Life and Times of Carl E. Franklin

By Carl E Franklin

This is a true story about me, Carl E. Franklin; a young Black man that grew up in a small southern Texas town. In my autobiography or memoir as some would put it. Here I talk about how I and my family grew up being poor. I will tell you about my experiences with my family as we moved from place to place as migrant workers. I talk about the hard

• Language: English
• Publisher: LitFire Publishing
• Release date: Apr 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9781635242065

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Life and Times of Carl E. Franklin

Copyright © 2021 by Carl E. Franklin

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Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within.

ISBN-ePub: 978-1-63524-206-5

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Downtown Goliad,Texas

Carl E. Franklin

I was born July 12, 1953 in Goliad, Texas, from the union of Walter Franklin and Elizabeth Williams. My dad passed away in 1977. My mom is still living and resides in Victoria, Texas. My mom is now eighty-four years old, soon to be eighty-five. My dad was a ranch laborer. As a working union, they were in a way, migrant workers, in which I will explain later. He took care of a ranch that we lived on, and worked for a man named Mr. Albright (first name I do not remember). It has been over 55 years and I was only about three years old. I am trying to remember the best that I can. Oh, now I remember, it was Mr. Edgar Albright! Mr. Edgar Albright owned a lot of land with horses and cattle. He had a lot of farmland also. I so clearly remember my dad burning brush and clearing the land. I recall him letting me ride on the tractor every now and then as he plowed and disced the land. As the brush burned in the crackling red flames, often rattlesnakes would disperse from it, trying to escape a fatal fate. I don’t know why, but it seemed like they were quite abundant during those days.

My Dad Walter Buck Franklin

My dad would milk the cows; he tried to show me a couple of times. I was the youngest of six at the time. My siblings at the time in order by age: Carolyn Gene Franklin, Steve Jeffery Franklin, Walter Stanley Franklin, Margaret Rose Franklin, William Howard Franklin, and me Carl Eugene Franklin. Later came six more, Kerry Donavon Franklin, Dwain Franklin, Michael Cornell Franklin, Marvin Donnell Franklin, Gerald Lee Franklin, and the youngest John Alvin Franklin. My oldest brother Steve passed awhile back from uncontrolled diabetes. We all miss him a lot. My mom, Elizabeth was a housewife, and now a retired housewife, since we are all grown with children of our own. My mom was always there with us and for us. Her children came first. She saw to it that we were taken care of. One thing that I love about my mom is that there were no favorites, she treated all of us the same. (* Show picture of my mom and dad) My mom loved all of us the same. If we did something wrong, yes, we had to go and get that piece of branch! We would always try her and bring back a small switch, but that did not work! She would make you go back and get a bigger one. Eight of us were birthed by midwives. By the grace of God, we all came out just fine! I am trying to go back as far as I can. I remember the ranch house that we stayed on was a pretty big house. I was about three years old. I remember the summer days of playing in the country. It was like not having a worry in the world. It was nice having not to worry about somebody watching some little girl or boy getting kidnapped, murdered, or raped. We stayed off of the main road called Franklin Street named after my late uncle Willie Franklin Sr. He was my dad’s brother, whom married my mom’s sister- Aunt Bessie. This was a very long and winding road that stretched form inside of town to the country. It would cross the railroad tracks and the main highway fifty-nine and Goliad highway. We stayed about a quarter of a mile off of Franklin road. My mom’s other sister, Aunt Othe Bess and her husband Uncle Sonny Bess stayed up the road from us. They raised my oldest sister, Carolyn. I don’t think Aunt Othe could have any kids, so my mom let Carolyn stay with them. They were great people! At this time, I guess it was about 1957. Uncle Sonny and Aunt Othe had a black and white television and on Fridays we would go down and visit our sister Carolyn and watch the Friday night scary movie Project Terror. It was fun watching the movie, but when it came time to go, we had to walk back down that long dark road back to the house. It would be me, the youngest, William Margaret, Stanley, and Steve (Bubba). They would all scare the hell out of me! I don’t know why I fell for the same trick over and over again, but I did. We would all start off walking together and they would all be talking amongst each other. I am thinking in my mind that they are not going to run off and leave me again, but sure enough it never failed. They would all take off running and would be scared and running for my life to catch up with them and crying my but off! They would stop and let me catch up and they would all be laughing, especially my sister Margaret. She was the instigator. I look back at it now and I have to laugh myself. It was good clean family fun. I would not trade it for nothing in the world. My mom would be at the house waiting on us to make sure that we made it home safely.

I remember my first movie that my mom took me to see was King Kong, and I think it was in 1957. Man, what