The Box Factory
Billy Jean's husband> <>
You may wonder how a box factory has anything to do with the pictures above.
The girl in the picture with me is my friend from high school. Her name is Billy Jean White--her maiden name. I don't know her married name. I do have the picture of her husband but his name isn't on it.
When we were in school I used to go to her house sometimes after school. She lived near where I lived on North Main Street.
Her house was always cold in the winter because no one was home during the day and they never had a fire in their wood heater. She would load up the wood stove with kindling that they always got from the local box factory. They never had regular fire wood, just the pieces of kindling they got from the box factory. It was fine and it did warm up the house pretty quickly but it only lasted for a short time since they never had logs to put on the fire. They didn't have much money so I guess they couldn't afford to buy regular firewood. They could get the kindling from the box factory for free. I always went to my home with a warm fire in the stove.
I know they had very little money because she never had lunch money for school. A few of our friends and Billy Jean and I went to the drug store lunch counter at noon and bought our lunch. She always went with us but she never had any lunch because she didn't have money. Some of the time I would share my lunch with her. I always felt sorry for her because I knew she was as hungry as the rest of us. I gave her some of my chips and the olive off my sandwich a lot of the time.
Sadly, I lost complete track of her after her family moved to Fort Worth in about 1940 or 1941. I often wonder about her but I have no way of knowing how to get in touch with her now.
I hope she doesn't have to go to the box factory anymore for firewood. I think of her sometimes when I turn up my thermostat and then I am thankful for all of my conveniences in my life.
posted by kyra lafain @ 2/15/2010 12:30:00 PM
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