“Dem Your Time”
Lillie Belle Hines Smith was my great-grandmamma on my mom's side of the family. She was from Stump Sound in the Holly Ridge area and migrated to Middle Sound in the Ogden community. I remember her as being a very quiet woman. That may have been because she was hard of hearing, which may have resulted partly from what she did in the 1940s.
It was 1943, when Ma (Sylvia Watters Sanderlin) was 4. Grandmamma would take her out on the boat just off of Figure Eight Island to pick up brass shell casings left from where the Army performed target practice. The Army had set shacks up on the island for personnel to stay and practice shooting empty shells. Grandmamma would pick them up and sell them to buy staples. Ma said that Grandmamma would hold her boat paddle up and could almost touch the plane as it flew over.
When she held her paddle up she would say, "Dem your time! You're not going to run me off." Ma said that was the worst word she ever heard Grandmamma say.
Many years later, my father (G.V. Sanderlin) would take us camping on Figure Eight Island. There were no houses then, boat access only. My sisters and I would pick up brass shell casings along the beach. Ma said that they were probably some of the same casings that were used in target practice when she was a child.
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