Debbie Sipf
I have always said that if I were ever to write a novel, it would be set in a Southern town, and I would have a character completely dedicated to the greatness that is Debbie Sipf. She is small in stature and full of sass. Hands down, she is one of my very favorite people on this earth.
It is not uncommon to see her at local sporting events....like...all of them. Football, Basketball, Softball, you name it, she is there. She is a staple in her church, a staple in our small community.
She has a very distinctive voice, a tinkling little laugh, and if you give her half a chance, she will have you in stitches within minutes. She will “bless your heart” if you’re one of her people, and quickly threaten to “whoop your ass” if you’re one of her foes.
Growing up, some of her very best friends were Pattie Sue and Karen. After hearing some of their stories (and shenanigans), I believe that Mrs. Debbie summed it up best when she stated “Thank God we never went to jail!”
Debbie at a Mary Kay Party
What is your full name?
“Deborah Suzanne Sipf.”
How did you get your name?
“My mama named me. I wasn’t really named after anybody. I need to ask her about that...”
Did you have any nicknames?
“Oh my God....My nickname was ‘Bucky’ because I had buck teeth. You’ve probably never had anyone tell you this. One of my teeth stuck way out, and one of my teeth stuck way back. You know, back then you didn’t go get braces. I mean, I’m 59 years old. My grandmother would tell me: “Push pull, push pull.” Push on the one and pull on the other every time you think of it. They’re still buckteeth, but they’re not one back and one forward anymore. That push pull method worked. But actually, the person that started the ‘Bucky’ name was Lynn Mills. I’d gotten an A on my test, and they all said I was buckin’ up to the front of the class, proud about my A.”
When and where were you born?
“I was born in Western Illinois on September 8, 1956. You see, my dad moved here with Neal Boyer. Neal Boyer was my dad’s Brother in Law and they came here together. Do you remember when that bed place across from CVS used to just be a house? They had a TV place there. Later, Neal got into Radio Shack.”
“He loved to hunt. It was always funny to me how he loved my step mama. She could go to the hospital every week. She was dying every week. Every week. He believed everything that came out of her mouth. After 99 times, you’d think he’d realize she was puttin’ on! But he loved that woman now. And his beard, I won’t ever forget his beard. And hiding money from Thelma. He had a drink machine out there, and he’d save all of that money so he’d have spending money ‘cause he’d give her every dime he made. Ten years after he died, and he’s been gone 21 now, they’d still be findin’ money in pill bottles and money in books....He loved to read Louis Lamore westerns.”
Debbie and her mama (center) at her Bridal Shower
Best memories of your mother?
(Author's note: the Daddy mentioned in this section was Mrs. Debbie's Step-father)
“She always took us and did with us.”
“She always took us and did with us.”
“One day I got a call that somebody was up-town in my car. ‘Cause I’d taken her car to get it fixed. It was her! Well, we got to watchin’ her, and she was in my clothes too! But it was funny.”
“She got on our front porch, because it was concrete, and learned how to skate. Mary and Julie were 8 and 9 years younger than me. She’d take them to the skating rink in Trenton. She took them over to some kind of party they were havin’ and she decided that she’d just rent some skates and she’d skate too. She skated fantastic all night....Well...they hollered ‘last call’ and some kid was in a hurry to get out of there and knocked her down, and broke her wrist. And I will never forget that as long as I live. She called me the next morning and said ‘You’ve got to come get me.’ And I said ‘Why?’ And Dr. Mann told her it was broke and that she’d need to go over to Gainesville. She said ‘I knew something was wrong this morning...I couldn’t put the car in gear.’ I took her over to Gainesville, and I almost passed out when they went to reset it.”
“I didn’t date a lot when I was younger...but I was constantly going places and taking people. Well, I can remember one night, we’d went to the drive-in. Of course, it didn’t get dark until 8:30, and they sometimes wouldn’t start the movie until 9. So, I wouldn’t get home sometimes until 2-2:30. Sometimes we’d stop by Bett’s and get breakfast. Well, I never did anything wrong, you know. I never got in any kinda trouble. The next morning my mama would say ‘Now, I know damn well you drug in around 2-2:30. We’re not gonna have that!’ Dad (my step-father) walked into the room and said ‘Now, Peg, I got up at 12 to get a glass of water and she was in her bed.’ Mama would not argue with him. She would not argue with him.”
“They almost divorced when Daddy got sick. See, mama had gotten used to taking people to town, or going to Bingo or watching her Soap Operas. Well, daddy, when he got sick, he’d want to go somewhere and he’d rattle the keys. He was ready to go. And she’d say ‘Mutt, I’m tryin’ to watch my shows.’ But when he’d rattle those keys, he was ready to go. Yep, they almost divorced over it.”
