Memories of living in Memphis

Some chapters of family history last only a few months, yet linger in memory for a lifetime. Our nine months in Memphis were like that—a brief stop filled with a crowded little house, school-day adventures, a homemade Christmas, and the ordinary moments that, decades later, still bring our family’s story into focus.
 
My brother Dave, (my sisters), and I only lived in the Memphis area for about nine months, but we both have surprisingly vivid memories of that time. We had started the school year in Peoria, Illinois living with our grandparents. About three weeks into the school year after our grandparents died the family moved to the Memphis area. Our dad was tationed at the Millington Naval Training Station, and we rented a little house in Raleigh. We attended Raleigh Elementary School during that time.

The House in Raleigh
Dave remembers that the house we lived in had quite a bit of acreage. It was actually a house for a farm hand on the ranch called the Barry Brooks Ranch. The house itself was small, with only four rooms plus a bathroom. There were two bedrooms. Mom and Dad had one bedroom, while the four older children—Dave, Steve, Julie, and Brenda—shared the other. Dave and Steve slept in a single bed together, while Julie and Brenda slept in another single bed.
 
Baby Lisa was born while we were living there. She slept in a crib in Mom and Dad's bedroom. When Lisa came home from the hospital, the other four children had chickenpox. I remember that Lisa had what appeared to be three spots when she was only about a week old. She apparently never had chickenpox again, leading us to wonder if she had developed enough immunity from that early exposure.
 
The house had an unusual heating system. A huge grate in the center of the house heated the living room and hallway from below. The grate became extremely hot, and we remember that Julie may have burned herself on it. Looking back, it seems like a pretty terrible way to heat a house.
 
Dave and the Bird
Because the house was surrounded by considerable acreage, there was plenty of room for the children to roam. Dave remembers having a BB gun and shooting at birds. One day, he shot a bird and hit it directly in the eye. The bird fell to the ground, and when Dave went over to look at it, he felt terrible about what he had done.
 
There was also apparently a problem with blue jays and crows damaging the crops, possibly corn. Dave remembers that people were offering a nickel for every blue jay or crow that was killed. He thought that sounded like a pretty good deal.
 
However, the bird he actually shot was not a blue jay or a crow. It was just a little bird sitting very still in a tree. Dave shot it, and the experience of seeing the injured bird made him feel guilty.
 
Walking to School
We walked to the Scenic Hills Elementary school during our time in Memphis. We think it was probably less than a mile, although none of us can remember the exact distance. It certainly wasn't the legendary "ten miles uphill both ways in the snow."
 
One of the things Dave remembers most clearly about school was participating in the school spelling bee. He kept winning round after round, eventually making it all the way to the finals. By then, he was a fourth grader competing against an eighth grader.
 
Dave doesn't remember the exact final word, but he remembers losing to the eighth grader. Everyone else had already been eliminated, so it came down to the fourth grader and the eighth grader.
 
The Christmas Tree
One of our strongest memories from Memphis involves Christmas. We apparently didn't have a Christmas tree that year. Dave remembers seeing a tree in his classroom and asking the teacher if he could take it home before the Christmas Break. When she learned that our family didn't have a tree, she became emotional and told him that he could have it.
 
Dave then carried the tree home from school, probably nearly a mile. When Mom saw him dragging it home, she cried.
 
Once we had the tree, we had to make our own decorations because we didn't have any. Mom popped popcorn, and we strung the popcorn together with a needle and thread to make garland. We also cut strips of paper, formed them into loops, and connected them to make paper chains.
It was a simple Christmas, but we made our own decorations and made the best of what we had.
 
Learning to Say "Yes, Ma'am"
I remember an important lesson we learned at school about Southern manners.
One day, the teacher asked me a question. I answered, "Yeah." I quickly discovered that "Yeah" was not considered an acceptable answer. The proper response was "Yes, ma'am."
I didn't understand why I was in trouble until one of the boys sitting behind him explained that I couldn't simply say "yes" or "yeah." I needed to say, "Yes, ma'am."
I remember that my teacher was Mrs. Rice.
 
