Go Team!!!

 

“A team can be defined as a group of people who perform interdependent tasks to work toward accomplishing a common or specific objective.”

When I think of teams, I tend to think of sports teams like the University of Kentucky Wildcats. Both sides of my family have longstanding ties with Kentucky. My Uncle Olen Nolen was offered a basketball scholarship to UK back in the 60s but he enlisted in the Marines instead. So, the Cats hold a special place in my heart and are “my” team.

Unfortunately, several past family members “teamed” up in very dangerous and deadly ways as factions in family feuds. These feuds could have easily rivaled the infamous Hatfield and McCoy clash.

Some family members have belonged to organizations like the Masons, the Odd Fellows, the Daughters of the American Revolution… which I suppose could equate to being teams.

When I think of past family though, I imagine that most of their energy went towards survival with little thought for organizations or competitive teams. Perhaps the young’uns may have had competitions of who could finish hoeing their rows of corn first, or who could finish stringing and breaking their bushel of green beans first. Of course, they would have to do it properly or they would have to lick the calf over.

Otherwise, the teams of importance to my ancestors would have likely been their team of mules. Those mules performed much work, making life easier for my family.

Another type of team was of vast importance to my family members. When I think of past family, I think of memories and stories shared with me by family members and I think of this different kind of team; the team made up of the members of the community. Those community members worked together to ensure the survival of the community. Those community members knew that survival of the community relied upon the individual families making up that community. A kind of symbiosis existed that led to the benefit of all.

I have heard of many examples of past community members helping out other members of the community. These communities were very remote and rural. Physicians were not readily available and folks often relied on remedies recommended by folks knowledgeable in the use of medicinal plants. My own great-grandmother Amanda Moore Allen, after moving away from Kentucky to Dayton, Ohio, would send a medicinal plant list with her son John Allen when he was returning to the area for a visit. He would walk the woods in search of the plants his mother needed for her treatments. Other community women became quite knowledgeable in delivering babies. When an expectant mother’s time came, one of these women would be fetched to assist with the delivery. My great-grandmother Jane Thomas Smith King and several aunts served as midwives in their communities.

Other members of the community would be called upon to perform more faith related healings. Some community members were known to be able to stop bleeding. My great-uncle Columbus Middleton could stop blood by reciting Ezekiel 16:6. My cousin Philip Smith witnessed him stopping an uncontrolled and enduring nosebleed that my grandfather Dave Smith experienced. As soon as Columbus recited the verse, Grandpa’s nose immediately stopped bleeding. Columbus could also wish away warts and taught his niece how to do the same.

The seventh son of a seventh son was thought to have healing powers by some and might be called upon to cure thrush in babies. Some folks were thought to be able to take the fire out of burns. All of these healers were part of the team that made up the community and were called upon when needed.

Some members of the community were skilled as carpenters. They could help their neighbors with their building projects. My Grandpa Boyd Nolen was a very skilled carpenter. He helped his neighbors the Murrells to build a new chicken coop. While he was there, the mailman came by and delivered an official looking letter. The Murrell’s son Robert was off fighting in the Korean War. Fearing the worst, Emma Murrell could not bear to open the letter to read it. She asked Grandpa Boyd if he could read it to her. Unfortunately, Robert had been injured during the war, but thankfully his injuries were not life-threatening and he would be able to return home from the war. Grandpa had started out on the carpentry faction of the community team and ended up on the comfort team.

Members of the community would also work together during the cooler times of late fall when families would slaughter the hogs that they had raised to provide protein for their families. Back in the day, homes did not have electricity and the only refrigeration was that provided by nature. The cool of a root cellar, the crisp water of a spring, or the cold of winter could provide some natural refrigeration but there were no deep freezers where fresh meat could be packaged and stored. Some cuts of meat such as hams, shoulders, side meat, bacon… could be smoked, or salt or sugar cured. Sausage could be formed into balls, cooked, covered in fat, and canned for later use. Other cuts of meat were best fresh. Neighbors would often work together and stagger the slaughtering of their hogs during cool weather. The fresh cuts of meat could be shared amongst those helping. When it came time for the neighbor to slaughter his hog, the favor would be returned and those assisting would receive a portion of fresh meat. In this way of staggering slaughters and sharing the meat, the lack of refrigeration was less of a problem and the community as a whole benefited.

