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                                REMINISCING TOGETHER

"Remember when..." are words that bring to mind the memories of a past time. The Tipton Home is rich in memories captured in photographs and in our publication called the Messenger. We invite you to return often to visit the memories featured in photos and in tidbits from past issues of the Messenger.

The Tipton Home history starts in 1921 in Canadian, Texas, with the decision to take care of four children after the death of their mother. 

(The newest additions of the issues of the Messenger are at the top of this page with the earliest issues located at the bottom of this page.)

Borrowed from TIPTON ORPHANS HOME MESSENGER:

1941 December

HOME CHATTER by Marlin Carruth      Christmas, 1941, will be different in many respects from any that has been experienced in the history of the Home--it will be the first Christmas our nation has been in war, and that black shadow, of course, will dim many homes. It will, too, affect the lives of children throughout the world for generations to come; but we are striving to remember in the face of it all, that just as powerfully will the lives of children everywhere affect the world in years to come.   So lights will be bright as usual at Tipton Orphans Home this Christmas--big wreaths hang on the doors and silver bells sing a cheery welcome to visitors. The blessings of giving and joy in thoughts for others must remain paramount in the teaching of our children.  Many of them are too small to understand the meaning of the tenseness of the world--all of them understand "Merry Christmas"--and here's ours to you with a brave smile and gratitude for your faithfulness throughout the past year and our confidence in you through the uncertain months to come.

1941 September

HOME CHATTER by Marlin Carruth   School bells rang the morning of September 1 and the children all scurried to class rooms as smoothly as if it had not been three months since the old readin', ritin' and rithmetic had been opened.

1941 May

HOME CHATTER by Marlin Carruth    There's certainly been a bunch of chatter around Home halls this month, and it hasn't been all chatter, either.  For instance, if you'd know what all the scurry and flurry emanating from these walls means, it might run something like this: possibly the big event of the month was the grade-school picnic in Manitou Park.  It was made especially big in view of the fac that it had to be put off so many times because of the almost daily afternoon rains.  Finally, a week from the date originally planned, two truck loads of youngsters, several supervisors, and the grade school faculty got away between clouds. Several hours' frolic, softball, wieners, sandwiches, marshmallows, lemonade, cookies, and big freezers of ice cream, the gift of the teachers was all the talk for the ensuing weeks.

One week later, the same group were guests of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Martin, owners of the Alamo Theater at Snyder, where they enjoyed the clean fun of a sailor comedy and animated cartoons.  The Martins were visitors at the Home recently, and the children have long appreciated their thoughtfulness on former occasions.

There have been the junior and senior banquets, the senior play, and now the seniors are looking very sober in long gray robes.   

But everybody is ready for school to close. Immediately following school there will be the two weeks' Bible school and then a two weeks' music school, both annual events provided at the beginning of vacation months and which refresh the children as supplements to their regular nightly chapel hours and Sunday morning Bible classes.

Everybody is looking forward, too, to the summer reading rooms. We have been saving up magazines all winter; and fiction books have been placed in store for these long summer afternoons. We hope to add to the several hundred volumes some two hundred especially selected from the Oklahoma University Traveling Library Association.

1941 April

IN 1941 AS IN 1921…Anniversary year remembers refuge for 1,200 children from the beginning of four homeless little ones who came knocking at the doors of citizens in Canadian, Texas, seeking a home. Today, 20 years later, that appeal is still being made to the Church of Christ; it has been answered nearly 1200 times, who knows to what infinite measure of good? If April 1941 be considered a milestone in the existence of Tipton Orphans Home in that this year begins another decade in the Home's history, we as always want that commemoration to be in sense--not that here is the closing of some great work already completed--but that there lies ahead opportunities for good that are staggering in their proportions.

 1941 March

HOME CHATTER by Marlin Carruth   Winds of March…and it would indeed be an ill wind if it blew no good for Tipton Orphans Home boys and girls, even if it be a sand storm.  Sand storms, incidentally, have been very interesting to our Mississippi children as have been the snows to our South Texas children. And as for the wind, well, the network of kites with Tipton Orphans Home playgrounds as their apex would make a hazardous flying field for any European lighter than air craft.  During March, kites come to Tipton Orphans Home like the other epidemics of measles or games. There have been tops during previous several weeks; sometimes there are stilts,      (and sprained ankles and skinned knees), sometimes sticks and hoops. No, Tipton Orphans Home has no swimming pools, no formal playground supervision, no professional game equipment, but the children do not sit around and cry about it.   Intermixed with play has been work of a somewhat more serious nature. Although bedtime at Tipton Orphans Home is ordinarily around 9:00 o'clock, schedules have been somewhat changed for approximately 20 of the older children who are enrolled in a junior Red Cross course being taught two nights a week. For two hours following study hall from 6:30 to 7:30 and following the regular evening chapel after 8:00 o'clock, this enthusiastic group of teen-age children carry on activities that look like an emergency disaster has really stricken the home--heads, arms, legs are all tied up in white bandages, others are lying on mats with life-savers working feverishly at artificial respiration on some supposedly drowning or lightening-stricken youngster.    Here, certain, is very practical training, and we appreciate the thorough manner in which the teachers are going about it. This group of children will act as a nucleus for first-aid information and practice throughout the smaller children of the Home, and if ever first-aid were needed, it certainly is around Tipton Orphans Home.

1941 February

HOME CHATTER by Marlin Carruth     A stack of Valentines lies on my desk--some of them bear evidence of having been erased of their original addressee and a second name placed instead; others might not have quite so appropriate a sentiment, and some of the hearts resemble pears or lemons more, but all are very, very red and very, very bright and represent the delight all children find in Valentine's Day.

New brooder houses and poultry pens were under construction this month. There will be two 30-foot brooder houses and more spacious range over wheat pasture. First shipment of 3,000 baby chicks were received late in January.

1940 October

HOME CHATTER by Marlin Carruth       New fall packages arriving daily have decked everyone out in all the reds and oranges, and yellows and browns of the fall season so that even the children themselves are like little scurrying leaves as they rush to and fro in all the hurry of childhood, so meaningless, perhaps, to grown-ups but so meaningful to children.   We could make no attempt to express appreciation for the truckloads of new packages being mailed in day by day. They show the most personal and loving and special care in selection. Each afternoon Sister Sampson's big room on the girls' side and Miss Johnson's sewing room on the boys' side are piled high with packages which have been recorded in the office and carried back to these two respective rooms for fitting and for marking.   It all sounds very simple, the carrying. You should try to get through the crowds of big eyes and craning necks trying to read on the boxes and shouting at the same time, "Whose package?  Whose package?" And if by some miracle the "whose package" does not have an owner in the immediate multitude, the word will spread like wildfire that so-and-so's package has come and the one thus honored will be accompanied in by a royal escort which stands at attention until it has to be dismissed before further business can be completed.

1940 June

HOME CHATTER by Marlin Carruth          I've never been able to discover just whose funeral it was--either a bird's or a doll's, perhaps, but calamity broke loose when a large group had gathered out under the trees in mourning for the deceased. The songs had been sung, the preacher was saying the last rites from a tattered old copy of a Ladies Home Journal magazine when someone broke the respectful silence with a horrified exclamation: "Say, we forgot the flowers!"

