Chapter 3

The Move


Haywood hugged and kissed his daddy goodbye, and rushed out the door to get in the back of the wagon beside Chester. He was excited to be going to live with Huldy Jane and Uncle Sol. They lived in town, close to the general store. Papa said that when he came to town he would take him to the general store and buy him some penny candy. He would have to share a bed with his nephew Chester, Huldy Jane's son by her first husband Mr. Coleman. Chester was just 2 years older than him. They had always had a good time playing together. They seemed almost like brothers, so that would not be so bad. Aunt Loucinda and her two boys Will and Antney Harris, lived down the street from Huldy There were a lot of children in town that him and Chester could find to play with. He could hardly wait.

Papa and Jim came by as often as they could, but it did not seem like it was very often. Papa did as he had promised - when he came, he would take Haywood and Chester to the General store and buy them both a sack of penny candy. Sometimes he would take them to the Schloss Furnace where he now worked, to pick up his check. He made 3 dollars a week. They would always pass the blacksmith shop, and would stop to watch as the smitty made horseshoes and fitted them to the horses feet. Haywood was fascinated by how the smitty worked, he would take a piece of iron, get it red hot in his fire that he always had going. Then he would use these big pliers to hold it with and start bending it around an anvil. All the while beating it with a large hammer to help shape it into a horseshoe. The smitty made all sizes of horseshoes.

The next year Schloss Furnace went bankrupt.

Papa and Jim, Will Henry and Houston all headed to Mobile to work in the fishing business. Papa would come home every so often, and tell Haywood stories of the fishing business. One favorite of Haywoods' was the time that Papa was fishing -checking his lines-and when he went to pull the line up-well, that line pulled back! Papa thought maybe it was a good size fish of some kind, or it even could be a gator......Papa started pulling, whatever it was on the line pulled back harder. Papa pulled back even harder-and the fight was on. Papa said he played tug-o-war with that critter for over an hour! Finally it just seemed to give up. With the help of Jim-they started wrestling it to their boat. They were prepared to see a gator when they got it close to the boat, and had their knives ready to cut the line. What they did see when they got it close, was that it was an enormous fish! A giant of a catfish! It was as big as their boat,(at least that is what Papa said)! They knew they could never get that big fish in their boat, so they cut it loose. Papa said that old fish looked him straight in the eye for a second, as if to say thank you. It made a belly roll, and dissappeared back into the depths of the water. Papa told people about that fish for years-most people did not believe him.

Soon Papa moved back to Birmingham-he said the weather in Mobile made his bones hurt. It was very humid, and there were hurricanes that could wipe out your business.

Papa liked to hang out down at the livery stable and talk to the other men who had come to town for supplies, and would talk about things like the weather, who had died, who had a new baby, and crops. Haywood heard them talking about all the people who were moving to Georgia, Lousiana and even way off to Texas. They were moving to find a better place to farm and those places were having land lotteries. If you had served in the military-you were qualified for the land lottery. They put your name in a box and every month would pull out ten names. You would get 50 acres of land if your name was drawn out. Papa talked about going to Georgia to the men. One day he told one of the men there, that moving to Georgia sounded like a good idea to him. Soon after that-Papa, Jim, Will Henry, and Houston moved to Walker County, Georgia. Haywood started hanging out at the livery stable whenever he could. He listened to all the usual gossip-but what he really liked-was how exciting the men made all these foreign places sound.