DEWAYNE'S CORNER - MY EARLY LIFE

I was born in Marlow on June 6, 1951. My birth Doctor J. R. Brewer was assisted by my Grandma Naomi Barker as she had a nursing certificate. I was born at home in the morning at 7:30 a.m. as we had a storm the evening before. I was the second child of Eugene and Helen Boyles joining my sister Annetta. I was later joined by a younger sister Armeldia. When I was learning to talk, I could not pronounce their names so I called them BIG A and Little A! Sometimes I call them by their nicknames today. And, YES, as I only had an older sister mother sometimes had me in a hand-me-down dress.

I was the oldest grandson of Grandpa Luther Boyles so about once a week he would drive into town and take me home with him. They lived west of town on Nabor six miles and back north four and a half miles.

Beaver Creek bridge was almost always washed out so Grandpa would get moving fast going down to Forge Creek, north of where the bridge was supposed to be so as to climb the bank on the other side. I was standing up in the front seat and was excited when we splashed through the creek water.

Grandpa raised peanuts and cotton. Their house and barn were set about two acres downfield from the road. As we went between peanuts on one side and cotton on the other side to house over terraces we had a roller coaster ride. They had an outhouse and dirt cellar. Fruit trees on either side of the house and the morning glory plant at the end of the porch. Grandma canned fruit and garden items and stored them in the cellar. A chicken house was by the cellar and I got to gather eggs with Grandma Fay Boyles. The barn set to the north of our house a short distance. I took many Saturday night baths in a round galvanized wash tub in the kitchen of our farmhouse.

Saturday night, my grandparents would go to my house and Dad would put on TV the fights as my grandparents did not have a TV. Grandpa would get right in front of the TV and shake his fist at them as if they could see him! Sunday all of my dad's family would gather at my grandparents' farm, men went hunting squirrels in the morning as women folk prepared fried chicken and all the trimmings. My Uncle Johnny Baggett was a member of a western swing band and they all joined us and played in the afternoon. Johnny has many records out now with Ray Smith and wrote many of Ray's other recorded songs.

In 1958, Grandpa became ill, and the neighbors came in and harvested the peanuts and cotton crops. I remember him standing in the doorway and watching. A few days later he passed. Dad and his brother Harold had the farmhouse moved to Marlow a half block from our house on Wade Street. That about covers most I remember of my first seven years and Grandpa and Grandma Boyles. I love my family and my home town, MARLOW, OK. U.S.A.