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Show Feature Looking back By Barbara Pyles Many details of George Hollands life stand out clearly in his mind. Now past 90, he gives us a personal glimpse into his past, and as he talked those times came alive. I lay in bed in the early morning and think about things from here and there and everywhere, he says. His story begins on September 6, 1909 in a small village in the swamps of Georgia, somewhere near the town ofAbbeville. It was a place where children didnt wear shoes, and baths were taken only once a week. I was delivered by the colored woman who lived with our family. She is the first person I saw when I opened my eyes. I looked the old girl right in the face. Of course you dont see much then, he said. Aunt Julie always said I was her boy and she treated me really good. Holland laughed as he told the following story: We had a preacher who would spend several days at the house. Holland added. And he didnt like colored people. It seems that the preacher became angry - George Holland and biscuits. One Friday evening before bedtime, young Holland carried cool water to the bath house. Is your water hot enough? asked Holland. No, hollered the preacher. Holland sent his brother into the kitchen to get some dark chocolate. The young lad had a smile on his face as he poured warm water into the preachers tub. You should have seen that old preacher when he came out of the dimly lit bath house, says Holland with a chuckle. According to Holland, the preacher took one more bath at their house and he heated his own water. Once again Holland opens the window to the past when he talks about a family who lost two little girls to a fever. My brother and I made the caskets, he said. mg. One day in particular stands out vividly in his mind: As the sun climbed high in the sky, he was picking cotton. Suddenly, a woman yelled Freeze. A mad dog was heading down the row where he was working. As he remembered, it wasnt long before one little girl broke and ran. The dog came by me and I r , t 'i Thats State Farm Insurance. Good Neighbor, State Farm is there. 435-644-26- 83 Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there bathtub. You turned the water on and it run out. It beat all I had ever seen. In Florida, he came across a family who ran a freight line on the water. The boy was hired to take care of the families two young children. He spent 14 months on the freighter as it carried cargo from port to 12-year-- We even traveled to England and Poland. Good Neighbor service See me: Linda Osbcrn, CLU Agent 310 South 100 East Kanab, UT 84741 . States. The woman was sick and she wanted to see all of the states before she died. We traveled with a registered nurse and a chauffeur. Holland added. load wlek backet i.. like a him. And my older brother beat him to death. At the age of 11, Holland left home. He describes the scene: My mother and Aunt Julie gave me all the money they had, eighty five cents. My mother wrote a letter to give people in case they questioned that I ran away from home. Because of my dad ... I dont know what would have taken place if I had stayed at home. The young traveler got a ride with a woman and her husband. Boy, where are you going? asked the woman Holland, who was barefooted and bareheaded didnt know for sure, but he was on his way. I sat on the back of that old buggy on that winding road. I could have walked faster than that old mule, he said with a smile. When we got to their place, she cooked some fresh turnip greens and hog jaw meat. I helped with the dishes before I left. Recalling his days after leaving home: I worked in a turpentine steel plant making barrels, he says. They didnt believe I could make the barrels because I was too little. But it was simple and I became a whiz at it. During his wandering, he also picked cotton, worked in a sawmill, and worked as a water boy. While he was picking cotton, Holland stayed with a family who had a port. I sailed through the Panama Canal shortly after it opened, he says. Another woman hired him to take care of her two children while they toured the United V, M 18 do anything but eat fried chicken grabbed his collar and straddled The two young boys got permission to bury the children underneath a tree near the familys home. Aunt Julie got me to dedicate the graves. I asked the Lord to see that no harm came to those two graves, says Holland. when Aunt Julie and her Today the area is a park, and granddaughter ate with the there is a little house built over family. He raised so much the graves. The Lord was listen- - heck that Aunt Julie started to eat in the kitchen. All of us kids went to eat with Aunt Julie and there wasnt anyone to eat with the preacher except mom and dad. According to Holland, the preacher always took a bath on Friday evenings. We had to draw his water, heat his water and put it in the tub. He didnt SOUTHERN UTAH NEWS WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 13, 1S39 STATE FARM O GO INSURANCE When Holland was about 15, he started Riding the Rails. He saw spectacular scenery and met the friendliest folks anywhere. Was he a bum? Not unless one wants to call two hundred and fifty thousand young people bums. In those days, riding the rails was a rite of passage. From the experience, he learned compassion and a love of freedom. I rode trains to just about every state in the Union, he says. I met a lot of good people on the self-relianc-e, f X - V good. i nV "s' N Yv' V t. V V. f i - George Holland reminisces about his childhood days in the deep south. Photo by Barbara Pyles. A smile crossed Holland face laid down on the couch and went as he recalled: One man told me to wear a pair of coveralls when I was traveling. When I slipped off of the train, I rolled up the coveralls and put them under my arm. That way I always looked clean and neat, Holland to sleep. The next morning a noise woke me up. Someone was getting breakfast in the kitchen. I heard a voice say Honey how many eggs do you want? I started to say two, instead I got explains. up and left the house. Nobody Once in Missouri, he stayed at knew I was there. a friends house. We got a job Perhaps it was the changing I corn. made and times $6 that led Holland to stop snapping folks his was hard It $5. gave riding the rails. As the years times. Holland made it a habit rolled by, he worked as a carpenof sharing whatever he had, ter, construction worker, and for wherever he went. the Civilian Conservation Corp. Another time he met a farmer During World War II, he was who needed his wheat stacked, in charge of 30 prisoners of war but he was sick in bed. Holland near the ammo dump west of and the mans wife worked in Flagstaff. I was issued a the field for several days. Whenrifle that I carried on my ever someone needed help, he shoulder, he says. One day always stayed until the job was while we were on a mountain done. getting some small pine trees, I A fresh coat of paint on a decided to look at my gun. It weathered house was a way he wasnt even loaded. Holland met Ardeth when he repaid a woman in North Dakota. She didnt have any was in his late 20s. He was money, but she got me a job on a building a house at Lees Ferry. ranch. She pulled her shoes off and I As Holland slowly made his out run her, he joked. Ardeth happily accepted his way across the country, he in Kansas. old This stopped proposal. They were married in boy was laying down and I took the old courthouse in Kanab. off my coat and covered him. He Later their marriage was blessed died and they buried my leather in the Mesa Temple. The young coat with him. But it was easy to couple made their home in Flagget a coat. I have never been staff where their sons, Roger treated any kinder by people and Robert were born. Because than when I was bumming of the cold weather in Flagstaff through the country. People (Hollands work kept him outwere good. You always got some- doors), they moved to Kanab. Holland served on the City Counthing to eat. fond memories of cil and as City Justice of the Recalling a meeting friendly flag man: He Peace. They have five grandgave me a cap and told me to tell children and five people that I was training to be a flag man, says Holland. We While traveling, what place in the stopped Burlington day did Holland like best? I before Christmas Eve. It was made it a habit to be happyalways where raining and the flag man told I was living.' me there- were some empty If Holland had his life to live houses down the road.H o 1 -- over again: I would have visited land looked inside one window my mother more often, he says. and sized things up in a glance. About his life: I cant saw an old beatup-ooueIve lived life to the full no one lived there, so he est. 30-carb- great-grandchildre- on n. - com--plain- h that wasnt so Y: arid-thoug- ht -. |