Uncle Earl-Repost from 2009

I wrote this in 2009, but felt like it deserved reposting. Today marks 19 years since my great-uncle Earl passed away.

Since this was written in 2009, some of the information has become outdated. We’ve lost a few of Grandma’s siblings since then.  My parents are no longer in Navasota, my mother is no longer with us either. I need to go through and do a separate piece on each of the aunts and uncles that I spent a decent amount of time with, which was most of them.  Most of them made big impressions on me, the ones who didn’t, I just wasn’t around enough.  I’m sure if I had been, they would have. I went through and added pictures I could find of each one. I wasn’t able to find one of Aunt Lois.

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Grandma Briggs came from a family of 16 kids. 13 lived to be adults, 5 are still living, most of the ones that passed lived full lives into their 70’s and 80’s.

I was very fortunate to be able to get to know most of Grandma’s siblings. There is only a couple that I don’t have distinct memories of. Here’s a brief rundown of what I remember from each of those thirteen.

Lloyd Jones (Deceased)

I remember my Dad preaching at Uncle Lloyd’s church and him playing the fiddle. Also staying at their house in Locust Grove, OK and how nice Aunt Winnebel was.

Emmett Jones (Deceased)

I don’t remember meeting him until I was a teenager and he came to visit Grandma at her house. He seemed like a nice man, I just wasn’t around him very much.

Ruth Marrs (Deceased)

Aunt Ruth and Grandma went to the same hairdresser once a week and I remember her and Grandma being the best of friends. When I was a teenager, I would stay with her husband, Uncle Houston who had suffered a stroke while they went to the hair appointment.

 

Orpha Briggs (Deceased)

Grandma Briggs, I’ve written a lot about her (and Grandad) in the past.

Johnny Jones (Deceased)

Uncle Johnny was always a staple at the Sperry Post Office sitting on a bench out front talking to other men from the town. He was usually in a pair of overalls.

Wes Jones (Deceased)

Dad preached for Uncle Wes in Beggs, OK when I was pretty young. He had a mangled hand from a childhood farm accident, but still managed to be a first-class carpenter and mason. He also came to Pittsburg and preached for my Dad once or twice. The same could probably be said about grandma’s entire family, but I remember him always being very jovial and humorous.

Madeline Howard (Deceased)

I did not get to spend a lot of time with Aunt Madeline, but she was very nice to me. And I remember her as being one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.

Juanita Cook (Living)

Aunt Juanita lives in Illinois. She has come to Oklahoma for several reunions and once during the summer and stayed for several weeks, including a few days with Grandma and Grandad. When she stayed with Grandma, she and Grandma had been canning some jelly. We took a little road trip that day to go visit Uncle Lloyd in Locust Grove. On the way there we stopped at a café and something triggered Grandma and Aunt Juanita’s memory. They both looked at each other and at the same time exclaimed, “The stove!”
They had forgotten about some fruit they had left cooking for the canning they were doing. Grandad called Bob Stidham who had a station next door. Bob went over and checked on the stove using the house key that was on the front porch under a rock. The fruit had boiled over and put the fire out on the stove. Fortunately Bob was able to turn the stove off and nothing was harmed except some burnt fruit and a mess when we returned. I remember Aunt Juanita and Grandma laughing nonstop about it afterwards.

Rachel Martens (Deceased)

Aunt Rachel and Uncle Henry moved from Sperry to Indiana with their daughter Ruth a few years ago. They could always be seen around Sperry walking to Hominy Creek Bridge. It was like clockwork. She and Grandma Briggs shared a very striking resemblance to each other.

Earl Jones (Deceased)

I will write in depth about him later.

Frank Jones (Living)

Uncle Frank still lives in Sperry, and you can often find him at the local café every morning. I remember him always fishing the Illinois River in a fishing tube. He’s always been very nice to me.

Lois Thulin (Deceased)
She passed when I was about five. I don’t remember much about her except that she was sick. Her son Hovey and I are close to the same age, and I remember playing in the pastures around their house. Hovey and I shared several classes in seventh grade. Lois’ daughter Reetha stayed with Grandma and Grandad for bit during her teenage years.

Bill Jones (Living)

When I think of Uncle Bill I think of a big grin. His daughter Stephanie and I are close to the same age. I would go over to their house a lot during my summers in OK. He and Aunt Dorothy probably came out to Grandad and Grandma’s house more than her other siblings. I remember them being around for jam sessions, and Fourth of July cookouts. They are also a staple every year at the reunions.

I didn’t feel I could write this without at least acknowledging all of Grandma Brigg’s siblings. While I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with all of them, I had/have a connection with all of them. It’s really hard to say I liked one more than another, just like any person in your life. They all played different roles for me. A lot of time just their mere presence gave me a sense of comfort knowing I was among some resemblance of “home”.

 

With all that said, the one that I probably had the strongest connection with was Uncle Earl. This is my attempt to explain what he meant to me. I’m sure I could write the same thing about each of the people mentioned above had I spent enough time with them. While this is about Uncle Earl, I think of him almost in a symbolic way of representing all of his siblings.

