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Texas
| World
War II Chronicles Memories
of an Ordinary, Extraordinary Life
A serialization of the writings of George
Olsson Short
(1920-2003)
Chapter One
My Father ZolaBaseball,
Love and a Love of Baseball |
| My
dad Zola Oliver Short (1892-1947) was a baseball man. After playing for several
minor teams, he was the catcher for the Kansas City major league ball club when
he was hired to catch for Armour and Company in Fort
Worth, Texas. Located in the famed Fort Worth Stock Yards, Armour was the
largest meat packing company in the world at the time. The company had its own
baseball team. The league in Fort
Worth was composed mainly of meat packer teams and was actually more locally
popular than the majors and drew larger crowds. So Zola moved to Fort
Worth. It was there he met and fell in love with my mother, Artie Missie George
. Her parents, Jesse Madison George and Florence Belle Robertson George, however,
were not baseball fans and their daughter “was not going to marry a baseball man.”
So baseball became part-time for Zola and Armour became full-time …and he married
Artie. She was 21 and Zola was 26. |
| Zola
and The "Armour Hams" |
| Zola
with the Cleburne team (front, third from right ) |
| Zola
with the Marshall team (back, second from left) |
| I was born in Fort
Worth on May 8, 1920. My brother Bill was born in 1923 and our mother died
two years later in 1925 of tuberculosis. She was only 27. I was told she became
sick before I was born. My only memory of her is in bed. Rachel, a former George
family slave, had moved her own family with the Georges from Indiana as free citizens.
It was Rachel and her daughter, along with my mother’s family that took care of
Bill and me. In fact, it was Rachel’s daughter who breast fed both of us because
our mother was so ill. |
| Artie
Missie George Short
1897-1925 |
After mother died,
Zola was transferred to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He took Bill and me with him and Rachel
went along to take care of us. We were 4 and 2. It was Rachel who took me to school
in Tulsa and enrolled me in kindergarten. A few days later, I heard some men angrily
telling my dad that no blacks were allowed to live in our section of town. Those
men beat my dad so badly he was hospitalized. The next thing I remember is my
Aunt Goldie, Artie’s older sister, and her cousin Mabel Stuart driving up to our
house in a brand new car and taking Bill, Rachel and me back to Fort
Worth. (Mabel’s husband was Troy “Buck” Stuart, the World Champion Trick Roper
at the time.)
It took us four days to make the five hundred mile drive
and when we drove up to Grandpa’s house, he and my father were standing on the
front porch waiting for us. Dad had gotten out of the hospital and taken the train,
which only took one day. That night, I sneaked down the steps and heard Grandpa
tell my dad he could either marry Goldie or he’d have to kiss his two boys good-bye.
Goldie and her family, along with Rachel, had been taking care of us pretty much
all our lives because of Artie’s health. Goldie said in later years that she had
always been in love with Zola. |
| | (Top)
Goldie Alphy George Short 1895-1981
(L) 1930 with Piggly Wiggly founder
Clarance Saunder’s team |
| On
the Piggly Wiggly team |
| He
was umpiring, which he was well known for. |
| 1934,
Zola in the Armour cooler (second from right) |
| Armour
and Company, mid 1930s (Zola at center back) |
| Jesse
and Belle in front of the rock house with George |
| Left
to right: George, Rachel’s grandson L.V., Bill and Bob (in wagon) |
| Zola
passing on his love of baseball to his sons |
Goldie
and Dad got married and he went back to work for Armour in Fort
Worth. He still played baseball but had been taught the beef business in the
off seasons. After their marriage, he was transferred from Fort
Worth to Dallas in 1926 when the
league was shut down and he became a full-time beef peddler. It was in Dallas
that I grew up.
Zola died in 1947, Goldie in 1981. My brother Bill died
in 1996. Our sister Betty, born in 1928 died in 2001.
Chapter
Two > Click Here ©
Dianne West Short
World
War II Chronicles
June 1, 2012 Guest
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