Grandpa's Butttermilk-Prince Albert Tobacco-Buck & Florence

Grandpa & Grandma Paxson

        GRANDPA'S BUTTERMILK---When I was young, 7-10 yrs. old, maybe, grandpa Paxson would try to get me to drink Buttermilk.  He always seem to have some in the Fridge, the thick creamy kind.  I would take one swallow & then head for the bathroom because as soon as the buttermilk hit bottom it would come back up.  It caught me by surprise the first time but after that I knew what the results was going to be.   I don't remember grandpa ever laughing at me but when I would come out of the bathroom I seem to remember they’re being a smile on his face.  This happened several years.  When we were there for  meal Grandpa would say, “Have some buttermilk, Larry.”   I'd say. “But grandpa, it won't stay down.” he would say,  “Maybe it will this time.”  It never did!  I guess, as I got older I just refused to try it. When I went to India they drank lots of Buttermilk with their meal to counter act spices, it was more like regular milk in texture.  At first I could handle only a swallow or two.  Then I could drink half a glass, then a whole glass, then 3-4 glasses.  When I came home I could drink our Buttermilk, and I came to like it.

     

Grandpa Stitt  [lower right]

       PRINCE ALBERT TOBACCO-----One thing I remember about Grandpa Stitt was that he smoked Prince Albert pipe tobacco.  In the house and in the milk barn.  Grandpa Stitt passed away when I was just starting  High School.  I don’t remember, but I may have taken it kinda hard. 
    What I do remember is a dream, more of a vision, I had sometime afterwards.  He sat in his favorite rocking chair in their living room & we talked.  It seemed like all night.  [For several years I could remember the conversation word for word]  When I woke in the morning there was the smell of his pipe tobacco in my bedroom, like the smell of cigarette smoke stays on your clothes and in a room.  From that time on I felt Grandpa was not dead, he was  in a life just beyond the one I see.  One  that seemed seaperated by a thin vail. This was the beginning of my aversion to cemeteries.  I have often said,  “I don't go to cemeteries because I don't know any dead people, they may be in Heaven or Hell, but they aren't dead.” My mother never could understand, although I tried to explain it to her for years, every year she would take flowers to the cemetery on Memorial weekend and get all teary eyed at the graves of her parents.  If I wanted to feel close to Grandpa or Grandma Stitt I would go to the Milton Methodist Church & sit in the pews where we usually sat when we went to Church with them.  There the memory of Grandpa & Grandma Stitt would be vivid.  To feel close to Grandpa & Grandma Paxson I would go somewhere that had lots of flower, The Arboretum at Belle Plane was a place I stopped at several times if I wanted to feel close to them.

    

 THE CLARK's-----Although this is about my life.  I want to acknowledge the contributions of Mary's family to my memories.  At first when Patrick was born it was going to be all about being a Paxson, but visits to Mary's family, especially Uncle Reece  soon changed that.  Over the years many memorable events and vacations have involved Mary's side of the family, John Bert & Jane, John David & Dolly, Helen & Micah. To remain focused on being ‘Paxson’ would have shortchanged our family of so many great memories.

   

 HAVEN FARM----My first childhood memories are of the Haven Farm where I was born August 15, 1942.  Nine miles north of Argonia on Argonia Road & 1 & 1/2 miles east. I say I have a memory of that place, I was probably 2-3 years old.  My dad was farming the Haven place.  I remember a trellis, at the end of a hand poured sidewalk,  that was covered with roses.  My folks, Beryl and Marcella thought it was from pictures, that I was too young to remember, but no picture was ever found of it by the time I was a teen-ager.  So I still think it was a memory.

   

Wild Bill Elliott

      HAVEN SISTERS & WILD BILL ELLIOTT -- My mother, was always proud of the music talents of the Haven family & often told us so.  She always credited any music talents we had to the genes from the Haven family.  She had a handbill from a concert. The sisters being, Grace, Fern [my grandmother] & Vera. The handbill lists the following information.  Clara Ann Haven [the mother] a pianist,  Grace-violinist.  Fern- soloist & pianist.  Bernie Haven-violin [John's brother].  Gertrude Bull- Cello & Reader [Clara Ann's sister].  Aunt Vera is not mentioned.  My Grandmother is listed as a 'young child'. Vera was even younger.  There are phrases throughout the handbill,  "Studied under Masters",  "Captivates Audiences", "Advanced Musicians", "Charms Audiences".  Several attended Sicner Music Conservatory, in Wichita, Ks.

    Mom had a picture of  movie cowboy, Wild Bill Elliot, an autographed one sent her by a relative.   She would often show it to me & say,  “We are related to a Movie Star”.  I figured he was someone who made 2-3 movies & would say,  “OK”, “Sure Mom", "Yeah Mom".  When I started this story I looked him up on the Internet, I found he was actually pretty famous.  { blurp from the internet}  He was born Gordon Nance on a ranch near Pattonsburg, MO, near Kansas City, MO.  As a young man he won first place in the American Royal Horse & Livestock Show and several Rodeo Trophies. Later he owned a ranch and raised Quarter Horses.

