Chapter 2: 1931-1932, The things hunger will make you do

Life had been hard for a sharecropper’s family before the economy had tanked. In fact, that is why Clip was eventually forced to move his family to Athens and take a job with the county. Nevertheless, when the banks began to fail, he lost his job. Without any income, things got desperate in a hurry.

2 Suddenly, they were eating lots of turnip greens. Turnip greens for breakfast, lunch and supper. All of the kids were sick of them, but Doodle was the one who finally voiced her disgust.

3 “I’ve had enough of this!” she said one day. “I will never eat another turnip green as long as I live,” she declared.

4 “What did you say young lady?” her Mama asked her. “I said that I will never eat another turnip green as long as I live,” she repeated. “You come over here and sit in this chair,” her mother commanded.

5 “Now, I want you to bow your head and thank the Lord for these turnip greens. When you’re finished, I want you to eat every bite.” Although Doodle complied with her mother’s instructions, she wasn’t very thankful.

6 At other times, they only had cornbread to eat. Mittie would cut a slice of cornbread for each child and give them a glass of water. “Close your eyes and pretend that you’re crumbling your bread up in a glass of milk,” she told them. The children followed her instructions, but their bellies were still grumbling when they went to bed.

7 At about the same time, the Jones family of West Huntsville was also having a hard time finding enough to eat. Clayton, the oldest son, went out at night with an old mining helmet that he’d somehow acquired and hunt for rabbits. It had a carbide light on the top which he used to scan the dark fields before him.

8 As soon as he would spot one of the critters, he’d raise his .22 rifle and dispatch the startled animal and add it to his bag. In this way, Clayton saved his family from going hungry on more than one night over the next few years.

9 Then, in 1933, there was a new president in the White House. His name was Franklin Roosevelt, and he was also a descendant of the pilgrim John Howland. In time, his Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) would have a profound impact on the Miller and Jones families.

10 Roosevelt said that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Everyone was scared, but the new president did seem to make things better somehow. Over the eight years that followed, both families would sit in front of the radio on many occasions and listen to his “fireside chats.”

11 Nevertheless, the day came when Clip had had enough of watching his children slowly starve to death. He reasoned that “desperate times call for desperate measures.”

12 He went over to Red Martin’s house with his brother Tollie. “I’ve got to get some food for my family,” Clip began. “We’re all starving to death, and I know where there’s a refrigerated boxcar loaded with meat. In fact, there’s one sitting on the tracks behind the warehouse right now. What do ya say we slip in there and get a little bit of it?”

13 The other men quickly agreed to take part in the enterprise and set off in the direction of the tracks. They had to cross a small branch to get to the tracks. As a consequence, the legs of Clip’s overalls got pretty wet.

14 Nevertheless, as they approached the boxcar, Clip produced a pair of bolt cutters that he had “borrowed” from the county toolshed. He snapped the lock with relative ease, and Tollie slid open the door. Red Martin sprang up into the open boxcar and began handing meat down to the other two men.

15 When they had all the meat that they could carry, Red jumped down and closed the door. Then the three men recrossed the branch and headed for home.

16 Clip stashed some hams in a portion of the back porch that had been partially enclosed. He leaned the bolt cutters against the wall and hung his wet overalls on an exposed nail. Then he grabbed the tool and hid it in the house before he washed up and crawled into the bed beside Mittie.

17 “Where’ve you been?” Mittie whispered. “You don’t wanna know,” Clip replied. Then, in just a few moments, he was snoring.

18 The following morning, Mittie walked into the kitchen and noticed a ham sitting on the kitchen table. She stared at it for a moment, and then walked over to the table and began unwrapping it. She set a skillet on the stove and scooped out a dollop of lard and let it fall into the skillet.

19 Then she retrieved a long knife from the drawer next to the sink, returned to the table and began slicing the ham. She placed the slices on a plate and transferred them to the waiting skillet. They began to sizzle almost immediately. The smell made her weak. She was hungry too.

20 As the smell wafted through the house, the children began to rouse up and tumble out of bed. Raymond was first into the kitchen.

21 “Where did that come from?” he demanded in disbelief. “Ask your daddy,” was the only reply he received.

22 Pearl and Doodle were next. They were quickly followed by Luke and Dick. “That sure does smell good!” Luke smiled.

23 Mittie kept her back to the children to hide the tears welling up in her eyes. “You children go wash up and get seated at the table,” she said.

24 After she had served all of them, she walked on into the front room and sat down in her rocking chair. “Aren’t you going to eat, Momma?” Doodle asked. “I’m not hungry,” she lied. Raymond looked at Doodle across the table and shook his head to the left and right.

25 The twins were up now too. Mittie was rocking Gladys in her lap and showing her the pictures in an old magazine that one of the neighbors had given them. Ewell Ray was playing on the floor beside her chair.

26 There was a knock on the door. It was the sheriff, and he was accompanied by one of his deputies.

27 “Mornin, Mittie,” he offered through the screen door. “Is Clip at home?” “He’s still in the bed,” she replied without looking up. She continued to rock and turn the pages and point to the images for the toddler to see.

28 At about the same instant, Clip appeared in the doorway. “Clip, I need to talk to ya a minute,” the sheriff said. He calmly walked over to the door and stepped out onto the porch. “We’re gonna have to take you downtown,” the sheriff explained.

29 “Luke,” Clip shouted through the door. As the boy entered the room, his father said, “Run down to your Uncle George’s house and ask him if I can borrow a shirt.”

30 At that, Luke slipped out the back door and ran across the yard to his uncle’s house. He was back in a few minutes with a blue dress shirt and handed it to his father.

31 After Clip had put the shirt on and buttoned it up, he turned to the sheriff and said, “I’m ready now Griggs.” As they turned to leave, Doodle rushed out onto the front porch and grabbed her father around the legs.

32 “I don’t want you to go, Daddy,” she begged. “Please don’t take my daddy away,” she sobbed. Luke pulled her away from Clip and held her as the officers departed with their prisoner.

33 A few hours later, the sheriff and his deputy returned. “Have you seen any unusual looking tools around the house?” he asked Mittie. “No Sir, but you may search the house if you’d like,” she replied.

34 They walked through the house and looked in each room but did not perform an exhaustive search. “Thank you, Mittie,” the sheriff said as he smiled, tipped his hat and headed for the front door.

35 That night, as the family was getting ready for bed, Mittie discovered the bolt cutters at the bottom of a wooden box in which she kept her quilts. “Oh, my goodness!” she exclaimed and headed for the kitchen.

36 Raymond grabbed the tool and slipped it down the leg of his overalls and made a dodge for the back door. He ran across the yard and into the tree line across the street and tossed the bolt cutters down into a small creek.

37 When he returned to the house, the bolt cutters were gone. No one asked him about what he had done with them, and he didn’t say anything until many years later. At any rate, the bolt cutters did not appear as evidence at the trio’s trial.

38 Nevertheless, Red Martin turned state’s evidence, and Clip and Tollie were sent to Kilby Prison for a year and a day. Things had gone from bad to worse, but the Miller family still hadn’t seen the bottom of the barrel.