Opp!

When we moved back from Florida to Blue Springs and were living in the back of a Service Station, Daddy bought a lot on 7th avenue in Opp. He proceeded to build us a 3 bedroom house. I don't know how much of the actual building he did, but I do remember hearing that he wired the house himself. Now, he had only a 2nd grade education, but obviously he was smart to figure out how to do that. I think he put brick siding on the house to start with and later he put white siding on it and then later painted it a light green. The house is still being lived in today. My cousin Exie and her husband Herman Ellison live there now. Of course there have been a lot of modifications and modernizations done to the house over the years.

We were still living in that house when I got married. We had one bathroom and three bedrooms, living room, dining room and kitchen. We were uptown!!!!  When we first moved there Juanita said we rode a bus   to school, I don't remember, but I think she said we went to Fleeta for a while on a bus . Then we had to start attending Opp High School. I was in the 7th grade when we started going to Opp and Mrs. Marie Baker was my teacher. That was the hardest year I EVER had in school. It was so different from the country schools I had been attending. My homeroom was Mrs. Baker's room and I don't remember what subject she taught, but then we had to CHANGE classes!!! That was really strange as all my other years all classes were in one room with the same teacher. And to top it off, no school buses ran in town, so we walked to school, it is quite a ways from the Sunny Slope subdivision to the School. But it did not seem to bother us, at least we did it.

I forgot to tell about an accident that Momma had while we were living in the back of the Service Station. Back then there was no air conditioning in homes, so we had oscillating fans, window fans, etc. to keep cool. Well, somehow Momma had a fan start to fall or something, anyway she tried to catch it and the blade cut her had pretty bad between her thumb and forefinger of one of her hands.  She was a pretty free bleeder and we thought she would bleed to death. I guess Daddy took her to Opp and had it sewn up, but that was about 10 miles away, so I guess she must have lost  a lot of blood, but she came back home. I imagine we had to help do housework for awhile and I guess Granny Northey stayed with us until Momma could take over again.

Granny Northey's husband (my paternal Grandfather) died from a stroke of apoxlexy  before Momma and Daddy even met, so we never knew him (I think he was a BIG man, I saw one picture of him). Granny took turns staying with us for a couple of weeks and then staying with Uncle Tommy and Aunt Lottie Northey. She never went to Winter Garden, Florida to stay with Uncle Bill and Aunt Mae Ellen that I know of.

When we lived on 7th avenue in Opp, when Granny was there, I always had to sleep on the couch in the living room and Granny slept with Juanita.  After Wayne got married, Juanita got his room and I had Judy move into our bedroom and then when Granny came, I still had to sleep on the couch!!! I never really had a room of my own until L.G. passed away!!
More stories next time!!! Y'all come back now, ya hear?