Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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

The Summer of 1936 and the Great Storm....

Above along a pier in Clearwater, Florida, 1936, left to right, Virginia Holliman Cornelius, Mary Daly Herrin, Vena Holliman Daly and Bishop Holliman.


"I don't recall now how our 1936 trip came about.  Stewart  Button had taken a church in Knoxville, Tennessee earlier in the year, but Virginia and I were still available.  Ralph, I guess, was still considered too young to go.  I would enter my last year of high school that fall, so this would be my last hurrah.  That year we went further south, all the way to Clearwater, Florida and points in between.  Robert had now acquired a new 1936 black two-door Plymouth, so now we would be travelling in style.

Below a restored 1936 four door Plymouth touring car.


In Clearwater, we did not find the beach as white and sandy as those at Fort Walton and Panama City, so that took some of the shine off our stay there.  Instead of a 'tourist cabin', we found a fully furnished home used mainly in the winter by a wealthy owner, so that made our stay more enjoyable.  It was a few blocks from the beach and backed up to the bay.  I have no idea what the rent was, but I am sure more than we had paid at Fort Walton.  One day we drove down to Sarasota and over to St. Petersburg, and another time Robert rented a small boat and he and I went out into the bay to fish and got caught in a squall that came up quickly.  We had left Vena, Mary and Virginia home to worry about us.

It had been planned early on that Mama, Daddy and Ralph would drive down to Panama City Beach during our two week stay.  Soon Melton and Ida Holliman decided to join them, along with Ida's nephew, Earl Burton.  Also, accompanying Mama, Daddy and Ralph would be Hoyt and Vivian Bryant, close family friends of Melton's age, who had lived next door in years past.  After a week at Clearwater, we decided we would join them, so we drove up to Panama City, found a cabin where they were and settled down, we thought, for a fun time with friends and family.  On the way, we stopped at a resort similar to Silver Springs called Waukulla Springs and took a boat ride."

Next the hurricane comes....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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

The Summer of 1935....


"I had completed my first year of high school at Shades Cahaba and would be 16 the coming December.  Still too young to get a job, even if one had been available and even if I had been so inclined to pursue it!  Robert always had yard work to do and he gave us loose change...which he always had...for Saturday afternoon chores.  Also, one winter I earned some pennies for starting the fire each Sunday in the heater in the Presbyterian church....not enough to pay my way to Florida however.

When the summer of 1935 rolled around, the Dalys began to talk of another trip to the beach, and I guess Virginia and I pressured them to include us in their plans, though I do not remember any of that now.  Mr. Button evidently was included also in the planning because he, along with Virginia and me, were in the Model A Ford on a Monday morning in August when we set out again for Florida.

Robert had received some brochures from the Mississippi Gulf that attracted him to that area.  Also, Loudelle and Charles had spent their honeymoon at the "The Whitehouse", a luxury hotel in Biloxi in June, so maybe that helped lure him there instead of Florida.

Our first stop was in Tuscaloosa to chat with Glenn Barrow, the young principal of Irondale school was was attending classes there, working on another degree.  He met us on the corner of the main street of the University and we talked for about 30 minutes.  We felt bad that he had to attend classes and were going on a beach holiday.  But such was life.  He was a fine man, and we were glad to spend time with him.

Glenn Barrow, right,  served as a teacher and principal.  After his death, during the war, Bishop Holliman named his first child in 1946 after this thoughtful educator.


We went on to Mississippi, arriving in Gulf Port about sun down, and were we ever disappointed!  We saw immediately that the beaches along that coast did not measure up to those at Fort Walton and other Florida beaches.  We spent the night there, but the next morning all of us agreed that we had rather go back to Fort Walton even if it ate up another day of our vacation.  So, east went, along the Gulf Coast, through Mobile and Pensacola arriving late that afternoon in Fort Walton, in a cabin close to where were the previous summer.  We felt at home there, and content to be back there for the next 10 to 12 days.

