maiden name was Alvenia Burt. Even though my father’s name was William, most people called my father, Ed. He was a section foreman for the Santa Fe Railroad for more than forty years. My siblings, in the order of their ages, were Grace, Richard, Hazel, Lucille, Lorraine and Charles. I was three years younger than my sister, Lorraine and three years older than Charles.

 ~ The Early Years ~

Chapter 1

My memories from the time of my birth until I was six years old are very vague, so I shall begin my story with my earliest recollection. It was the year 1937, and my family was living in Pecan Gap, a small town in east Texas. At that time, I was just a skinny freckled face boy with light brown hair and big ears.

During the time my family lived in Pecan Gap, there were many memories of my sisters and brothers. As I recall, my oldest sister, Grace, married a boy named Johnny Travis and left home at an early age. My older brother, Richard, was gone most of the time. He worked in west Texas for a while and later enlisted in the Army. He was stationed in San Antonio, Texas. The only time I remember being around Richard was when he came home on a short leave from the Army. When he came home on leave, we slept together in the same bed. It was not so bad though, because he usually came home late at night after I was asleep and left early in the mornings before I woke up.

I never really got to know Richard until many years later when World War II ended, and he retired from the military. Before that time, the only memory I had of Richard was from hearing my parents and my sisters talk about him.

I do remember finding a plug of chewing tobacco in the bedroom where Richard and I slept one time when he was at home. The only thing I knew about chewing tobacco was the times I saw Grandpa Dewberry take a bite of tobacco and chew on it. I was by myself in the bedroom when I found the plug of chewing tobacco, so I took a bite of it, chewed on it and swallowed some. After I did it, I suddenly became dizzy and light headed and felt so sick I had to go to bed. Later, my sisters found me in bed and asked me what was wrong. When I told them about chewing the tobacco and getting sick, they laughed at me and said the tobacco belonged to Richard.

My daddy never chewed tobacco, but he did smoke cigarettes. Even though they sold them ready made, he did not buy them, because they were too expensive. I recall his taking a can of Prince Albert or a sack of Dukes Mixture tobacco out of his pocket and pouring some of the tobacco in a cigarette paper. He rolled it into the shape of a cigarette and smoked it.

*     *     *

To my surprise, Richard came home one morning, and I saw him at breakfast time. I learned he was getting ready to hop a freight train back to the military base in San Antonio. I recall watching Richard, as he swallowed some raw eggs for breakfast. I was curious and asked mother why he was swallowing raw eggs. She explained that Richard was going to ride a freight train to San Antonio, and the raw eggs would keep him from getting hungry. He would, also, take some raw eggs with him to eat on the way, since the train ride to San Antonio would be a long one.

*     *     *

During my early years, my family lived in a yellow railroad section house that was located along side the railroad tracks with the front of the house facing the tracks. The houses were called section houses, because the railroad track was divided into sections. Since my dad was a foreman, he was responsible for the maintenance of one section of the track that was several miles long. The section houses were not fancy, but they were good houses, and the good thing was that the Railroad Company maintained them.

While we were living in Pecan Gap, we lived in one of those yellow section houses. It was during the Great Depression and hundreds of men were out of work. They would ride the freight trains through Pecan Gap on their way to wherever they could find a job. Some people called them tramps or hobos, but they were not bad people. Most of them were just men who could not find work during the depression. They went all over the country in hopes of finding work.

Our house had a large front porch that ran the full length of the house. Charles and I spent a lot of time playing on the front porch. Since we were right next to the tracks, the trains that ran in front of our house would usually slow down while coming through town. Many times, I could see a man jump off the train near our house. He would come to our front porch and ask for work or something to eat. Charles and I were not afraid of these men, and we liked to talk with them. My family never needed anyone to work, but my mother would come out on the porch and tell the man to wait there. At that point, she fixed him something to eat. When the food was ready, mother asked me to take the food out to the man, and I would sit and talk to him while he ate.

*     *     *

The section house in Pecan Gap did not have a bathroom. We had an outdoor toilet in the backyard. We washed our face and hands in a wash pan in the kitchen or in the backyard at the water hydrant. Once a week, we took a bath in a number-three washtub in the kitchen and carried the water in from the outside hydrant to fill the washtub. When we finished bathing, another family member poured a bucket of warm water over our head to rinse us off.

Due to a lack of clothing, my mother washed clothes every week, since we usually owned only two changes of clothes. My sisters wore homemade dresses, and Charles and I wore overalls and homemade shirts. We went barefooted most of the time. Mother washed clothes in galvanized tubs in the backyard and heated the water in a large black pot sitting on the ground with a fire built under it. After the washing and rinsing, the wet clothes were hung up to dry outside on a clothesline strung between two poles.