1940 May

HOME CHATTER by Marlin Carruth         9:00 o'clock came one night, and with it bedtime again. I could hear voices in the bathroom. When I swung the door open, there was a congregation of listeners politely giving ear while Andy preached from a song book upside down, "We don't have to go to bed now, do we?" they asked, confident they had at last found an ironclad alibi for staying up. "We're having church."

1940 March

HOME CHATTER by Marlin Carruth            A few weeks ago I was helping put the little boys to bed when one of the supervisors could not be here. I was standing at the door waiting to switch off the light when everyone should get his bed fixed and settled down. Everybody was ready but Travis. He went around from one side of his bed to the other tucking the cover in tightly on each side. Then he would get up in the center of the bed and attempt to stick his feet under the cover without pulling the quilts out from each side. Since there are only about 60 boys in this dormitory, and my mind was somewhat divided into 60 divisions, Travis's difficulty hadn't quite impressed itself on my mind. Finally, he gave up and said, "Marlin, please tuck me in!"

1939 August

An excerpt from an article named A "USUAL" DAY AT TIPTON ORPHANS HOME written by Marlin Carruth.   We often remark that nothing is "usual" at Tipton Orphans Home--if the usual were to actually happen, its very happening would make it unusual. For everything happens on the emergency scale where there are 250 lives weaving in and out as the patterns of a veritable community in itself. There is no such thing as an "ordinary" routine in Tipton Orphans Home, because it simply won't work.  But these everyday things are, no doubt, the very things that you readers of the messenger are most interested in.  Take for instance, one of those "usual" days last summer. Brother Shotts, the regular Home truck driver, had been taken off the route for the week in order to visit communities close by.  Brother Ervie Givens, the farm supervisor, was driving the truck on its regular scheduled trip through northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas; and Brother Ralph Givens, one of the boys' supervisors, was, in turn, busy in the fields "laying the crop by." Although my work is "ordinarily" in the office in the daytime, as the other supervisor of boys, I was transferred for the time being to the playgrounds.    So begins the story of the next hour: What might be termed "regular" work in progress includes three boys in the storehouse straightening empty fruit jars that have been washed and sent out from the kitchen this morning. Another group is giving the front lawns their weekly trimmings, cultivating the flowerbeds, and watering the grass. Two boys are repairing a screen that has come off its hinges; and still another group is cleaning the pavement in the dairy barn. What larger boys are not with Brother Givens in the field or with Miss Lemmons who is setting the dormitories and halls in order, are tending their flocks of chickens or their watermelon vines at the lower end of the farm. The 60 smaller boys, fresh out of their morning baths, have scattered over the playgrounds at the dozens of pastimes such as only 6 to 11-year-olds can devise--calling out doodle-bugs, building winding miniature highways for their "automobiles", collecting bits of colored glass for bottles of water, playing horseshoes, making kites…a "usual" morning, I think complacently.   Here comes a messenger--Mrs. Carpenter and the kitchen girls need six sacks of sugar from the staple warehouse.  Six boys are promptly secured and a trip started to the little white building where the sugar, flour meal, and dried beans are stored.  On the way, one of the 'middle-sized' girls comes running out to say that a faucet is turned on in the girls' drinking fountain and Sister Givens can't turn it off-please send a boy, quick!  Two smaller boys are dispatched to find Buster, the plumber-electrician-carpenter-mechanic-engineer. A van drives up with six cases of breakfast foods to be placed in the big warehouse. The bill of lading must be signed and delivered to the office. Somebody wants to know how many brooms are left in the warehouse and whether we need any more this month.   And, ah ha!--here comes trouble--Travis crying.  "Make J.C. give me back my ball."   While J.C. is being sent for so that his side of the case might be heard.  I help John Wesley get some chewing gum out of his hair--"I had it in my mouth when I went to bed last night," he says. "And then this morning it was on my pillow and my hair was stuck to it. Recon how that happened?"  J.C. arrives and indignantly insists that "I traded for this ball from 'Gray Mule'." Gray Mule, who is Edgar corroborates by showing the two green marbles and the horned toad which J.C. had traded to him. Travis stoutly maintains that he "found the ball out behind the milk house." Travis is only seven and must be shown that finding property doesn't make it one's own…  Before this is all quite settled, Miss Lemmons, the boys' house mother, has finished with the dormitories and corridors and is ready for the clothes room boys to help sort out the freshly laundered overalls and shirts which Mrs. Slayton has just sent up to the house by a procession of eight or ten boys who were playing around the laundry door.  If the clothes need mending or buttons they are sent to Miss Johnson and the senior house girls in the sewing room. Only three boys can do the clothes room work--Lester, Louis, and David; they are possibly at three different corners of the farm…six boys must be sent to hurry David who almost had a ground squirrel drowned out when he was sent for, and he simply couldn't leave it then.  A crowd of boys have gathered to admire the sleek little animal David has caught. Jake, the Home dog, paws jealously around David's feet trying to detract some of this uncalled for attention the insignificant rodent is receiving.  The group breaks up only when three very wide-eyed boys appear supporting Buster M. who is alternately grunting and whistling with pain.  "He cut his leg on the barbwire," the escorts announce dramatically.  "We saw him do it," they add proudly. "We were seeing who could run fastest backwards…" I carry Buster to my room and the first aid cabinet.  A royal escort of possibly 20 sympathizing boys has to be peremptorily dismissed before I can examine the wound.  "Will I get to go to the doctor?" asks Buster hopefully.  He doesn't flinch as I gently clean the cut with alcohol and cotton; it does look a little deep; perhaps Dr. Knox had better dress it; a telephone call informs me that the doctor is in an operation in Frederick, so Brother Chitwood gets out his medical kit and begins sterilizing his needles preparatory to taking maybe two stitches.    One of the girls comes to the door: "Mrs. Carpenter says if you don't hurry and send that sugar she won't get the cobblers made for dinner…"    Exaggerated? Not at all. There have been many times more exciting than this. Remember, I have told only one person's viewpoints of the hour, and there are 250 of us at the Home. Now there were the two weeks of the measles epidemic or the days when we took the tonsils out or the day the goats came into Miss Saunders's school room. But we won't go into that just now.

1939 July

Not many people have seen this view of Tipton Orphans Home--if you should swoop down over the grounds in an airplane as the Aerial Airport Surveys of Wichita, Kansas, did recently, this is what you would see:  The strip of pavement in the foreground is North Drive that stretches northward from Tipton and runs in front of the Home which faces the east. The two story part of the main building houses the offices, reception room, and the main part of the dining hall on the lower floor.  Upstairs are the hospital unit, storerooms, and guest rooms. Stretching out toward the north or right in the picture is the corridor leading to the boys' wards. On the west of the corridor is the kitchen. At either end of the north section are the dormitories of the boys--smaller boys on the east and larger boys on the west. The wide portion of the north section houses two class rooms, two large bathrooms, the sewing room, storerooms, and rooms for the boys' supervisors.  The opposite section of the building on the south contains similar accommodations for the girls.  Across the front of the main building is the parkway surrounding the drives. To the right, the open space is the boys' football, and softball playground and at the extreme right one of the cotton acreages. The grove of trees at the lower left is the elm grove playground of the little girls.  The white building contains storage space for warehouse supplies. At the back of this area is another playground for basketball and softball.  Next toward the back is the dairy barn and pen, and still farther toward the back are the hog lots and pastures.  Largest of the buildings immediately in back of the main building houses the main warehouse and tool shop.  The smaller buildings are the poultry sheds and garages. The flat-topped brick building across the backcourt is the laundry and heating plant. Immediately adjoining it at the back can be seen the yards of clotheslines with a weekday washing on the lines. The irregular splotches in the center back that look like parked automobiles, possibly more like an automobile junkyard are the boy's individual chicken pens. A part of the two remaining fields in the Home's 80 acres may be seen stretching out at the extreme back of the picture.

