Records, Notes, and Images – Person Page {0}

Memories of the Basil Jones Family, with information from Jean Huffman Jones, written by Coley Sharp

(see notes under Jean Huffman for more):

Larry had colic for 4 months. Every evening from 4-8, he cried. Milk was rich and he was gaining, but his tummy hurt. The neighbors on the other side of the house came and rocked him sometimes. They had a restaurant out front, and came back in at midnight, going upstairs noisily. This would awaken Larry and Mom would have to feed him again, but by that time he was worn out and so was Mom.

When Karen started to school, Larry missed her and he came in from playing on a swing in the backyard. He said, 'I heard a noise in the tree, and it wasn't me!' He finally learned to play by himself.

A neighbor boy would always want to fight Larry, but Larry would not defend himself, just come home to Mom, crying. Finally Mom said, 'You go hit him back and maybe then he will quit.' This is what he did and afterward they got along great, no more fighting.

Letter written by Jean Margaret to her brother Keith (then in CA), 13 Mar 1933:

Dear Keith,

We got your letter today and were surely glad to be able to communicate with you in some way. Mother was all broken up over your leaving. Funny part was that Daddy had to whistle to keep from crying. Now does that make you feel better?

When you come home, Daddy will have to 'rub it in' a little so don't do anything but agree to what he has to say and everything will be swell. Have a good time while you're down there and get plenty of sleep so that whken you come back you'll look so well and feel so well that maybe Daddy will think seriously about leaving town and going West.

Thanks an awfol lot for the birthday card. I didn't expect it. We thought about you a lot on the 10th. Too bad you couldn't have been here. Maybe if you had've, we would have had a birthday supper together. As it was, I baked my own birthday cake and it was a flop. Then for supper we had fried potatoes with onions sliced up in them. Sounds good?

I got quite a bit for my birthday. First came your card on Tuesday. Then Izzy brought me hers & Mary's together. It was a pretty pink slip. Than in the afternoon Hazel came with a bottle of Treko. Lura hasn't got me anything yet. I wish she would just give me money. I could use it couldn't you? Last week I didn't go to school (you'll find out why later) but I stayed home and took yeast and listened to thke radio and worked. It was lots more fun than going to school. I almost forgot - Wednesday noon I got a card and letter from Mary, a letter from Basil and a little box box I couldn't tell where it came from till I read B.J.'s letter. He said, 'Hope you like the compact.' I thought at first it was from you cause it didn't have room for the postmark. Mother was gonna give me a quarter but I had her get some yeast with it. I earned 85 cents last week taking care of Bobby G. and Helen Jean Wickizer owes me 75 cents. for a piano book Mrs. Gordon sold her. At that rate I ought to have some money saved pretty soon hadn't I? But Basil paid 1.00 for that compact and Izzy's birthday's Wednesday, so I won't have much more than enough to buy them presents with. Basil's is April the 19th.

Saturday Hazel and I dressed up in pants and hiked out to Floyd Duddy's farm. It was cold but we dressed for it. After we got home we figured we had walked seven miles. Some little stroll, eh? Boy was I stiff yesterday! Then yesterday evening we took our weekly jaunt down and around the park & back. Then Hazel said, 'Let's go doen and honor the Common Horde with our Presence.' When we were down about four houses, we saw four little boys with big sticks. They were gonna come after us, so we turned around and started back. I heard them coming and turned around. That scared one kid so he said, 'I'm going after Fatty'! Then Hazel turned around & took the stick away from him. He didn't know what to think. Then a lady stuck her head out the door and said, 'Put that stick down! Put it down!' Hazel turned around and said, 'O, who are you to tell us what to do?' She went in the house again and when we were up to her house, she opened the door a little so she could hear what was going on. Hazel saw it and sain, 'Shut the door lady, you won't hear anything.' I guess she shut the door all right and did we beat it? O boy.

I'll write too much if I'm not careful. Hurry up and come home & cheer up a little. Your letter sounded a lot like a death warrant or something. A will maybe. The sheriff got hurt last nite. If you're gonna stay a while I wanna write to you but come home in a hurry when you come.

Bring me just anything. Jean M.
..........................

Memories of the Basil Jones Family, with information from Jean Huffman Jones, written by Coley Sharp

When we lived at 2905 Kossuth (Lafayette, IN), the place next door was a tavern. Clarence Steward started a petition to close it. Other people came and helped to start a church. Rev. Koven Smith and his wife, Garrett Dunnewold and his wife, Mrs. Tina Crozier, and others were involved.

