Lillian Lorena Smith, Part 5

Some people say that they didn’t realize that we were poor, but I always knew that we were. A lot of times when I was walking to town, school, or as I was sitting under a tree, I would daydream about how good life would be when I grew up. I think that is why I liked reading so much, because I could escape and put myself in different places. I loved my family very much, but I felt that I should have been some where else.
In the winter we all had to saw wood, it was always so cold. I have never liked the cold. The old wood stove; when you sat around them, would burn up your front side while your backside would freeze. I think all this built character.
My best friends through school were Brenda and Linda Newberry. We never saw each other except at school, but we always played together at school. I hated Sunday worse than anything. It was so long a day and boring; unless we went to church, it seemed liked it lasted two or three days. I went to the Baptist church in town on Sunday morning, and most of the time we went to the Pentecostal church at night. It was about five miles to the Pentecostal and we would walk both ways to and from. It was pleasant in the summer, but in the winter we nearly froze to death walking home after dark. I did a lot of singing in the churches, and I really enjoyed it. I also sang at school; in talent show, play ,ect… As I got older, one year went into another one with not much happening. During my senior year, the TVA bought our house and land, so they could flood the Cumberland River, and turn it into a lake (Lake Barkley) We moved in January 1962 to Clarksville. It was a really big place after living in Dover all my life. We bought us a big house at 401 High Street, and I really liked it. I was scared of Clarksville High School. It was so big, and I didn’t know anyone. My best friend at that time was Pat Carney; she lived across the street. We had lots of fun playing records and watching TV. in our new home. It was the first time we had electricity and a inside bathroom. I thought that I had died and gone to Heaven.
Around this time, I started dating, but I was never allowed to go out with a boy. He had to come to my house, and when it was warm we would sit on the porch and sing, as me and my brother always did. My mother had taught us to play the guitar. When it was cold, we stayed in the living room with all the family. It was always so embarrassing. At first I had GI’s for boyfriends since we lived so close to Fort Campbell Kentucky. They would always come to Clarksville to have their fun. I worked at a restaurant, and later on as a carhop, so I met a lot of them. My favorite was Chuck Moak. I then started dating local boys. Some of these boys were; George Hough, Richard Denton, and Gary Adams. In 1963 I moved in with my sister, her husband, and children. We moved to Nashville for a while, and then we moved to Altus Oklahoma. This is where I met my first husband, Jerry McConnell.