1938 November

"And what's your name," asked Miss Saunders of a new little girl who had just come in.  "Jerald Dean," said Jerald Dean. "Jerald Dean who?" persisted Miss Saunders.  "Jerald Dean Grandma, " finished Jerald Dean, because she had lived with her grandmother.

Each month the Messenger seeks to bring its readers something of life at the Home because it seems to be a subject of never-failing interest to friends everywhere. Excerpts from letters written by Mrs. Georgia Ethridge's fifth grade English class give a cross-sectional view of the Home written in all the frankness and honesty natural to childhood. WAYNE: "I will tell you about our playing. We get out and get some sticks and an old burned tin can and maybe five or six on one side and the same amount on the other. The two captains get over the can and knock it one way; then the others try to knock it the other way. The game is called shinney."   BILLY JACK:  "We had a good rain last night, and our yard smells fresh and clean; but it is a bit cooler. I surely am glad I've got my winter package. It was a nice one, too. I got two pair of shoes, ten handkerchiefs, four pair of overalls, six pairs of socks, six shirts, one toothbrush, a package of tooth paste, and a package of gum. I could have stayed and looked at it all day, but the call for bedroom boys brought me out, for I have a job in there making beds. I make six. It is an easy job, and I do not mind it.  Other boys attend to other things. My brother is on the yard job. He cleans it up every morning."  RITA MAE: "I just came to this home last Thursday. I like it just fine. We do one thing one week and the next week we do something else. I am in the kitchen now and next week I will work in the house making beds, sweeping, and mopping. I like to do my duties each day.   Every girl has a locker to put her clothes in. We hang our dresses in the bottom and put our hats and other things in the top.  We take baths on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I brush my teeth twice a day--before I go to school of a morning and before I go to bed at night.  We have chapel every night when we sing songs. After chapel we have a study hall in the dining room to get our lessons. I have a girl friend to play with. I am in the fifth grade and eleven years old. I have one sister and one brother in this home. Thanksgiving we will have a big turkey dinner in the yard if it is not too cold."  DELMAR: "We play when we get our work done. We play with our pets, Jake the dog, and kitty Bill, the cat.  We don't only play with our pets, but we have chickens. We feed and water them. I have one hen. Her name is Doct; two roosters, their names are Flash and Jenkton. I have a pen, a coop for my chickens. Other boys have chickens, too….When Thanksgiving comes we have a good time. We have a big dinner and lots of fun.  Hundreds of people are here from different towns….at Christmas, our house looks like a top shop."   SIDNEY "I came this fall. I think it is very nice here. We have time to work and play, and we all have good times together---My duty is feeding the cows. I go and fill the barrel and then I fill the feed bucket. I give each cow as much as she wants as long as she is being milked, but after she has been milked, she does not get any more feed.  We have twenty cows."

1938 April

THE DIRT DAUBERS    This may sound like an uncommon name, but the boys whose picture appears on this page are the ones who are too young to go to school.  On a nice day we find them out making mud pies, mud marbles, digging little ditches, carrying water and putting in them and damming them up with mud--and likely to be making mud balls and throwing against the house. That's why we call them the Dirt-Daubers.

For weeks the boys have been asking when they could go barefooted…..the long looked forward-to day came April 4….Ervie had just plowed up the boys' playground on the north of the building….Result: big foot-washing about bed-time.

 An interesting time of day at the Home is just after supper in the evening. Now that the days are longer you'll find the minutes between mealtime and the nightly chapel hour a pleasant playtime for our big family…the trees in the back yard have begun casting long shadows across the big open grounds and scattered over several acres the children can b heard laughing, running, talking, shouting in the hours between darkness and daylight. Some are playing soft-ball, some are tending their chickens, some doing their evening chores, the girls playing hop-skotch, dolls, or writing, singing, or reading.

 You've probably never heard of Jake and Skybo and Bill?--yet they are all members of the Home family, and prominent ones, too. For Jake is the friendly old collie who came from nobody knows where and who with a wag of his tail submits to all the children's pats and shoves and romps. Bill is the wooly, part-Persian cat who can generally be found asleep on the bench down in the boiler room.  And Skybo is Bill's stand-by, a non-descript brindle tabby cat who nevertheless bears the distinctive name given her by her 240-odd masters and mistresses.

1938 March

HOME CHATTER  by Marlin Carruth           A four-inch snow and 230 children! Fewer combinations could evoke a greater bedlam….snowball fights between the children….sleigh rides….helpers scuttling about warily lest they get a handful of snow down their backs….Sister Carpenter preparing quarts and quarts of snow ice-cream for a mid-winter treat.

Familiar sights and sounds around the Home: Miss Johnson's canary's singing in the south windows of the sewing room on sunshiny days…Miss Lemmons and J.P. lining up the smaller boys for their regular baths and general scrubbings-up…the acres of clothes hanging out on rows and rows of lines west of the wash-room….the girls gathering down the hall to get their hair set for Sunday…..the sudden silence down the long dinging hall as 230 children bow their heads while one of the boys offers thanks for the mealtime blessings.

1937 October

TWINS!  TWINS!  Did you ever see as many as seven sets twins in one family? That would be quite a number of children for one family in our time. We have that many here in the Home. Probably the largest number of twins that have ever been in the Home at one time.  There are three sets of boys, two sets girls, and two sets that are one boy and one girl each.  They range in age from six years to sixteen years.

1937 September

CHICKEN DINNER         One Saturday morning not long ago I happened to be out in the back yard looking for Brother Givens for some reason, and there close by was a large group of the girls picking the feathers from (look like) about one hundred chickens and getting them ready for Sunday dinner.  Brother Givens mentioned that I should have seen the fun the boys had wringing off the heads of all those chickens just a few minutes before and I can imagine just about how this would be with about fifteen or twenty boys catching them and then wringing their heads off. These girls were not at all sad about their job, but was doing it in a gleeful way. They had some tubs and a trash barrel they were using, and some other girls were taking the dressed chickens to the house where some other and larger girls were cutting them up, and getting them ready to pack in ice until Sunday morning, when they would be unpacked and cooked for dinner Sunday.

1937 August

CHILDREN'S PAGE   There are at this time five set of twins in the Home. Three Boys, one girls, and a boy and girl. At this time we have two hundred and twenty-four children in the Home. This is the least number we have had in about two years.

Wanda came into the office to have her fingers doctored which had run-a-rounds on them. When asked if she bit her finger nails off she replied, "No, I saw them off with a finger nail saw."