The section houses we lived in usually had a lot of land. We raised chickens and had a milk cow. Mother always had a large garden, which provided lots of fresh vegetables. We were a large family, but since my father always had a steady job, and we always had a milk cow, chickens and a garden, we had plenty of good food to eat and enough clothes to wear. We were fortunate at a time when many men could not find jobs to provide for their families, since it was the age of the depression. I remember my dad always had a job with the railroad and was a good provider.

*     *     *

I recall how once in a while, my dad put our milk cow in the pasture next door with the other cows. I clearly remember one morning when I was looking out of our kitchen window. To my surprise, I saw my dad holding on to the tail of a bull, as both of them ran a round and round a tree in the middle of the pasture. I told my mother what I saw and asked her why daddy was chasing a bull around a tree. Mother did not seem concerned and never even looked out the window. I do not remember her answer to my question, but I suspect my dad went to the pasture to get our milk cow, and the bull started chasing him. I guess as long as he held on to the bull’s tail, he was safe.

*     *     *

The section house was near downtown, so we could look out the kitchen doorway and see a section of the main street and the community water tower. Pecan Gap was a very small town with no public transportation. My family did not own a car. Therefore, we walked everywhere we went. If we went anywhere out of town, we rode the train, since the fare was free for railroad employees.

Mother and daddy always had strict rules about the time everyone would go to bed at night, and the time that we would get up in the morning. We had a certain time we ate our meals, and everyone had to eat together at the table at that time. If you were not at the table at mealtime, you did not eat. I recall one unpleasant experience when mother used to make all of the kids line up in the kitchen every morning before breakfast, and each one had to swallow a teaspoon of castor oil. We all hated the castor oil, and I never knew why we had to take it. And to make things even worse, during the summer before we could go out to play, we had to swallow a teaspoon of sulfur mixed with grease to help keep the chiggers off of us.

Chapter 2

School days began for me when I started to the first grade in Pecan Gap. I do not remember very much about being in class that year, but I do recall we had to walk back and forth to school. Every morning before class, everyone would meet in the auditorium, and we would sing a few songs before we went to class. I definitely recall singing a lot of folk tunes and patriotic songs. That was the best part of my day at school. When we went to our class, I always sat in the back of the room, and the only thing I learned was a few songs and a lot of nursery rhymes.

There was not a bathroom in the school building, but there was a toilet outside. It was a little bigger than the one at home. I never even saw a real bathroom until we moved from Pecan Gap. I never knew there were any such things as indoor toilets. I wore my blue overalls and homemade shirts to school every day. I went barefooted unless it was too cold. I always took a sack lunch and never got to eat in the school cafeteria.

Mother made our winter coats, and the only time we received new shoes or overalls was when we out grew our old ones. Every day, when I came home from school, mother would give me a snack that usually consisted of a biscuit and sausage or a piece of cold cornbread and onion.

Once in a while, during school recess, I played with the older boys and watched them throw mud balls at each other. That first year of school, it rained a lot, so the older boys split into two groups, and each group built a fort to stand behind. Before long, they threw mud balls at the boys in the other fort. Several feet separated the forts, but a mud ball could hit you if you did not duck or dodge when one came towards you. I was not invited to take part in their battles, but I joined one group of the older boys and got to watch the mud ball fight every day. After a few days of watching, I was hit in the head by a mud ball with a rock in it. When the mud ball hit me, it hurt my head, but I never cried. However, I did yell out and groan loudly, so the older boys made me leave the fort. They would not let me come back inside the fort anymore after that, because they were afraid they would get in trouble if the teacher found out I had been hurt.

*     *     *

During that time of living in Pecan Gap, Charles was too young to go to school, so on most days, when the weather was nice, he wandered all over town talking to anyone he saw. Even though he was very young, he stayed gone all afternoon. Children in small towns were safe during those days, and mother was always busy, so she did not watch him too closely. Besides, she always told him to stay in the yard, but he never did.

In the afternoon, when I got home from school, Charles would be gone, so the first words mother said to me were, Edward, go find Charles.

I never knew where he was, so I walked around town and looked for him. When I found him, I had to make him go home. One day, one of my sisters was sent to look for him. She found him holding on to a cow’s tail while hitting the rump of the cow with a stick. The cow was wading into a stock tank, and she found him just in time to stop him from following that cow into water over his head.

