The Memoirs Of Dorothy Louise Porto
I, Dorothy Louise Porto was born at 24 Dorsey Avenue - Brandon Community in Greenville, South Carolina on January 2nd, 1926. My mother was Mary Etta Henderson before she married my father, Ezra Cleveland Gardner. They had seven children, five boys and two girls - Forrest, Broadus, JB, Hubert, Thelma, Lewis & Louise. We lived in a four-room house until I was seventeen.
My dad had a heart attack at 58 years old. He had already bought a farm in Pickens County, Easley, South Carolina. We all helped him on the farm. He was the foreman of all carpenters at Brandon Mill. So he knew his trade. He and my brothers cut logs. Had them cut from our woods. Built a log house, also a four-room house for JB and his wife. They built a little house for Lewis and wife. Later he and my mother built a four-room house on the same farm for them and Thelma to move into.
After his heart attack we lived in the log house three months for him to recover. Daddy later passed away at 68. All my brothers married. So did I marry in 1945. Thelma never married.
I started school at age 6 at Brandon Grammar School, went to 7th grade. I then went to Parker High School which went to 11th grade.
I took Diversified Occupation -- training on-the-job. I left school every day at 1:00, came home and got ready to go to Brandon Company Store to do my job. I was head of the candy counter. Then I wanted to try selling on the other side of the store, which was groceries and produce. I made 80.00 a month - I only worked a few hours a day. During the summer months after 10th grade I worked in the mill's spinning room. Then I went to work in the cloth room. This was a cotton mill, made cloth from beginning to the finished product. All my family worked there. The superintendent said if it wasn't for the Gardner's the mill would close down.
I graduated in 1943, the following year they added a 12th grade.
When we used to go out to the country Daddy and my brothers were building these houses. Mama would take all the children out in the fields and we had a toe sack over our shoulders and we'd pick peas -- I hated that. A man down the road grew cotton, we were paid to pick cotton too. After the peas dried out we'd have to thrash them. All laid on a big tarp. We beat them with sticks. That was the peas being finished up - I think we sold them for feed.
I remember Mama said she didn't go to school - she learned to read and write from the Blue Back Speller. She had to go to work in a spinning mill in Gastonia, SC when she was 6 years old. She was so short she had to stand on a bobbin box to reach the spinning machines. My Daddy worked very young too - he made 50 cents a day. His daddy was named John Bryson Gardner. His mama was named Anzer Melissa Clementine Gardner. Think that was funny. He had a brother named Anthony Pizarro Gardner -- Another brother Burtin Odis and other Dewey "Dude". His sisters were Minnie, Net and Eva and Nellie. Old maids but Nellie.
When Mama and Daddy moved to the country I stayed with Ruth and Hubert and stayed in cloth room. They moved in our old house on Dorsey Ave. Tunia and her Mama and Daddy lived beside us on Dorsey Ave. That's when Tunia became my 2nd Mama. She fed me - sat me up on the table on her back porch and kept me washed clean. She played with us - walked, ran and played. Everything Tunia did with us.
Her Mama, "Doodle", always planted sweet peas. She'd pick the pretty flowers and put them in 10 cent bundles and put them in a basket, walk them up to the trolley and go to town and sell them. She made a little spending money. Her Daddy was Amos Holmes. He used to go to town on the trolley and they kidded him -- He sat on the corner and watched the women go by.
I remember Daddy made a bank out of four pieces of metal and a top with a slit with a metal spring, soldered it together about 3 inches by 12 inches. They saved Christmas money in it. At Christmas time we'd all gather around the fireplace. They'd lock the door and pull the shades down. Daddy would get the soldering iron hot in the fire and open the money bank. There would be about 100 dollars in it. We thought we were rich. That's what they bought our Christmas presents and dinner with presents, candy canes and nuts. I remember one Christmas I said I wish I'd get a watch, I don't care if it runs or not. I just want it to wear.
The postman came one day. I took a box into Mama. She hid it. On Christmas morning Thelma and I each had a silver watch. I still have mine.
Some brothers drove my dad to cut down Christmas tree. Lewis got in the way of the ax. Cut his cheek. To the doctor's before they got home.
We had a favorite aunt, Mama's sister, Aunt Alice. She came on Christmas. She hung her big bloomers on the fire board hoping Santa would fill them with nuts and candy.
It didn't snow much down there but we had fun in what fell. We'd track it in and out of the house. When Mama got tired of it she made us come in and she'd lock the door and put the key in her apron pocket.
We didn't have a bathtub or toilet in house. Had outhouse up on the hill. Every week old Posie used to come around on the wagon and empty the big cans in the outhouse. Little by little they started putting bathrooms. The bosses got theirs first. Daddy was boss over the carpenters so we got ours. Tunia's Mama was upset. She said they got just as dirty as the bosses did. Every Saturday we got the big tin tub set up in the back room, heated water and took our baths. Mama and Daddy took theirs together.
Daddy bought a Hupmobile. He couldn't drive so he let my older brothers drive him places. Once we went to Gaffney, 50 miles away from home. Hubert drove. He wasn't allowed to go but 35 miles an hour. That's as far as we ever got from home. We visited Aunt Alice, our favorite aunt, and her children. She had one son, Cole L. He weighed 15 lbs. at birth. They said he smiled at the doctor before he left to go back to his office. Her other son was with a circus. Barnum & Bailey Circus. His name was Clarence. They called him "Brother".
When I was a teenager we went to Greenville Textile Hall to see the Grand Ole Opry. Saw Minnie Pearl, her boyfriend Hezzie, Roy Acuff. That's all I can remember.
We used to have the circus come to West Greenville every summer. We all had to take naps on Sat. afternoon. Mama woke us at 7:00, we got ready and went to the Circus carnival. We walked there. In the same place once a year we had a tent meeting -- Healing Services. My brother's wife's nephew went. His grandma took him because he had fallen into an incinerator and got burned bad. His legs were just bones for years. 16 years old he still had crutches. He went down that night to be healed. Preacher Oswald layed hands on him and prayed for him. Said "Hand me your crutches". He did. He walked ever since. That was our big night out.
Sundays we walked to the Brandon Baptist Church. About a mile seemed like. Daddy was a member. Mama joined and was baptized after I did. I was 14 years old when I felt I should go down and join the church. Later I was baptized in the Bapsistry. At church Rev. J.E. Willis was our preacher. I remember we had Bible Sword Drills. We lined up with our Bibles, someone called out verses and we'd see who could find them first. I won at my church. Had to go to 1st Baptist on Pendley St. I won there and we had to go by bus to Hartsville for the Southern Baptist Convention. Stayed a week for free. Classes, etc. Had a great time.
Mama got a new refrigerator. Made pimento cheese and deviled eggs for sandwiches. Man came around selling apples. Everyone put their dishpans out to put apples in for .50 cents.
I went barefooted. I had holes in my shoes. Ground was so hot it hurt my feet. Playing at Lilla Hilton's under their porch. Dirt floor.
Went to hosp for gall bladder operation Sept 4th. Almost didn't make it. Doctor goofed.