“That’s why I’m havin’ problems with her now. She had someone tell her what to do for 40 somethin’ years and now, by God, she’s not havin’ anyone tell her what to do. Except David. She’ll listen to David.”
“She never went to church, but they always made me go. Always made me go, even when I was little.”
“Ted took her to Illinois. She calls me when she gets to Illinios. I said ‘Mama, was the damn phone broke where you was at when that man picked you up? He came all the way from Largo, you had plenty of time to call me. What if you’d’ve gotten in a wreck in Tennessee, and they’d have called me and said ‘Your mother’s been in a wreck in Tennessee’....I’d have said ‘No, not my mama, she’s in Inverness. God, she acts like a teenager sometimes.”
Debbie and her sister, Julie, on Debbie's wedding day
Tell me about your siblings:
“I had a brother, Chuck. He was a few weeks from his 16th birthday. He always played in the woods behind the car lot. A lot of people think he killed hisself. He didn’t kill hisself. He fell and it ruptured his esophagus. He fell from his 2-story treehouse. His friend Bill had had an asthma attack and couldn’t go out that night. A lot of times, I’d have to come back to town to get Chuck, because they’d be outside playin’ and stuff. Daddy came home and said that he’d left Chuck in town, because he hadn’t seen him anywhere around, and that he knew I’d go back and get him. Well, when I went back, I hollered and carried on. No Chuck. We called Bill Fletcher’s and found out he’d been home all day. So Chuck had been there by himself. Just happened to be a day he was back there by himself, and he fell and it ruptured his esophagus. There was nothin’ nobody could’ve done. Chuck was my full-brother.”
“Then there was Mary and Julie. Mary and Julie and I are 8 and 9 years apart.
At 29, Julie had a stroke. She never was really right after that. When She was 37, she got really really sick. She thought she had food poisoning. Well from January to May, she went through ‘It’s your female organs...it’s irritable bowel...you’ve got acid reflux...’ A couple of weeks after I’d taken her to the doctor last, she got really sick and she felt like something inside of her popped. They rushed her to the Emergency Room, and the lady said ‘She has cancer, it’s showing up in the blood work.’ I asked ‘why in taking her to the doctor for 5 months hasn’t it shown up until now?’ They said ‘It’s just one of those things.’ This was on a Monday, on Thursday they came back and told us that she had Pancreatic cancer. At 37. I still think it all stemmed from the stroke she had at 29. She had a mass in the back of her head, and I think it all stemmed from that. She lived 6 weeks and she died from an infection. It was an infection that eats your bones.”
At 29, Julie had a stroke. She never was really right after that. When She was 37, she got really really sick. She thought she had food poisoning. Well from January to May, she went through ‘It’s your female organs...it’s irritable bowel...you’ve got acid reflux...’ A couple of weeks after I’d taken her to the doctor last, she got really sick and she felt like something inside of her popped. They rushed her to the Emergency Room, and the lady said ‘She has cancer, it’s showing up in the blood work.’ I asked ‘why in taking her to the doctor for 5 months hasn’t it shown up until now?’ They said ‘It’s just one of those things.’ This was on a Monday, on Thursday they came back and told us that she had Pancreatic cancer. At 37. I still think it all stemmed from the stroke she had at 29. She had a mass in the back of her head, and I think it all stemmed from that. She lived 6 weeks and she died from an infection. It was an infection that eats your bones.”
“Then my other sister, her name is Mary Jane. She don’t mess with me.”
What did you want to be when you grew up?
“A Missionary in Australia. I don’t even know if they needed any of them there, but that’s where I was gonna go. It was somethin’ we’d gotten together in about the 10th grade and we decided we was gonna do....Me, Maria Hiers, Alice Roberson,...there was about 5 or 6 of us.”
How do you remember holidays growing up?
“Lots of fun. We always ate at Grandmas. She lived right down the road. I always remember, we’d always go over at Christmas, and Daddy would tell Mary and Julie that he forgot something at home, and he’d run home and put out all of the Christmas presents. We always had good holidays. Now my favorite holiday time is spent at the Church.”
What was your favorite food that your mother/father made?
“Mama really didn’t cook, but she could make stuffed peppers. Daddy made oyster stew. He didn’t cook much, but he could make some oyster stew.”
What was your first job?
“I was doing the books at my dad’s car lot at 12. At 12 years old, I could do payroll, bank statements...When I left there, I was makin’ about $150 a week...sellin’ cars, rentin’ cars, you name it, I was doin’ it.”
Debbie on her wedding day
Where did you meet your spouse?
“I went to school with David. He was a few years younger than me. Well, I was ’74 and he was ’78. (laughs) I used to date them younger than that! Pattie Sue called me one day and told me that she’d run into David Sipf and he was gettin’ divorced. Well one day he called me up. He told me about his divorce, and about his three kids, that he was payin’ child support for. Hell no, I wasn’t goin’ out with that man. Pattie said ‘you’re going!’ So I went.”
