Alice Mae Dougan was born on July 1, 1931
She was born in Emmett Arkansas in her parent's home on Route 2. The road lead "around the country" South of Emmett. It was a 2 bedroom house with no running water and a 2 hole out house. Her grandpa Dougan owned the house in addition to his own home. Grandpa Dougan farmed the land growing corn, cotton, beans, watermelon. They raised cows to provide milk for the family.
Alice's father Douglas Henry Dougan worked the farm with his dad. Alice's mother Hazel Octavia Mohon worked at home.
Douglas and Hazel were both raised in Emmett. Their parents farms were adjoining so they probably knew each other their whole lives.
Alice was the oldest of 3. Alice Mae Dougan, George William Dougan (3 years younger), and David Randall Dougan (11 years younger).
Alice's earliest memory was of the farm house and her mother. Part of the house wasn't finished. Hazel and Alice used to sit in the unfinished room playing jacks together.
Alice started school when she was 5. She used to walk to school about 3 miles each way. All 12 grades were in the same big school building.
Right behind the house was a methodist church. They attended sunday school in that church. Douglas used to take their horses around to pick up some of the neighbors for church. One night a lady in the church got "The Holy Ghost". She was wearing a big lacy white dress and she walked around yelling and preaching to the people.
Sometimes they would lay a big blanket on the floor and the kids used to go to sleep during the meetings. Meeting lasted until everyone was finished having their own say and carrying on.
Alice remembers picking beans with Grandma Dougan. She was a big woman and wore a large dress. They would pick beans and store them in the folds of Grandma's dress.
When Alice was about 7 their house caught on fire. She remembers that they got all of the jarred fruit out of the storm house. Not a jar of the fruit was broken.
After the house burned down they moved in with Poppa and Momma Mohan. The house was 1 level with 4 or 5 bedrooms. The kitchen was down a long hall and seemed far away to her. They stayed for about a year with Poppa and Momma.
They rented a house way out in the country, about 10 miles from Emmett. They called it "The Hill Place" It was a big house (to young Alice). The government built them an outhouse. It was a 1 story house. Alice doesn't remember if they had a car, but her dad continued to go back to Grandpa Dougan's farm to work every day.
One day they were going home from Grandma's house. It was raining so hard that the creek below a bridge had risen so high it threatened to wash away the bridge. Douglas got out of the wagon, held the halter of the horses and led them across the bridge so they wouldn't panic or bolt.
The school bus picked Alice up by the mailbox and drove back into Emmett.
After 3 years, they moved closer to town with Douglas' sister, 3 youngins, and another sister.
Daddy, Momma Dougan, and a neighbor all bought new freezers. But the next morning, Daddy's freezer hadn't even got cold. They had to go back to the store to get a new one.
When Alice was about 17 she met Charles White at church in Emmett. The first of the month they would have a singing at the church. Everybody came to sing but the girls and boys would stand outside so they didn't have to sing. She and Charles were both outside. Charles was from Sutton, about 20 miles from Emmett. He had 3 bothers and 2 sisters.
They wrote letters back and forth. Every so often they would meet back up at church. Or Charles would borrow his father's car and come to visit. Every so often they would go to a movie on Saturday night. They didn't have enough money for gas and a movie. They courted for about a year and a half.
When Charles got his own car and would still come to visit. One night Charles just said "Why don't we get married?" and Alice said "Yes lets get married".
The next morning Alice woke up and told her momma "I'm going to marry Charles." Her mom said "when?". Charles father said "You don't even have a window to piss through".
That night Alice and Charles drove to the Pentacostal in Laneburg to get married. The preacher told his congregation that the meeting would be a bit longer because they had a big wedding to perform. Alice and Charles were married at the start of the meeting, then they walked out. They didn't hang around for the service.
Alice thinks that if they'd waited a week, they wouldn't have gotten married. She'd have stopped herself because they hadn't really thought about marriage and what it meant.
Alice's parents were on their way to the show as they got married. They didn't know they were doing it that night or they would have stopped.
NOTE!! I will continue editing and updating this story for the next few weeks. - Clay
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