My scariest memory is the time I thought I was getting lock jaw and could decide if I wanted them to lock open or closed. I kept opening and closing my mouth and couldn't stop. When they took me to Dr. Vann he had to hold my jaws shut for awhile and I couldn't talk for awhile.

After I graduated, I didn’t get to go to college the first semester so I got a job picking cotton. Worked at it for 3 weeks and made enough to buy me a $1.98 dress. After college, I got a job teaching school in a country school, Guerra, about 35 miles out of Sierra Blanca, Texas. There was nothing there but an old cowboy schack, windmill and one ranch in between. I had to be able to drive a car so I could drive the kids to and from school. Daddy was going to teach me to drive, we got in the old Terraplane car and drove 2 or 3 miles and back. When we got back I was crying and Daddy was cussing. He tried one more time and that is all the lessons I had, never told the people there until nearly time for school to be out.

On August 25, 1939, Marlow and I went to Kechi to get married in a friends home, when we got there they had company so Marlow asked the Preacher to come out to the road and marry us. We went to Sierra Blanca for me to teach.. I resigned at Xmas and we came back to Cement. Marlow went to work for Little Nick Oil Co. making $60.00 dollars a month, long hours and no overtime pay. Later he started making $120.00 a month end we felt as rich as the Rockefellers.

In 1942, Janet was almost 2, we got the California fever, went to San Diego to Sally’s. We didn’t like the traffic so we went to Goshen, Oregon. Robert and Marla were born there. Marlow worked in the timber. In 1944 we got homesick and came back to Cyril, Oklahoma. We bought a home there and Marlow ran the Williams Filling Station. Our twins, Sherrill and Darrell were born there and to this date they are the only twins in the family. The station didn’t do too good so Marlow went back to work for the oil co. After the war was over, we decided to go back to Oregon. There were us and our 5 kids, Marion, Charlene, their 2 boys, Marlow's brother, his wife and 3 kids living in the same house for awhile. One day a man came by selling strawberries, he was afraid to get out of’ his car, afraid the kids would eat all the berries. Later he brought his wife by to see all the kids. The 3 guys bought a Cat machine and did their own timber. In 1949 we sold out and came back to Oklahoma. Marlow went back to work in the oil co. and the 19th Seed co. sodding the roads.

In 1961, I got a school to teach in Lame Deer, Montana. We came back each summer and Marlow worked for seed co. and I went to College to get my degree.

In 1966, I started teaching school in Cement and taught there until I retired in 1978. Marlow retired on disability in 1968. We bought a home in Verden, Oklahoma, lived there for a year. In 1979 we bought 5 acres and a trailor near Laverty, Oklahoma. We lived there until 1984 when we bought our home in Chickasha,, where we live now.

By Bessie Marie Robertson Williams