1937 July

THE PREPARATION OF A MEAL      The preparation of the noon meal begins at about 10:30 when the girls who are to make the bread are called.  Of course such things as beans and potatoes are started to cooking just after breakfast. Two girls sift the flour while two others get the bread pans ready and measure the baking powder, soda, etc. They make fifty cups apiece; this will be enough for supper also.  On the average a 48 lb. sack of flour is used per meal. Two girls make the bread up and cut it out and the other two put it in the pans. One girl watches the bread.  By this time it is 11:00 o'clock and the other girls are called. There is one girl who is called the captain.   She assigns the girls their job for the week. The three groups change about every week. Two girls work in the pantry. The rest set the tables.  At 11:30 a bell rings, warning everyone to get ready for dinner. The food and water are put on the table. You would enjoy seeing them as they prepare the meals. Two girls dip the food into bowls while the others carry it to the tables.  At 12:00 o'clock the last bell rings. The children are all in line and ready to march into the dining room.  But after dinner there are always dishes to wash. Two girls clear the dishes from the tables, three wash dishes. One washes the glasses, knives, forks, and spoons. One washes the cooking utensils. The other the plates, bowls, and cups. Two girls wash the tables. Others rinse, dry and put up the dishes. Some sweep the kitchen and others the dining room.  By 1:00 o'clock the work is finished. A great relief to be rid of those dishes. The time is their own until about 4:30 o'clock. Then it must all be done again.

1936 November

We are looking forward to one of the nicest Thanksgivings we have ever experienced, if the weather permits.  We will have several special songs and congregational singing, also singing by the children of the Home. We also have the promise of some extra good speakers, who will take part in our program.  So all come, bringing well filled baskets, visit the Home and children and everybody get acquainted.  We will have a real day of thanksgiving.

1936 September

On account of the extensiveness of the drought over most of the country that supplies the needs of the Home, we are going to have sacrifice just a little more and make our contributions a little greater, for groceries and feed will cost more the coming year than they have for several years.  Now let us all do our part and trust in the Lord for the results.

ROUTINE OF GIRLS' WORK IN THE HOME by Julia          Perhaps you have often wondered how the girls ever know where they are to work or when to start. Then this is written especially for your benefit; to try to give you some idea of how the girls go about their work. The girls, except the smallest ones, are divided equally into three groups, which groups change around, working first in the kitchen, then in the house and on to the laundry. The work in the kitchen consists of washing dishes, preparing meals, attending to the milk and butter, and the general things any woman has to do in her kitchen. Work in the house consists of sweeping halls, making beds, and such things as that. Laundry work goes on just as anyone's does, some iron while others wash and hang out clothes. There are six electric irons that are kept busy most of the time. The girls who are large enough do their own washing.  The ones who work in the House do their washing on Monday, those who work in the laundry do their washing on Wednesday, there is no time when school is in session for the kitchen girls to wash, so they have to skip that week.   There is a head girl in each group, called the captain who helps see that the work is carried on right. Each month two are selected from the groups to do the sewing for that month.  There is plenty of patching to keep two girls busy practically all the time they are not in school.   The girls set the tables and prepare dinner before leaving for school each morning. Then begin supper at about four thirty o'clock, the ones who go to school here in the Home help put the food on the tables at noon, and clear the tables afterwards.  Each larger girl takes care of a smaller one, washes and mends her clothes and sees that she is properly dressed for school every day, in that way every baby girl, or small girl, can always have the proper and individual attention, despite the fact that there is such a large group of them.

1936 August

Not many days ago the children had a feast of watermelons. There were seventy melons that averaged about thirty pounds all cut at one time for the children, you should have seen the sight.  A long table was arranged in the backyard near the warehouse where the melons was stored, some boys were carrying them to tables where the helpers in the Home were cutting them for the children, and pretty soon could see the children running every direction with a piece of those melons. Every shade tree near the Home had a group under its shade eating melons. This was indeed a feast for them and was the first this season.

THE BOYS GO MOUNTAIN CLIMBING          One afternoon not long ago, about forty of the larger boys had the pleasure of going mountain climbing. After waiting about half an hour for their dinners to settle the boys piled in "Ole Henry," that's our truck, and started out for the mountains, about twelve miles north of here. It took quite a while to get there as the truck was pretty well loaded.   Climbing a mountain is a good way to spend surplus energy, and you can rest assured that there was plenty to spend. Almost all of them reached the top, and gave their lungs a little exercise by talking with their echoes. "Puggy," who is part Indian, showed the boys how he used to climb mountains when he was just getting out of the papoose stage.   Two hours were spent in climbing the mountain in which the boys became pretty well played out. Descending the mountain they found to their surprise and delight some cold and refreshing lemonade. Brother Holmes had bought the lemons and ice before going and the boys really enjoyed this treat. They also enjoyed a few minutes of swimming before coming home.

1936 July

CHILDREN'S PAGE              The 4th of July was celebrated in the usual way by going swimming, the girls on Friday and the boys on Saturday. We filled the truck each time, taking about 60 in the big farm truck we have. We all went to the river where there is a pretty nice swimming hole and enjoyed several hours of real fun, for as you all know, there is nothing that is more inviting to a boy than the "ole swimming hole."

Floyd, our mechanic, was fixing our Frigidaire and J.T. was watching him. Mrs. Slayton, who is our cook at the present time, came in and J.T., upon seeing the frost coming back on the box, told her that the Frigidaire was defrosting. Mrs. Slayton told him that it had already done that in the morning. J.T. replied, "Well then it's infrosting."

1936 June

Juanita H, while washing dishes, was perspiring a lot. She looked up and said, "If I don't stop this sweating I am afraid my face is going to get wet.

The old team we had, got so old that we had to get another one. We now have a good team of horses and we can now get our fieldwork done much quicker, however, we could still use another team to a good advantage if we had one.

Don't forget that our visiting hours are just 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. If you are coming our way during these hours, visit us!

1936 May

The boys in the Home have developed a great desire for sports in the way of softball, you can see some of them playing most any time of the day when they are not in school, have matched with the town boys several times. Bert Ezzell, coach for the Tipton High School, has helped them quite a lot, also the church of Christ at Prairie Hill near Olustee, OK, gave them some soft balls and some bats to use in this game, for which the boys were very thankful, knowing that they must have some interest in them.

1936 April

BAREFOOTED BOYS              Saturday, March 21, was a real nice spring day, about the first one this spring, and all the boys wanted to take off their shoes. Immediately after dinner two little boys asked Brother Bozeman if they could go barefooted.  He referred them to Brother Shotts, who told them they could until the five o'clock bell rang, and you should have seen how the news spread. In less than ten minutes more than seventy-five had taken off their shoes and were plied high in the east Hall in one corner, and what a stampede took place, in every direction that you might look, foot races, ball games, wolf over the river, and such games got in a big way, faster than anything that has happened around here lately. This was their first time to go barefooted this spring, however they are usually put off until after Easter, as there is some cool weather just around Easter, but this being a warm day, thought it would not hurt them in any way.  This time of the year is a time that will always be remembered by the children that love to go barefooted, especially the boys.

