With both Robert and Patsy working two jobs, to accomplish a decent lifestyle for them and their two children, they often managed to get Saturdays off at the same time. Robert and Patsy came from large families and were born to Sharecroppers.
Robert’s father had died when he was only 16 years old leaving behind his disabled wife with three children still living at home. Robert was the oldest of these three. They had two sisters who were married and living with their husbands. There were two older brothers who had also left home when they married.
Patsy’s parents were both still alive when they decided to get married. They both had grown up knowing that hard work and determination was the key to their success. But as all newlyweds have discovered they had no credit and no savings. They made many mistakes along the way and finally managed to have a small savings set aside for the purchase of a new home. Realizing that it still wasn’t enough to buy the perfect house for them, a few decisions needed to be made. With the closeness of their two families a solution was provided. His brother-in-laws had construction experience as well as her father. There was one brother-in-law that was a plumber, one that framed houses, there was a roofer and those that were jack of all trades in construction work. Being Saturdays were the only day off the couple had together it was decided then. They would purchase the land and build their own home on Saturday when they were available.
Saturday was an exciting day every week. The women would steal the sawhorses and plywood boards around 10:30 am, cover them with white sheets, paper plates, Styrofoam cups, and plastic forks were set out. Ice chest filled with ice, soft drinks, jugs of tea, milk for the babies and jugs of water. Loaves of light bread, home grown tomatoes, onions, peppers and cucumbers, condiments, cold cuts, cold fried chicken, potato salad and any leftovers from the kitchens of these Southern Women were brought to the make shift tables.
With all the Saws, hammers and other building machines turned off, you could hear the laughter of the family coming together even though they were scattered out to sit on tailgates, car hoods, stacks of boards and bricks. Everyone was swatting the flies and gnats away and hearing Robert joking with them about the flying black pepper on the food.
The house this huge group of family and friends became known as The Saturday House, because it was built on Saturdays.
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