Lewis Norris: Malaria

Lewis Norris (second from left), others: unknown

In talking to my dad last Saturday about the war years, he talked about Uncle Lewis having been in the Merchant Marines during the war. Daddy said Uncle Lewis had malaria but Daddy didn't know where or when he contracted it. He said Uncle Lewis would come home on leave periodically and would arrive at home well and robust but after a little while would begin to lose weight and would become sickly again before leaving. I asked if Uncle Lewis was taking any kind of medication when he was at home and Daddy said "Not as far as I was aware." It may have been that Uncle Lewis took medication while he was serving at his duty station but didn't have it to take when he was home.

Mother mentioned that many men and boys had malaria in the "old" days and that her brother Melvin had also had it. We discussed that since malaria carrying mosquitoes were more prevalent in those days and that most men and boys worked outside, it probably was pretty common. Daddy said the common medication for malaria in those days was called "Three Sixes". It may have been quinine as that was the common treatment back then.

A Visit With Dad... Again, More Information

When visiting with Dad last Saturday, I asked if Grandpa Norris had worked in the shipyards during the war. I knew Daddy did and Geraldine (I think) mentioned in our discussions of building the house that Grandpa did too. Daddy confirmed that Grandpa had worked in the shipyards as a "shipfitter's helper". When I asked what that job entailed, he said the shipfitter was the man who fitted the large sections of steel plate that the ship was made from in place and that Grandpa assisted in that.

Daddy was a welder and I recall hearing him talk about taking a sling-shot to work with him. He said he used the "plugs" that were cut out to make space for the rivets in the steel plates in the sling-shot to kill the rats that were ever-present. He would use bits of bread from his lunch to attract them within range. He said he was so successful that his supervisor made him stop because the stench of the dead rats had become too much.

Evidently there were two shipyards in the Houston area during the war. One was the "Houston Shipyard" which built Liberty ships... used to haul cargo. The other was "Brown Shipyard" which built navel vessels... destroyer escorts and landing vessels. Daddy worked in both of the shipyards at one time or another.

Every morning, two buses left Humble bound for the shipyards; one to each. Workers who didn't drive in carpooled private vehicles paid to ride the bus bound for his particular place of employment. Since tires and gasoline were rationed, and difficult to come by even if you had the coupons, many workers rode the buses. The shipyards were located on the ship channel along about Galena Park.

For more information on shipyards in Houston during the war, click on the URL below:
http://www.coltoncompany.com/consulting/Shipbuilding%20in%20Texas.pdf

More information from this interview in the next few days.

A Visit With Dad... More Information

When talking to Dad last Saturday, I asked him about where Grandma and Grandpa had lived before living in the house we all remember in Bordersville. I knew they lived in what is the Baytown area when he was born in 1925. Daddy said he believes Grandma and Grandpa moved the family from the Baytown area about 1929 or 1930 to a tent on the banks of the San Jacinto River in the area between the old road that went down to the low water bridge and what is the present road known as FM1960, where it crosses Lake Houston on McKay Bridge. He said living there in the tent is his earliest memory.

My mother noted at that point that in the "old days" lots of people in the Humble area lived in tents. (Those were the oil boom days following the big oil strike at Spindletop in the Beaumont area and Humble was said to be a town approaching 20,000 people, most working in the oil fields.) Daddy said there was no one else living nearby when they lived in the tent down by the river.

Mom and Dad and I discussed when Grandma and Grandpa moved from Bordersville to town. None of us could remember precisely. The only thing I can remember for sure is that they first lived in a small house just off Granberry Street, and I believe it faced the Methodist Church. Then they moved, at some point, to that larger house on the corner just behind the Penticostal Church. I know they were living in that house when I got married in August 1966 and they were living there when Grandpa died in October 1966. Does anyone know precisely when they moved to town?

More information gathered from this visit with Daddy in the next few days.

A Visit With Dad

Informational tidbits from a conversation with Mishael E. Norris, Jr.:

The house most of us remember was built about 1944 with lumber salvaged from the old house before it and new lumber bought where necessary. The old house had been on the Al Davis property when Grandma and Grandpa moved there courtesy of Mr. Davis' kindness and $1.00 per year lease. The "lease" was to keep Grandma and Grandpa from effecting a "homestead" on the property.