      He dreamed of being a movie star at age 9 after seeing a silent movie by William S. Hart.  When he became a movie cowboy he was known for his fringed Buckskin Shirts, & the way he wore his two 6-guns, posterior [b-u-t-t] forward. He was called a peaceful man. One website says, “Wild Bill Elliot never remained peaceful long as those six-guns fired there way through movies for 15 years at Columbia & Republic Pictures”.  In the Mid-30's through Mid-50's the Motion Herald & Box-office Polls listed the top 10 Cowboy Movie Stars.  The results were what you would expect, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry.......& Wild Bill Elliot.  Ten of 15 years he was often #3, sometimes #2. In the 1950's Dell Comics ran a series of Comics of his movie Character, 'Red Ryder'.  The first one pictured Bill Elliot, guns drawn in a bright red shirt.  His Red Ryder Movie Theatre costume.

Uncle Buck & Aunt Florence

  

BUCK & FLORENCE--Dad had an uncle, Francis Marion Paxson, always know as 'Uncle Buck' even to us kids. He and his wife Florence lived around Oxford, Ks.  My favorite memory of them was when they were living east of Oxford, along the creek, not far from the county blacktop that is called the 'shortcut to Ark City'.  Dad went over the help Buck butcher a beef or hog for several years and we would sometimes just go over to visit and stay all night.      
      Everything they ate was grown on the farm and I can't remember ever eating food anywhere else that tasted so good.  All the meat was raised on the farm.  All the vegetables came from their garden that Florence canned. They had apple, peach and pear trees so they had home canned fruit. They took wheat to the Mill in Oxford so that the flour Florence used to make bread or biscuits came from the farm.  They had a milk cow so they churned their own butter.  Florence made jelly or jams from either the fruit or wild berries that grew on the farm.  Today I can almost smell the aroma that would greet me of a morning when we went to stay all night. What I would remember so well was the smell of breakfast. By the time we kids would wake up Florence would have breakfast almost ready.  There would be the smell, that had to be almost heavenly, of ham or bacon & just out of the oven Biscuits.  There might also be fried eggs [they had hens] fried potatoes or pancakes.  Biscuits & gravy was a common breakfast.  Then during the day the men folks were usually outside, but coming inside at lunch or for the supper meal you walked into a house that smelled of delicious food.  Either Florence was an exceptional cook or because it was all fresh and homegrown.   I don't think I ever ate better tasting and smelling food in my life. Another neat thing was the small pump they had inside the kitchen to pump water.  Most of our relatives had big hand pumps outside but Buck & Florence’s was inside, maybe from a cistern.

   
AUNT ALICE & UNCLE CLIFFORD---Going to Aunt Alice & Uncle Clifford’s in Moline was a treat.  I remember a big hill some where along the way.  Dad would take the old car out of gear at the top of the hill at us kids encouragement and would let it coast down the hill.  We’d get up to almost 60 mph!  We kids thought we were flying !!  There were railroad track at the bottom & I remember glancing from side to side as the car gained speed to see if a train was coming, I don’t think the old brakes would have held if a train had been coming when we were near the bottom.  There was also a little rise just west of Moline.  We would beg dad to speed up and then let off the gas real quick as he went down the rise.  If he timed it just right you would get a light feeling in your stomach.  It was always a disappointment if he missed the time & we didn’t get the little buzz.  I’d say his timing was right 75% of the time but it was really hard to judge.

       John Denver also had a song, 'Grandma's Feather Bed'.  One verse said, ''It would hold 8 kids, 4 hound dogs and a piggy that we stole from the shed, we didn't get much sleep but we had a lot of fun, on Grandma's Feather Bed''.  I didn’t have a grandma that had a Feather Bed but Aunt Alice did, when they lived over in Moline, Ks.  It was in an upstairs bedroom, which was where we kids would sleep when we went over to visit.  Going to visit them was almost as big a treat as going to visit Buck & Florence.  Aunt Alice's cooking would rank right up there next to Florence's as a lot of their food came right out of the garden too.  Uncle Clifford worked for years at the Creamery  in Moline and to a young kid it was a interesting place to visit with it's own special smells.  They made butter, cheese, cottage cheese, bottled milk and other dairy products.   Uncle Clifford would bring things home from the Creamery that tasted so good when we went to visit, things we usually didn’t have to eat at home. We’d take some things home but they would get eaten up fast.   Often when we went Edward and Lynette would be there with their kids, Madeline, Roger & Gayle.  They lived around Parsons, Ks and Edward was an engineer for the Katy Railroad. There was usually horseshoes, softball and just made up kids games to entertain us.