MEMORIES OF FRED

MEMORIES OF MY BROTHER FRED

by Rosa 'Rose' E. Kidd Austin

FRED EUGENE KIDD - born March 21, 1918...
... went to his Maker on June 15, 2001.

My thoughts and memories about my brother, Fred, are so precious and I want his children to know...maybe some things you didn't know about him. Fred was one of the finest men that was ever born. He was never bitter or angry that his mother died when he was just a baby and his grandmother helped care for him until his Daddy, Ammie R. Kidd, married an angel from Arkansas, Fannie Lindauer. She took on the task of raising Fred and his sisters, Pauline and Rachel, and loved them as her own. They loved her as much as they would have loved their own mother, and they often said so. Fannie came to live in Ammie's old house in the country south of Fort Worth, near to the town of Everman. Fred said he remembered riding in a wagon from his grandmother's to his new (old) home with his new mother, eating apples until he had a terrible stomach ache. (He was only eighteen months old, he had a great memory?) Probably remembered hearing about it !

We lived in poverty, as our country was in a terrible depression and Daddy had no skills except farming. Somehow there was very little money to live on, maybe the crops failed, we don't know the reason. Then the U.S. government ordered us to move as they needed the land to build a hospital. So things went from bad to worse, Fred lived all his childhood and youth with very little, nothing of the finer things of life. He was always a cheerful boy, working hard in the fields, as did the rest of our brothers and sisters. Daddy took the wages earned by the whole family to help with the needs.

Fred was so good at making things to play with, he had a very creative mind, with no money and no toys he would think of things to make out of nothing. He had an inquisitive mind, he would take apart the old clock and then put it back together when our parents were gone. Well, sometimes he didn't get it back together, so he was scolded, as that was our only way of telling time. That was the only thing that we had that he could look into and see how it worked. Surely that proved helpful in his adult life.

He was a fun-loving boy, always thinking up some kind of prank, sometimes it didn't seem like fun to us who were the butt of his jokes. He could always trick me into eating hot peppers, as he would say they were not hot, I would remind him that he said that the last time and it wasn't true, but he would be so sincere that I fell for it every time. Well, anyway, until I finally caught on. He found an old screen door that had been discarded and a battery, so he hooked a wire from the battery to the screen and put chicken feed on top, when the chickens walked on it, he would shock them. Fred thought that was the funniest thing. He rigged up a wire to shock our cousin Pack when he got into Fred's car. Pack did not think that was funny at all, he almost put a hole in the roof of the car. But we knew that Fred was just having fun, so we forgave him. Fred would hitchhike to Pack's house in Oklahoma, work in the fields and then hitchhike back home.

Fred was such a good person and dependable, when as a young man he was given a job working on motors in Fort Worth. Soon he had saved money to buy a car. Then World War II started and all the young men were drafted into service, Fred was in the Engineer corp and served in many foreign fields, earning medals and seeing many sights that stayed in his memory, horrible sights of war. Fred had part of his salary sent home to Mama, he being the oldest son, and Mama a widow.
She saved the money until he came home from the war and gave it to him. It helped him in entering civilian life again, Soon he met the love of his life, Margaret Williams. He was a faithful husband and father to four children, working hard to provide for them.

The part that I especially wanted to make known is that Fred was such a wonderful son to Mama, he being her stepson, he always treated her with such love and compassion. He was a great brother to his four sisters and three brothers, he was the oldest boy in the family and managed somehow to buy a guitar, a French harp and harmonica as he got older. He tried to hide them when he went to work and all his smaller siblings stayed at home, but with only two bedrooms for all of us, nothing could be out of sight. So we tried to play them, often breaking a guitar string or doing damage to the other things, but Fred never really got mad at us, I am sure he felt sorry for us. We had nothing to play with. When I was very sick with pneumonia, he sacrificed and bought me a banana. That was a treat, as we never got anything like that. He had a great heart of love and was certainly a good role model for us.

It was an honor to live close to Fred and get to visit with him in our later years, he came often to chat with us, and we miss him. But the sweetest memories of all are the ones of how good he was to Mama, she being a widow with no means of support except the small wages of our field work. Fred always shared with Mama. What a son, what a brother! The world would be so much nicer if all men were as good as Fred.

