Louise (Turner) Kennemer

Taken directly from pages 47 & 48 of Memories of a Community at Turners Station. Louise Kennemer was the oldest living Turner at the time of original interviews and publication of Memories of a Community at Turners Station.
​November is National Family Stories Month.

They tore the house down, but my dad, George Turner, was born just across the tracks over here. That's where he was born and raised. When they changed the road, they tore the house down. It just broke my heart, because it was such a pretty home.
A great big sack of cookies, it was 25 or 30 cents. My mother used to give my sisters and me a dozen eggs, and we'd bring it down here and get a whole big sack of candy with that dozen eggs. She'd put then in a little basket, and we'd bring them down here and trade them for candy. I didn't know what soda pop was when I lived down here. I don't remember soda pop when I was little. I guess they had it, but we didn't get any of it.
We used to come down here every Friday night. We'd play croquet and get haircuts. On a Friday night, the store would be full. Joe Gault and my dad were first cousins. We used to have ice cream suppers, and pies, yeah.

Do you know where Tom Pursley use to go swimming at the James? That's where they had the picnics. My husband, Pete, and Joe Gault would play tricks on each other, and when we left, both of them about naked. They'd come up and play and have a good time and tear their shirts off.
The Turner Cemetery is right up here on the hill, and I can remember when they would have funerals, but they couldn't get up the hill with the hearse. There used to be an old road up there on the side of the hill, and they'd carry them up by hand. That's been a long time ago. My great-grandpa, great-grandma, grandpa, and grandma are buried up there, and my Aunt Winnie and Uncle Ab were buried up there. They used to live across in Grandpa's house.
We had homemade clothes. Feed sacks is what we made our underwear out of. Excuse me. They called them drawers, didn't they? We didn't know what bloomers were or anything. They called them drawers.
​I carried my lunch to school, always had a biscuit. I remember the Slack kids used to bring oatmeal. Mary Greer used to have peanut butter and crackers. None of the rest of us had that, and we'd trade here our cold biscuit and sausage for that peanut butters and crackers.
We got married down at James and Emma Webb's house 71 year ago the 4th day of February. In those days, they didn't know what mattresses were. You know what Shirley Webb did? He took all the slats out of the bed but the foot and the head, and the feather bed went plumb to the floor. He's always been ornery like that, think of something.
It was called the old Jarrett place. That is Veterinary Leigh's place now. Our cousin and I used to drive their cows and our cows down there, about three quarters of a mile, and they'd be at the gate when we got out of school, and we'd take them home. We just drove them on foot. Kids wouldn't do that now. When they'd get to our house, why, they'd go in, and then the others would go on to their house.
On a telephone line, there were five or six on one line. You could hear everybody's ring and everybody listened.
My parents died in 1918, a week apart, and left six children. My grandmother lived over on Cherry Street, raised me and my younger brother. Mother died the 4th of October; Father died the 12th, in 1918, left six children. Brother Orville was born in June, and they died in October. I was eight years old. They had the flu, and back then all they had was aspirin or castor oil and epson salts. They didn't have any other kind of medicine. They told me go over to Pleasant Valley school, because I lived with my grandmother. My grandmother's telephone number was 16F23, two longs and three shorts.
Didn't have any toys.
Orville was talking the other day, said one time he and Pete was working on the old Model I Ford. You all know what a shim is? They were 40 cents, and they didn't have the money to buy one. So my husband took a Prince Albert tobacco can and made one, and Orville said it worked.
I remember when Pete used to come down to the house and get Gene and June Webb. He's let Gene sit on his lap and drive home, and then when he'd take them home, he'd let June sit on his lap and drive home. Boy, they'd sit up there and drive that old Ford.
In 1936, it rained the 23rd day of May, and it never sprinkled till the 13th day of September, I mean, not even a sprinkle. The cows ate the leaves off the trees, and we hauled water from Turner Station out of that big tank for our cows. I guess they'd give it to us. We got it. That was some summer. That was the summer Gary, our son, was born, and we slept out in the yard. We didn't know what a fan or air conditioning was.
You'll laugh at me, but those were good ol' days. I guess I'm old-fashioned. I'll tell you, then we could go to bed at home and didn't even hook the screen, never thought about it. Now you go to bed; you don't know whether you'll be there the next morning or not. I can't ever remember locking the door. Once in a while, there would be an old bum come by and want something to eat, but that's the only thing. We didn't worry about anything. We didn't know any different, though.
You could buy a big loaf of bread for a nickel. My husband and I used to have our tank filled with gas and buy our groceries, and maybe we'd have a quarter left to go on till next payday. People wouldn't live that way now. We didn't know any different.
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