Working as a team could make work less solitary and therefore less tedious. Company could make some chores safer also. If something went wrong, there was someone available to go for help.

In Southeastern Kentucky where many of my relatives lived, small seams of coal were often on the properties of family members. My Grandpa Dave Smith had such a bank of coal on his land, as did his neighbor Levi Allen. Grandpa and Levi would work together when digging coal from their coal banks. Grandpa would help Levi and Levi, in turn would help Grandpa. I am sure that they enjoyed each other’s companionship and should the bank crumble in, there was someone there to help.

Members of a community worked together in several other ways. One community member might own a sorghum mill. That member might set up a sorghum boil off where members of the community could bring their harvested sorghum cane. All of the cane would be juiced and boiled down with the owner of the mill receiving part of the finished product as payment. Another member might own a grain mill or a lumber mill. They might keep a portion of the milled grain or lumber as “payment” for use of the mill.

Members of a community could also provide safe havens for other members of the community. My Grandpa Boyd Nolen was a fine man but when he drank, he could become a different person. When my Grandma Rachel Allen Nolen knew he was drinking, she would gather the children and hurriedly take them to stay with the family of Bill Gross. There they would stay until it was safe for grandma to fetch them back.

Community members helped out other members in need. My Great-grandmother Amanda Moore Allen was widowed with five children. One of her neighbors would bring his mule and plow her garden for her. In return, she would prepare a meal for him to enjoy when he was finished. I imagine that she would share some of the harvest from that garden with his family when it came in also.

In the rural areas where my family lived, some community members would have small stores in their homes. The folks who owned these stores would often allow other community members to purchase things on credit. Money was not plentiful in these rural areas. Most folks were able to raise most of what they required to survive. Coffee, sugar, flour and a few other things had to be bought. The owners of these small stores would extend credit to local families. The bill would be paid when a family’s tobacco money came in, or the family received a payment from a member working for the Civilian Conservation Corps. The owners of these small stores were an important part of the community team.



Community members celebrated happy occasions with others. Women may have come together to make a new quilt for a couple’s wedding bed. A quilt may have been made to welcome a new baby. Celebrations of this kind were brief but welcomed respites from the tedium of unending chores.

Laura Sandlin Edwards was the neighbor of my Smith grandparents. We would often stop to visit Laura and her husband Oscar when we visited with my grandparents. Laura made a small quilt for me when I was a baby. I recall carrying that quilt around with me until it was just threads. Laura would have me stand by her doorframe and mark my height. She had the height of her granddaughter marked there also and she was comparing how we were both growing.

Of course, the lives of past family members were difficult and all occasions were not happy times of celebration. Sorrow and Death visited all too often. During these times, the team that was community stood steadfastly by, offering assistance, comfort, a bite to eat to grieving family. Men would take turns digging graves. Boards would be fashioned into coffins. Women would help to prepare bodies for burial. Neighbors would sit up with the families during wakes. Dishes would be prepared to provide sustenance to a family and community members numbed by grief.

When my Grandma Rachel Allen Nolen died at the age of 34, a neighbor brought his wagon pulled by his mules to carry her pine coffin to the cemetery where she would be buried. Family and neighbors would lift her coffin from the wagon bed and carry it to the grave they had dug. They would lower her body into that grave and each person would throw a handful of earth down upon her coffin, saying their final goodbyes.

Yes, the members of these communities were a team. They were a group of people who performed interdependent tasks to work toward accomplishing common or specific objectives. They had welcomed members into the community. They had celebrated births. They had worked together to ensure that the community had thrived by ensuring that the individual families had thrived.

And in the end, they had offered words of comfort while shedding their own tears at the loss of a member of their team.