What was the first thing you noticed about him?
“His keys were hanging on his side. That’s funny, isn’t it? I’d never dated a guy with his keys just hanging on his side on one of those clip things.”
When did you know he was the one?
“Oh, I jumped into it!” said with a laugh.
Tell me about your wedding:
“Oh the wedding was wonderful. It was kind of like a family reunion for my step-side. My Stepbrother was the preacher. And another stepbrother came up from Orlando. So we had them from my dad’s side. We had a lot of family photos taken. We bought the film, and the photographer took the pictures for free. It was really nice, we got a lot of family photos that no one had really ever had done. It was out at Concord. Athena my niece from my first marriage, she did the catering. Andrea, and her, and Leatha and Linda did the catering...I had divorced Danny, but I kept the family.” (Author’s note: Mrs. Debbie had previously been married to Danny Knuckles, her high school sweetheart. They were married 6 years.)
Jaimee
What do you remember about expecting Jaimee?
Timmy came back and he’d quit drinkin’ and he was doin’ real good. I always tell everyone I got pregnant on the first try. Well, he left when I was six-seven months pregnant with Jaimee. I was sick through the whole pregnancy. I was on bed rest 4-5 weeks before I had Jaimee. Shanda would go with me to Lamaze. And the day I had Jaimee, Pattie Sue had to come late after getting some stuff squared away at home. And when she shows up, the nurse says ‘only one of them can go back with you.’ Pattie Sue says ‘Well, we’re fixin’ to have to whip someone right here then, ‘cause we both goin’!’ And Pattie Sue had her camera. They kept tellin’ me Pattie Sue that they were tryin’ to deliver a baby and she’d have to move. But Pattie Sue was everywhere. She got a real good picture of them holding Jaimee up, and the clock was in the background and it says 4:58. It worked out real nice. Timmy kept callin’...he was tryin’ to figure out what I’d had. Nobody would talk to him, they’d just cuss him out and hang up on him.”
How did you come up with Jaimee’s name?
“There used to be a show on tv, with a little black girl on it. Her name was Jaimee somethin-or-other, I usta could tell ya. But I couldn’t pick a middle name, so it was Pattie Sue’s idea to give her Suzanne as her middle name. She’d said ‘Well, why don’t you name her after yourself.’ So that’s how she got her name. I’d come up with ‘Gabriella’ and ‘Danielle’ and stuff, but we decided she looked like a ‘Jaimee’ when she came out. We’d thought she was gonna come out with dark hair and dark eyes like me, but she came out with blue eyes and blonde hair...what little hair she had.”
Debbie and Jaimee
Proudest Moment as a parent:
“She always worried about Jacob and Austin. She got her own job when she was 16. I didn’t even want her to work. They hired her on the spot. I won’t ever forget, she’d just started driving, and it was the Fourth of July. She drove herself over to Williston to train for her job. I about had a cow. I’d always said ‘If she went to college somewhere else, ‘cause she’d been talkin’ about going down South, that I was going with her. She wasn’t goin’ by herself.’”
What do you wish you’d have known when you were younger?
“Save money! Put your money in your 401K and leave it in there!”
What is a bit of advice you wish you could impart on young people?
“Go to college and get an education of some sort.”
What do you remember about your Daddy’s car lot?
--“I loved my Daddy’s car lot. It was a lot of fun. I was tellin’ David this the other day...When we started sellin’ cars...after we got out of sellin’ new cars through Dodge...and we just started sellin’ used cars, we sold a car to a guy from Williston. And he couldn’t make the payments so we got him on the phone. Billy had an old ’65 Chevy pickup, and Billy asked him if he could come and get the car. And the man said ‘You can come get it, I cain’t pay for it.’ And Billy asked ‘Well, can I come get it? I mean, is it drivable?’ The man said ‘Oh yeah, it’s drivable!’ Well, we pulled off of 27, and you could see the car...it was up on blocks. They had jerked everything off the motor, the battery was gone...the radiator was gone...We couldn’t have driven that damn car had we wanted to. Well, we toted a pistol in the truck with us, when we went for these repo things... ‘course it was funny to me, I was about to die laughin’ ‘cause Billy was so mad he coulda killed him! And it was a wonder he didn’t! We actually ended up sittin’ there until the a rollback truck came to get it. But Billy...by God...he meant that car was goin’ with him one way or another. I thought he was gonna kill that man, I really, really did!”
--“I had a ’68 Thunderbird, that was my first car. It was Kay Sharon Drummond, used to be Kay Sharon Graham, it was her first car. They thought somethin’ was bad wrong with it, when they traded it in on a new one for her. It was just a drive shaft. So I put me an $80 drive shaft and had me a wonderful little car. This car...I kept it clean. No dirt got in it. I mean spotless. Thunderbirds were top of the line, you know? I traded it in when I got my Nova.”
