Hilda Remembers Life at Davis Mill
Hilda relates the story of Coley, the donkey she and Johnnie used to ride to school. It seems that a neighborhood girl (Louise Jacobs) was walking towards school one morning and Johnnie stopped and offered her a ride. He put her on Coley behind Hilda and the three rode on to school. It seems that after that Louise would meet them at her mailbox to catch a ride to school. On this particular day it rained fairly hard while school was in session and on the way home Coley was forced to walk through a mud hole. It seems she stopped in the middle and did not want to go. At Johnnie's encouragement she finally jerked forward and in the process Louise fell off the rear of ole Coley and into the mud puddle. Hilda says they all laughed, got Louise up out of the mud and wiped her clothes off with their hands as best they could. When they got home and showed their Mother their muddy hands and explained what had happened she broke into the hardest laughter Hilda said she ever heard from her mother. She then became concerned for Louise asking if she was hurt and explaining that Coley could have sat down on her or stepped or her and hurt her. Johnnie explained that they had let her off at the mailbox where they had picked her up and she was running up the road to the house so they knew she was all right.
In asking Hilda about Johnnie selling fish bait she stated they used to go down to the creek early in the morning and she would hold one end of the net for Johnnie while he would take the other end and surround the minnows and get them into the net. She also stated that after Johnnie had left home, fishermen would often stop in and ask for fish bait. Hilda also remembers not being allowed to go into the lower part of the mill after Paul got his finger pulled off. Mama and PaPa realized it was to dangerous for them.