Sibling Stories: Doyle, Ardis & Duke
I heard a lot of stories that Doyle, Ardis and Duke told about their growing up years. Here are a few of them. These events took place after 1931 which is when they moved to Valentine.
1. Mom was in the hospital with phlebitis (legs packed in ice) and Daddy and the kids decided to make strawberry jam, with Daddy telling Doyle and Ardis how to do it. They thought he was so smart since he knew how to do this. What they didn’t know was he was going to the hospital and asking Mom what and how to do it.
2. Doyle was driving the car (she was 15 or 16) and a black cat started to cross her path. She backed the car up around the block so it couldn’t cross and so she wouldn’t have any bad luck.
3. Ardis and Duke were having an argument and Ardis became totally infuriated and threw the butcher knife at him. At the last second she hollered DUCK! - He did - because the knife went into the door in back of where his head had been. (Every time I heard this story, I could just see that knife moving back and forth in the door!)
4. Duke’s real name was George William Derry, Jr., and he got the nickname after they moved to Valentine. He said he was walking along, all dressed up and this man (whose name I don’t remember) saw him and asked him why he was all duded up - some how Duke came out of that.
5. When we moved to Wayne in 1939, Duke enrolled at Wayne City High School as Duke Derry. Mom didn’t find that out until it came time for graduation - at that time his name in the records was changed to his real one.
6. When they lived in Eli, there was a 1 room schoolhouse that Doyle and Ardis attended. Duke was 4 and bored - he wanted to go to school, too. He’d sneak in after school would start and the teacher would chase him out. One of the last times he got chased out she took the broom to him and hit him below his left shoulder blade. I think he was allowed back in school after that. When he was in the Army Air Corps, he had surgery on his back and the tumor that was caused by that broom hit was removed.
I never quite understood why but somehow in the transition from Eli to Valentine, he was dropped back a grade so he didn’t graduate until he was 18.
Jan (Janis Derry Burch)