--“The Car Lot was a lot of fun. And the one person that I know that still has the car that we sold her...and we were there from ’79 to ’81 is Matthew Barber’s grandma.”
--“When we sold cars, we were to the point we could finance our own cars. We’d made good money doin’ it. Daddy ran the loggin’ and Billy ran the car lot.”
--“And we used to put the cars in the parades. They’d get part of them from Scoggins and part of them from us.”
--“We were the only dealer, during the recession, that went out and they owed us money. That didn’t owe them money.”
--“Mr. Slim Roberts came from Scoggins, and he worked for Daddy, which he was part owner in it...he taught me how to tell if a car had been re-painted. You could run your hand down it. I could do it for a long, long time. White Ford actually wanted me to go work for them as a salesman, but it was commission, and I had to have a steady income.
How was Chiefland different from when you were growing up to how it is now?
Smaller. No drugs. Well, there was drugs, but you didn’t know about it I guess. Life was a lot better back then because everybody knew everybody, and appreciated everybody. You could take a man’s word.
Where were you and what were you doing when you heard about 9/11?
“I was at the Mill in Cross City, where I was a manager. I had just went to Hardees to get me a glass of tea. I came back, had pulled in the gate and I had the radio in the truck with me. And I said ‘Billy! What’s the Twin Towers?’ And he said ‘What?!’ And I said ‘You’d better shut off and come over here!’ when he told me what it was. And so, we shut the mill down. And we got on the phone and called his mama and his mama was tellin’ him everything that was goin’ on.”
What three words would describe you?
“Honest. Loyal. Enjoy life (and don’t give a shit about money)!”
What would most people be surprised to find out about you?
“A lot of people know that I love sports. But not a lot of people know that my husband doesn’t. David couldn’t care less. He was so glad the other night when I went home and told him that Jarrett Johnson had retired. The first thing my husband said was ‘Hallelujah! I don’t have to give up the TV anymore!’ ‘Cause he had to give up the 50” when Jarrett was playin’.”
“I followed Jarrett my whole life, my office was covered in Alabama stuff. But, David would watch him when he was a Charger and he got used to his number. Me? You could put him in any uniform and I could tell you whether or not it was him. When he switched teams, David said ‘Well, what does that mean?’ I said ‘He’s gonna play for another team.’ He said ‘Ah crap, you mean I gotta figure all this stuff out again? He just can’t stand sports. He don’t like chocolate either.’
What do you want your legacy to be?
“That I was a caring, kind person. And I didn’t give a damn about money.”
The Sordid Tales of Debbie Sipf:
(Author's Note/Disclaimer: These accounts were recollections of Mrs. Debbie's, as told by Mrs. Debbie)
“Oh Lord...well Karen didn’t go to the bars. She would go to ‘em, but wouldn’t go in ‘em. She’d drive you some where though. I remember she had that little Volkswagen. We was lookin‘ for Pattie Sue’s boyfriend one night and I can remember holdin’ on to that thing, the whole time she was drivin’ me around tryin’ to find him at a payphone. It was funny.”
“I got shot at with Pattie Sue, and I told ‘em that I saw the bullet go by. Billy had pulled one of them antics of callin’ her drunk, and we went over there. When we pulled up, he came out and said ‘What the hell are y’all doin’?’ I said ‘What do you think we’re doin’?’ When we went to get back in the car, he shot a bullet over our car. And I swear I saw the bullet go by!”
“We’ve fed Jesus a couple times. We were comin’ home one night and there was someone broke down, we pushed him to the gas station. I mean, literally got out of the car and pushed him. One night we saw a bum, and he told us he was hungry. I think he was down there at the park or something. And we ate pizza and we took the pizza back. And he was so happy that we’d brung him pizza. We went to get him a drink, and he was gone. So Pattie swore it was Jesus.”
“We weren’t bad about drinkin’ we just liked to go. We’ve sworn we weren’t gonna go, and we’d ride down there in our nightgowns just so we wouldn’t get out...but we liked to socialize. And I liked to dance, ‘cause it kept the weight off of me. Yeah...we had some good times.”
“We had some crazy times at that bar too. I once dated a guy and wouldn’t tell him where I lived. All he’d have had to’ve done was ask somebody where I lived. I’d meet him at Bett’s Big T and go on dates with him. Never did tell him where I lived. One night, he said ‘I’m gonna follow you home.’ And I said ‘Okay’, and I lived right there across the street there across from the motel. He felt like an idiot.
