Aunt Lou Amma's Memoirs - Part IV

Lou Amma Bramblett Armstrong, my mother's oldest sister, at age 79 wrote down a few pages of her childhood memories growing up in Johnson County, Texas, in the early 1900's, along with 7 other brothers and sisters, parents and grandparents.

In this final segment, she describes one of the family enterprises - a local telephone company owned by her father, Lee Bramblett, and staffed by the entire family.

 Lou Amma and Elna, operating the switchboard

One day when Carl was attending the switchboard one line crossed with another and the man on the live end of the line helped the other one get central. He rang a long time. When Carl answered he said Helooooooooh, It made the man so mad he had his phone taken out. Later he got over it and asked for it back. Papa told him all right, but he would not get any better service.

Mama used to let Elna and me hitch up to the buggy and go as far as 4 miles to uncross lines or fix the telephone (watch the ground wire). She would tell us what to do and we usually fixed it. That was in the Fall when all the men were busy.

Carl could answer the phone when he was crying, and when he answered, it was always a very pleasant “Hello.”

One time an electrical storm suddenly came up and I was ringing someone. It knocked out every line on the board. Shocked me until my arm just ached for 2 hours. All was well when we went behind the board and put in new fuses.

John and Cora Latina Doss Hall

I remember when G’ma and G’pa Hall moved from west of Cleburne to the Indian Territory (before it became a state). Uncle Jimmie [Hall, brother of Cora] also lived out a claim and I remember G’pa had a 2 room dugout. Herbert [Hall; Jimmies' son] was 2 years older than I and used to tell about them driving 25 miles to Hammon and he saw a train “The largest one he ever saw before or since.”

I can’t figure out how papa and mama met. Maybe some of you know. They used to go to big singings all over the country. Papa sang tenor. Mama sang alto.

The memoirs end here. At least, I have no additional pages, and I suspect there were not any more.