Kidnaped! |
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When I was about 6, [1921] we all moved to Chester, IL.
We rented an old crummy house down the road from Mama Jonie's. There was a creek
that ran down form the bluff udner the road to the river. Opposite was a road
that led up the bluff. We lived on the other side of the creek from Mama Jonie's.
My grandparents lived just a block away.
Times were hard even then, and my father worked as a Gandy Dancer on the railroad. He had to walk the railroad to look for defects in the rails. He had to walk miles and miles. Dad found a lot of stuff along the railroad. One day he brought home a big, big live turtle. He killed it for mom to cook. There was a hill across the street from our house, and we used to climb up the trail all the time. | |||
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One day Mama let me go to Mama Jonie's late in the afternoon. I always played along the way. I was throwing rocks into the creek that day. A nice young man stopped to talk to me. (There never was a lot of traffic on the road.) He asked me if I would like to go for a walk with him. No one told me not to talk to strangers in those days! He said he wanted to show me something. I said "yes". He took my hand and we walked across the road to the bluff, and I followed him up the hill. We walked and talked all the way up. He held me close to him, and he pulled my panties down and caressed me. | ||
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It began to get evening. My dad got home from work, and went
to see if I was at my grandparents’. I wasn’t there.
Suddenly I heard my grandfather calling me. I called out to him so he could find me. I suddenly realized it wasn't a good idea coming up there with the young man. Poppa Jonie came crashing throught woods toward my voice. (Poppa Jonie was a tall, muscular man.) He had his shotgun with him. He fired it off with a lot of noise. He yelled down that he found me. He carried me down to meet the rest of the searchers with the man in tow. I will never forget my father crashing down the bluff with a large rope around his shoulder. He was going to hang the guy! A lot of the guards from the Penitentiary had come to help look for me. They held my dad back and wouldn't let him use the rope. I guess the guards took him to the prison. It turned out the man had been arrested a few times for molestation. His parents had a lot of money and always came to his rescue. |
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A few nights later his parents came to our house to talk to dad. They talked
outside but I could hear them. They had a lawyer with them. They offered Dad a
lot of money to call off the trial. However, Dad refused very strongly to take
their money.
I didn't know the names of the people. Dad brought them to trial. I was put on the witness stand and questioned. I was so scared I could hardly talk! I was in the second grade at school, and the teacher used me as an example for kids to not talk to strangers. I was so embarrassed! The kids at recess asked me all kinds of questions. I was too upset to answer them. I remember only one other thing from the time while we lived there: my grandmother was cleaning a freshly-killed chicken, and handed me the still-beating heart. Life is so precious! |
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| ← Bloody Williamson | The Big White House→ | |
My mom, Uncle Clarence, Aunt Clara,