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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 314
Description of the House and the Store. The House. Gene said A.C. Turner's house was wood frame with drop siding. It had a tin roof, was painted white, and had both a front porch and a back porch. The house had ‘about five rooms” and no central hallway. The smoke house was behind it. The well was behind the house. A big garage was behind the house on the right (east) side. The garage was made of rough boards. The Store. The store was one room with a storage room off to the east side, about midway to the back of the store. The structure was about 20 feet wide by about 50 feet long. That was Gene's guess. “It was built up on stilts because it flooded down there.” The house was on higher ground than the store. “You'd go up the front steps??"it also had back steps.” He said it seems like he remembers the front being higher than the back, because he doesn't remember the steps in the back “going as high up as the ones in the front.” Asked what type of things the Turners sold in the store, Gene said bologna, cheese, canned stuff, dried beans, overalls, and denim shirts. A.C. Turner bought his produce from Lee W. Woodward. Groceries were bought from “the wholesaler,” in Huntsville, which was Ragland Brothers. Gene said his grandfather had a Model T Ford truck, and they went to town (Huntsville) to pick up the groceries. Then, in later years, Raglands started to deliver. Gene said his grandfather also had a “gas station.” He said: The gas pump was out front under a tin canopy. We sold kerosene also. The gas pump was a two-way pump??"a backwards and forwards pump. A globe was on the top. It held at least five gallons. The globe filled and then the gas would flow down into the car. A driveway went up between the house and the store. The garage was at the end of the driveway. The outhouse was “over behind the house.” The store shared that outhouse. Daily Life The Household. Gene said that Mae King cooked for the family. The kitchen in the house beside the store ran the width of the house and had a twelve-foot-long table. The kids sat on tapered potato baskets, and the grown-ups sat on chairs. According to Gene, Mae King was a big woman. Apparently she ruled in the kitchen. Gene stated, “You wouldn't dare go in the kitchen between meals, or she'd tear you up.” Mae was more than the cook. Gene said, “She was our Black nanny. She could sit and rock you or she could beat your butt??"whichever came in handy.” Mae King was the wife of James King. [James Long mentioned a James King living just north of him.] Luci Turner had a gasoline-operated washing machine. It had a one-cylinder engine. After the clothes washed, she cranked them through a wringer and rinsed them in a tub. She had two rinse tubs. The washer was in the garage. 314 - (4347)