Singing in School
Another memorable experience involved music class.

Because our family attended church and singing was a regular part of our lives, Dave had grown up singing. One day in music class, the teacher taught the students a song and then asked everyone to sing it.
 
Dave began singing. Everyone else stopped and looked at him. He couldn't understand what was wrong. He thought they were supposed to sing the song. Apparently, the boys in the class thought singing was too "girlish" for a boy to do. The girls were singing, but the boys were not.
 
Rather than discourage him, the teacher embraced Dave's willingness to sing and encouraged him to continue.
 
Dad's Patent-Leather Shoes
We also remember getting Dad a pair of brand-new patent-leather shoes for Christmas.
Dad had a job that required him to go through inspections, and he always had to keep his shoes polished. Patent-leather shoes were easier to maintain because they didn't require as much buffing and polishing.
 
So we bought Dad a pair for Christmas and told everyone not to tell him.
 
Unfortunately, Julie didn't get the message. When she came home, she ran to Dad, jumped into his arms, and he picked her up and held her high. She immediately announced, "Guess what, Dad! We didn't get you any patent-leather shoes!"
 
We were horrified.
 
Like most families, we seem to have accumulated plenty of stories that have lived on long after the actual events were forgotten.
 
Our Cousin
Although we were only in Memphis for about nine months, another person lived with us during that period: Our cousin. She came to stay with our family and had her baby while living in our already very crowded house.
 
With four children sharing one bedroom, Mom and Dad in the other, and baby Lisa in their room, adding Cousin and her baby made an already crowded house even more crowded.
 
Dave also remembers that when we were living in Peoria, Dad gave us "the birds and the bees" talk. Cousin's pregnancy was apparently the reason for that particular lesson.
 
Union Avenue Church
Dave has a general memory of attending the Union Avenue Church of Christ while we were in Memphis. We don't remember going there frequently, but it is part of our memories of that period.
 
Years later, Dave returned to Memphis while he was doing graduate studies at the Harding School of Theology. He had taken a class on the Restoration Movement taught by Jerry Rushford and had learned more about the history of the Union Avenue church and its building.
 
The church had a significant history within the Churches of Christ. Its building was unusually large and elaborate for the time, including a balcony. It had been constructed partly in response to the large and impressive buildings being built by Baptist and Presbyterian congregations in the area. Critics accused the church of trying to "keep up with the Joneses," but the result was an impressive building unlike anything else in the Churches of Christ at the time.
 
Because of the historical significance of the church, Dave decided he wanted to visit it again.
 
He took a red-eye flight to Memphis before the beginning of one of his classes. He arrived in Memphis around nine or ten in the morning and went to the church.
 
By that time, the neighborhood had changed dramatically. The white members had largely moved to the suburbs, and the congregation had become predominantly Black.
 
The preacher at the church happened to be an adjunct professor at the graduate school Dave attended. Dave didn't know him personally, but the preacher recognized him immediately.
 
He said, "Dave Shaner?"

Dave was surprised. "Yes. How do you know me?"  The preacher then asked Dave if he would like to preach that morning. Dave had been up all night traveling and had arrived only a few minutes before the service. He told the preacher that he wasn't prepared to preach.
 
The preacher accepted his answer and told him he was welcome to preach if he wanted.
 
Dave still doesn't know exactly how the preacher knew who he was. He joked that it seemed like almost every Black preacher eventually had some connection to Southwestern.
 
Looking Back
We were only children and only lived in Memphis for about nine months, so our memories are scattered. But those memories have remained remarkably vivid: the small house with the acreage, the hot heating grate, walking to school, the spelling bee, the Christmas tree, popcorn and paper decorations, learning to say "Yes, ma'am," singing when the other boys wouldn't, Dad's patent-leather shoes, Tommy Martin and her baby, and the Union Avenue church.
 
They were ordinary events in the life of a family that was moving from one place to another. But decades later, those little details are what remain—and they provide a surprisingly vivid picture of what it was like for us to live in the Memphis area as children.