[Granville-Hough] 12 Aug 2009 - Arenders and Bishops

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2009 07:59:44 -0700
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: Arenders and Bishops -12 Aug 2009

     The Arender children were those of Uncle Alhanan.  The Bishops 
lilved on the edge of the Big Woods, an area of rugged hills and hollows 
which extended from Mr. Rufus Yelverton's land all the way across to the 
Rose Hill Community, 3 or 4 miles.  There were no roads, and no one 
lived there.  My father wanted a place to graze his cows and Mr. 
Yelverton offered to let him use the Big Woods.  My father did not want 
his cows to wander off to where they could be rustled, so he checked how 
far they could go in the big woods.  He walked and walked until he 
finally came to a field and there was Rastus Bishop.  Of course, they 
knew each other from Annual Baptist Association Meetings, so they had a 
chat about the fences around the big woods.  My father was satisfied, 
and our cows grazed there for the summer.  The Bishop family is best 
described by my friend, Harold Hopkins.  Grampa Hough

===

Hi, Granville,

You don't  hear much from me these days.  Senility is creeping in on 
little cat feet, and I have physical complaints (legs, hips) that I 
suspect are effects from Type II diabetes, along with my antiquity.  

I've noticed that you're kin to the Arender family. It's funny that I 
never encountered anyone by that name until I reached High School at 
Mize and there were two Arender siblings in my grade.  Clyde was a 
husky, bumbling, friendly fellow who had speech impediments,  was into 
football (as   was I),    playing on the line as a guard or tackle.   
 He had a sister named Ruth, possibly a twin, since she was in the same 
grade as Clyde. In any case, Ruth soon left school when she married 
Clarence Bishop, a son of Rastus or Erastus Bishop (who lived in the 
Rose Hill community),  and they opened a restaurant in Mize which 
operated at all hours, along with a jukebox.  I don't know what ever 
happened to them.     Erastus Bishop  among other things operated a cane 
syrup mill in the Rose Hill community. None of the Bishops were mental 
giants but Clarence Bishop was about as intelligent as these Bishops 
came.  He was a couple or more grades ahead of me.  He had a younger but 
taller brother  named Ethel -- older than I but several grades behind 
--  who was into petty crime and fighting.  He was in one of Dub 
Richardson's classes and when Dub took a semiannual notion to paddle him 
he  had his hands full.  I don't know what ever happened to Ethel. He 
was a real juvenile -- and probably adult -- delinquent and I'm sure the 
pattern continued.  (Well, he was already an adult by the time he 
reached the 6th grade at Mize Elementary). I   believe that the only 
reason Ethel attended Mize Elementary was to play basketball. I was at 
least in some of the classes he attended,   because I remember him 
sitting in the back of the room so he cold spit tobacco juice out the 
window.  I think Ethel must have lived out his days in Parchman or some 
other confining surrounds, if somebody didn't kill him first.  Erastus 
had a couple of daughters -- one named Wessie -- who was not like her  
brothers at all. I think she married Evon Ingraham, or somebody like 
that out in the Rose Hill neighborhood. For some years Wessie was 
the /Smith County Reformer/ correspondent for the Mize area.

Erastus also had older sons named Jimmy and Robert,  both old enough to 
be my parents,  and a younger son named  R.T., also older than I. RT was 
so-so, not of very high repute.

I liked Clyde Arender, but I used to wonder if  he'd  survive into 
adulthood.  I hope he did. It would be nice to think of Clyde in antiquity.

 Harold

(GWH) Clyde moved to West Texas with his older brother, Reverend Coley 
Arender, and so far as I know, lived a normal life.  Ruth divorced 
Clarence Bishop at some point and remarried. They were my first cousins, 
once removed.