“One of the craziest things I did...and it was crazy funny. I was datin’ a guy from Cross City. And he worked 18 hours straight. And he’d come over and eat supper with me. And he was dirty from changin’ tires and all. He worked at a gas station. They changed big truck tires and all. He said ‘I’m so dirty, I’m gonna just lay here in the floor.’ Well, I lived there behind the motel where Margaret Hiers Realty used to be. And I said ‘Okay!’ I was bored and I was sittin’ there watchin’ tv. And Pattie calls and asks ‘What’re you doin’?’ ‘Sittin’ here watchin’ tv,’ I said. She asked ‘Well, where’s Marvin?’ ‘He’s in the floor asleep.’ Pattie says ‘Well, I wanna go to the Lounge.’ I said ‘Pattie, I can’t do that!’ Well...she dared me. I had a little Dodge Colt. I rolled the car back, cranked it up, went and got her, went to the Bear’s Den...or Suwannee Lounge...whatever it was back then. She’d wanted to see someone down there, I don’t even remember now who it was. We was there probably 2-3 hours. Took her to the house. Came back. Shut my car off, let it coast in. Put it in park. Went in. Got in my bed. He was still asleep when I got there. I had my alarm set for 5:30 to go and take Marvin back to his job. That was a week night. That weekend, we went up to the Lounge and somebody said ‘Yeah, she was here such-n-such-a-night.’ He said ‘No, she wasn’t! I ate supper with her. I was at her house.’ Well, you can look at me and tell I lie. I couldn’t lie if I wanted to. He looked at me and said ‘No, you didn’t!’ I said ‘Pattie Sue dared me!’ It was all Pattie Sue’s fault then.”
“We had a guy follow us out there one night. He was after Sherry Neil. She told him that we were goin’ somewhere....I don’t remember what all happened. Anyways, she wasn’t goin’ with him. Well, while she was talkin’ to him in the livin’ room, we went out the back door and flattened his tires. We didn’t flatten them good enough, he follered us.”
“Now there was a boy we used to call when he got to the pay phone. ‘Cause you could see the pay phone from over there. We’d call the guy when he got there. We knew the number to that particular pay phone, and we’d call him....he never could figure out how we knew he was there! We was right across the street, that’s how we knew.”
“I’ll never forget there was a boy that was always threatenin’ to kill himself. Well, one night I got my belly full of it and I said ‘Well, go right damn ahead.’ I walked right inside the house, he finally got in his car and drove off. Those crazy boys from Cross City...”
“Pattie Sue started datin’ Davey, and she decided to move her ass to Hawthorne. Got all the way over there in Hawthorne, and was still tryin’ to date ‘ol Davey. She’d call me and tell me ‘You got to go get him, he’s up at Fannin’!’ I get up, and get down there, and I got him. Got him back to the house, and he says ‘I think I’m alright now. I think I’m alright. I want to go get my Jeep.’ We get back down there, I let him out. Get back to the house. He calls me again, ‘You got to come get me.’ I said ‘I just let you out!’ He says ‘I drove my Jeep off in the septic tank.’ I said ‘You’re fricken kiddin’ me.’ So, in my night clothes, I go right on back down there. And there’s the Jeep. He’s called the wrecker. The wrecker comes...I’m ready to get home, ‘cause I gotta go to work. Had that little Dodge Colt, didn’t stand this high off the ground. He’s talkin’ to Bobby Perryman, I said ‘Bobby, we got to go!’ I turned the wheel, and ran over his leg goin’ out of there. Thought I had killed him! Couldn’t even breathe! Oh my God....scared me to death! Every time I’d see him afterwards, he’d ask ‘You run over anybody lately?’”
“And I’ll never forget, I went and got Pattie Sue’s boyfriend, from Fannin', ‘cause Pattie was in Hawthorne...brought him to the house...throw’d him on the couch...next thing I know, here comes another one of our friends drunker-n-Cooter-Brown. So I throw’d both of them in the bed, and I took the couch. Couple days later, I got to Winn Dixie, and I’m in there, and Lloyd Harden walks up there behind me. ‘Ain’t bad enough you got one boy at your house, you got two!’ I said ‘Oh my God, here we go!’ He went up to my mama and said ‘I want you to know, Debbie ain’t just goin’ with one of them boys, she’s goin’ with both of ‘em.’ Mama said ‘You’ve got to be damn crazy! That’d be like goin’ with her brothers.’ ‘Cause I used to stay out there with their sister all the time.”