Four of Grandma’s brothers ended up being preachers, including Uncle Earl who officiated the wedding of my parents in 1969. He had a very funny side. The night of the wedding, he left my parents a message telling them in their haste to start their lives together, they had forgotten to sign the wedding license. My parents drove to Haskell, OK where Earl and his family lived at the time. Dad remembers that as soon as Uncle Earl opened the door and saw the newlyweds on his front porch, he started laughing. He had been joking and didn’t think they had taken him seriously. Dad and Mom both came from a strict religious upbringing, so I’m sure they had worried they’d spent their first night married “in sin” due to a complication.

I guess the earliest memory I have of Uncle Earl is probably from church when I was four or five. By then he had become the pastor of the Pentecostal church in Sperry, OK. I remember him singing and preaching. The church was anchored with a lot of family members including my grandparents, several great aunts, great uncles, uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins, and people not blood related but claimed as family. I don’t know all the specifics, but he had taken the church after some turmoil and helped put everything back together.

Though he was a preacher, he was a man’s man. He worked with his hands. One-time Grandad and Grandma were replacing the field line at their house. Uncle Earl was right there in overalls getting dirty, crawling under the house and helping dig the trench for the line.

Of course, I remember him being at the Jones Reunion in Tahlequah every August. He and several of the men would go fishing, and Uncle Earl often brought a small boat with him in the back of his truck. A Saturday morning tradition at the reunion was for the men to go into town and look around at the flea markets and pawn shops. Grandad, Uncle Earl, Uncle Bill, Uncle Frank, Uncle Henry, Uncle Larry, Uncle James, Cousins Steve, Ronnie, Rick, Milton, my brother Brad, our Dad, and a few others were regulars on those trips into town. I started tagging along when I a teenager. I was always torn on whether I should stay or go, I didn’t want to miss anything at the camp, but all the men were going into town. Some of my best memories are from those Saturday morning trips. One-year Uncle Earl bought a saddle out at the flea market.

There was not a lot I did not like about Uncle Earl. Honestly a lot of that has to do with how nice he was to me. Uncle Earl was very supportive of my Dad’s ministry, even when Dad’s religious organization had turned their back and other family members from the same organization for that matter. Uncle Earl did not. He treated my Dad and our family the same. He always made us feel welcome at his church, or in person.
I couldn’t list all of the times he exercised generosity to not only us, but to people in his church, and in the community. If he knew a family was without groceries, gas money, needed new tires for a vehicle, he would see to it that they had what they needed.

He would occasionally come up and slip me money too. One year I was going with Grandad and Grandma to a family reunion on Grandad’s mother’s side in Tennessee. Uncle Earl slipped me twenty bucks so I would “have some spending money for the trip.” When you’re a teenager, twenty bucks seems like its one hundred. At least it did for me.

The generosity aside, he took an interest in me. During my teen years, he would invite me to ride with him to Oklahoma City to pick up kids from youth camp in the church van. Maybe he just didn’t want to ride by himself, but he probably could have asked a lot of people to go along, yet he asked me. I look back on those drives from Sperry to Oklahoma City with great fondness. I loved staying with my grandparents during the summers, but they also didn’t go a lot of places. So it was nice to get out every once in a while. One year, Uncle Earl entrusted me to water his garden and feed his beloved Beagle hounds while he was on vacation. He paid me to do it, but I would have done it for free, I was just honored he thought I was responsible enough to handle the task. If you had seen his garden, it might make a little more sense. It was huge!
I guess I have to say overall what impressed me about him, was how he treated others. No he wasn’t perfect, but along with a host of other family members provided a good example to myself.
About a year before he died, I was sitting in the church my Dad pastors in Navasota, TX. What I am about to write here is nothing my parents don’t already know. Almost every time I went to church in Navasota, I couldn’t help but be sad. I would think of my grandparents and all the family members who were in a Sunday morning service in Sperry, OK while I was in service in Navasota with a bunch of people who weren’t very kind to my parents.
One Sunday I left the auditorium and went to my Dad’s office and wrote letters to Grandad and Grandma, and one to Uncle Earl. I was 21 or 22 at the time and didn’t really feel like I had ever said “Thank you” to them for the roles they played in my upbringing. Honestly, I thought Uncle Earl would outlive both Grandad and Grandma by several years. Grandma survived him by a couple of years, and Grandad survived him by six.
The following Christmas we were in OK and went to church while we were in Sperry. Brad and I were sitting on the back pew like good preacher’s kids do. Uncle Earl came out of his office which was close by and slapped me on the back. I looked around and he had a big smile on his face. And that is how I remember him. Uncle Earl passed away on September 1, 1999.

He never talked to me about the letter, but I know he received it because his wife Aunt Frankie told me it meant a lot to him.
This past reunion, my dad, my brother, his wife, my sister, her husband, her girls, and I went to that same flea market. I had skipped it for the last few years, and honestly the flea market wasn’t anything special this year. Guess that’s a big surprise about a flea market? Maybe it never has been, and it was just being out there a lot of my favorite people. While walking around out there, I had one of those flashback moments you see so often in the movies and on TV. I looked around for Uncle Earl to see if he found a new saddle.