Pistol Packing Mama

Chuck’s mother was also a native of Cedar Key, her paternal grandparents and their family came to Cedar Key between 1880 and 1900 from George’s Creek, Barnwell, South Carolina. Her mother was Minnie Lucinda Oglesby Collins, and she was born in Otter Creek and moved to Cedar Key when she was young.

Back in the early days in West Lake Wales, it was during the Great Depression there was hardly any work to be found anywhere.  It was before WPA or the CCC camps got cranked up and going good. 

There was an area near the tracks where the hobo’s gathered. This is what the homeless were called back then.

They would ride the rails all over the country looking for work.  Chuck said there were at times twenty five hundred to three thousand men gathered there. 

Most would work for food, but a great number of folks had no food to share, they barely had enough to feed their own family.

A 25 Caliber Pistol

His dad thought that because he was gone so much at night working that he needed to get mama a pistol for protection, and teach her how to use it.  And so he did.  He came home early one night and decided he would test her to see how alert she was at night.  He certainly did not expect the reaction that he got.

He approached the house being as quiet as a mouse, sneaked up to the bedroom window and scratched lightly on it a couple of times.  She didn’t say a word or make a sound, she reached under his pillow next to her, and drew the pistol out, and put four shots through window. He ducked down to the ground, screaming “Gussie, Gussie it’s me!”

He showed his cap to all of the kids the next day and told them, “If I was two inches taller you wouldn’t have a Papa today.  She put two holes right through the top of my railroad cap before I ducked”. 

He never again till the day he died would even think about scratching on her window her again.  No matter where she lived! He saved that railroad cap for years as a reminder of how well he’d taught her to shoot, and also how close he came to an early death that night!

They had a big yard hog that thought she was a dog. Chuck had raised her from birth with a bottle; her mother would not suckle her because she was born with a full set of teeth.

She would try to jump up on you to be petted like the dogs did.  If any of the kids went outside the yard she would follow just like the dogs did.  They named her Minnie. 

The girls got into a habit of walking down to the train station every day to watch one of the passenger trains that didn’t stop in West Lake go by.  And every day Minnie would follow, and sit like a dog on her hind end with her front feet in front of her between her hind legs just like a dog sits, and watch the train go by.

When World War II was declared the two older girls, Ilene and Delores (Teeny) went to work in Warner Robbins, Georgia in one of the plants making war supplies.  Minnie was so used to the daily routine she would still go down to the station every day, and watch the train go by. 

She got to be quite famous among train crew and the passengers riding the train.  The conductor would announce for everyone to watch out the right windows and they would see an unusual sight coming up soon. 

And then ~ there sat Minnie on her haunches watching the train go by, but as soon as the train passed she came back home.  Minnie got so big Papa decided she would be good food on the table.

The whole family rose up in an uproar in protest against him.  None of them could bear the thought of eating Minnie; she was like a member of the family. 

Papa eventually sold her at the market.  She weighted over four hundred pounds when he sold her.  Of course she was desperately missed, but she was a little too large to have her jumping up on you to be petted, like a dog.

To be continued