The church opened when Larry was almost 5. He was born in 1939. In 1944, he and Karen had their tonsils removed. After this, we had two different evangelists in September, and Larry and Karen accepted Christ as their Saviour; then, Mom and Dad did this too.

Margie and Carl Herr were favorite friends. Jack and Gladys Weast and sons were neighbors, also. Margie and Carl were special to my kids. We moved to 715 S 29th St just before the twin girls were born. It was about Oct. 22, 1946. Mr Wurtz (the house's former owner) still lived there till after the baby girls came on Dec. 3rd. He liked to watch me feed them--one bit here and one there. For a month after they were born, 2 women (neighbors) came each morning to give them a bath. This was fun. The twins were a big deal. I had a problem, tho.... almost had a nervous breakdown. Developed neuritus in my jaws. I couldn't relax. The Dr. gave me tranquilizers and I had to rest 3 or 4 times a day. Got so I could sleep where the twins were playing, so I got my rest.

We went on picnics and in summer to Grandpa Huffman's and their cottage. Swimming & church activities. Our friends were mostly church friends.. some from around Delphi and Frankfort, some Taystee Bread people.

Mom and Dad went fishing in Minnesota and the kids stayed with Aunt Ruth or cousins. One time we all went to Minnesota. The kids had a barn to play in and swimming. They would do play acting also. Pets: we had a dog--Bootsie--who lived 11 yrs. Other dogs were Jeff and Sarge; we didn't have them very long.

Mom belonged to a Mothers' Club. It was a study group using Parents' Magazine and personal experience. She was president of the Women's Missionary Society for many years, played piano, taught Sunday School and Bible School, sang solos and in choir, played accordion and later, organ. She made plaster figurines, sewed, belonged to the Gideon's Auxiliary, played for jail service. Before Paul was born, Mom took accordion lessons and bought one. One time she played at church and punched the wrong button and screeched a wrong note. Left it alone for awhile. It was heavy for her right then, anyway.

Dad's hobbies were fishing, fishing, and more of the same. He did hunt some. He belonged to the Gideons. This meant he would go to other towns and other churches to speak for the Gideons often. He played tuba in the high school band. The school furnished the musical instruments. He taught a Sunday School class and led singing at church. He could, and did, preach when our pastor was gone, and spoke at jail service often.

Karen got married when she graduated from Purdue (1959). She and Carl moved to CA that year. Dad was working for Taystee Bread and they let him go in June, 1960. We all took a trip to CA to visit Karen and Carl. When we came back, Dad went to work for Bob Brady at American United Insurance. Bob went on a trip to Alaska for 6 weeks and Dad didn't get paid till Bob got back. He was on a draw, but he was learning the business. Mom got a job working as a maid in Duhme Hall (girls) at Purdue. Minimum wage was $1.43 per hour. She wanted to help out at home, but they didn't pay her till the day after Dad got his first pay check. She worked 5 years till her back acted up and she had to quit.

Dad had the Overman Bros. build a garage for us on S. 29th Street about 1954. He also had the Overman Bros. build the Taystee Bread warehouse. Mom sold this to Richard Gurnick to be paid off in 1991.

Dad worked in Guy Little's Restaurant in Chalmers, IN, as a short order cook and waiter; he also worked in the grocery store there delivering groceries. He first worked at 10 years old. He helped his Dad pick corn, get fruit in MI, and work in trapping, etc. He graduated from high school in 1933 after an exciting season of playing basketball on the Chalmers team. They won the Sectional Tourney but lost to Logansport in the Regional. They almost got to go to the State Tournament!

Mom and Dad met at mutual friends in Monticello. They played hearts (a card game) with another couple and 3 other girls. The two fellows wanted to go to a dance and Mom had to share Dad with another girl. Later he wrote to ask for another date. He had to break off with another girl in the meantime. This was 1933 and they were married Jan 1, 1937. At their first meeting they liked each other a lot. It must have been love at first sight. It went on for 43 years when the Lord called him home. He died Feb 26, 1980, from brain cancer.

