Jay Emerson Smith

By Velma M. Rose Smith (late 1940’s)

When I discovered I was pregnant for the 3rd time, I said, “I hope I have a brown eyed, black haired boy”. On a Sunday morning at 6:00 AM., June 26, 1927, that boy made his appearance, with only Mama Rose to welcome him, in Uncle Jay’s house on Rt 6. We hadn’t decided on a name, but Mama Rose liked Emerson and we thought of Jay, so J. Emerson, he was named, but after he was in school, he decided on Jay, it was shorter to write. We moved to Montoursville when he was 5 months old. The floors were so cold, I kept him in his iron bed, so he was older learning to walk. We moved to Burr Dewey’s little house, and he became sick, couldn’t eat or drink anything with milk in it, or couldn’t have any juices, even couldn’t eat peaches, so he had to live on vegetables, and he hated carrots. He nearly died with pneumonia that winter, a blizzard kept the doctor from coming, but I followed Aunt Em Rice’s instructions, and brought him through. Then we moved to Niles Lumber Camp, where I caught my heel on the upper step and fell down the stairs, throwing Jay to the living room floor. From there we moved to Blossburg. All of us, but Arnold had the mumps, when Eileen was born. Jay came down one morning with his neck and face swollen terrible, said “I guess I got the bumps now”. When he was 5 we all had scarlet fever, but Arnold, Jay didn’t break out into a rash, but it left him with bad ear infections, they broke so many times, he became deaf. We doctored with Dr. White in Wellsboro, went every week. He had ear trouble for years. He missed over half of school days one year.

He loved Eileen when she was born, said “Aw, ain’t she nice” at his first glimpse of the new baby. He felt sorry for Brownie, our dog, because he couldn’t always go with us, one time he said, don’t feel bad, I’ll bring you back a crust of bread. Two boys, both named Jay Smith, with a different middle name, were killed by being struck by a truck while we lived in Blossburg. He had a little girl playmate, who declared she was going to marry him, Sissy Strong, later became Iris Berguson. He surprised us by speaking a piece, when he was 4, in the Methodist Church at the Christmas Program, in Blossburg.

After we moved here, he liked to sell things, had a paper route, sold Cloverine salve, and he and Eileen ground horse radish and sold it in jars. They made name pins with macaroni. He drove tractor when he was 8 or 9, and once went to sleep and dragged in the meadow.

He brought me the first strawberries, all cleaned and hulled when Jeannette was born, he was 10 years old. He went black long berrying and picked berries enough so Wanda made jam and canned some, while I was in bed. He raised potatoes and bought his first bike, with all the gadgets, from Sears. He kept it winters in his bedroom or the dining room. By 16 he had a motorcycle, and he bought a Studebaker car, which he left for us, when he went in the Service. We all became attached to that car, had some happy times.

Jay had a lot of fun, in school. Aside from fun, Dr. L. D. Warren told me Jay had the highest IQ in his class.