Al Davis lived somewhere around Refugio and contact with him probably came about because Mr. Davis was either a relative or friends with the Lee family, particularly Edna Jarrell. Daddy says he doesn't ever remember seeing Mr. Davis after they moved first moved into the original house and he doesn't recall any mention of Mr. Davis having ever been paid the $1.00 per year. To the best of his memory, Mr. Davis died about 1946.

Al Davis' property where Grandma and Grandpa lived consisted of 12-15 acres and there was no other house on the property. When I asked Daddy about the dimensions of the house, the size of the rooms and such, he first said the house was 30' x 30' without the porches but was later not really sure about the dimensions. He and Mother both stated the front porch was a "deep" porch and then stated about "10 feet deep".

Viewing the photo of Grandpa in the frame of the porch he was building, I'm not so certain it was that deep. I plan to look at that again and try to gauge it and the overall dimensions of the house in relation to the porch. Grandpa was not a big man and, given his size in relation to the porch he was building, the porch may not have been 10 feet deep. What do y'all think?

When I asked Daddy about the well we all remember to the west of the house, he said it was a shallow drilled well. He said it eventually went dry and he doesn't remember any effort to dig it out or drill it out to make it again useful. At that time, Grandma and Grandpa started getting water delivered into the two barrels we all remember in the front yard by the fence.

Daddy said the back fence was about 10 foot from the porch and that there was no separate fencing for a chicken yard out back around the china berry tree. He also said the outhouse was about 50 foot from the back gate and that there was a barn, not a shed, just a little further out and more toward the front of the house. That is where Grandma milked the cow named Suzy.

We talked about butchering hogs. I remember being very small and seeing a "white" hog hanging from a single-tree evidently after being "scraped". Daddy said the hogs were white only after the scraping. I also remember wondering what the barrels half buried in the ground at a slant were for and finally seeing boiling water poured into it for dipping the hogs to remove their hair. Daddy said I probably wouldn't have seen that at Grandma and Grandpa's house since they didn't do any of that after they built the "new" house about 1944. Prior to that time, they did butcher hogs out under the china berry tree.

More of this "interview" in the next few days.

Photo Recap - Corrected Date

It seems the first photo above was taken December 25, 1957, and was not taken at the time of the 50th anniversary celebration of Grandma and Grandpa. Jane Holcombe sent a batch of photos for me to scan for use in the family blog and a duplicate of the photo was included. On the back was the penciled date indicating the correct date. Also in that group of photos Jane sent were two photos (shown second and third) which were taken August 20, 1958, and were noted to be taken at their 50th anniversary celebration.

Jane sent the photos by Charles and he gave them to me at the Alumni Banquet on Saturday night. Geraldine, Charles, Dutchie, Molly and I were looking at the photos and Dutchie noted how that Christmas must have been a warm one since everyone was wearing fairly light clothing.

It appears to me the anniversary photos were taken inside the house in Bordersville and I would guess it to be in the kitchen. Can anyone verify that assumption?

(Especially for Cheryl... below is the key to the people in the photos above...)

Photo 1 - Standing behind Grandma and Grandpa, L-R: Earnestine Norris Holcombe, Boyd Norris, Velma Norris Shelby, Lewis Norris, Edna Norris Crockett, Mishael E. Norris, Jr.

Photo 2 - Grandpa and Grandma

Photo 3 - Earnestine Norris Holcombe, Mishael E. Norris, Jr., Velma Norris Shelby, Edna Norris Crockett, Boyd Norris, Lewis Norris

Grandma's & Grandpa's Letters

Shirley Shelby Purswell found several letters written by Grandma Norris and Grandpa Norris to Great-Grandpa Dunman. The year was 1908. She has scanned these letters and posted them in the "files" section of the Norris Family Yahoo group. They are available to all of us now.

The letters are simply written and are about everyday things. The fact they were written in 1908 and are this year 100 years old is remarkable as is their survival. Though we can't all have these very delicate family treasures in our hands, we can have the benefit of seeing them. I hope you all enjoy them.

Thanks again, Shirley for making them available to us.

(The URL to reach the Norris Family Yahoo group is below. If you haven't yet joined the group, this might be a good time to do so. If you have any problems with joining, let me know.)