“And one night they called me and said my truck was down there, Timmy had my truck. If it rained, he got drunk and took the truck down there. So they called me, and I called Davey to come get me. Pattie was drug off to Hawthorne. So we pull up and we go in there. I seen he was in there and he was with somebody...so I didn’t say anything to him. I just walked back out there and I went to get in his truck. This Dixie County boy walks up there and says ‘Uhh, you ain’t takin’ Timmy’s truck’ and shut the door. I said ‘You need to look at the glove compartment at the registration...it’s my truck.’ He said ‘No, Timmy drove it up here.’ I said ‘Yeah, but that don’t mean it’s his.’ He said ‘Well, I’m fixin-na tell you right now...’ Davey came up there and said ‘No, you ain’t fixin-na tell her nothin’.’ So here comes about ten more Dixie County boys, sayin’ I’m not takin’ the truck. Davey said ‘Oh, hell yeah! We come to get it. We takin’ it!’ Davey looks at me and says ‘Which half you want?’ And I’m thinkin’ ‘I don’t really want none of ‘em.’ And about that time, Benny Dyals walks up. He said ‘I’ll take her half.’ Them lil Dixie County boys took their asses back inside. They didn’t want none of Benny Dyals. I got in the truck and come to the house.”
“Then, I dated this truck driver. He wanted me to go out to St. Louis with him. Well, it was around Christmas time. Mary Jane was pregnant with Michael and she was due in January, but I wasn’t leavin’ her. You know, that was the first baby on our side, and I wanted to be there. I told him ‘No, I ain’t gonna go.’ I was in there washin’ the dishes...my big thing was, if I went over to someone’s house to eat, I had to do the dishes. Well, I was in there washin’ the dishes, and I heard him tell his mama ‘If I can talk her into going to St. Louis with me, we’re gonna get married while we’re gone.’ Well, I dropped a big ol’ pot. Hell no, he wasn’t talkin’ me into shit. He had four kids!...which, I loved the kids. But I didn’t wanna be their mama. I didn’t get to go with him. And he got snowed in. So, he got home the 24th. This was back when Walmart was by the Winn Dixie. We go up there, and you know, he just got a big ‘ol paycheck. He’d cashed it before he’d picked me up. And we bought two buggy fulls on the 24th. You know how hard it is to get out of a store on the 24th? We had bought every-damn-thing-in-the-world. We went back to my house and we wrapped all of them presents. He said ‘Now, I’m not gonna be able to see ya tonight. I got some things goin’ on.’ Well, I thought he was goin’ to buy me somethin’! You know, I didn’t have a damn clue! I went to the Lounge and when I got home, the phone was ringin’ off the hook. ‘Where you been?’ ‘Right here,’ I said. ‘No you ain’t, I’ve called you every hour.’ I said ‘Okay, I didn’t hear the phone...’ He said ‘No, you done been at the Lounge, I had someone call me and tell me you were there.’ I said ‘You know, I really don’t care...you had somethin’ else you had to do.’ Then he tells me ‘You need to be here around 10:30 in the mornin’, you can come earlier if you need to.’ I said ‘Okay.’ He was havin’ dinner at his mama’s house. He had his brother, and sister-in-law there, and some other people. The kids were showin’ me all they’d got....They’d thought Santa had brought it. Well, I sit there on the couch, and he and his mama go back into her room. And I’m thinkin’ ‘Oh hell no, he ain’t fixin-a give me no damn engagement ring. Tell me he ain’t! I didn’t know what I was fixin-a do.‘ You know, I didn’t make the trip to St. Louis, thank God. Well, he walks out and he’s got a box. A bracelet-sized box. And I was thinkin’ ‘Thank God!’ I open it up, and it’s a $6.99 Avon necklace. Blue-beaded...it was his mama’s. He hadn’t bought me anything. So his mama gave him that to give to me. I was so embarrassed, I coulda died! Everybody was embarrassed for me. They’d all thought I was gettin’ somethin’ nice too, ‘cause he’d brought this big ol’ check home. And she gave me two doilies, with the flowers stickin’ up. I loved things like that! So I was makin’ over them doilies like you wouldn’t believe! I had to put this blue damn necklace on. So we messed around there ‘til 2-3 o’clock, and he had to leave...had to go out on another haul. I thought ‘wait ‘til he calls me and gets an ear-full.’ So Pattie Sue and Davey, they call me. They said ‘Meet us down at Bett’s for supper...they’re open...we’re gonna go down there for supper.‘ I said ‘Okay.‘ They said ‘Now bring what your boyfriend bought you!‘ ‘Cause they were thinkin‘ that he’d bought me some sort of jewelry. I walked in with those blue beads on and sat down at that table...Pattie said ‘What’d you get?’ I said ‘Right here!’ I think I’ve got ‘em at the house still. It’s still a laugh every now and then.”
