Nancy Sue Reeves - Birth through Grade School

My History by Nancy Sue Reeves (Page 3)
      The year I was in second grade, we lived in Carthage on South Pearl Street, in my Uncle Grover Parkes' house. He was the principal at Freeny School, that year, and had to live in Freeny. Mama and Daddy wanted me to go to school in Carthage, so we moved into Uncle Grover's house for that year. I can't remember my teacher's name and only one of the girls in my class. We moved back to our house in Freeny, when school ended.

     Back in Freeny, I walked across Papaw's pasture, and Mr. Carlos Brooks' field, and past Aunt Sudie's and Uncle Odel Brooks' house, to and from school, each day, rain or shine. Since we only lived about 1/4 mile from the school, that was considered "too close" to ride the bus. Later, James and Jennie walked with me. Then my senior year in high school, I was allowed to ride the bus (go figure?). Freeny was a small county school but we had good teachers and got a good education. Mamaw Freeny was a good cook and took in boarders before the "Grands" came along. She kept ice cream or sherbert in one of the freezer trays in her refrigerator and made lots of apple pies. Since Papaw had acres of apple trees, each family canned them for use during the winter. Many were also dried for making fried apple pies. Apple season was a busy time.

     The tenant house was about 100 yards from ours. The tenants came and went, over time, and were usually a black family, and the girls and I would play together. Uncle Odell and Aunt Sudie Brooks and their sons, my cousins, Frank and Robert, lived across the hill to the east of us, and we walked that way going to Church and to the Freeny School. My maternal grandmother, Jennie (Hardage) Parkes, lived mostly with Aunt Sudie's family, and sometimes visited around with the rest of us. Daddy worked for Central Electric as a lineman, and when the weather was bad, especially during the winter, he was out, a lot of the time, working on down lines.

     During this time I started taking piano lessons, my teacher was Mrs. Grice, and I found learning was easy, for me. Daddy bought me a piano and I practiced every day.