Aunt Oaksie's Children · Moore Family Stories

Aunt Oaksie's Children
L M joined the Navy as soon as he was old enough.
He married in New York and Buddy, Alex and Joan were born. They moved to Texas.
Joan was a little dark hair beauty, about eight. The kids were all smart.
They had gone to picture show's, all they wanted to, any time they wanted to.
They learned to walk in, beside any couple, and not have to pay.
They would watch over and over. They could sing and dance like professionals.
We were amazed. Most of us had never seen a picture show.
They knew nothing about the country, where milk, or any food come from.
All of us were just fascinated by them.

They were at their Uncle Alex Daniel's. Joan watched her Aunt Mary kill a chicken and cook it
for dinner. The next day Joan walked over to their neighbors. The woman was carrying off a
dead chicken, that she had found under the roost in her chicken house.
Joan asked her what she was going to do with it.
The neighbor said that it was dead, and she was going to throw it away.
Joan said, "Oh, that’s the kind that my Aunt Mary cooks.
We ate one yesterday, and it was good."

So Joan come carrying it and proudly gave it to her Aunt Mary.
Oh--Mary was so sore at that woman.
She said that woman knew, that Joan didn't know about chickens or anything.

Forty years later, LM was real drunk and crying real hard.
His grown son, Buddy asked him why he was crying.
LM said, "You would be crying too, if you found your Mother like I seen mine."
That is the ONLY time that any of the four children of John and Oaksie Daniel,
ever mentioned their parents.

Lizzie Gill (She was one of the Glidewell family that lived across the river, in the Blue
Pond community. She heard the screaming from our house, when we heard about Aunt
Oaksie. She married my brother Dock.) Lizzie told their daughter, Betty Sue, the story
about Aunt Oaksie and John Daniel, when Betty Sue was about 10.

Later, Alex and Mary were visiting Dock and Lizzie and eating dinner.
Betty Sue mentioned the story. Mary sternly told her, "We don't talk about that.
Our kids don't know about it." Betty Sue never brought it up again.

(Fifty five years later, she was startled to hear me, (Anne Louise Moore) mention it.
She said, "I always wondered if Fred (Alex's son) knew it."
He did, his Daniel's cousins had told him, and he told Tids kids, when they were small.
Tid and Alex never knew, that their kids knew all about their Grandparents.)

Fred had lived with Granmama and Grandad since she was seven months old.
Alex was eleven and he come to live with them.

Fred was brighter than the rest of us. Granmama tried to give her every advantage.
If anyone ever had anything to give--- they gave it to Fred. She graduated high school
in Mineral Wells. She taught school one year at Blue Pond community.
The next year she got a good job with a company in Waco.

Fred married the son of the owner.
Granmama was there, in Waco, with Fred, when their son was born.
Marshall weighed 14 pounds. Fred did not live.

The father had no family to help care for his new son.
He let Aunt Sude's oldest daughter, Dora Dealey, raise him.
Her sister Don, (Donna) was always there too. They wanted him, they loved him.
His father wanted to pay all his expenses. His father did not want his name changed.
Marshall Kestler went to West Point. He was very handsome. He had no children.
I saw him maybe twice.

Alex lived with Granmama. She was real strict with him.
Mama felt so sorry for LM and Alex, she would have always kept them both.
They had moved back to the log house, the last year of Grandad's life.
There were no roads built, anywhere, when they built their log house.
When the road was built, there was a long lane to their house. Couples would park
there. Granmama would hear a girl squeal sometimes and laugh and joke about it.
Later, Dad had her a house built, on her land. It set next to the road.
Granmama and Alex stayed with Aunt Sudie and Uncle John while it was being built.

Tid had a boy friend that Granmama and Mrs. Daniels didn't like. They arranged for
Tid to go to Fred in Waco. They loved each other. She could help her get started there

The old boy that liked Tid, kept asking around and looking for her.
It was the longest, before he found out where she disappeared to.

Tid met a soldier and they married and had eleven children. She raised ten children,
believing that they knew nothing about her parent's death.
Her brother Alex's son, their cousin, Fred Daniel's told them.

Tid had 93 descendants in 1997. She lived to be 93. We always loved each other.
I named my first daughter 'Louise', she named one of her daughters, 'Louise'.
Later, Tid's daughter Margaret asked, "Which one of you, 'Louise's' is the oldest?
So we can know which one was named after the other one?" (I was oldest)

In our 90's, Tid and I were visiting and joking.
Tid asked me, "Reckon the Lord has forgot to call us?"
I told her, "We are both so deaf, that we might not have heard him, if he had."
Now Tid has been gone seven years, and I'm 101 years old.
(Their pronunciation of DEAF, rhymed with LEAF. That was the old pronunciation.)