Jane Hislop Brubaker--Growing Up in Huntsville

Another bit of oral history from Jane Hislop Brubaker.  “Daddy” is Charles Henry Hislop and “Mama” is Mabel Hislop.  These are some of Jane’s earliest memories of growing up during the Depression in the 1930s

Daddy was a sheep-herder until ’35. I was about three years old when he came home. He was sick. And the doctors didn’t know what was wrong with him. Anyway, he came home, and he was home for a couple of years.  We didn’t have anything, because Daddy was sick and Mama bought some chickens. She rented a chicken coop when we were there, in back of the house. We raised chickens, but then one day the chicken coop caught on fire and all the chickens burned up.

We didn’t have anything when Daddy was sick. We were really poor. But he had, Daddy had, he was so tired all the time, and he just didn’t have any energy. We went to the doctor, and the doctor said it was his teeth. His teeth were rotten. They might have been. But anyway, they pulled all his teeth. He was still sick. So one of his friends came over and made him go to a different doctor. And he went to that doctor and he had Anemia.  So they put him on iron pills and he got better. But he was really, really sick for four or five years there.