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Josa Carrie Blanche (Scoles) Clardy (1904 - 1981)

Josa Carrie Blanche "Blanche" Clardy formerly Scoles
Born in Decatur, Benton Co, Arkansasmap
Ancestors ancestors
Wife of — married 2 Sep 1924 in Grove, Delaware Co, Oklahomamap
Descendants descendants
Mother of , , [private son (1930s - unknown)], [private daughter (1930s - unknown)], [private daughter (1930s - unknown)], [private daughter (1940s - unknown)], [private daughter (1940s - unknown)], and [private son (1950s - unknown)]
Died at age 76 in Rogers, Benton Co, Arkansasmap
Problems/Questions Profile manager: Kenneth Clardy private message [send private message]
Profile last modified | Created 16 Feb 2014
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Biography

Sources

  • Info from grandson




Memories: 1
Enter a personal reminiscence or story.
Notes for JOSA CARRIE BLANCHE SCOLES:

Josa Carrie Blanche Scoles - By Cleta Clardy Glenn

When she was born her uncle, Grandma Scoles’ brother (Donald will know which one) told Grandma Scoles he would buy her a dress, when she was older, if she would name Mama Carrie. Grandma was set on the name she had chosen, Josa Blanche, and added Carrie to please her brother.

Mama went to the Curtis School near Grove – (I did not remember the name and one day talking to Daddy, he told me she went to the Curtis School – I have looked on the internet, searched Grove history and found nothing on this school – I hope Daddy was right but can’t prove it)

She had two best friends, the Lewis girls, I think one of them was Elzie, can’t remember the other. At recess, Mama played whatever games that were being played. If the game was marbles and usually only the boys played, Mama played anyway. She taught me how to shoot marbles and told me she won several marbles – you could bring home the ones you shot out of the circle and I guess her aim was pretty good.

Mama said Grandma told her she could not wrestle ,or “rassle” she called it, at school. She said some of the older, bigger girls would rassle and Mama indicated only those girls who were “rough”. One big girl kept picking at Mama and Mama would ignore her. Mama said one day she had had enough and she “throwed” the girl. After than they all let her alone.

One Sunday afternoon Mama was staying with the Lewis girls. She had gone home from church with them. Mama said they were to go to church that evening. Along about dark, one of the Lewis girls told Mama, “Lets go get a watermelon”. Mama knew this meant they would “steal” a melon and she wasn’t about to do that. But finally the other girl talked Mama into going along. Mama said they had picked up a melon and they heard someone coming. They ran from the patch and Mama stumbled and fell – hit her head and cut it pretty bad. She said she thought for a while she was knocked out. She did not tell Grandma and I don’t know how she explained the cut on her head.

The week Mama and Daddy were married, they were cheveried (not sure of the spelling). The group came at night and of course Mama was in her night clothes. It was typical of the group to just come in – the bride was not given a chance to change clothes until the ladies of the group took her to the bedroom and had her change. They went with her so she couldn’t escape. The groom was made to ride a “rail” and typically the trip on the rail was to the creek – Mama said Daddy was taken on this ride and not sure if he was dumped in the creek but it was all in fun and no one usually got hurt.

Mama was a good cook and at an early age, years before moving from Oklahoma, she was known to be one of the best cooks around. Especially so was her seven layer cakes. The cake consisted of seven thin layers with jelly in between each layer. The cake was frosted, all over, with “seven minute icing” – although it took longer than seven minutes. The icing was made with egg whites, sugar and water. She had made such a cake, expecting her folks the next day. One of the men in the group told her to take that cake down and cut it. Mama didn’t want to because food was so scarce and they had no money. But she did cut the cake and shared it with her friend.

When Mama and Daddy were first married they had no place to live. Housing was scarce – so they found an old house and as Mama and Daddy described it – “a pigeon roost! No windows and hadn’t been lived in for a while”. They had to take soapy buckets of water and a hoe to clean the floors. Newspapers were used to wall paper the rough boards, I guess they put in the windows because Mama made curtains. They were really pleased with their work and settled down to live. But a few weeks later, Grandpa Clardy, Nellie, Earl and Gertrude (Gertie) came to live with them.

