Saleda, married my Great uncle Julius Fischer. They were very much in love, Julius dying only three days after Saleda. They were an odd-looking couple. Aunt Saleda was about 4 foot 2 inches tall, weighing maybe eighty pounds, while Uncle Julius was over six feet tall and weighed two-hundred-pounds. He was a Boilermaker for the Southern Railroad which ran between Tuscumbia, Alabama and Decatur, Alabama. It was a small railroad, but in 1850, it was the first, east of the Alleghany Mountains.
Julius and Saleda were happily married, but it was Saleda who wore the pants in the family. Saleda and Julius could not have children. But God made up for their loss by giving them many nieces and nephews who were always visiting and staying over.
Uncle Julius was a gentle giant, timid, afraid of bugs, worms, leeches and crawdads; dad told me you could run him out of a boat with a redworm. But most of all he was afraid of ghosts. Aunt Saleda always wore an apron, except at Sunday’s church service. Tucked into her apron- pocket was a pretty little Nickle-plated .32 Cal. revolver; and, Aunt Saleda was not afraid to use it. Once she was walking to the kitchen and spied a man climbing in her kitchen window. She drew her gun and emptied it at the man. When she told us of her experience Dad asked Aunt Saleda, did you hit him? She said Buddy, I don’t rightly know, but I don’t think so. All I could see is his elbows and behind going over that fence, and he was moving too fast to be hurt very bad.
Julius walked to and from his house and job. Their house was a “shotgun” style duplex. These houses were long and straight. From the front parlor you could see the kitchen window at the other end of the house. Being a duplex, it had a long dividing wall between the units. Each unit was a mirror image of the other. On the other side of the duplex lived a Confederate veteran who lost a leg in the Civil War. He had a pegleg, and always wore a house-shoe on his only foot. When he walked to-and-from the kitchen or went to the bathroom he made a thump, swish sound. The thump was from the pegleg, and the swish from sliding his house-shoe on the floor. This could clearly be heard through the dividing wall but over time they got use to the sound. One day he died.
Aunt Saleda wanted her own house, and found one two blocks closer to Julius’ job. She saved up enough for the downpayment, and the payments would be less than their rent. Julius didn’t know she had saved the money, and for some reason Julius also wanted to move, but to the other side of the duplex where the old rebel had died. Saleda hatched a plan to get her house.
The children were coming over one day to stay with Saleda and Julius. They arrived before Uncle Julius was home from work, and went immediately to the front parlor to play Chinese checkers, Parcheesi, and Jacks. Saleda quietly told the children she was going to play a trick on Julius and for them to play along and follow her lead. The children were my dad, aunt Jack and her sister Ruth, my dad’s brother Fred, and Cousin Thelma. Aunt Saleda swept the floor and put the broom behind the parlor door where she had hidden one of Julius’ house-shoes.
Uncle Julius always bought home the evening paper, and upon entering the house he kissed Saleda, and went in to the bathroom just off the kitchen. He called the bathroom his library. There he would take his daily constitutional while he read the paper. Saleda tiptoed down the hall to the kitchen. When she heard Julius get settled, and the newspaper being opened, she went to where the children were, grabbed her broom, slipped off her shoes, and donned the house-shoe. Then walked down the hall way making a thump swish sound until she was near the bathroom, and listened when she heard the paper rattle and Julius stirring. Quickly she ran up the hallway, hid the broom and shoe, and sat down with her knitting. Uncle Julius came up the hall and asked, “Saleda, did you hear anything? “Why no, Julius.” Then she asked, “Did you children hear anything?” and they answered, “No Aunt Saleda.” Julius went back to the bathroom to continue reading the news, while the children and Saleda quietly smiled. She repeated this trick two more times, and each time Julius became visibly more nervous and afraid. The last time, she thump swished to the bathroom she barely made it back to the parlor and her knitting before Julius arrived. Later that day. Julius told Saleda that the next day he wanted to look at the house she found. They bought it, and that’s how Saleda got her house where they lived happily until the day Saleda went ahead to get their new home in heaven ready for Julius. It took three days.