Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

The Golden Summers of the 1930s, Part II
by H. Bishop Holliman 2011

"In the summer of 1929, Daddy (Ulyss Holliman 1884 - 1965) bought an electric cook stove, a rare appliance for that time and place.  Up until then Mama (Pearl Caine Holliman 1888 - 1955) had had to cook on a coal stove, which, of course, was an unbearable thing in the summer.  But not many folks in Irondale, Alabama enjoyed the luxury of such a thing at that time.

Left, a side view of the Ulyss Holliman house at 2300 3rd Avenue, Irondale, Alabama.  Constructed in 1921, the home had six rooms and no indoor plumbing facilities until 1938. This photo was taken in November 2010.

I remember this event so well because the stove was installed while Vena and Robert were on their trip to Kentucky and North Carolina.  They took Euhal (1912 - 1989) with them on this trip.  He was 17 years old, and I remember his saying when he returned that he sat in the rumble seat and waved to the girls they passed along the way!  So Euhal was the first of the family to enjoy a long auto trip with the Dalys.  Our time - and Loudelle's - would come later.

                                                                  Above Euhal Holliman, ca 1935

By the summer of 1930, the Great Depression was in full sway, though I was too young to understand the implications of any of it.  I thought folks had always been unemployed.  The freight trains that came through Irondale, which we could plainly see from our front porch, had always carried hobos as far as I knew, so I was not impressed one way or the other by the evidence around me.  If Daddy had been out of a job, as so many of our acquaintances were, I am sure I would have been more aware of what was happening.

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Mary Daly was born in June 1931, so they did not go anywhere that summer.  At that time, 1931, they were living in the 2nd brick house (the one next to the woods) on our block. I remember Bill Fortenberry on the afternoon of June 15, 1931, who worked for his brother Ed in the local grocery store, saying to me that I was now an 'uncle'.  I thought that made me more mature than I was!

Right, Mary Daly Herrin in Irondale, 1932.

I guess the summer of 1932 was much like the previous summer.  The Depression had deepened, and the thought of taking along trip was incomprehensible to most folks.  Daddy was still working, and Euhal and Loudelle were working off and on.  Radio was a fairly new kid on the block, even though Daddy had bought a Zenith in 1928 for the prodigious sum of $219, a huge amount in those days.

I remember Mama let me stay home from school in 1929 to listen to Herbert Hoover's presidential inauguration.  In 1932 we listened to the Democratic Convention and heard the band playing over and over 'Happy Days are Here Again.'

The radio, along with the electric stove, made us among the first folks in Irondale to claim ownership of such modern conveniences."

Next more memories of the 1930s....