(added Feb, 1987):

Mom and Dad started dating in 1933. They were married Jan 1, 1937, at her parents' home on Illinois St in Monticello. Raymond and Carol Rush were the attendants, and they were also married the next year. Marta Battreal played the piano, and just family came. Grandma Jones, and maybe a few others from Dad's side, Grandma and Grandpa Huffman, Keith and Bert, Bob, Jim, Aunt Ruth and Uncle Dale, Aunt Mabel and Uncle Harry, Great Grandpa Huffman and his wife Jessie, and maybe a few others. Their honeymoon came later, in May or June, in Arizona. They stayed with Dad's Aunt Sally and Uncle Tony. It was so hot there that they slept on a mattress outside, under the stars. Dad's first car was a 1932 Chevy Coupe. The newlyweds went home to W Oak St, West Lafayette, to a rented upstairs apartment owned by the Ebershoff's. They had a living room, kitchen and two bedrooms. They lived there one month and moved because Grandpa Huffman said, 'Never pay more to rent per month than you earn per week,' and that made sense then. Dad worked at Piggly Wiggly (later turned into Eisner's) for Mike Jester as a checker. Clyde Feaster was a butcher. Later, Dad worked across that street at Miller's Meat Market and Mr. Miller trained him to be a butcher. He also worked on a street car.

Their second home was on S 17th St, near Main, by Five Points. They shared the rent of a house with a lady and her son, (Sandage) and the son worked at Sears. They lived there from Feb until Aug, 1937.

Their third house was on Chauncey St, W Lafayette, upstairs over the Maxwell's. Mrs Maxwell was a real snoop. Karen Irene, Jones kid #1, was born at the Home Hospital the next March 7, at 7 pm, and weighed 7 1/2 pounds. Dad surprised Mom with a piano (it had to be carried up the stairs, too!) when Mom brought Karen home. Dad had stayed in the car, talking to his boss, at the hospital, because he thought first babies took a long time to be born. When he came inside, Karen was already born! Grandma Huffman was with Mom. Later, at home, Dad carried Mom up the stairs because she wasn't supposed to climb stairs for a while. Karen was a real good baby.

They all moved next door in a few months and that was house #4. They had a man renter there, too. Mom's brother, Jim Huffman, was attending Purdue then, and he came to visit them sometimes. Then he joined the Air Corps and was killed a few years later.

Dad got a job at Gem City Grocery in Frankfort, through a bread delivery man at Miller's store in Lafayette, so they moved to Frankfort. Karen was 5 months old; this house #5 was on Delphi Ave. in Frankfort. When Karen was 17 1/2 months old, Larry Keith was born on August 31 at 2:30 AM. Mom was overdue by 2 weeks. This delivery was at home. The doctor and Grandma Huffman were there with Mom, Dad and Karen. Dad took Karen across the street to stay with neighbors and she kept them up all night, talking. Dad sat and watched the delivery and got real white in the face, and tears ran down his cheeks. He never watched another delivery again. Grandma Huffman had a hard time getting dressed before Larry was born, while Dad went to get the doctor. It took half an hour for her to put on one stocking! The delivery took a while, but the doctor stayed and waited and slept because there wasn't a telephone. Larry weighed over 8 pounds, and had colic for about 4 months. They rocked him every night from 4-8:00 to get through that stressful time. Their house had lots of cockroaches, and they finally moved away from there.

House #6 was on Ohio St in Frankfort, and they lived there just over a year. Then Dad got a job at Taystee Bread in Indianapolis and found a duplex on Parker St in Indy for the family to move to.

They lived in House #7 about 1 year and moved to Lafayette when Larry was about 2 years old:

That House #8 was at 2905 Kossuth St; later, Casad's lived there. The Jones's lived there until October, 1946.

House #9 was at 715 S 29th, just around the corner from Kossuth. On Dec 3 of 1946, Colleen Sue (Coley) and Kathleen Ann (Kathy) were born. Coley was born first and weighed 4 lb 13 oz, and Dr Ira Cole said Mom 'has enough of a hump -- there's another baby!' Mom thought that he had made a bad joke, and made a big sigh. The doctor thought she meant she didn't want another baby, and he said, 'if you don't want this other baby, I know someone who does -- me!' Of course, Mom wanted both babies, but it was a shock. Mrs. Plummer had taken Mom to the hospital because Dad had already gone to work driving the Taystee Bread delivery truck. Mom's water broke before Dad left, but things weren't moving very fast, so he went to work. Plummer took Mom to the hospital and by then the pains were close --no time to get ready. They went right to the delivery room. When Mom was being taken down the hall, Mrs. Heindle was looking out of a room and saw Mom. Mrs. Heindle had just had her son, Danny, 5 days earlier. They were neighbors from Kossuth St, next to Casad's. The twins were born 1 month early. Dad was at Henry Winters' store on the bread route when they were born. Taystee Bread told Dad on the phone. He didn't believe it -- thought they were teasing. It took him 12 days to realize it was true, when Mom brought both babies home. Friends brought lots of things to help --used diapers and baby clothes, plus lots of new gifts --two of each. Neighbors came over to help with giving the babies their baths each morning.