“And then I hunted with him (the truck driver)...I went to the woods one night. And they asked me if I could stay. I said ‘Well, I don’t have any clothes or anything.’ His mama said ‘Well, you can just sleep in one of my night gowns, in my trailer. It’ll just be me and you in it.’ They had a cook shed with some beds and all in it. I told her okay, that I would. She really, really liked me. Her name was ‘Sug’. I took all my clothes off and set them on my shoes, all neatly. It rained durin’ the night, and guess where the leak was? Right where my damn clothes was! So I got up and was like: ‘Oh my God, what am I gonna do?’ So I took the clothes and I was fannin’ them around. She had a lil kerosene heater in there, but I kept thinkin‘ ‘What am I gonna do?’ She came back and I told her what happened. Well, she was a lot bigger than me. I couldn’t wear her clothes. She said ‘I have an idea, I’ll give you one of my t-shirts, leave your shirt and bra out here and let it be dryin’. Well, I wasn’t goin’ anywhere without that damn bra on. No way, Hosea! So I put my jeans on and backed myself up to the fire ‘til they got dry!’ Well, the next weekend, he put in that he wanted me to come out there. And I went out there but told him that I couldn’t be out there long, ‘cause my sister might have that baby. When I left there, I went just as straight to that Bear’s Den as I could go!’ The next day, I got there around 9 o’clock, I guess. And they called him on the CB and told him that I was there, and he came and got me. He said ‘Well, what’d you do last night?’ I said ‘Well, I went home.’ He said ‘Really??’ I said ‘Yeah, I went home.’ Well, someone had done come in and told him that they’d seen me there. I’d been down there...I loved to dance. He come in and he said ‘Did you go to the Bear’s Den last night?’ I said ‘No! I went home...’ I didn’t say ‘after the Bear’s Den...’ He said ‘Well, you got a little dent in your car.’ I said ‘No I don’t!’ He said ‘Yeah, you do, I bet you got it at the Bear’s Den!’ I said ‘Yeah, I probably did!’ I told right on myself!”
“I won’t ever forget, I dated a man from the Prison. He had a brand new Chevrolet truck. And he come to get me. And they called him in because they had a riot. And so he made me drive the truck to the house. My daddy was so proud! I finally had a boyfriend that had a vehicle!”
“When I started dating Timmy, we’d dated probably 3 years before we ever got married. He drank. He worked for Anderson Columbia. He was fine ‘til it rained. But if it rained, he’d be drunk somewhere. Well, Pattie Sue and Johnny had to get home for some reason, so I was just gonna ride home with them. Well, Timmy had gotten with his girlfriend that afternoon. Unbeknownst to me. I didn’t know he had a girlfriend. I knew at one point he’d messed around with some girl, but I didn’t know it was still goin’ on. Well, it rained, and he didn’t come home. Pattie Sue came by and picked me up. We had to be at work at 7 o’clock. Pattie Sue was pregnant with Kyle. Well, when we drove by, there was his truck at the motel. I’d bought him an old ’65 Ford. There was his truck and there was this girl’s car at the motel. This girl drove one of those old cars that they didn’t have out very long. Yoo-hoo? Yehoo? Ugly little car. Wasn’t hard to spot. Here’s Pattie, not knowin’ a damn thing. I said ‘There’s Timmy’s truck.’ She said ‘Want me to stop?’ ‘Yeah...’ Pattie didn’t know anything about him runnin’ around with this girl ‘cause I’d never said a word to her about it. You were embarrassed about it, you know? I went to the office and I asked the woman what room he was in. ‘I can’t tell you that,’ is what she said to me. ‘Well, fine,’ I said...She didn’t know who I was...So I went out there, and the one he was parked in front of, I turned the door knob and it had a chain lock. Well, you could see him and her in the bed. I just put my shoulder to it. I mean, the door was rotten, it wasn’t that I was that strong. Well, when I pushed the door open, she jumps up. And when she did, I picked that gun up off the night stand and whopped her upside the head with it. Pattie Sue came in there, and I’ll never forget this as long as I live, she took the gun away from me. And here she’s eight months pregnant. I’m amazed somebody didn’t get hurt. I mean, it’s a wonder Johnny didn’t kill me for havin’ her in that situation to begin with. But Pattie takes the gun away from me and she looks at the girl and yells ‘You need to put some clothes on!’ Pattie Sue was shocked, she didn’t have a clue. Well, Pattie Sue said ‘I have to get to work, what are you gonna do?’ So I called my mama. She about has a cow. Well the cop gets there. The man comes out from the office and says ‘Why didn’t you just tell me? I’d have unlocked the door for you.’ I said ‘I did, your wife wouldn’t tell me which room they were in.’ He says ‘Well, somebody’s gotta pay for this door.’ I said ‘You can take me to jail, because I damn sure ain’t payin’ for it.’..I was pissed! By the time my mama got there, my mama tried to pay for it. Hell, Pattie Sue would’ve wrote a check. She didn’t care, she was just thinkin’ ‘get me the hell out of here!’ I had called my mama because I thought they were gonna haul me to jail. ‘course I wouldn’t have stayed in jail. Arthur Pinner would’ve seen to that. I knew he’d had my back. Nobody would’ve even heard about me goin’ to jail, because he’d have had me out. It had always been a joke ‘If you ever get in trouble call me.’ Yeah, like I was ever gonna get in trouble. Mama gets there and she’s just in shock. Timmy takes the office manager over and tells him that he’s gonna take care of the door. And he did. When I’d go pick him up from work, he’d go pay a little towards the door every paycheck. The damn door was rotten anyhow. I mean, believe me, I wasn’t that strong. By the time that Pattie Sue had gotten to Georgia Pacific and told them that lil ol’ Debbie had took the door off the motel, they all had a lot of respect for me! I was bad to the bone!”
