A Story from Bernice's childhood:
Mr & Mrs A.P. Light moved from the coal fields to a Farm in Mason county. They could walk To the Pine Grove Methodist Episcopal church, I think the "A" stood for Alfred. She called him "Al." The had several grown children. One son Lived in Oakland, California. I forget his name. Their son, "Buster" Thurl Huston soon became my boyfriend. He went to Huntington and stayed with his sister & husband and graduated from High School there, then went back to the coal fields. It so happened that he broke my heart when he got a girl pregnant and had to get married.
His sister, Blanche, was married to Roy Lee. Another girl, younger than Blanche was named Ruby. She dated and married a State Trooper named Lawrence Proudfoot. They sold the farm to a Painter family & Clarence Jean Williamson married their granddaughter, Jorga Painter, I think. This farm is on the Light-Brown hill near Pine Grove M. E. church and is the beginning of Lower Nine Mile.
I recovered from the broken heart.
Bernice Lewis Anderson July, 2001
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Gran (Bernice) was remembering special birthdays past. The first birthday she can remember was the one in the photo of her holding a doll sitting in a rocking chair (bernice lewis age 3 or 4.jpg). Her parents took her on the train to Point Pleasant and on the way, she got a cinder in her eye. She let them know that she did not want to have her picture taken, so they told her that they were going to take a picture of the doll. When the picture arrived and she realized she had been tricked, she was furious with them.
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The next birthday she remembers was when she was about 10-12 yrs old. Her sister Ginny and husband, Harold invited her to come stay for a week at their place in Point Pleasant. While she was there, she got a pink ribbon that she wore with her white dress. Coming home, she rode the train with Harold's brother, Leonard, but he had to get off at the stop before hers. When he got off, he instructed her to get off at the next stop and she did. She rode the "john boat" across the river and walked home alone.
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The next birthday was a the first one after she was married. She said that Andy woke her up and dragged her out of bed and stuffed her under the bed. When she asked him why he did that, he said it was something to do. She said that he had a good sense of humor, but he didn't show it to others.
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One year when she was teaching at the Shadle School (a one room school house), her brother, John broughter her mother to the school. She had baked a cake for her birthday. She said that her mother always made their birthdays special.
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One year after Larry was born, Andy invited all of Bernice's siblings and their families to their house for her birthday. They came after church and had lunch and cake. Clara (Milton's wife) baked a cake for her.
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Bernice Lewis Anderson Mother's Day, 2002
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