Later, on March 9, 1953, Paul Alan Jones was born. He was a big baby, and weighed 10 lb, 3 oz. He looked like a prize fighter. He was a good baby and slept a lot. At bedtime, he wanted to be awake when everyone else went to bed, and he would cry. Dad stayed in bed and kept saying, in a nice soft voice, 'Go to sleep, Daddy's little man, go to sleep,' and it worked!

They lived on S 29th St for 25 years, a real record time for the Jones family! By that time, in 1971, all of the kids were grown up and gone, except for Paul, and then he joined the Navy soon after they moved to their next house, #10, at 1526 Mennen Lane. Mom and Dad lived there for 3 years, and sold it in 1974.

They bought a nice big travel trailer and lived in it year 'round. They traveled to FL, CA and MN, coming back to Lafayette for the summertime. They spent some summers at KOA Campground in Lafayette, and later near Roth Park close to Lake Freeman, near Monticello. They really enjoyed their retirement together, visiting family and good friends, and with Dad trying out all of the fishing holes in each area where they stayed. Mom learned to crochet and made many beautiful afghans and baby blankets and other crocheted items, plus shell craft things, and kept busy writing letters, etc., whenever she didn't go fishing with Dad. In the meantime, I forgot to say what was happening with the rest of the family. They all eventually got married and had grandkids! Karen and Carl have two, Dan and Ruth. Larry and Sandy have two, Mark and Kari. Kathy has three: Joe, Tony, and Andy, and her husband, John, has Liza, Johnny, Connie and Donnie. Coley and Bill have two, Matt and Mike. Paul and Leslie have Kristen.

Dad started having headaches and trouble judging distances, in the later part of 1979, just after he and Mom had gone to FL for the winter. The doctors found a brain tumor and operated just after Christmas that year, but the news was bad. They said he would live just a few months, and he and Mom came back to Lafayette to stay at Coley's to be near the hospital where he could have radiation treatments, to make his last days more normal. Just before his surgery in FL, all the kids and a few of the grandkids came to be together with Mom and Dad. It was a sad time, but it was better, since they were all together. Dad said, 'I guess if I never fish another day in my life, I have sure done my share!' He really loved to fish, and is probably catching lots of fish up in heaven, every chance he gets! After coming back to Lafayette in Jan 1980, Dad took the radiation treatments and was doing pretty well, but then got sick, like he had the flu, and started getting weaker. He continued to go to the hospital for each weekday treatment, even when he was hardly strong enough to walk, even with help. On the day of the last radiation treatment, his doctor had just returned from a trip, and saw how bad Dad was, so he was admitted to the hospital. There was a horrible blizzard that day too, so Mom stayed all day at the hospital, and came home for a few hours, and then went back with Coley and Bill than night. Dad was very weak and his pulse and blood pressure were crazy, and he was in intensive care. Kathy came around midnight and after that, Dad died, at about 2:30 in the morning. He had bad infection in his blood, and had been worn down from all of the treatments. He was still pretty alert before he died, and was asking his pastor, Larry Pitts, if Larry knew his sons' shoe sizes, because Dad had some shoes he wouldn't be needing, and wanted Larry to have them.

All of the family came back to Lafayette for the funeral, and it was sad, but good to be together again, and this time with all of the grandkids, too. Except for Kristen, because her parents (Paul and Leslie) didn't get married until the next month after Dad died. He died on Feb 26, and their wedding was on Mar 8, Mom's birthday. Kristen was born more than five years later! Mom and Dad were still planning on going to Paul's and Leslie's wedding, if he had not gotten worse and died. On the day of the funeral, later in the day, all of the family and Uncle Bob and Aunt Bette, plus Uncle Keith and Aunt Bert spent some time at Coley's and Bill's, and had lots of good food and sang songs while Mom played the organ. A good time of fellowship and a rare occasion for all of them to be together, having lived apart for many years.

Mom has adjusted to living alone and bought a nice trailer and lives in Lori Lee Trailer Park, on Kossuth St, not too many blocks from 29th St. She is very involved in her church, Victory Baptist, and has lots of good friends and neighbors. She goes to CA about every year, and has been to Hawaii and FL and New England too. Dad would be proud of her, as her children are.