1936 March

CHILDREN'S PAGE              Basketball Goals by Mildred            We were very proud the other day when Coach Ezzell of Tipton High School reported that he had goals and material to make a basketball court at the Tipton Orphans Home, you should  have seen the faces of all the boys and girls.

Now you can imagine how gaukey you would be the first time to be on a court to play ball, so now for a little description of our ball team: Janet, being one who prefers the house more than the outside sunshine got her nose blistered. Edna, being very tall and graceful and playing forward, shoots at the goal from most any position, making a goal out of every forty-eleven shots. Ruth, the loudest one on the team, has kinda got her eye on a boy named Ralph, while we were playing, someone off the court hollered "Ralph". Did Ruth quiet down? Well, I should say so. But it was the wrong "Ralph." Jessey, 5 feet, 10 inches, asked it she might guard little DeVertis, 5 feet, 2 inches. Georgia Lee, when she gets the ball, she forgets that she is on land and goes to swimming. You have to throw a ball mighty crooked to miss the little swimmer. Violet  decides that she is too fat and is playing hoping that she will lose a few pounds, and she really believes in getting enough exercise while out there, you should see her graceful moves.  Opal, "Little Miss Loud," is about the best player, we have on the team and usually a good guard, about the best you could ask for. Ruth, one who is usually sneaking around doing something very mischievous, hollering real loud, then running and the same thing applies when she gets the ball as she goes hollering and running. Louise as the one who guards her gets to throw the ball in. She is so short, 5 feet, 11 inches, that she only gets the ball about the middle of the court while nobody there big enough to get it. Pearl , when Iva Pearl goes to throw the ball she yells for "Flea," Irene. She will ask, "What am I supposed to do?" But somehow Helen gets the ball. Helen is one that always has some wise crack to say and gets all to laughing and throws the ball to Mildred. Mildred calls for her old pal DeVertis.  If she is being guarded all she says is "Well it is funny to me you have to pick on my partner."  The ball is passed to Cletis then to Vanney , Cletis, Iva Pearl and the outside audience goes to hollering root it, root it (meaning shoot it.) Doris, being a senior this year, decides that it is not much use for her to play, that it would be best for her spend her spare moments studying to graduate. Maurine, our dear old pal we were about to forget, decides that she is too little and is playing hoping that she might gain a few pounds. "Now how would you like to be on our ball team?  It's a lot of fun!

1935 October

Our cotton crop is much better this year than it was last, have out four bales at this time, and will have some more out by the time you read this.

TIPTON ORPHANS HOME TRUSTEES:   R. E. Chitwood,  L.A. Todd, H. N. Seymour, S. D. Jackson

1935 September

ITEMS MOST NEEDED         At the present time we are in dire need of the following items: Shoe laces, all sizes and colors, school supplies in the way of pen points, note book covers, ink, prefer black or blue, erasers, note book fillers and pencils; in the sewing department : thread, mostly white; in the kitchen department: flour, sugar and lard; and some hay for the dairy herd in the farm department, together with corn for the hogs, you will be doing a good Christian act by sending in some of these.

1935 August  

This picture represents the most important place in all the Home from the child's standpoint, especially the boys when they have had a hard day's work. It is the kitchen with most of the 20 girls and Sister Carpenter that heads the department, getting ready to make bread and prepare the meal, and all of you that have had the responsibility of cooking for even a small family know and realize what a tremendous task this must be to cook and prepare meals for 230 children and the helpers.

1935 July

ITEMS OF INTEREST IN AND ABOUT THE HOME      A few days ago some girls were discussing some of their older brothers' salaries and how good some of them were. One girl, who was listening, up and said, "I don't like celery, spinach or nothing else."

Quite a few of the girls were a little sun-burnt from the big swim they had on the Fourth of July.

Our crops are now in very fine condition. Our cotton is about knee high and is the best in the country. Our pasture is doing nicely, and our feed crop is getting along all right, but would get along better if it had a little more rain to mix with it.

1935 May

                                                 

OUR GRADUATES               These three pictures are a fair representation of Frances Windham, Lorene Manuel, and Samuel Blackwell, who graduated from the Tipton High School this last term and expect to enter Abilene Christian College in the fall where they will work with the same energy to attain a higher education that they have had to receive a high school education.

                            

 

 The above picture is that of our large dining hall just as the children had all assembled for supper at six o'clock. There was around fifty or sixty children to the right front that was not taken because the camera could not be moved back far enough to take them all, so you can see that this picture is only a portion of the dining hall, there are seven windows on the west side up to the offset in the back, but you can only see one of them, we would like to have had the entire hall taken, but this was the best we could do. This hall is sixty feet long to the offset on the right, and thirty-two feet from there to the back making it ninety-two feet long, is thirty feet wide to the offset, and eighteen feet wide in the rear, so you can see that this is indeed a large hall.  There are seventeen tables that will seat from twelve to twenty to each table, and two tables for the employees of the Home, and for visitors that are here at meal time, who are always welcome.

HONORS RECEIVED      Thursday night when the graduation exercises took place two of our boys were awarded an Honor Certificate. This certificate represents the superior work of these boys, as these certificates are only awarded to the upper ten per cent of each class. The two boys are Samuel Blackwell, our senior boy, who will attend Abilene Christian College this fall, and Loyd Hare, who will be a junior next year.

FRYING CHICKENS      We will soon have a few hundred chickens large enough to fry, and that's when we expect to make the children happy, for they all love to eat fried chicken. Of course there won't be many messes of them as it will take about seventy-five to make us a mess, but we will enjoy them, anyhow.

NEED LIST      At our laundry we are badly in need of rub-boards, starch, bluing and soap. In the kitchen we are mostly in need of baking powder, potatoes, beans, tomatoes, sugar, etc.

THANK YOU TO THE NORTH DRIVE SCHOOL TEACHERS       Thursday all the children of the North Drive School were given a treat by their teachers. About 2:00 o'clock they gathered in the large dining room of the Home and were served lemonade and cookies. Every one of them enjoyed this, and one little boy in the second grade declared that he had the best teacher in Tipton.

OUR ELM GROVE      Last year we set out sixty Chinese elms and they took on quite a growth considering the drought. We had to keep them watered to keep them alive.  We had the best of success with them as we only lost one out of them all, and now as we have had some good rains they are looking very thrifty, and it won't be but a year or so till we will have a beautiful shady elm grove for the children to play under during the hot summer days. It will not only be a place of beauty, but will be a fine place for recreation for the children.

1935 April

TEN STRENUOUS YEARS       Saturday, the thirteenth of April, brought to a close ten years of work with the Home, and during this time we have had the responsibility of caring for seven hundred and twelve children.  It has been the most interesting ten years of our lives, and it has also carried the heaviest responsibilities we have ever had to assume; but we have discharged the obligations the best we knew, although we have made many mistakes, and expect to make them as long as life shall last, but we have the satisfaction of knowing we have done the best we could, so we have no regrets to offer.   Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Chitwood

1934 October

CHILDREN'S PAGE         When we take the measurements for the children we have them all to come into the office where we measure them. The other day little Billy Ray was sent for to be measured.  He is only four years old and our youngest boy, so it was his first time to be measured. When the boys told him to come to the office they didn't tell him what we wanted with him and he thought being as he was sent to the office that he must have done something that he should not have, or at least he felt guilty because when he entered the office door he had his head down and was crying as he came into the office he said, "Brother Chitwood, I didn't slip any matches out, those boys were just telling that on me." After we had a good laugh at what he had said we told him what we wanted with him and immediately a big grin came over his face, because he was proud that he was going to receive some new clothes like the rest of the boys were receiving.

