Page 45 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2021- Online Magazine

Excerpt from Betty and Joe's book, back then.” Despite the weather and culture shock, Betty
Yankee in the Cotton Patch
My work with GM only lasted
several months, ending soon
after December 7, 1941, when the
Japanese made a sneak attack
on Pearl Harbor. It didn’t take
President Roosevelt long to make a
speech announcing that we were at
war. General Motors and the other
auto companies stopped producing
cars and turned to jeeps, tanks, and
other war materials….
World War II was in full swing
by 1942, with most able-bodied
fellows being drafted or already
in the service. Rationing became
a necessity on the home front. We
were given coupon books. Each
coupon represented our allotment
of a certain item. Sugar and coffee
rationing came first. Canned and
processed goods began March
1, 1943 (blue stamps). Meat (red
stamps), canned fish, butter, and
cheese followed by the end of the
month. Each person was allowed
three pairs of shoes per year and 3
gallons of gas per week. You didn’t
go far on that!
By March 22, 1942, the gas allotment
dropped to 1 ½ gallon per week.
Volunteering was patriotic. Louella,
my cousin, and I took a crash course
on plane identification. We then
worked several hours on Sunday
afternoons on a lookout atop
the mountain above Marysville,
scanning the skies for any planes--
civilian or otherwise. If we saw an
aircraft (we did use binoculars!),
we reported it to the central Civil
Defense in Harrisburg.
thrived in the outdoors, enjoying the “freedom”, the
farm animals, and almost everything else about being a
farmer’s wife. The girl from Marysville, PA fit in from the
start.
Even her mother fell in love with the area and moved out
to West Texas.
The Unfreds raised three children at New Home: David,
Nancy, and Vicki, and, somehow, between tending the
farm and the family, Betty also worked for 30 years as the
bookkeeper for New Home ISD and as Lynn County’s
Tax Collector. Additionally, at some point during those
busy years, she became fascinated with genealogy. Since
the internet was not yet available, Betty searched libraries,
visited aunts, uncles, and cousins, and recorded countless
birth and death dates.
Eventually, it dawned on her that “dates are boring”, so
she began asking “lots of questions” and documenting
stories to give life to the names she had unearthed. She
values history – especially the sliver of it that has touched
her life. She and her husband Joe were always “keepers”,
and son David has cataloged and organized over 5,000
souvenirs, artifacts, and keepsakes – many of them from
the WWII era. Betty is a story “keeper”, too. Her book,
Yankee in the Cotton Patch, is sure to be a bestseller on the
South Plains when it is released next year.
“Mama B” has eight grandchildren, 17 great-grands, and
a brand new great-great grandchild. Joe passed away in
2001, and the farmer’s wife no longer has chores to do,
children to tend to, or a busy schedule to keep. But she is
as interesting and entertaining a storyteller as you’ll find
anywhere. She should be. She has been collecting them
since Harding was in the White House.
Lubbock Senior Link 45