Running a farm is a huge burden to place on a young man. It’s an even harder when all the work you’ve done goes unappreciated when you father returns from the war. During the years when Ernest was overseas, it was left up to Ernest’s elderly father to take up the slack of maintaining the farm. But given that Ernest’s father Hud was old and given to bouts with shine. It was up to his wife and the grandkid to do most of the chores. Since Joesph was the oldest grandchild it naturally fell on him to do most of the hard work. From hatching up the mules, to plowing the fields, along with helping his younger siblings with their farm chores. Joe’s Grandma did her best to take care of the household chores along with the girls. While their mother Maggie Mae was more concerned with conjuring up spells and selling shine for her kin, then helping out her own children and her husband’s pitiful sharecropper kin. Besides they had her boy Joe to take care of things.
But with the armistice signed it was only a matter of time till the first of the battle scared Yanks would return home. And so it was when Corporal Ernest Higgins returned in Fall of 1919. By the time Ernest made his way home the tobacco harvest was already finishing. Still Ernest had never completely recovered from his time in the war, and it wasn’t long before he fell to the temptations that overcame his own father. His wife Maggie Mae also never completely forgave him for abandoning her. So their endless fighting and bickering only made it worse. But as dictated by the laws of the time, Ernest was still head of the house. So while a share of the profits made from the harvest was to go to the landowner and other debtors. What money that left over went to feed the appetites of Ernest and Maggie Mae first. So as the 1920’s turned into the Great Depression Joe and his brothers and his sisters became nothing more than hired help for their father and mother’s ambitions and greed, leaving Joe stuck obligated to care of his siblings.
But life wasn’t without it’s small glamour’s of hope. Because just a few farms down was the beautiful auburn haired daughter of the Coward family. Joe had taken a shine to Dorothy or Dottie as she was known, ever since he first saw her at a revival meeting at the nearby Baptist Church. While Joe only got to attend school till his father went to war. Dottie had no such option since they were needed to help tend to the farm after her father abandoned the family. Still in her dirty clothes she was a thing of beauty. So as the years went by Dottie and Joe meet up ever chance they could. But with the demands of running the farm on Joe and Dottie’s mother’s determination to marry her off to a rich family, often kept them apart. They attempted to start a formal courtship, but both families had their own reasons for keeping them apart. So they would secretly meet along the creek bed where the spring bubbled up from the ground.
As the lasting effects of the Great Depression lingered over rural America, the passions of young love only grow stronger between Ernest and Dottie. Wanting to start a life of their own, but they were practically forbidden to do so. So they planned, and they schemed in order to make their escape from the realities in which they lived. Impatient and fighting the clock till Dottie was eventually married off, they saw no other choice but to run away and elope. Late one Saturday afternoon, Joe told his father he was going into town to meet up with some friends. In a drunken stupor his father waved him off then Joe headed to town. At the same time Dottie asked her mother if she could spend the night at her cousin’s several miles away. Dottie’s cousin knew of her and Joe’s plans, while Joe’s family had no clue. So when Joe arrived at her cousins house, they quickly loaded Dottie’s suitcase and drove away.
But before they left the county they had one more stop to make. Pastor Stephens’ and his Mrs. Katie lived near the creek down by the spring down from the Baptist church. Through happenstance pastor Stephens got to know Joe and Dottie well. It seems while the pastor would often go fishing down by the creek, he often notice a young couple alone down by the spring. Curious soon the pastor introduced himself to the couple, where he soon learned of their tragic story. So pastor Stephens considered his own feelings about true love. He considered it an honor to be asked to formally/informally marry the couple down by the spring. Once the small ceremony was over, hugs and good byes were given and the young couple quickly drove away…
But with the armistice signed it was only a matter of time till the first of the battle scared Yanks would return home. And so it was when Corporal Ernest Higgins returned in Fall of 1919. By the time Ernest made his way home the tobacco harvest was already finishing. Still Ernest had never completely recovered from his time in the war, and it wasn’t long before he fell to the temptations that overcame his own father. His wife Maggie Mae also never completely forgave him for abandoning her. So their endless fighting and bickering only made it worse. But as dictated by the laws of the time, Ernest was still head of the house. So while a share of the profits made from the harvest was to go to the landowner and other debtors. What money that left over went to feed the appetites of Ernest and Maggie Mae first. So as the 1920’s turned into the Great Depression Joe and his brothers and his sisters became nothing more than hired help for their father and mother’s ambitions and greed, leaving Joe stuck obligated to care of his siblings.
But life wasn’t without it’s small glamour’s of hope. Because just a few farms down was the beautiful auburn haired daughter of the Coward family. Joe had taken a shine to Dorothy or Dottie as she was known, ever since he first saw her at a revival meeting at the nearby Baptist Church. While Joe only got to attend school till his father went to war. Dottie had no such option since they were needed to help tend to the farm after her father abandoned the family. Still in her dirty clothes she was a thing of beauty. So as the years went by Dottie and Joe meet up ever chance they could. But with the demands of running the farm on Joe and Dottie’s mother’s determination to marry her off to a rich family, often kept them apart. They attempted to start a formal courtship, but both families had their own reasons for keeping them apart. So they would secretly meet along the creek bed where the spring bubbled up from the ground.
As the lasting effects of the Great Depression lingered over rural America, the passions of young love only grow stronger between Ernest and Dottie. Wanting to start a life of their own, but they were practically forbidden to do so. So they planned, and they schemed in order to make their escape from the realities in which they lived. Impatient and fighting the clock till Dottie was eventually married off, they saw no other choice but to run away and elope. Late one Saturday afternoon, Joe told his father he was going into town to meet up with some friends. In a drunken stupor his father waved him off then Joe headed to town. At the same time Dottie asked her mother if she could spend the night at her cousin’s several miles away. Dottie’s cousin knew of her and Joe’s plans, while Joe’s family had no clue. So when Joe arrived at her cousins house, they quickly loaded Dottie’s suitcase and drove away.
But before they left the county they had one more stop to make. Pastor Stephens’ and his Mrs. Katie lived near the creek down by the spring down from the Baptist church. Through happenstance pastor Stephens got to know Joe and Dottie well. It seems while the pastor would often go fishing down by the creek, he often notice a young couple alone down by the spring. Curious soon the pastor introduced himself to the couple, where he soon learned of their tragic story. So pastor Stephens considered his own feelings about true love. He considered it an honor to be asked to formally/informally marry the couple down by the spring. Once the small ceremony was over, hugs and good byes were given and the young couple quickly drove away…
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