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always welcomed.,
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	MEMORIES OF MY BROTHER FRED
	by Rosa 'Rose' E. Kidd Austin FRED EUGENE KIDD - born March 21, 1918... ... went to his Maker on June 15, 2001. My thoughts and memories about my brother, Fred, are so precious and I want his children to know...maybe some things you didn't know about him. Fred was one of the finest men that was ever born. He was never bitter or angry that his mother died when he was just a baby and his grandmother helped care for him until his Daddy, Ammie R. Kidd, married an angel from Arkansas, Fannie Lindauer. She took on the task of raising Fred and his sisters, Pauline and Rachel, and loved them as her own. They loved her as much as they would have loved their own mother, and they often said so. Fannie came to live in Ammie's old house in the country south of Fort Worth, near to the town of Everman. Fred said he remembered riding in a wagon from his grandmother's to his new (old) home with his new mother, eating apples until he had a terrible stomach ache. (He was only eighteen months old, he had a great memory?) Probably remembered hearing about it ! We lived in poverty, as our country was in a terrible depression and Daddy had no skills except farming. Somehow there was very little money to live on, maybe the crops failed, we don't know the reason. Then the U.S. government ordered us to move as they needed the land to build a hospital. So things went from bad to worse, Fred lived all his childhood and youth with very little, nothing of the finer things of life. He was always a cheerful boy, working hard in the fields, as did the rest of our brothers and sisters. Daddy took the wages earned by the whole family to help with the needs. Fred was so good at making things to play with, he had a very creative mind, with no money and no toys he would think of things to make out of nothing. He had an inquisitive mind, he would take apart the old clock and then put it back together when our parents were gone. Well, sometimes he didn't get it back together, so he was scolded, as that was our only way of telling time. That was the only thing that we had that he could look into and see how it worked. Surely that proved helpful in his adult life. He was a fun-loving boy, always thinking up some kind of prank, sometimes it didn't seem like fun to us who were the butt of his jokes. He could always trick me into eating hot peppers, as he would say they were not hot, I would remind him that he said that the last time and it wasn't true, but he would be so sincere that I fell for it every time. Well, anyway, until I finally caught on. He found an old screen door that had been discarded and a battery, so he hooked a wire from the battery to the screen and put chicken feed on top, when the chickens walked on it, he would shock them. Fred thought that was the funniest thing. He rigged up a wire to shock our cousin Pack when he got into Fred's car. Pack did not think that was funny at all, he almost put a hole in the roof of the car. But we knew that Fred was just having fun, so we forgave him. Fred would hitchhike to Pack's house in Oklahoma, work in the fields and then hitchhike back home. Fred was such a good person and dependable, when as a young man he was given a job working on motors in Fort Worth. Soon he had saved money to buy a car. Then World War II started and all the young men were drafted into service, Fred was in the Engineer corp and served in many foreign fields, earning medals and seeing many sights that stayed in his memory, horrible sights of war. Fred had part of his salary sent home to Mama, he being the oldest son, and Mama a widow. She saved the money until he came home from the war and gave it to him. It helped him in entering civilian life again, Soon he met the love of his life, Margaret Williams. He was a faithful husband and father to four children, working hard to provide for them. The part that I especially wanted to make known is that Fred was such a wonderful son to Mama, he being her stepson, he always treated her with such love and compassion. He was a great brother to his four sisters and three brothers, he was the oldest boy in the family and managed somehow to buy a guitar, a French harp and harmonica as he got older. He tried to hide them when he went to work and all his smaller siblings stayed at home, but with only two bedrooms for all of us, nothing could be out of sight. So we tried to play them, often breaking a guitar string or doing damage to the other things, but Fred never really got mad at us, I am sure he felt sorry for us. We had nothing to play with. When I was very sick with pneumonia, he sacrificed and bought me a banana. That was a treat, as we never got anything like that. He had a great heart of love and was certainly a good role model for us. It was an honor to live close to Fred and get to visit with him in our later years, he came often to chat with us, and we miss him. But the sweetest memories of all are the ones of how good he was to Mama, she being a widow with no means of support except the small wages of our field work. Fred always shared with Mama. What a son, what a brother! The world would be so much nicer if all men were as good as Fred.

		To include your stories and other information in this site, Email us at Webmaster.
Comments, suggestions, additional info are always welcomed., Please contact: Webmaster