“I didn’t date a lot. I was independent. I didn’t have to have a man. I was single seven years before I married David.”
“We went and rode that revolvin’ bar. I think Pattie Sue had to go over there and get clothes or somethin’. And I had a dog. And I needed to get home to the dog. But we’d never rode a revolvin’ bar, so we went into the ABC. Broad, open daylight to ride this revolvin’ bar. Well, Pattie Sue got to talkin’ to some guy. They were nice, he and his brother. They wanted us to go to their house. She wanted to go to these guys house. Their mama was gonna go and get some finger foods and have them there when we got there. They kept on and on, and I was thinkin’, if I can get her to the car, we’re outta here! Well, I went out there and my keys was locked in the car. That poor little Dodge Colt, that thing went through a lot. And this preacher walks out. I usta could tell you his name. Well, he walks out and I said ‘hey, don’t leave, we may need a ride to Chiefland.’ The other guy was from Chiefland, but I didn’t know him real good. He said ‘What?’ He was tryin’ to act like he didn’t know us. I said ‘Don’t act like you don’t know who we are!’ I said ‘we know who you are and we may need a ride home!’ I think the bartender came out and popped the back, and got my keys out. Well, I’m thinkin’ I’m gonna get Pattie Sue in this car and I’m gonna kill her! The guy jumps in my car beside Pattie Sue in this little Dodge Colt. I’m about to have a shit fit! I just kept thinkin’ ‘We’re gonna get raped and murdered...we’re gonna get raped and murdered! Oh my God, this is it!’ Well, we got to the man’s house. And there was his mama...and I was happy to see the woman... ‘cause I just knowed....with human traffickin’ like it is today....me and Pattie Sue woulda been gone. I was scared shitless. We sit down, and we couldn’t not eat, because the woman had bought the stuff. Later, I finally convinced ‘em, that I had to go home and see about my dog and change clothes. Well, they were wantin’ to take me to the mall and get me some new clothes. I said ‘Oh no, I’ve gotta go see about my dog.’ I finally convinced Pattie Sue to go. We got in that car, and I was cussin’ her up a storm. We started out, and before you get to that big hill on 39th, Pattie Sue started sayin’ ‘I gotta pee. I gotta pee.’ Well, when Pattie Sue says ‘pee’ you gotta stop. So I stopped. I’m still foamin’ at the mouth, I’m so mad. She gets out, and all a’sudden I hear a noise, and I turn around and all I see is pink underwear...rollin’ down the hill. So, I had to get out and help her. Later, we wound up at the Bear’s Den, and I’d let Pattie Sue walk in there with tags hangin’ off her new clothes. Well, about twenty minutes after we got there, someone comes up and tells her. She turns around and slaps me and says ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ I said ‘Because you drug me to some guy’s mama’s house and we coulda been murdered or killed!!’ Needless to say, I never wanted to go to an ABC again.”
“Thank God we never ended up in jail...”
“I remember one night, a man shot a gun in the bar....I was about ready to make a new door.”
“I remember one night, we didn’t go to the Bear’s Den. They called us, wonderin’ where we was at. It was funny. We always went up there, but we always told them we were goin’ to church the next mornin’. And it didn’t matter if we stayed up ‘til 5 or 6 in the morning, we got up the next mornin’ and went to church.”
“I miss Possum at holidays. He could cook, but he’d also wash dishes as he went. There were no dirty dishes when he was through. I’ve tried it, it don’t work with me.”
What is the craziest thing you ever did?
“The craziest thing I ever done?...Well, I’ve dang sure done some of ‘em...Man, that would be hard....Well, the night that one of my boyfriend’s beat me up, he got out of the truck to pee, and i put the truck in gear, ‘cause I couldn’t scoot over, and I mashed the gas. It coulda killed me and Jaimee both. I mashed that gas, and I got down the road so that I could stop and get over and drive that truck outta there. But I shoulda never been in that situation. That’s one thing I can say, ‘specially with my youngin’. But you do all kinds of stupid stuff.”
A sweet picture taken of Debbie and Jaimee on Debbie's wedding day.
