DESOTO MANOR
by
Sheila Slaten Crump
The date was March of 1949. Three weeks earlier, I had turned five and up until then had lived in absolute country, Sand Mountain, around Geraldine, Alabama, dirt roads, cotton fields, mule-pulled plows, total country bumpkin. I had lived there with my mother and her parents and especially my wonderful aunt Betty, 12 years older than I. We slept together every night, so I had NEVER slept alone in a bed before. She fed me, carried me and we played all the time. Mostly we played in my grandfather’s cotton gin and his sawdust pile from his lumber mill. The cotton gin ginned everyone’s cotton on Sand Mountain for generations.
Suddenly, my father came home from Japan in 1948. I had never seen him but I knew his picture and it was absolute love at first sight. Daddy, having veteran preference, applied for a job at Anniston Ordnance Depot and we were on our way to a total new world, for me anyway. That 75-mile trip was the longest trip this 5 year old had ever taken. I thought we were going to the ends of the earth. I didn’t even know they made paved roads that long, but we finally arrived and quickly, Ms. Clingo and Mr. Carpenter got us a 2-bedroom apartment in Desoto Manor. The closest I had ever lived to anyone was half a mile on my grandparents’ dirt road, so I was enchanted at having so many children close to me. This was the first time I had ever had a room to myself or my own bed, so THAT was a little frightening.
There were two families who, it seemed, were waiting for us to get here (even though they didn’t know we were coming). One family lived right next door, and with Desoto Manor, that was just with a piece of sheet rock between us. We first lived in an end apartment and the wonderful Mintzes lived next door. Kenneth was probably 9, Judy was 6 and Billy was 2. One morning I went on my little concrete stoop and found my very own baby. He had diapers, although they WERE wet. This was Billy Frank Mintz. I thought God had brought me this baby, and I would have kept him but, darn it, his mother Mildred came looking for him just when I was about to take him in the house. Now, taking him in the house would have been a real problem because at 2, he outweighed me at 5. He was a little fluffy. Love him still.
The next Mintz to grace my life was Judy. I was so happy to find a friend my age and we were never strangers. We had always been friends, but it just took a little while to meet one another. Neither Judy nor I had ever been accused of being shy, so we played anytime we could.
Not long after we moved there, Daddy got a 3-bedroom apartment, Apt. 190, and we moved to that one, and the Mintzes moved a couple of apartments over, but we still visited when our parents would let us. The Mintzes and my parents became fast friends, and we would later go on outings to the lake on Saturdays, play on the merry-go-round, swing, swim, and spent a lot of time together. We went to Lincoln to visit with the Mintzes extended family, and went with them to their grandmother’s house in Anniston to visit. The absolute, most strange thing about all this visiting is that Ms. Hagler, Judy’s grandmother, had a very small little house behind her house near old Sears store, that she rented. My dear husband, Carl, and his mother rented this house when he was small. We probably saw him on the premises, I just cannot remember. Talk about coincidence.
We always went to Florida when school was out and usually went with the Mintzes. The folks would often pick us up the last Friday of school and here we would go, taking pillows, sheets and necessities and caravan on to the Y at Panama City. We would rent a small house, and all cramp in together, but it didn’t matter. We had a ball. We would sleep with sand on the sheets, eat fresh seafood the men would catch on Captain Anderson Boats and were happy as larks.
Judy and her family moved to Lincoln a few years later and I was so sorry and sad to see them go but she has been a warm fuzzy memory for all my life and I do talk to her occasionally and we E mail a lot. You don’t forget your first, fast friends.
There was another family at Bynum who literally were my extended family. That would be Walter, Pauline, Roddy, Nadja and Janice Grant. Now Pauline and my daddy were cousins. Jan, I believe was my age and Nadja was about 12 when we moved to the Manor. Walter told my dad to apply for the job at Bynum. This family actually WAS waiting on us to get here. Walter was Daddy Rabbit and was a major influence on sports at Bynum. The Grants and the Mintzes spent a lot of time together with us, also at the lake and family night at the Officers’ Club.
Nadja had the dubious honor of babysitting for me, Janice, Wayne Bynum (a cousin) on many, many an occasion. The folks would be out at the Officers’ Club and we children would all pile up in one bed like cordwood, Nadja first, Jan, then me, then Wayne. Nadja dared us to move. Nadja was a glamorous (to my 6-year-old eye) 13 year-old and my father would tease her about almost being a teenager. Sadly, Nadja passed away about two years ago and she left a hole in our hearts. I did get to see her once before she passed away and I was so glad that things worked out. We had literally not seen one another for 49 years.
Janice and I played like little worms. I seem to remember that we played dress up, and we were glamorous, too, in our minds, as glamorous as Nadja. I spent about as much time in their Desoto Manor Apartment as I did mine and was always disappointed when it was time to go home. We swam at the Lake and more often than not, spent time with the Mintzes, too, on those warm summer days. Those were the times I was happiest, with my Bynum pals. Jan and I see one another now, whenever we can. She has come to my house several times for a reunion, and Nadja came with her the first time. The entire Grant clan, disappointedly, moved to Marietta, Georgia probably around 1954. Jan and I got married about the same time and our children are pretty close to the same age. We visited with them whenever we could but it was a long trek to Atlanta, Georgia, almost like going on safari. We lost touch until she married Jim Barker. Interestingly, Jim’s brother worked with my husband at M&H Valve in Anniston and Jan called me out of the blue one day, probably 15 years ago. We have kept up with one another ever since.
Judy and Janice are not my only great friends from Bynum, but they are the first people I ever knew in that strange place with asphalt roads and apartments going for miles, and no cotton fields. They both have a place in my heart that will never be filled by any one else and they are my sisters.