Recollections: The Graceville I knew... and the Wall/Clark house

The old house that I grew up in is removed from its long resting place.

It now sits on a site where it can show it’s dignity and grace.

The old house that I grew up in has many fond memories.

It is no longer on the corner it stood for many years under the trees.

The old house I grew up in was full of warmth and love.

In the summer we had the breeze and in the winter the warmth of the kitchen stove.

On cold nights we would sit in front of the roaring fireplace.

On the mantel stood an old clock and when it struck nine, off to bed we would race.

I was a lucky boy to grow up in that old house on the corner of Dekel and Eighth.

I remember the cakes that were so deliciously baked, we could hardly wait.

I was lucky also because I had two mothers to raise me to be a man. Mama (my Grandmother) and Mother, for me they had a plan.

The old house I grew up in was home to so many of my kin.

The good times are so many, the telling you don’t know where to begin.

From around the holidays our best memories do come.

Thanksgiving and Christmas were a special time to be at our home.

Now if I could just tell you of the love I have for the old house I grew up in.

These lines and all the verses ever written would be just a place to begin.

This may not be the spot where it used to be,

But I am glad that it is here, for Olan and Alice Clark’s memory.

By Bill Clark 03/18/2002

Olan Clark lived in the house from the early 1930’s until his death on Veteran’s Day Nov. 11, 1989. He and his loving wife Alice, were married for sixty years and spent most of their married life in this house. It was an inheritance from her Mother Sarah Alice Armour Wall. Our Grandfather, George Washington Wall bought the house around 1920. Records are not complete, but it is believed that the house was built in the early 1900’s possibly as early as 1904. Olan loved God, his family, his church, and his town. He was an enthusiastic member and supporter of the American Legion.