1934 September

CHILDREN'S PAGE              Lois told some girls that she had to put 4 quilts on a clothes pin to hold it down.

Little Sedelle was told by one of the larger girls that she could wear her little white shoes tomorrow. Next morning bright and early Sedelle exclaimed, "Is today tomorrow?"

One night while we were having our lesson from the Bible, the question was asked if any one could name the Apostles. Lou said he knew one, and when asked who it was, he said, "Acts."

Goldie and some of the other girls had dug some holes on the ball ground and the boys got after them about it, when Goldie said, "Oh well, I guess we will have to move them, then."

1934 August

CHILDREN'S PAGE             Margaret saw a spider crawling close to her one day and exclaimed, "Souie, spider, get away from here!"

Floyd started to put something into his pockets, when he discovered a hole or two in them and exclaimed, "Now how did all of these pockets get into my holes."

One day while the older girls were playing with little Amos, they noticed a little pimple or two on his arms. They asked Amos what it was, when he disgustingly exclaimed, "Oh, I've got the itch and can't scratch it off."

IT'S TRUE!                 The prospects for a good crop around Tipton are not very promising this year.

It takes a hundred frying chickens for a Sunday dinner at Tipton Orphans Home.

The harder it gets for us to get by financially, the more calls we get to take in destitute orphan children.

1934 July

STRANGE, BUT TRUE                  There were over a thousand pairs of overalls mended by Miss Johnson and the sewing room girls last month.

It takes over 500,000 gallons of water here each month.

We have not had over a half dozen sick children out of the two hundred during the summer, thus far.

Every child here, above the age of accountability, is a Christian.

CHILDREN'S PAGE               Ernest was told to come and take a bath. He came a little later than what he should have, and when asked why he was so late he stated: "I was out there chicken pickin's."

Junior and some of the other boys were talking about how long they had picked cotton. Junior thought that he had them all beat when he said, "Last fall I picked cotton for three years."

Some of the girls asked our little three-year-old Amos if he liked peaches.  "Naw," he replied, "But I surely do like apple-cots." (meaning apricots)

Gladys, who had a skinned knee, came to Mrs. Carpenter and said, "Oh! Look at my knee now, Mrs. Carpenter, it is welling up a lot, isn't it."  (meaning healing)

1934 June

ITEMS OF INTEREST IN AND ABOUT THE HOME

A truck load of the boys with Brother McGaughey, their supervison, enjoyed a nice swim in the near-by creek last Sunday evening.

All the children are enjoying good health at this writing, for which we are thankful.

The weather has been hot and dry here at Tipton and the crops are suffering for need of moisture.

CHILDREN'S PAGE            While in line one day, just before a meal, Osvill told Elsworth that his comb wasn't haired in the back.

James asked on of the boys if they were through hailing the bay.

One morning while Bryant was putting on his shoe, the tongue got twisted. Henry noticed this and said, "If you get the shoe out of the tongue you can get it on easier.

1934 May

HOME STATISTICS        The Home is located half a mile north of Tipton, OK.

The hospital is located upstairs.

There are more than two hundred children in the Home at present.

There are four sets of twins at the Home.

There are eleven helpers who work at the Home.

There are three school teachers who teach at the Home.

There are more girls in the Home than there are boys.

We have about thirty-five dairy cows.

Two of the helpers in the Home have red hair.

There are eighteen dining tables in the dining room.

There are four dormitories in the Home.

The Home building is 280 feet long and 160 feet wide.

About four weddings have taken place in the Home.

At one time there was almost three hundred children in the Home.

There are eighty acres of land belonging to the Home at Tipton.

The Home is blessed with plenty of good drinking water.

There have been over six hundred children lived in the Home altogether.

There are six bathrooms and fourteen bathtubs in the building. There are fourteen sinks.

There are two barns, one warehouse, one brooder house, one laundry house, one milk house, two boiler rooms, one pump house and one storage house.

Three sacks of flour are required to make bread for the children per day.

CHILDREN'S PAGE          Louise was talking to some of the smaller girls when she said, "And one thing you should always do is pay expect to your elders." (meaning respect)

Algie was digging around the roots of a tree when he exclaimed, "Well, these trees' whiskers are so big I shall never get this trunk dug up."

James, while in bed the other night, was talking about being made to stay in bed till seven o'clock, and Jesse said the reason they had to stay in bed so long was because the longer you slept the larger you would grow. James said, "The long and tall and slim boys must have laid in bed a lot."

Wylie and R.T. were discussing a problem in arithmetic when R.T. asked, "Wylie, if I had not deposted that money how much would I have left?" (meaning deposited)

While the boys were unloading the 5,000 chicks we got from Lexington they discovered four large cans of syrup in the bottom of the truck. Loyd remarked, "I wonder if those chickens knew they were that close to some good syrup. "Floyd replied, "No if they had known that, they would have been 'stuck up' by now."

MOST POPULAR NAMES OF CHILDREN          We have 7 Maries, 6 Ruths, 6 Maes, 5 Johnnies, 4 Bettys, 4 Billys, 4 Thomases, 3 Margarets, 3 Annas, 3 Jessyes, 3 Lorenes, 2 Cleos, 2 Roberts, 2 James, 2 Samuels, 2 Irenes, 2 Ivas, 2 Frances, 2 Hazels, 2 Marys, 2 Waynes, 2 Helens, 2 Ednas, 2 Evelyns.

1934 April

THEY HAVE WASHED TODAY           Many, many times have visitors been heard to say, as they beheld a large washing on the line, "They have washed today."  If you were to come on Monday you could truthfully say, "They have washed today."  If you come on Tuesday you could truthfully say, "They have washed today."  In fact, any day almost, except Sunday you could say the same thing. Because almost every day a large washing is put out. The laundry is one of the busiest places about the home.  The whirr of the washer is heard many times in the laundry and with so many children to wash for of course much washing is required.

CHILDREN'S PAGE            Little Billie asked Mrs. McGaughey if she had another clock for him to wear on his arm like she had on hers.

One day James told some boys that the ants were already blooming. (meaning coming out of their holes)

What a lot of laughter was heard in Miss Saunder's school room the other day. Being curious and wanting a good laugh too, I inquired as to what it was, having found out, I will pass it on to you. They were in history class discussing the wireless telegraph, when Miss Saunders asked who invented the wireless telegraph and J.T. very eager to give the answer raised his hand in excitement and exclaimed, "Macaroni."  (meaning of course, Marconi.)

HOME SINGERS TO BROADCAST OVER RADIO              The fifth Sunday, which is April 29, the group of singers from the Home will broadcast an hour's program over radio station KASA at Elk City, Oklahoma.  It will be from 2 o'clock to 3 o'clock.  If you have access to a radio we want you to listen to these singers. They will endeavor to bring a gospel message in song, singing some of your old favorites as well as a few new numbers.  No doubt many of you have heard these girls before and will be glad to hear them again over the radio.  We are very grateful to the management of this nice station for letting us have this time, and we are sure that you will appreciate it too.

