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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 23

You can definitely find a barrel or two of homebrew stashed in the spring. Some of the little boys sneak down and pull the plug out of one and have a sample. I heard that Cleophus Lacy and his buddies have done that. The Lacy family isn't as poor as some, because they have a horse and a wagon of their own. They also have a radio. It runs off a big battery (not a Delco battery) and has an antenna. The battery sets right next to the radio. One of the nephews is handy with wires, and he ran a copper wire out to a ground. The ground is a metal stake or post in the ground. Every once in awhile, the battery goes down, and baking soda is put in it. Listening to the radio is a treat, and on Friday nights, the neighbors gather at the Lacy's house to listen to the boxing matches. Joe Louis is black and a favored contender. The Lacys don't allow any drinking at their house though. They are a good hard-working family, and the kids always enjoy playing together. Even though they don't have much cash money, the Lacy parents try to make a good life for their children. At Christmastime, Mr. Lacy takes the boys out to the woods to cut down a tree. They set up the tree, and then Mrs. Lacy gathers up little red berries that grow in the woods and strings them up with thread. The children all think they are pretty. Mrs. Lacy uses colored paper that the children bring home from Horton School and a scissors to make curls of the strips. Each of the children gets one toy for Christmas, and no more, but they have fruit and plenty of food. Starting north, back up the road, on the opposite side from the Schiffman land is the Anderson property, and above that, the Woodwards. Ruby Eslick Woodward used to own the store in Pond Beat. She ran the store and her husband did the farming. However, they sold the store and the house beside it to A.C. Turner when she and her husband, Lee Woodward, moved to his father's house. The John Woodward house has four rooms and it faces a lane that comes off the main road (McAlpine). Two doors are on the front of the house, but the family doesn't use them much, because the bedrooms are in the front of the house. The bedroom on the right is larger than the other one; the bedrooms have fireplaces for heat. The two rooms in the rear of the house are used as a kitchen and dining room. Many years ago, when John Woodward was raising his family, the room now used as a dining room was a bedroom, so a Warm Morning heater is in there. The kitchen just had an icebox then, but when Lee and Ruby moved into the house, Lee bought a refrigerator that burns kerosene. The smell of kerosene permeates the air when it is burning. Behind the house is a big fenced-in garden. The Woodwards have to go through the garden and out the gate to get to the outhouse. Like the house, the outhouse is built of yellow poplar and has a tin roof; it's a two-seater. The well is all the way down the hill from the house, so every bit of water has to be carried up to the house in buckets. Just beyond the well, the terrain starts sloping up to the mountain. The family cemetery is on the mountain. Washing clothes is done by the well, so a big black iron pot stays there. When 23 - (4056)