Daddy told me his family was “sort of lost” since his Mother had died a few years earlier. Mama said when Gertie came her hair was so matted she and a neighbor had to finally cut it to get the tangles out of it. They only had the clothes they were wearing and they were not clean. Mama got busy with finding clothes, washing, etc. Seems Nellie was no help and Mama said Grandpa Scoles was “not right” he was failing mentally.

Their first Christmas came and it was the tradition in Mama’s family to give each person a little something. She said Grandma Scoles would put something under each plate on Christmas morning. She had told Nellie and the rest of the group about the gift giving. Mama made a little something for each person, Christmas Eve she put them under each plates and went to bed. The next morning, they all came to the breakfast table, turned over the plates and found their gifts. Mama turned over her plate and there was nothing there. No one had made sure Mama, who had taken care of the entire group, had a Christmas gift.

In every community, lines are drawn. Property lines, County lines, all dictated by some law or ordinance. Another line exsisted and not much was spoken of this line - “the line between those who had and those who had not”. Most of the folks in our county were of the “had not” variety and we were right in the middle of that classification. As Dott once said, we didn’t know we were poor until someone told us we were. Outwardly we didn’t look poor and it was because of Mama’s most favored pastime, the one that put us right square in the middle of the “ haves” and the” have nots”. My sisters and I were known to be the best-dressed girls in our community. In short, we had beautiful clothes and it was all due to the ingenuity of our Mother. Sewing was Mama’s way out of an otherwise overwhelming burden of work. Except to her, sewing was not work. This was not a chore. It was her way of expressing herself, her artistry that could not be manifested any other way. Little did she realize then and what we all knew later, that she had talents that equally matched her sewing. Comedy in her sense of humor, her own interpretation of religion and her perfect description of people and events, all these were talents she did not recognize or take credit for. Telling and retelling her family history was an art. But for now, her sewing.

Mama could make almost anything out of something else and with such little effort that you would stop and think, “How did she do that”. When it was necessary, shopping in town, or trading as it was called, was done on a Saturday. Not every Saturday but just when supplies were low. After the staples bought, Mama would browse the dry good stores, Strouds or Hunts, looking through pattern books and looking over the bolts of fabrics. Seeing her touching the fabric, her way of determining its quality, sticks in my mind and is something, I admit, that I do today. After checking for quality, she selected fabric on the basis of what she could afford, usually choosing something on sale.

Rummage sales were the precursor of today’s garage sales. Signs were posted in downtown Rogers for rummage sales. At times, usually in summer, various area churches rented an empty building downtown and set up a “Saturday Only” rummage sale. Items donated by church members were sold and the profits added to the church’s coffers. I believe Mama was one of their best customers and I wonder how many foreign missionaries, recipients of funds from rummage sales, that Mama financed. I wonder how much money, over the years, she contributed to preaching the word of God around the world.

Her ideal find was slightly worn, large sized ladies clothing. Large sizes had more reusable yardage. Some garments came home with her that were totally worn out. Their value was in the buttons, trim, or zippers. Why buy a card of buttons for ten cents when she could buy a worn out dress, with perfectly good buttons, for five cents. Zippers made in those days were heavy enough to be recycled many times and in the Clardy family, they were.

After daily chores were done, Mama worked on her sewing. She ripped apart the rummage sale clothes. Buttons, zippers and trim came off and saved for another project. She washed and pressed the fabric and added it to her stockpile. If ribbon, trim or new buttons were needed, she waited until the next town trip or until she had the money. Many times the fabric waited a whole summer until Daddy sent money from his summer’s work.

In talking to Mama about her sewing she said that through the years she designed her creations in her head while doing something else. She also did that same thing at night when she couldn’t sleep.

Mama’s sewing usually started in August and by September, she usually had sewed 5 dresses for each of us for school. Some were of heavier fabric for the winter months.

posted 1 Mar 2014 by Kenneth Clardy   [thank Kenneth]
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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Josa by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Josa:

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