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/norris_group/

Happy Father's Day

(L-R) Edward Vyoral, Mishael E. Norris, Jr., Robert Norris

I hope all the dads in our family enjoyed their day and as many family members as possible were able to see or at least talk to their dads on Sunday. I know we all remember our deceased fathers everyday, but as our pastor said in church yesterday morning, on Father's Day we remember them with a special prayer of thanksgiving for their influence in our lives.

Please send along any photos you might have of YOUR Father's Day celebrations so we can run them in the blog.

2008 Humble Alumni Banquet

(L-R) Geraldine Crockett Slaughter, Virginia Crockett Willis, (back) Charles Holcombe, Joy Norris Vyoral, Molly Crockett Ott

Saturday evening, June 14th was the 76th meeting and banquet of the Humble High School Alumni Association. Also in attendance along with our family members shown above, were spouses Chester Slaughter, who is also an Humble graduate, and Edward Vyoral.

The banquet is always the second Sunday in June. It would be wonderful if, next year, family members in a similar photo could be multiplied many times.

(Geraldine, Charles, Virginia and Molly: if you'll let me know your graduation years, I'll edit this post to show that also.)

Four Little Cousins ~ August 1948

The four guys in this photo are (L-R) Mike Norris, Kenneth Crockett, Tommie Shelby and Charles Holcombe. I don't think there would be any mistaking any one of them.

I'm struck by how many family photos must have been taken along the side of the old house. It's distinctive faux brick siding makes the house itself unmistakable. By my reckoning, I would place this to likely be the right side/west side of the house. Might more photos have been taken on that side of the house because the west side would have had more sun in the afternoons, and therefore, better for photos? Is there anything you all remember that might make it more correctly identifiable?

I seem to remember there being a hand pump to a well on that side, but my memory is admittedly flawed. What do you all think?

Another Easter Memory Circa 1949

This is a GREAT photo...Let's see if we know who these folks are...

L-R
1st Row:
Geraldine Crockett Slaughter
Mike Norris
Joy Norris Vyoral
Unidentified Boy 1
Unidentified Boy 2 (behind Boy 1)
Richard Shelby

2nd Row
Marie Crockett Benardino
Kenneth Crockett
Unidentified Child
Charles Holcombe

3rd Row
Lewis Norris
Baby Holcombe
Elige Holcombe
Peggy Crockett Barry Darington
Velma Norris Shelby
Mishael E. Norris, Jr.
Evelyn Jones Norris
Boyd Norris

If I've misidentified anyone or anyone knows the names of the unidentified family members, let me know.

Photo Recap-Easter Memories...

Okay folks.... best guess on kids in this photo with Grandma:

left to right...

Virginia "Dutchie" Crockett Willis (on Grandma's right)
Tommie Shelby (sitting, facing camera)
Grandma
Charles Holcombe (sitting, back to camera)
Marie Crockett Benardino (almost hidden, at Grandma's left shoulder)
Kenneth Crockett (sitting, almost hidden in striped shirt)
Geraldine Crockett Slaughter (standing)

You'll just have to wonder who all those legs belong to!

Grandma and Grandpa's House

The above photo shows Grandpa Norris standing in the porch frame of the house I remember as being in Bordersville. It appears that he is putting boards in the porch section of the house. Do I understand correctly that Grandpa built this house?

Someone mentioned that the house in the background of the “Arm and Arm” blog entry was on the same site before this house was built. If that was the case, did Grandpa build that older house too? Does anyone know when these houses were built?

If Grandpa built this house, did he and Grandma “own” the house? I’ve always been curious about that point since I seem to remember being told the property belonged to “Texaco”.

Buddy, Mishaelle and I drove out to the site of the old house a few years ago. It many have been as long ago as 1995 or 1996. I had difficulty remembering how to get down there since it had been so long. I was first looking for the gully that I remember crossing on a wooden bridge that was just before Auntie Crockett’s house. The gully wasn’t as I’d remembered it in that, after finding the old house itself, I realized the gully was only a very shallow ditch that we crossed without any bridge or culvert at all. We did find the house finally and it was occupied. For that reason, we didn’t get any closer than about 500 feet. I’ve always found it interesting that upon returning to some house or even an area you knew as a child, everything seems so much smaller.

I will be posting this information to the family group, hoping to get some answers there. If you haven’t already joined the Norris Family Yahoo group, please consider doing so. I have listed the URL below that will take you to the group. Please contact me if you have questions.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/norris_group/