Diamond in the Sky

I Was Born a Country Girl

 I was raised as a country girl on a small family farm in Malvern, Alabama.  My mother, Lacy, and my daddy, C. J. Aplin, were very hard working people.  When my mother was growing up, she learned how to play the piano and guitar by ear.  She said on several occasions different churches would send for her to come play the piano during revivals.  She really enjoyed doing this because it gave her the opportunity to share her love of making music with others.  Then she met C. J., and the first thing that attracted her to him was his big brown eyes.
 My daddy farmed all throughout his life.  He was always out in the fields working, even as a young boy, so he never learned how to read or write.  He only knew how to write his name.  Daddy was a successful farmer who had plenty of common sense.  He could look at his fields of corn, cotton or peanuts and tell exactly what the crop needed.  In the 1960’s he added growing tomatoes to his list of row cropping.  He hauled many truckloads of tomatoes to the farmers’ market in Birmingham, Alabama because there was not a market in our area.  He was one of the pioneer farmers who helped to establish the “Slocomb Tomato Market”.  When it opened for business, farmers could take their tomatoes to Slocomb, Alabama to be packed and shipped out to different parts of the country.  The market has grown and today thousands of people come to Slocomb and the surrounding communities every summer to buy some of those tasty tomatoes.
Daddy and mother raised a family of eight children which consisted of four boys and four girls.  I was number seven.  We didn’t have much money, but we were rich in love and deep caring for one another.  Our family’s strength lay in our church upbringing and our faith in God.  Daddy and mother would take us to church every Sunday, and Daddy would always manage to drop a little money into the offering plate.  Mother always cooked and the table was spread with a Sunday meal every day of the week.  All of us worked hard on the farm, and we would come in to a meal fit for a king.
 Our parents would always reward us for our hard work by taking us on picnics.  They would take us to the beach a couple of times in the summer, and in the fall we would go to Eufaula, Alabama fishing.  Every trip consisted of food, swimming, and lots of fun.  This was my daddy’s greatest joy, especially the food part. 
 I cherish all of these memories, but the one that stands out the most in my mind is the three day fishing trip to Deland, Florida.  Daddy’s brother and his family went along on the trip, and all of us loaded up on a big truck.  There were several of us riding in the back, and I remember someone on the truck yelling out, “We’re crossing over the Suwannee River.”  All of us stood up to look.  We had never been that far south into Florida before, and this was a real treat.
 When we got to Deland, we found our cottages that we had rented.  The men rented some boats and went out fishing.  They really caught a lot of fish each day and we cooked fish and hushpuppies every day.  We had a very good time, and every time I hear the song, “Way down upon the Suwannee River,” I think about this trip.
 I cherish the memories of growing up with my brothers and sisters.  Each one of them had their own special quality.  My sister, Hazel, was fourteen when I was born, and she told me many times about how she helped mother take care of us.  She said mother would tell her, “Hazel, you’ve got to be a big girl and help me out with these babies.”  I remember when Hazel found out that I was getting married.  She took me by the hands, started crying and said, “I can’t believe you’re old enough to get married because I helped raise you.”  I am grateful for all she did for us and especially for the way she helped our mother.
 My sister, Betty, wore petticoats under her dresses.  When she graduated from high school, she got a job at the cigar factory in Dothan, Alabama.  She would always smell like a cigar when she came in from work, and with each step she took, those petticoats would spread the scent all over the house.  There was television show that came on in the 1960’s called Petticoat Junction.  I told her she would fit right in with that show.  When she got paid each Friday, she would bring either vegetable beef or chicken noodle soup home.  We always looked forward to Fridays because we knew that we were going to have something different to eat.
 My brother, Julian, played football when he was in high school.  I have a picture of him in his football uniform holding a football.  When he was a senior in high school, the senior football players were allowed to drive the bus.  He and his girlfriend dated on the bus.  Even after he graduated, she continued to ride the bus with my sister, Janice, and me since she was younger.  Julian would always give us notes to pass along to her when we saw her on the bus, and she would do the same.  Sometimes Janice and I would read the notes and giggle about them.  His girlfriend, Judy, did eventually become my sister-in-law.  I have to admit to them both that I don’t at all regret reading those notes.
 My brother, Charles, was tall and very muscular.  He was also very strong, and he could pick up heavy objects and make it look so easy.  Charles was a very gentle and quite man in a big body.  I always felt safe when he was around because I saw him as my big strong brother.
 I remember my brother Max, always had a sense of humor.  He should have been a comedian because he said things all of the time to make us laugh.  He would always say silly things especially around mother just to see her laugh and make her stomach bounce up and down.    
 My brother, James, joined the Army and was stationed in Alaska for a year.  I would write letters to him and he would always write back including pictures with the letter.  He said that it was such a beautiful state.  The way he described everything made me want to visit just so I could see it with my own eyes.  He was the only one in our family to join the military, and we were very proud of him.  We felt that he had accomplished something very special by leaving a small farm and traveling so far away.
 I was next in line, and I was a big tomboy.  I loved all kinds of sports, especially football and baseball.  I watched the professional games on television, and I could tell you the names of all of the players.  Joe Namath was my sports hero because he played for Coach Bear Bryant at the University of Alabama.  I followed his career when he began to play professional football, and I cheered him on as he led the New York Jets to victory over the Baltimore Colts in the Super Bowl.  It was a great win for Joe and the Jets because they were considered the underdogs.
 My baby sister, Janice, was born two years after me.  She was the only one to be born in a hospital, and she would tell the rest of us that this made her special.  She and I did everything together as we were growing up.  We would wash the supper dishes every night because at the end of the day mother was very tired.  We would bang on the pots and pans and sing.  Janice would play on a pot and pretend it was a guitar, and I would beat the spoons together