Page 107 - Tattnall County

in-law had become bed ridden and had only been able to get out of bed for the frst time in four weeks on the day Winona was born. Ms. Marjorie cared for her mother-in-law for twenty-one years.

Marjorie Kicklighter was born in Tattnall County in 1918 “where the old cricket farm is,” she said. “They’ve torn down the house that was on top of the hill that me and my sisters were born in.” In many ways life today in America holds no resemblance to the world into which she was born. Like most families in South Georgia at that time Marjorie’s family farmed the land. Her mother, Bessie Laine, came to America from England as a child. Marjorie’s father, Lester Rentz, was born and raised in Tattnall County. They farmed the usual crops of corn, cotton, potatoes, and peanuts. Her parents also traveled all over to sell turkeys, chickens, and eggs. They would hitch up the mule-drawn wagon and travel to towns like Claxton, Savannah, and Brunswick. Marjorie grew up working in the felds. When she fnished plowing at the end of the day, she would unhook the mule and ride it back to the house.

There was no electricity in Marjorie’s world. Winter nights were often so cold she would need to sleep under four or fve quilts to stay warm. The chickens could be seen scratching the dirt under the house between the cracks of the foor. Cooking was done on a wood stove with the windows and doors of the house open so it didn’t get too hot inside.

“We had the old [fashioned] kitchen and dining room. It was built off from the house,” she explained.

Every Monday was washday. Marjorie drew water from the well and put the clothes in the old washtub. She stirred, poked, scrubbed, and rinsed the clothes before hanging them out on the line to dry. Marjorie remembered well the day she and her sisters pulled out her mama’s foot crank sewing machine. When her mama came in the house, she almost got a whipping until she realized Marjorie was teaching herself to sew. From then on she made her own clothes.

Marjorie’s sisters always wanted to get candy and soda from the country store that was near their house. “I couldn’t stand candy and soda,” she said. “Never have wanted them.” Although she was the oldest, she’s the only surviving sibling and the oldest living person from both sides of her family. Only twice has she ever needed a hospital: once for a broken arm and another time to have her tonsils removed. Whether or not the lack of sweets and soda has had any connection to her longevity one can only wonder.

Eighteen was the legal age for marrying without parental consent so seventeen-year-old Marjorie went by mule and wagon to the Reidsville courthouse so she could marry Kenneth Kicklighter. She and her husband planted their own crops of corn, cotton, peanuts, and potatoes.