Caroline (Jackson) Barrow

Ancestors

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Biography

I was born at the original St John's hospital in Joplin in 1954. My sister and brother were also born there.

I was the daughter of a truck driver who had his own truck for a while then worked for a man named Jimmy Ray then on to Tri-State and finally Lee Way. Because of this we had to move several times through out my life.

My mother's dad was a lead and zinc miner who became a shift boss and had worked the mines so long that he could read them and know if it was safe for his men to work or not. He never lost a man, he was that good.

The first house I remember was the little chicken coop that our landlords made into a rock house, that is still standing even now in 2022. That little house was located in Central City which is between Joplin, MO to the east and Galena, KS to the west.

In between our house and Galena was an area that we all called Hell because it was a lead and zinc mining area that had been mined to death and looked like Hell.

I was about three when my little brother came along and four when we moved to Duenweg, another mining town east of Joplin. I had a lot more freedom to run around town by myself, though I couldn't get out of sight of the house and people knew me so they would tell mother, so I did stay close. This is when Daddy was working for Tri-State Motor Company.

We moved again about 1960 to the house in Duquesne which is a township east of Joplin and west of Duenweg. We lived there until 1963 when Daddy was put on permanent at Lee Way Motor Company and we moved to Vinita, OK. We lived about 3 miles west of Vinita and about 1/2 mile from the Lee Way Terminal. We were there about a year and then moved to Bethany, OK, which is a town just west of Oklahoma City, OK. Oklahoma City was the home base for Lee Way.

We lived in Bethany for about a year and moved to the house in Oklahoma City that my parents lived in from 1965 to 2015 when we put Daddy into a nursing home. Mother had passed 4 years previous.

My sister started college in 1964 at Central State College in Edmond, OK and lived for about a year in the next house in OKC before she got married.

From 1965 to 1972 I went to the Putman City schools. First was Putnam City Central Junior High from 1965 to 1969 then to Putnam City High School from 1969 to 1970 then to Putnam City West High School which had opened in 1970. When I graduated in 1972 we were the 1st class that had gone through all 3 years there, though I only went for 2 years.

After I graduated from High School I went to what was now named Central State University, the year previous and graduated from there in 1977 with a bachelors degree in Historical Research.

My husband and I married in 1975 and both of us had to work so it took me a year longer to graduate, otherwise I would have graduated in the Bi-Centennial year, which was my target.

Before my marriage I was my families trip coordinator, making plans for our families vacations. Daddy had 4 weeks vacation for several years and then went up to 5 weeks about 4 years before I married. We traveled to 48 of the states, the lower provinces of Canada and walked into Mexico, just to say we had been there.

Daddy was a Civil War buff so we went to many of the major and minor battlefields. My favorite place to visit was Colorado. We walked down into the Grand Canyon and stayed at Phantom Ranch, which was fun. Disney Land and Disney World were fun. I loved Mammoth Cave. Shiloh, Gettysburg, Petersburg, Atlanta were great. Fort Ticonderoga and Niagara Falls were great. I really loved Nova Scotia and McElhaney Island. The Everglades left a lot to be desired because of all the mosquitoes. Key West, I wish I could go back to and stay for at least a week. There are still MANY places left that I want to go see. I want to see the Missouri again so Hawaii is a must as is Alaska.

After I married we lived in Bethany again and I worked at a barbecue place while Doug worked at Target to become a manager.

In June of 1977 he went to work at Western Electric and after a stint at J C Penney I went to work at Western Electric in August of 1977 and worked there until Sept of 2002, finally becoming a system tester.

I cleaned houses for a time until 2008 when I was hired on at PetSmart as a cashier. I really did enjoy that job because of the pets that came in, the people...not so much...they all thought I was beneath them, because I was just a cashier. Little did they know but that I was the one who directed them to where ever they wanted to go or could get someone to help them. I was more important than they could have ever imagined. I was laid off in 2020 because of Covid-19 and decided to finally retire.

I've enjoyed my time off. My sister and I have gone to Branson, Dodge City and Woodward numerous times. I've been making jewelry since Daddy passed in 2016 and have been selling some in a museum in Woodward.

My life is good and keeps me going.

Sources

• First-hand information. Entered by Caroline Jackson at registration.