My Life, from the beginning(Page I)

OK folks, here goes, I am going to tell you everything I can remember about the Old Sarge. I was born 12/5/1937 in Trion, a little mill town in north Georgia.

Train going into old Cotton Mill in Trion, Georgia, my birth town

By the 1930’s the clan had spread across north Georgia, the following photo below was take in 1925 and both my father, grandfather, and grandmother, great grandfather and great grandmother are in this photograph.

Reverend William C (1858-1933) was married (3/20/1879) to Louella Missouri Herndon. Louella is seated in the front row and William standing behind her. He was a Baptist preacher and was a founder of the Sand Springs Baptist Church in Texas Valley, Ga.

The back row has my grandmother is left, holding a child, Venice Emily, and my grandfather is next to her. I am not certain but I think my father is in front of my grandfather.

George Walter married Julia Drummond, 11/20/1904

The sad part is that I know very little about George Walter Senior , he died in 1946, I have very limited memory of him since I was about 8 years old when he died. I do remember that he has asthma and emphysema and was sick most of the time I was around him. My earliest memory of him is during WWII when they lived in Armuchee, Georgia across from the Baptist Church. We lived nearby and they would baby sit for my brother and me while my mother and father worked.

Julia is another story, she lived for another 48 years after the death of my grandfather, she never stopped loving him. In the later years of her life she lived with her daughters and was always lots of fun. She loved to rake leaves in the yard and burn them, she dipped snuff and everyone though she should stop when she was 90. Not me, every time I saw her I would take her a new jar of snuff and explain that she is over 90 and it has not killed her yet, you folks are just nuts. I will tell you more about her in a later story.

They had 6 children: Howard William, 1906-1971, George W. Jr, 1913-1974,(my father), Margaret 1916-1982, Wilma Kathleen, 1919-2004, Venice Emily, 1923-2003, Eima Fay, 1929-

George Walter Jr. Married Johnnie Ruth Barton 11/23/1935

In this photo taken from a history book of Gore High School, my father is second from the left claiming title of the State Championship Cattle Judging Team of 1930.

My father was a very intelligent man, he graduated with honors from Gore High School class of 1929. He was awarded a full scholarship to attend the University of Georgia, he needed $100.00 for miscellaneous expenses. In 1929 in rural North Georgia one hundred dollars was a small fortune. Since college was not possible he worked when there was work and eventually joined the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) part of the Emergency Conservation Work Act in March 1933. They did manual labor building fire trails in the North Georgia Mountains. Those trails still exist today and are used for fire control and hiking trails.

In 1935 he married my mother, Johnnie Ruth Barton. Yep her name was Johnnie, somewhat like a boy named sue. Her father wanted a son and when she wasn’t he named her Johnnie instead of John. She had a troubled childhood, her mother died in 1919 when she was about 2 years old. Her father eventually left them with my mothers aunt who raised her and her older sister. Her father will come up later in this story.

They Had 2 children: Harold Barton, 8/19/1936 and Charles Edwin 12/5/1937.(me) At the time I was born, my father was driving a milk delivery truck in Trion, he earned about $7.00 per week.

TO BE CONTINUED