Beryl Montgomery Cathey

"What Life Was Like Growing Up in Haskell County" Memories of Beryl Montgomery Cathey
(Excerpts from information shared with her daughter, Elizabeth Cathey Maxson)
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"When I was 5, Mother taught school again (after having been a teacher before Beryl was born) and I went with her every day. In order to keep me busy, I also took part in the class" although at the time, children didn't start school until age 7. "When I did start to school, at 7 years old, I knew too much for the first grade, so my teacher (my Mother), had to promote me at the beginning. By that time there was a school house for us - not a building used for church services. It was 'Weaver School' and Mother was the principal. Sometimes we went in a kind of cart with a horse but most of the time Daddy drove us in the car. We got our first car about that time ... it wasn't a new one. It was called an "overland". They would put me in the back seat and cover me up until they got the fire going at school and, then, they'd bring me in because it was so cold.

"We had books but not a big bunch of them. About all the supplies we had were just a pencil and a tablet. We had a blackboard, too. I was left-handed and Mother would always encourage me to write with whichever hand I picked up the pencil but when I went into the fourth grade, I had to go to the Post School (we actually lived in that community) and that teacher wouldn't let me use my left hand. She made me write right handed which made me feel cramped and not natural. Everything else I did was left handed."

"Our collie dog, Ted, and I grew up together. We got him when I was 6 months old and he was about 6 weeks old. No matter which room I slept in, he would always sleep under that window. Once when I was just beginning to walk, Mother was outside cleaning the chicken house. She thought she was keeping an eye on me but suddenly realized I was gone. 'Ted, where's the baby?' she asked him. But he would only go as far as the tank dam . . which scared her to death. Neighbors and family members dragged the tank dam because they were afraid I was in it. After a long period of time, Mr. Perry who lived across the dam from us, came carrying me in." This was the great-grandfather of Texas Governor Rick Perry. He said the dog kept barking so he checked and found the baby walking almost to their house. There was only one way to cross the tank dam - a narrow road.

"I remember my grandfather, William Welch (father of her mother, Olive E. Welch Montgomery), was a big story teller. We called him "Father". He could have written books and made them so interesting. I wish I had saved his letters written to me when I was a teenager. One told of how his mother took him to see a neighbor's baby girl. He said her head was so small it could fit into a teacup. She was Louise Elizabeth Bradshaw and when she grew up, he married her. One Christmas, I gave him a dictionary as a gift. I probably paid a quarter for it. He wrote me another letter, thanking me and telling how much it helped ... and he misspelled every word he could, didn't put any capitals, and no punctuation ... showing how much it had helped.

"We had a wood stove when I was younger. It had a reservoir on one end where you could have hot water, then you had a fire in the stove. Before they got an electric stove, they had a gasoline one. You'd have to pump it up and it had to have air in it. Daddy and Roy Overton wired so many of the houses in the community with electricity - they passed in the inspection and everything. Mother said if they went to town, they'd come home and turn on a switch to see if the electricity had come in. They were so excited when they finally got electricity!"

"When we lived on the farm, Mother and Daddy usually got up before I did. When school was going on, we got up about 5:00 in the morning. We usually had cream or red gravy and some kind of meat. Sometimes we had eggs but a lot of the time we just had biscuits. Mother tried to keep light bread for our sandwiches at school. In the summertime, she had the yeast that she kept in the ice box and she'd make hot rolls every day. They were really good. We had a man who delivered ice for the ice box twice a week.

"At Christmas, we always had a tree. It had candles on it but very seldom would we light them because we were afraid of fire. When we would go to a church program or somewhere, I'd write Santy a note because I was so afraid he would come while I was gone. One year I wanted a wagon real bad. Of course, Mother and Daddy had had it down in the barn for a long time."

After graduating from Haskell High School at age 16, Beryl eventually attended beauty school in Abilene. When she passed the state exam, she first worked in Winters, Texas, then in a shop in Haskell and later went to Abilene to work in a shop for about 3 years. There she met and married Elvin Boyd Cathey in 1938. "It was July 2, 1938, and Frances (her friend Frances English Wilson) had worked that day so she just barely got there to get dressed before the wedding. Brother Hammer was going to do the ceremony. The only ones invited to attend were Aunt Grace and Uncle Howard (Montgomery), Edith and Father (William Welch). Mozelle sang and the Hammer daughter played the piano. The minister and his wife were there and that was all. Sid Horton was the best man. Frances was eating chicken until nearly time for the wedding. We got married about 7 PM on a Saturday. Afterwards, the 4 of us went to Haskell and to the show. Then we took Frances home and went on back to Abilene. It was about 2:00 AM before we got to bed."

Beryl and Boyd lived in San Angelo and Anson, Texas, then went to California and, after Boyd was called into the service, they lived in Phoenix, Arizona. They returned to Texas in 1946 living in Dallas, Grand Prairie and Mesquite. They were married for a very happy 55 years. Boyd died on July 21, 1993, and was buried in Willow Cemetery in Haskell. Beryl celebrated her 90th birthday in July 2006 with a big party attended by friends and relatives from California to Georgia. She died peacefully on December 11, 2006, and was buried beside Boyd at Willow Cemetery in Haskell.

© Elizabeth Cathey Maxson