1934 March

CHILDREN'S PAGE                  If you took a peep into the Home you would probably see:

Leslie moving around slowly, making noise with that big, heavy voice of his.

Ruth singing some new song she had learned.

Sam pounding away at the typewriter of setting up forms at the multigraph.

Floyd in the boiler room with his cats, watching the boiler.

About twice too many boys playing with their new basketball.

Several boys making and flying kites.

About three children with chicken pox.

Sister Hamilon doctoring some of the children.

About two hundred new drinking glasses on the dining tables.

Several of the boys making them new string balls.

A bunch of little girls on the back porch and in the long halls playing with their dolls and cutting out paper dolls.

The three new children we got this month with a group gathered around them asking them every question imaginable.

The two little girls and the two little boys that are not in school out playing together.

Brother McGaughey going around carrying his hammer and nails hunting for something to repair.

SAYINGS OF THE CHILDREN        Azalle said, "Oh! I put my shoes on wrong side out."

Earl, while playing on the hay, bumped his head on a rafter, "Oh my," he cried, "I surly gave my rafter a bump."

Some one asked Iva Pearl what a butler was, "Why," she exclaimed, "that's a man that answers the door and if he has a wife, she is the buttress."

Edna heard some of the science class talking about Zodiac. "Oh, I know what that is," she said, "that's the zoo of the sky where lions, goats and other animals go when they are dead."

 

1934 February

CHILDREN'S PAGE           Nellie Mae said, "Oh! My teeth are so tired from chewing on my gums.

Toye was trying to explain something to Mrs. Slayton, she not clearly understanding, Toye said, "Well, I'll give you and illumination (meaning illustration).

Leon was chasing R.T. R.T. was so unfortunate as to fall. "Oh, I've got my dirt full of shoes," he said.

1933 November

Nathan makes beds and sweeps under them. One morning he asked his playmate to sweep for him. Some time after Nathan asked him if he was going to sweep for him, Herbert's reply was: "Yes, I'll sweep the beds under the floor."

James was standing on the back porch by the window when he said to Walter, "The apples are the only ones that gets the little boys."

Floyd, while making beds, bumped his head on the bedstead and said, "O! Did I bend it?"

Mrs. McGaughey told Andy to go out and play. He said he had been playing already. Mrs. McGaughey told him to go and play some more. He replied, "It might make me sick."

Little Dan was wearing a pair of beads. One of the girls told him he was a little girl cause he was wearing girls' beads. Then he very sternly replied, "No I'm not a girl, cause these are boys' beads.

A group of the boys were sitting out by the road watching a stem roller come by, when one of them suddenly exclaimed, "That sure would be good to crack pecans with, wouldn't it, boys?"

1933 October

When we were asking the children for something to put on the children's page, Earl said, "I did know something but I gorfot."

J.T. was cooking cracklings and said, "I wonder if this lard will ever turn to cracklings."

Loyd said my head fell off my cap.

1933 September

Dan, a four year old newcomer at the Home, was enjoying his first meal at the Home. Looking about he suddenly exclaimed, "Say, she puts baking powder in her biscuits, don't she?"

J.P. asked Colleen aged four if she liked him. "What's your name?" she inquired. "J.P.", he replied. "Sure I like you", she answered.

1933 August

Earl told some of the boys that he snored at night. "How do you know that you snore?" someone asked. "Why," he replied, "I heard me one night.

Lee was combing his hair and broke a tooth out. He said, "Oh! I broke a comb out of my tooth."

Ada Lois said she "oversleeped" one morning.

Toy said, "My dresses are getting so small they will hardly contain me."

Hugh asked Joe, "Say Joe, have you 'et' any of that apple pie?" Joe gave in reply, "Yea I 'et' 'n' 'et' til I just couldn't et no more."

There are four sets of twins here in the Home now.  All of these are boys except one little girl who is a twin to another little boy. There is not two twin girls in the Home. The twins names are as follows: Earl and Murrel, Andy and Alva, Johnnie Lee (little girl twin) and Johnnie P., and R.T. and J.P.

1933 July

CHILDREN'S PAGE           Johnnie said his sister wasn't his sister now. He said since she was married she was his brother-in-law.

Sue said her footses were very tired.

1933 June

CHILDREN'S PAGE           Verlie asked, "Is it next year now?"

Roy asked one of the boys if there were three birds on a limb and he shot one, how many would there be left? "Two", replied the boy. "No, you're wrong," Roy said. "There wouldn't be any left because the other two would fly away."

1933 May

CHILDREN'S PAGE        The boys have the baseball spirit now and they are very thankful for the new balls and supplies sent them by their friends.

Sayings of the Children

George said, "This old cat scratched me with its fingernails."

Reba said, "Who were those manses (men) who were hear awhile ago?"

Verlie overheard someone talking about going to Charlie, Texas, "Say who is Charlie?" she asked.

Someone asked George how old he was, "I'm old enough to eat my thupper," he replied.

1932 December

The State Inspector visited and inspected this Home a few days ago and spoke highly of its standing. She said she always spoke highly of Tipton Orphans Home and considered it one of the best in the State. Every member of the Church of Christ should feel proud of this for it will bring glory and honor to the cause of Christ, to whom all honor and praise is due.

1932 November

CHILDREN'S PAGE        The other night Maxine asked the girls in the quartet if they sang Altus or soprano.

Myrle and Jesse were sitting on the bench and Jesse said, "move that radiator down here by the bench."

1932 September

HOW MUCH FOOD IS REQUIRED?          There are many people who doubtless wonder just how much food is necessary for the children in the Home.  It requires no little amount of food for the feeding of over two hundred children. Most children in the early stages of life have good appetites and these children are no exception. Many of them have come out of poverty and almost starvation. They especially need plenty of wholesome food to make their bodies strong.  It is a joy to see this huge family in the midst of a good meal.  If it were possible for our readers to see them eating you would be doubly repaid for food you have given them. In order to give our readers some idea as to how much food is consumed in a single day we give the following information: It requires three sacks of flour each day to provide bread. These are not the small size sacks as some might suppose but the standard forty-eight pound sacks.  As to the meat used, it requires forty pounds of bacon each meal. There is usually one hog killed each week for the children.  About fifteen gallons of beans are necessary for a single cooking. One sack of meal furnishes corn bread for one day. On Sunday afternoon the regular dinner not served and fruit and cookies served instead. It usually requires ten gallons of fruit for these meals. Thirty pounds of butter is necessary for one day.  The boys are milking about forty head of cattle now. The children consume thirty gallons of milk per meal. When canned goods are served, about fifty cans are necessary. With these few items listed it should give some idea of the amount of food used. Vegetables have grown in abundance this year and people have been able to help the Home much in this way.

