From the war factories Allen moved on to work for a dairy farm in the San Fernando Valley. But home was Oklahoma, so in 1945 Allen returned with Virginia and 3-year old Portia. His dream was to have his own dairy farm. For a few years he struggled living first with Fulton, Mattie and Granny. Later Allen and his family lived on several rented places near his childhood home. He hauled milk in two-handled, three-feet tall milk cans on his old flat-bed truck from the farmers around Stratford to the Kraft factory in Sulphur, which was 20 miles away. He moved houses and helped bale hay. He and Virginia picked cotton.
In 1947 another daughter, Veta, was born to Allen and Virginia. Veta was Allen’s darling little girl. He doted on her and she was his shadow. Virginia had tasted city living while they had been in California and had liked it. She talked Allen into moving into Stratford (population less than 1,000) where they lived in a 4-room shotgun house near the school where Portia started first grade.
Allen was finally able to swing the mortgage to purchase his dream farm. It was 160 acres mostly covered with scrub brush and trees only three miles from Fulton’s house. Several years later he leased 200 more acres. Allen’s challenge was to clear enough of the land to build a house and to drill a well. Less challenging, but no less essential, he had to build an outhouse. With his family living in Stratford, and him working at hauling milk and moving houses, Allen managed to work early and late to clear the land and build the house. Virginia worked right along beside him.
Allen chose to build the house on a treeless spot facing east near the dirt road that stopped almost as soon as it touched our property. Building the house away from trees made constructing the house and drilling the well easier. Virginia had wanted the house nearer trees so that the house would be cool and the yard would be shaded. Several hundred yards to the north was a tree-lined creek that rarely had water in it. The creek meandered in such a way that it was also several hundred yards to the east.
© 1997, 1998, 1999, 2003 Portia Isaacson Bass and Veta Leigh. All rights reserved.