Memories by Hazel Dooley Kay as told to Art Robinson

Memories by Hazel Dooley Kay

Parris & Effie Dooley took their whole family to Arizona in the late 1920’s. Hazel Kay said Effie’s sister Mary Bates had gone to Arizona for her health, She had TB. She had told the family that there was work in the fields there. Parris, Effie, Hazel, Helen, Maggie, Lynn, Jim, Brice and Junebie along with Effie’s mother, Linda McKinney, her brothers Bill and Virgil and Parris’s brother Alford traveled in two vehicles, a pickup and a car. The pickup did not have any windows. They used eisenglass to cover the openings. There were 13 people traveling together with many of them young children.

Hazel said one winter they were in Texas to pick cotton. They were staying in a small house. It came a sudden snow storm. The property owner’s wife had clothes outside to dry. When the snow cleared off, she found her clothes on the ground. Chickens, goats and pigs had walked all over that area were her clothes were.

Ralph and Alph were born in Phoenix, Arizona, March 13, 1929. Mary, Effie’s sister had her daughter, Maxine, about the same time. Mary wanted Parris to go with her to talk to the doctor about her illness as she felt that he always told her the truth about her condition. Mary did not think that her husband, Albert, could do that.

Hazel said that in Phoenix, they lived about a block from a Mexican grocery store. A nice Mexican man ran it. One time it was robbed and the robber ran toward their house and hid in some brush. The authorities followed the robber and shot him when they found him. Hazel said that they could hear the shots from their house. She wanted to go and see what was going on but her dad (Parris) would not let her. He told her to stay in the house. Hazel was around 14 at the time.

In the winter of 1929, they returned to Oklahoma. Hazel remembers that there was a severe snow storm that winter. Hazel remembers the snow was high on the road and there was only one lane to travel. Brice, who was 5 at the time, made the remark “That is what you get for returning to Oklahoma.” They crossed the Red River and spent some time in Minco with Parris’s younger brother John. They were north of Cleveland, Oklahoma in the Boston Pool area when the 1930 census was taken.

They also lived in the Wynona area also. Parris made railroad ties. He used a broad ax to make the ties. Hazel said that he injured his foot making them and lost a toe.

Parris and Effie were generous with people that they felt needed some help. Hazel said that they would take children to town every fall to buy shoes. These were children who otherwise would not have any shoes for the winter. Parris did not have more money than others but he felt the need to share. He continued to share all of his life. If there was a family that needed groceries, he would take them some.

Lynn would tell about going to the field to chop cotton. They would take beans and make corn bread in the field for lunch.