CHILDREN'S PAGE           Helen said, "Merle, give me a splinter to pick the sticker out of my foot."
Maurine was putting on her hose and said, "Oh, my hole has a full fashioned sock in it."
Some of the girls asked Mary Ellen what she did with her nickel and she said she gave it to her sister. They asked her what she did with her other one and she said, "that wasn't a nickel that was money."
While the girls quartet was touring on the plains of Texas they were driving along when Maxine saw one of the prairie dogs and exclaimed, "Oh, look at those little prairie puppies!"

Our Watermelon Feast

About the tenth of August, Mr. and Mrs. Grose called at the office and told us that they had enough watermelons for all the children. We went out after them early in the morning while it was cool and put them in the shade. Late that evening we drove the truck to the back yard. All the children seeing what was in it, came running to where it was parked. We got them in a long line and let them march by and handed each of them a half of  a good melon. The children sure enjoyed this feast and I am sure that it will long be remembered by each of them.

1932 August

CHILDREN'S PAGE           Devertis was cooking bread and said, "Oh, the bread is nearly ripe."

Cletis had her tonsils taken out, and after she came home she said, "Now, I've got everything but by onions."

Ruth was putting her shoes on and said, "Oh, my feet are almost worn out."

Margaret Johnson was putting on her dress and said, "Oh, I put it on bottom side upwards."
Marie was also putting on her dress and said, "I can’t get my head over my dress.

1932 July

CHILDREN'S PAGE              Hazel said that she stuck a foot in her sticker (meaning a sticker in her foot).

Cleo J. was running and accidentally fell and said, "Oh, I busted my numb skull."
Brodie asked J.S. if you could hear better with your tonsils out.

One of the helpers was telling a visitor that Robert B. could talk Spanish.  After the visitor was gone Luther came up to Robert and said, "Robert, let me hear you talk some 'spinach'."

While the girls were working in the sewing room, one of the little boys came to the door and said, "Miss Johnson will you fix my overalls? I let one of the other boys wear them and he stretched them for me."

The other day some of the girls were talking about the newlyweds, and Azel said, "I'm not ever going to get married. I'm gonna be a widow all my life.

One of the girls was swinging Ruth Mae and she replied, "Don't swing me so loud."

Lizzie and Delois were on the grass trying not to go to sleep, but soon Delois said, "Oh, I'm going to peep."

One night we were talking about giving a shower to a girl who had just married and Albert said, "Are those showers called shower baths?"

Vannie M. was combing Gertrude's hair behind her ears, and Gertrude said, "I don't like my ears behind my hair!"

Oma was ironing her dress and burned her hand and said, "Oh, the iron scortched me."

1932 June

CHILDREN'S PAGE          During the last two weeks, several of the children have been getting their packages which the different churches send them. These packages are sent twice a year, in the Spring and at Christmas time.  You should be here and see the happy smiles that come across their faces when they receive their packages.  The following is an example of how they act when they receive them:  Yesterday, Leslie received his package. He is just four years old and the youngest boy we have. After he had put on a pair of new overalls, (which had red buttons on them) his new shirt and new straw hat, he began to walk down the halls speaking to every one he met (apparently, so they would notice his new clothes). After he had all the boys' attention attracted toward him he began to step up and down the halls singing for them and this morning he still seems just as happy as a lark.

Laura Mae, (telling some of the girls about the lighting), "It came a slice of thunder and scared every one in the office.

The dentist was looking at Johnnie's teeth the other day and asked him when his front teeth were going to grow in. Johnnie said, "They're not going to grow in, they're growing out."
All the children are in good health now and we do not have a one on the sick list at this writing.

1932 March

CHILDREN'S PAGE      Our Chapel Service (by Ruby S.)    A bell summons us to chapel at about 7:00 o'clock each night of the week.  We assemble in the dining hall and start service with three songs led by one of the girls or boys. We then have a chapter reading from the Bible and prayer. After prayer comes the part which everyone from the smallest to the largest welcomes. It is a Bible study and drill by Brother Chitwood. We have been studying characters from the Old Testament for the past few months and have enjoyed it as profited by it.  When Brother Chitwood cannot be with us there is always an uplifting talk by one the helpers. After this part is over we have our closing song and are dismissed to go to our respective places. We wish every one who is interested in this large family of ours to know that we sincerely appreciate the opportunity of our Christian training and education, which you are giving to us and hope someday to be worthy of your kindness.

1931 November

Lorene said she had her stockings on hind-part-before.

Just as soon as we have enough frost to make the rest of the bolls open we can finish up with our cotton picking. We are having to wait on it now to open. To date we have picked ten bales and are expecting to make five more. There are five gins here in Tipton and each one has ginned two bales for us without any charge whatever and we wish them to know that we appreciate this service that has been rendered.

If you are wondering what you might send to the Home that is especially needed we would suggest sending school supplies, sheets and pillow cases, soap and toothpaste, as these are needed the worst.

 1931October

Vannie said that Bessie had a raisin on her leg.

As the first bell had rung, Sue said to some of the girls, "Let's go wash and comb our face for dinner."

Ruby after having sent her shoes to the shoe shop and when they came back slightly drawn up said, "I can't get my shoes in my feet."

Anna, who was working in the kitchen, told some of the girls that they had to pick some potatoes and peel some beans.

Reba said she had always wanted to see in the top of her roof. (meaning the roof of her mouth)

1931 September

Estelle was sweeping around a pile of boxes on the back porch and Hazel told her to move the porch off the boxes.

Little eight year old Mary was bringing in the clean clothes to the dormitory when she said, "Oh, my knees are scratching."

Dr. Ball gave Ruth an impression he had made of her mouth and Goldie told her she saw the expression of her mouth.

On the 23rd of August Louis told Harold that it was his birthday and Harold replied, "It oughtn't to be, yours was before mine last year and mine ought to be first this year."

Jessie was reading a very interesting story the other day and she told one of the girls that it sure was chilling.

1931 August

Naomi said her shoe was asleep. (meaning, of course, her foot)

Little Ruth asked Mae Bell who had just had her tonsils removed, where her adenoids, were, in nose, or in her throat, and Mae Bell said, "They're down at the hospital now."

Anna was hanging out clothes the other day while it was rather warm, and said the sun was so hot it burned clear through her soul.

 

1931 July

RED SODA POP FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY       The Fourth of July was destined to pass this year without anything out of the ordinary happening, as nothing special had been planned for the day; but right after noon Mr. Earnest Benton of the Benton Hardware firm of Tipton, drove up and informed us that the truck would be up shortly with twelve cases of soda water for the children. You can imagine the pleasure these two hundred children got from this treat since this is something out of the ordinary for them. We hope Mr. Benton was well repaid for his generosity by the joy that was created by this gift among the children and our gratitude and thanks go to Mr. Benton for the twelve cases of "pop" and to the Southwestern Light and Power Company for the ice that was used in cooling it and the service of the truck.

1931 June

Little Miss Naoma and her sister, Mildred were swatting flies and Naoma noticing that Mildred was not killing them exclaimed, "Mildred, you are just knocking them concientiuous." (meaning unconscious)

Lorene asked some of the girls if Shamrock, Texas was not in Oklahoma.

Ruth, seven years old, said that she woke up early the other morning and found herself asleep.

Evelyn was giving out spelling words to one of the girls and when she came to the word, agriculture, not knowing how to pronounce it she said, "way out in the country."

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