Our facilities and daily activities were much like those of the previous summer.  Vena and Robert did the cooking.  Mr. Button was a 'fun' person, and I guess he helped with dish washing, maybe.  Virginia continued to look after Mary, and to this day, I can't think of anything I did except act as a good fishing buddy and surf swimmer.  However it was not long before we had company!

                                                 Mary Daly Herrin on the beach in Florida.

The 1935 tourist court or cabins would not, perhaps, be enticing to the 21st Century generation of Hollimans, Dalys, Herrins, Corneliuses and Ferrells!

Over the past year we had done such a good job talking up the pleasures of a beach vacation....so much so that Mama and Daddy (Pearl Caine and Ulyss Holliman) decided to join us at Fort Walton for a few days.  I don't know how they managed to pull it off...I am sure Daddy had to suffer a loss of wages for a week...but they did it!  I have forgotten how long they stayed...less than a week.  They brought with them my brothers, Ralph and Euhal and Euhal's girl friend, Anna Grace Bagley.  They found a cabin near us and we all enjoyed a few days of fishing and surfing.  All of us got along fine.  This was Daddy's first real vacation and their first time ever to splurge.  Daddy, born 1884 in Fayette, Alabama, was 51 that summer.

Below, Stewart Button and young Bishop Holliman survey their 'catches of the day' at Fort Walton, Florida.

We returned home from Fort Walton on a Saturday in August, the other members having been back for several days.  Our stay at the beach had been uneventful after their departure...lots of fishing and swimming. This may seem a mundane thing to mention now, but I remember our lunch on the way back was a sandwich shop in south Alabama.  The sandwiches were 20 cents each...a humongous sum, we thought!"

Next posting, the Great Storm of 1936....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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

The Summer of 1934 continued...


"Vena and Robert Daly did all the cooking, cleaning and whatever else had to be done.  Looking back now from this distance, you have to wonder how they could have endured such a life style, even just for two weeks.  Imagine, sharing the bath with a non relative, cooking for all of us all the time, hot humid weather and no attractions other than the beach and the fishing pier!  I don't know how they did it but they did!



Above, Fort Waldon Beach, Florida in the late 1930s or early 1940s when a boardwalk and pier were the attractions, plus of course a beautiful beach and the Gulf of Mexico.


As far as I know, we all got along fine.  Virginia and I did as we were told, and I never heard a cross word between Vena, Robert and Mr. Button.  We had a nice little cabin (in the terminology of the times).  I don't recall the number of bedrooms or other amenities and I have no idea how much it cost - very little, I am sure by today's standards.  After our first night's rest, Mary said she slept on a log.  We thought that was funny and I wrote home and told them about it!

                           The luxury cabin of the Daly's and Hollimans in the middle 1930s!

Most of our time at Fort Walton was spent in fishing, and I guess we went in the surf everyday also.  The bridge across the bay to the beach was our fishing perch, and we caught more fish than I thought were in the ocean.  Fish of all kinds - one afternoon Robert reeled in a stingray, something we had never heard of and we learned it was very poisonous.  All of us were captivated by our catch each day, and Robert arranged to 'pickle' some of them in formaldehyde in jars and bring them back home to show off his piscatorial ability.  He drove over to Pensacola to get the pickle juice and bottles.  For many years after, his pickled fish were stored in his garage up on the Irondale hill.  They were still there when I went into the Navy in November 1941.

                   Mary Daly Herrin and her baby sitter and Virginia Holliman Cornelius in Florida.

Such was our first trip to Florida - 1934.  We arrived home on a Saturday afternoon, having been gone about 13 days.  I remember being startled by how much the grass and the garden had grown during our absence.  I am sure we all went to church the next day because we would have wanted to tell everyone we had been to Florida, how many fish we caught, and to show off our tans!  We made several pictures - that are still in existence of our beach escapade of 1934.  One of Robert fishing in the surf I thought was so good I sent it to the Birmingham News, but they never saw fit to print it."

