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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 142
of pet him.” When asked if one could say he was the “teacher's pet,” James smiled and nodded, saying he guessed you could. Most of the children carried their lunch to school, but James lived close by, so he went home for lunch. “Sometimes children would buy something off the rolling truck for lunch, like an apple or cookies, but,” James noted, “money was a scanty.” Moses and other parents took turns cutting wood and taking it to the school. “Winters were colder back then,” James said. When the snow came, it would melt quickly in the high places, but in low spots and under the trees, it might stay on the ground for three weeks. Wood was always kept on hand to warm the school. The parents would haul the cut timber to the school in a wagon. The older boys stacked the timber and later cut it to size and carried it into the school building so there was always a ready wood supply for the woodstove. Moses helped in building the school. James is not sure if his Uncle Darphus donated the land for the school, but the land for it is cut out of the parcel Darphus owned. It is speculated that Darphus may have donated the land as a match for the Rosenthal grant for building the school, because Darphus was known to be a big-hearted man. Store. Moses Love's house (C-131) was between the school and the store. James said their house was “kind of angling across from” the school. Darphus (Adolphus) Love, brother of Moses, owned the store. The properties of Moses and Darphus (shown in the name of Celia McCrary Love) adjoined. James said the store was a separate structure from that of his Uncle Darphus' house, but “you could pitch a rock from one to the other.” A wood stove was used to heat the store in winter. James explained that the store wasn't fancy, but it was considered nicer than some of the other small stores of its type. The “storekeeper” on duty would be one of a number of people, sometimes Alzina, Everett's wife, sometimes Everett, and sometimes “one of the hands.” Alzina's tenure in storekeeping ended when she and Everett separated. The store had the staples??"flour, sugar, meal, and pork meat. Syrup (molasses) was sold in cans. They had canned mackerel and other things, such as candy. No clothes were sold. James said, “mostly people bought from the peddler truck [the rolling store] that went through.” While James emphasized that Darphus didn't “give food away,” he sometimes would give some meat or other food to less fortunate elders. Churches. Moses Love went to the Grange Church, which was a Methodist Church. The Grange Church and the Center Grove church down in Pond Beat had the same preacher. When the preacher would go to one church, somebody would substitute at the other. When the land went to the Army, the two churches combined and built a church on Ardmore Highway. James said some people attended a church in Farley. It was called the Antioch Church. James said, “It was there in Farley [on South Memorial Parkway] until recently, but they didn't have many go there so they moved [probably 142 - (4175)