MY DAD--NOBLE WILLIAM BEALL

How to color a picture of my dad in words is probably beyond my realm. But I will try as I want people to know him as the man and not just a name on paper. He was born on June 5, 1919 to James Guy Beall and Mary Imogean Walker Beall in a small community of Gore which is near Dallas, GA in Paulding County. He was the youngest of 7 children having 3 brothers and 3 sisters. I don't know much about his life in this area or time period because his mom died when he was 5 years old and they moved to Atlanta. He took me back to see his old home place when I was young but I don't remember the area. I just remember it is near Concord Baptist Church where most of his family are buried. He always said that it was between Dallas and Villa Rica and near Douglasville. Now that is a large area.
After the move to Atlanta, he lived with his sister, Gordie Mae and spent alot of time with his nephew, J Houston Adcock. Houston was about his age as dad's sister, Lillian, was married by the time dad was born and they played like most young boys would along a creek close to home. They fished and did a little hunting because my dad liked squirrel dumplings. I don't think they thought much about killing animals for food back in the depression like they do now, but back in those days it was kill or starve. My dad use to tell me stories about that time in his life. Once he went into a cafe in Atlanta to get a cup of coffee and he got a cup of hot water to go with it. He had a paper route so I was sure that he was at this place of business quite often. I think the waitress knew that he was hungry. Along the counter would be baskets of crackers and bottles of ketchup. No individual servings in the 1930's. My dad proceeded to pour ketchup in the water along with salt and pepper and had tomato soup with his coffee. I am sure this happened quite often to men and some women with no jobs during this era. Houston told me a story once about my dad and him being hired to dig a well. He said that the man didn't want to hire them because they were too young but they both assured the man that they would finish the job. Houston said it took them 3 weeks to finish the job with plenty of time to spare of the month allotted and the man was so impressed with their work that he paid them $15.00 instead of the intended $10.00 for the job. And I was told that the money went to Aunt Vivian to buy groceries minus a quarter each for Houston and my dad.
Dad told about walking to school and I believed him because I don't know when bus routes started or the trolleys in Atlanta. I am sure you had to have money to ride the trolleys. Money was scarce and shoes were hard to come by so with extra papers from his paper route, he would cut paper and slip inside his shoes when they wore thin to keep his feet warm. This happened when holes were in the shoes and by the time he reached the school, the paper would be wet. And my dad was smart because he said that he carried some extra in his pockets for when the paper got wet.My dad could make caps out of newspaper to keep his head warm. I wont even go into the difference between a cap and a hat at this time. That is another story in itself. I was told that some extra paper was taken home to help with the fires when coal was running low. If you rolled it tight enough, it would burn like a small wooden log in the stove or fireplace. I never could do it that way, but my dad could and it would burn slow and last longer. When my brother had his paper route, dad could roll the papers faster and tighter than Larry. I have many more stories about my dad that I will continue later.