A fine day's worth of Florida fishing - Robert Daly and Stewart Button

Another Golden Summer in the next post....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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

Below, Virginia Holliman Cornelius, Mary Daly Herrin, Vena Holliman Daly, Robert W. Daly, Sr. and H. Bishop Holliman at Fort Walden, Florida, 1934. Stewart Button must have taken the picture.

"I have never known why Vena and Robert felt it appropriate to take me along on their trip to Florida in 1934, the first of my 'three Golden Summers'.  I can understand why they took Virginia along - Mary was just three years old, so Virginia was needed to baby sit her.  But there was no earthly reason why they let me tag along, except out of the goodness of their hearts.  Also, Mr. Button was included in this, the first of their many escapades to Florida.  I don't recall any conversations that led up to the decision to take me with them.

Almost 5 million Model A Fords were built between 1927 and 1931.  As Henry Ford said, one could have it in any color one wanted, as long as it was black! This is a plush model.  The 1934 Daly car was more prosaic! GNH

We left Irondale, Alabama on a Monday morning in July at about 3 am, riding in the Model A Ford.  I have always remembered how exciting it was to be awakened that early and to head off to Florida, the first time I was to be out of Alabama and to view the ocean.  So six of us - three adults, two young teenagers and one three year old - were stacked in the two door car.  Our suit cases were slung over the hood on each side and may have even been tied to the fender opposite the driver's side.  Remember...there was no such thing as air conditioning, no radio and no trunk to store luggage.  Only two-lane roads, no fancy rest stops and very few eating places along the way.  By today's standards it was murder!  But we did not know any better.   We were headed to Florida, and besides, gas was no more than 20 cents a gallon.

Our first stop was in Clanton, Alabama where we had breakfast at the Dixie Cafe on the main street.  The cost was $2.50 for the six of us....ham and eggs and all the trimmings.  I guess Robert paid for Mr. Button's share.  Virginia and I had no money at all.  I thought the price of our meal was astronomical, and I recall writing back home and telling Mama and Daddy how much we had already spent.  We stopped in Dothan, Alabama to visit a Daly cousin, and we may have had lunch there.

I remember Virginia and I always wanting to visit places we had read about in our Alabama geography and history books, but the adults did not cotton to that idea so we never stopped.  Our goal was to reach Panama City.  We may have spent the night at a 'tourist court', reaching the ocean the next day; I am not sure now.

Young Robert Daly and wife, Vena, enjoy the beach in Florida.  Their kindness opened up a larger view of the world to younger brothers and sister.  

Whatever the day was, I remember how 'awed' I was when I first cast my eyes on the huge body of water that was Panama City Bay.  I guess I had seen Lake Purdy, but it was not like that at all!  The next day, I was even more 'awed', when we reached the beach at Fort Walton, Florida, a fairly new resort west toward Pensacola.  There we settled for the next twelve days in a one-bath cabin, an oil cook stove, no radio.  Air conditioning had not been heard of nor television.  There were no near-by eating places, no movie houses nor other entertainment.  But we were in Florida, and the beach was a couple of miles away, over the bridge that connected the town to the beach, and we thought it was pretty nice."

Next posting, more amazing adventures of a small town American family in the 1930s....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

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

"In the summer of 1933, the Robert Dalys, The Rev. Stewart Button and the Model A Ford all got together, left Irondale, Alabama and went to the Century of Progress (the World's fair ) in Chicago!  Can you imagine anything more unusual than that!!!  They left daughter Mary, now two years old, with Robert's sister, Lena and other Daly folks, on their farm, up above where Mary and E.C. Herrin live now (near the new Shades Valley High School in east Irondale).

