Not an Ending, but a Conclusion

From ‘20 to ‘20–more or less

Chapter 7

The 60s

So there we all were, married and away from home. In the early part of ‘62, I finally landed a job that seemed more permanent than any of 11 other short-lived jobs I had worked at in my first 19 months of marriage and when I went to work in Columbus, about 25 miles from Trafalgar, it seemed to E. H. and Lenora that the youngest was finally settled. A year later they sold the house we grew up in and bought about 20 acres just North of Lick Spring church and built a house. Jack could find water, you know, using a peach tree branch with a fork in it. He found water for their new house and several of us dug the well one 

Saturday (might have been on Memorial day.) We struck water right where Jack said we would and the house was finished, had a good supply of water and Lockie had his home in the country he wanted to get back to.

Throughout the 60s, he continued to pastor the Midway Separate Baptist church which was built by him using some of us boys and others in about 1953 or 54. It was built on property owned by the Central Indiana Association of Separate Baptist churches and when the tabernacle was built in ‘57, it began to be used by the association in addition to being pastored by Rev. E. H. Lockhart. Oh, by the way: back in ‘53 when the first small church building was built, we needed to dig a well for it. Jack found water at a good spot, we dug to the depth he said, but there was no water. 

But, since the association was going to be there in 2 days and the people needed water, Daddy bought a tank (2000 gal.) of potable water and dumped it in there for them to use. 2000 gallons…in 1953…sometime in the late ‘70s, about 25 years later that well ran dry. True story. I sware. True.

THE LOCKHART FAMILY SAGA TODAY—2021, A LONG ROAD

As I start this blog page today, I am sitting in our beautiful bungalow in the Northeast Alabama mountain town of Fort Payne, where all three of our children now live. A county seat of 15,000 people famous for three different historical events. It was a collection/starting point for the infamous Trail of Tears (of 1830-40s notoriety),a brief Coal Mining Boomtown, and a late 20th century phenomenal run as the Sock Capital of the World! None of these three events brings tourism to the area, but it is also the nearest town to a couple of other desired places: DeSoto State Park and its mountain top Little River DeSoto  Falls, as well as a national park preserve status Little River Canyon, with many canyon trails as well as its own Falls. Those two areas are near one another on the phenomenal top of Lookout Mountain (yes, the one in Chattanooga extends this far South and beyond),  along with a number of Summer Camps; boys, girls, and coeds, both Christian and secular abound all of which bring lots of folks to the top of the mountain who visit the eclectic little village of Mentone, historical in its own right.

My only remaining brother, Jack (80) lives about 70 miles West of us in a town about half as big as ours called Arab, AL. (That’s long A, short A in the American English, not as the folks in the Middle East are called—don’t mess that up!) Jack and Nancy have been there for almost 30 years now and have built themselves family and friends close, and as far as I know, they’re are very happy there. 

My only remaining sister, Margaret Lockhart Waltz (93) alone remains as the only one of Elvin and Lenora’s family of 9 to be around Trafalgar. She has a large family which surrounds her as well and who care for her needs.

Though all the rest of my siblings have departed this life, each of them have family remaining from Texas to Washington, D.C.; from Northern Indiana to Southern Florida—numbering up in the hundreds, I’m sure. We have not lost the memories of Elvin and Lenora who married almost 100 years ago, as I write. When I visit the Trafalgar, IN area, I still see people who remember and who loved my Mom and Dad. Still see several people I went to school with, some the whole 12 years there. These contacts I hold dear to my heart and will till I depart this life.

Thanks for reading the continuing saga of E.H. and Lenora Lockhart’s family.

The Elder