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My Mom Was Raised by wildcats! compiled from accounts of family menbers |
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My Mom Was Raised by wildcats! compiled from accounts of family menbers |
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Sometime ago my mother graciously decided that she would share her childhood memories with us and began to write about the memories she had growing up. She extended the invitation to write to others in the family and a book was born. The book seemed to come to life and develop a theme of it's own as each person wrote about their memories. The theme of the book quickly centered about the home of Thomas Richmond Swicegood and Mary Robanna Beard Swicegood. Family members wrote about growing up as a child there or the time they spent as a grandchild visiting there. One thing shone out from the memories like a beacon - THE WILDCATS! Almost everyone who wrote for the book mentioned them. I am the youngest of the grandchildren and probably have the fewest memories of them, yet the I recall that the first nightmare that I had was of these 'fierce creatures'. Although space will not allow the publication of the book, I am going to attempt to retell the sum of these stories of the wildcats. Although the stories were told separately by Lucille, Lois, Dorothy, Johnny, Joanne, Gail, David, and Laurinda, I have attempted to condense them into one story which will be told in the 1st person.
The story begins during the days before the depression: Times were hard during the depression and money was scarce. Papa traveled far and wide to keep the family fed. During World War I he had worked at Newport News in the shipyards. Now he was away with a friend that he often worked with, Bob Stirewalt, in the Florida Everglades doing some construction there. One day Mama and I went to the mailbox and there was a large, thick envelope there for her. When she opened up the envelope she took out a lot of gold colored bills that Papa had sent home. I had never seen so much money! Mama, being thrifty, soon was able to feed us and also bought a model T Ford touring automobile with the money that he was sending home.
Soon it was Christmas time and a notice for Mama was received from the Railway epress office that a delivery had been made and was waiting to be picked up. Harley brought it home. It was two huge crates - one filled with grapefruit and the other filled with oranges. Usually we got one orange in our stockings at Christmas. Here was a whole crate full of them, I could hardly believe it. Papa had sent these to us and what a feast we had. The sight of a grapefruit was something we had not seen before and we were anxious to try them. The first one was a disaster. They were so sour our mouths seemed to turn inside out. So we put sugar on them to try to eat them. We later learned to sprinkle salt on them in the place of sugar and they did not seem so sour.
When summer began another notice was received from the Railway express that a large crate was there to be picked up for Mama. I don't remember who brought it home, because it was much too large to get into an automobile. I do distinctly remember the packaging. The box was probably 36"x48"x30" high. The frame was wood with heavy material looking like our sheet rock today - very sturdy. I remember that whoever opened the box had to use a crowbar to pry the lid from the top off. I'm sure Papa had written to let Mama know what he was sending home, otherwise we would have had the very life scared from us. Inside were two wildcats! Papa had trapped one and in some manner captured the other. He had taken them to a taxidermist and had them stuffed and mounted. They were standing staring at us like they were ready to pounce on us. They were about 2 feet tall, 2 1/2 feet long. They were beautiful animals, but awesome looking. One was female and the other male. The male had been mounted to look like he was ready to pounce on his prey, eyes glistening, and teeth and mouth in a snarling position. The female was less fearsome looking in appearance. They were in the path of the construction in the everglade area where Papa was working. Needless to say they were the talk of the community! They received a prominent place in the house. One stood at each end of the big old upright piano in the living room. So everybody who ever came into the living room when visiting had to see them, certainly always a conversion piece.
Those wildcats always gave me a lot of fright. I always thought that they would come back to life and get me. Their spectre always hung about in the living room near the piano. We would often stay in the dining area at night talking by the light of lamps. One night we heard something going across the piano in the living room, playing notes. I was scared to pieces. Mama took the lamp and Bob followed behind her with the broom. The rest of us followed like stair steps, from the biggest to the smallest, trailing behind with big eyes. We just knew that the wild cats had come back to life and were prowling around the living room. When we got to the living room we peeped carefully around the door and found that it wasn't one of the wildcats after all, it was one of the house cats had been pinned up in the living room. "Whew!", what a relief!
Sometimes these wildcats were used to play tricks on people. Wes Long borrowed them once and sat them on the railroad bank where Mutt Lindsay would be sure to see them as he came out of the railroad bank to the store. Then he waited and waited. Finally Mutt came up on those wildcats and nearly jumped out of his skin. They really frightened him. Bob got a big kick taking them to school, to show off and scare everyone when he had the opportunity.
After we were all grown up and married, we brought our children back to Mama's house every week to visit and all the grandchildren got a thrill from those fierce wildcats which were now consigned to a closet at the top of the stairs in the hallway. One of the grandchildren, Bonnie, had taken up residence at the old homeplace with her mother and sisters and was intimately familiar with the wildcats. But not so with Gail. One Sunday the family was enjoying the afternoon visit when Bonnie and Gail went out to play. It was not long after they had left the room when we heard a terrible scream. I knew it was my little Gail. The scream seemed to come from the back hall. We all rushed from the room to see what was happening. There at the top of the stairs she stood screaming almost ready to faint and fall down the stairs! I rushed up the stairs to grab her before she could tumble down the stairs! Being only about 4 years old she did not know about the wild cats until this incident. She remembers it well to this day. As Gail recalls, "I was terrified by my 'sweet cousin Bonnie' who was thrusting toward me a huge wildcat with gaping jaws, and outstretched claws. How was I to know this 'monster' had already met its maker and human hands had stuffed it with some unknown matter? Razor sharp teeth, glaring eyes, piercing claws before me became terrorizing reality. "
Others of the grandchildren used the wildcats as an anchor point to measure the bravery of each other. According to Laurinda, "Back in the house, we used to love playing upstairs even though it was scary. We would play in the cradle and make up ghost stories, but the scariest thing was in the closet in the room at the top of the stairs. I would go to the closet and pull back the curtains and I had to reach in and find the cord to pull to turn on the lights. There in the floor glaring back at me was two stuffed wildcats. I will never forget one summer that I decided to stay with Grandma for a week. It was all right for a couple of days. I stayed in Arline's room. I remember having to use the slop jar at night and it always stunk! After a couple of days thinking about ghosts and the wildcats upstairs, I really got homesick. There was no phone so I had to stay. I sure was relieved when Mom and Dad came after me on Sunday. I don't remember ever staying overnight again."
So goes the story of how my Mom was raised by wildcats. No one who ever spent any time at the old homeplace will ever forget the experience. But far beyond the wildcats were the treasures of a family and their experiences growing up in Davidson County, NC. It was this family and the times that they shared together that made everything seem so special. The story above was constructed from information and quotations from many of the family members in our family book, The Descendants of Tom and Mary Swicegood.
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