Right, Loudelle Holliman Ferrell and her sister-in-law Ida Holliman in front of the Daly house in Irondale, a new home built by Robert Daly in the early 1930s.  The lawn on which Loudelle and Ida are standing was the shared lawn with the Ulyss Holliman home at 2300 3rd Avenue. Dozens of family photos were taken from the 1930s to 1990s at this site.

In addition, they took Loudelle with them!  I guess they were gone a week.  They must have been on the road a night each way, going and coming.  I am sure Robert paid all the expenses for gas and overnight lodging.  Maybe Mr. Button paid his hotel bill.  Loudelle would not have had any money, and she lost a week's wages because there was no vacation time nor sick leave for hardly any one at that time, and surely not for ten cent store clerks.  But this was Loudelle's time to travel with the Dalys!

To say that your relatives had gone to the World's Fair elevated in little Irondale, Alabama our prestige no end - even more so than riding in the rumble seat of the Packard!  None of us knew of anyone else who had gone to Chicago, and certainly not to the Fair. It gave us a lot to talk about.  Vena and Robert always brought souvenirs back to Virginia, Ralph and me, but I can't recall now what they brought this time.  Loudelle picked up lots of pamphlets with coupons to order stuff, and I got on many mailing lists.  Below, Vena Holliman Daly in 1934.

An interesting side bar - to add luster to this 1933 safari, the next summer, 1934, the noted gangster, John Dillenger, was shot and killed by FBI agents outside a Chicago theater.  The four from Irondale like to claim that the hotel where they stayed the summer before was just a few blocks from where the Enemy No. One was gunned down!  That gave them something to talk about (aside from being asked several times if they saw Sally Rand)!"

More exciting Irondale adventures in next post....

Ulyss and Pearl Caine Holliman and their Descendants

by Glenn N. Holliman

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

"In the summer of 1933 many of FDR's programs were being developed and there was lots of news about the new President and what was happening in Washington. That summer I spent reading the 8th grade history book because I had been double-promoted from the 7th grade to the 9th. Mr. Millsap, the principal, had told me to study that book over the summer, so I did. In September 1933, I entered the 9th grade.

Below in Irondale, Alabama in 1934 are left, Ida Hughes Holliman, wife of Melton, and Loudelle Holliman. In 1935, Loudelle would marry an up and coming young Methodist minister, Charles Ferrell.

Loudelle was working at F.W. Woolworth Ten Cent Store on 3rd Avenue and 19th Street in Birmingham. She worked six days a week and made, I think, seven dollars a week! Her car fare was 14 cents day. I don't know what she did for lunch. Euhal was working in Hill's grocery store in East Lake, but I do not know how much he was paid.

Right, a restored 1926 Packard with rumble seat the type in which Euhal Holliman enjoyed riding when Robert and Vena Holliman Daly took him for a long vacation ride!

By that summer, Robert Daly had sold his Packard Roadster and bought a Model A Ford from Cecil Bunt, who lived on the same street up on the hill. I never did know why he sold the Packard, or felt the need to move down to a lower level. That was not for me to know. The two-door Ford was probably a 1931 model.

 Also in 1933, there came into Robert and Vena's life, and also into our family's lives, The Rev. Stewart Button, the new Presbyterian preacher in Irondale, one who was to impact our lives for many years.

Below, Irondale neighbor, Charles Pugh, Bishop Holliman and Stewart Button in front of the Holliman home at 2300 3rd Avenue, ca 1939.

Mr. Button, or 'Button' as Robert Daly called him, was a native of Ireland and had come to the States in the late 1920s, attended Maryville College in Tennessee, a Presbyterian institute. A well educated man, he was about the same age as Robert but as yet unmarried. Robert and Vena took him under their wings, and from then on Mr. Button was like one of the family.

 He was in and out of their house constantly, socialized with them and shared many hours of pleasant conversations. Maybe it was the Irish connection that tied them together. Anyway, he became a big part of their lives as long as they lived. Also, he had a great influence on my life as well."

Next, a Return again to the 1930s....

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....