*     *     *

One evening, I came home from school and did not have to go hunt for Charles, because mother and everyone else in town knew exactly where he was. He and another boy his age had climbed to the top of the city water tower and were too afraid to come down. The water tower was just a short distance from our house, and we could see it from the kitchen door. When I got home that day and looked out the kitchen door, it looked like everyone in town had gathered underneath the water tower. They were trying to talk Charles and the other boy into climbing down, but the boys were too afraid to climb down.

Pecan Gap was a very quiet town, and nothing exciting ever happened until those two little boys climbed that water tower. The water tower was very tall, and there were not any firemen or law enforcement officers in the town. It seemed that no one volunteered to climb the tower and bring the boys down. My dad was working somewhere down the track and never even knew what was going on. The crowd of people simply waited there and watched the boys. They tried to talk them into climbing down, but they were too frightened. Later that evening, some man in town finally volunteered to climb the tower and carry the boys to the ground.

*     *     *

There was one other exciting time while we lived in Pecan Gap. At least, it was exciting to me. One day, when I was at home, I heard some loud talking and singing coming from downtown. I walked to the main street near the water tower. There was a truck with several men standing in the bed of the truck. They were dressed in western clothes and playing guitars, as they sang western songs. After they sang a while, they started talking about voting for W. Lee O’Daniel for governor. I found out later that they were called the Light Crust Dough Boys from Burros Mills. I really enjoyed the music and singing. I stood there and listened until they moved out of sight.

*     *     *

In the afternoons, after school and during the summer, I spent most of my time outside playing in the yard or walking around the town. There was a persimmon tree in our front yard, and when the persimmons were ripe, I climbed the tree every day to eat them. At times, when I was outside playing, I would find our milk cow to drink some warm milk if I became hungry. And if I became sleepy while I was outside by myself, I would lie on the ground to take a nap. I spent a lot of time playing and wandering around by myself, because I was younger than my sisters and older than Charles, and there usually were not any boys to play with who were my age.

There were only a few stores in the town and no movie theaters, but once in a while, someone would come to town and set up a screen on a large vacant lot. After dark, they showed a movie. All of my family and everyone else in town would walk to the lot where the movie equipment was set up, and they sat on the ground to wait until it was dark enough to show the movie. Like most small towns in the nineteen thirties, there were no telephones or newspapers. However, we did have a radio, and my mother loved to listen to the soap operas.

Frequently, in the evenings after supper, the children entertained themselves by playing games outside like hide and seek or may I. If the weather was too wet or too cold, we all sat in the living room and listened to the radio or listened to the adults talk. We liked to listen to the adults especially if our parents had company, because they discussed the only news we ever heard. However, that was not allowed if the weather was nice, since our parents wanted us to be outside playing in the yard.

*     *     *

During those early times, we were satisfied with what we had at home and school, because we did not know anything else about what other people had, and besides, during the depression most people were poor. I do not remember ever being inside a department store or any other business establishment when we lived in Pecan Gap. And I certainly had no money of my own. My dad was paid once a month, and when he received his check, mother and daddy went to the store and bought enough groceries to last until another payday. The one time a month, when my parents went to the store, was the only time we got candy, and we only got one piece each. We never had soda pop and never even knew what kinds of sodas there were. We seldom received treats of any kind, because my parents could not afford to buy anything except what was essential to running the household.

Nevertheless, we actually had everything we needed and always had all the good food we could eat. My mother was a very good cook, and my dad always knew where he could get fruit and pecans when they were in season. We had plenty of milk to drink and plenty of butter, eggs and vegetables from the garden. Mother made homemade biscuits or cornbread for every meal, and she often made homemade pies and cakes for dessert. We ate a lot of pintos and other types of beans, and we had potatoes fixed in various ways for every meal except breakfast. During the summer, mother occasionally made homemade vanilla ice cream in the evenings after supper. We ate the ice cream on the back porch and had to fight the bugs to keep them out of our bowls.

On Sundays, we always ate chicken for dinner. At times, mother baked the chicken and made dressing, and once in a while, she boiled it and made dumplings, but most of the time, she would fry the chicken. There were always at least seven of us at home, so mother cooked one large chicken, and we divided the pieces amongst us. There were two legs, two thighs and two wings, plus the pulley bone piece, the breast, the back, the neck, the gizzard and the liver. We did not let any part of the chicken go to waste.

We all had a favorite piece, but each of us kids always wanted the pulley bone. Consequently, we had to take turns getting it from one meal to the next. Daddy always ate half of the breast, and mother always ate the back, because