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13 Children Rush One Bathroom

By MOSES ROUNTREE

     "Did you ever try to raise a family of 13 children, with only one bathroom?"

     That is the tentative opening sentence of a contemplated book by Mrs. John B. Ellis of Goldsboro -- a book that Mrs. Ellis has long dreamed of writing and calling "Knee-Deep In Children."  For spice and variety it should, she thinks, easily top "Cheaper By The Dozen," which she nevertheless enjoyed reading.

     Besides the title, Mrs. Ellis has thought of a sentence to follow the opening one suggested by her son Jimmy, the literary member of the family: "If you haven't, you don't know what you've missed."  That, to date, represents the progress on her project.

Perhaps with Stevie, the last of her children, now started in school. Mrs. Ellis will find time to do some writing -- though the prospects, she admits, are rather slim.  There're still six of the children at home, and cooking their breakfast and getting them off to school in the morning is just the start of her day's round with them.  At twelve they begin trooping home for lunch, which is served over a two-hour period.

     Lunch is really the main Ellis meal of the day, and consists of a well planned hot meal -- "wholesome and simple foods," Mrs. Ellis says.  At night her family gets mostly cold sandwiches or a snack.

     The Ellis' used to buy a whole quarter of beef and store it in their refrigerator, but now, with beer so high, the family is fed chicken and pork-sausage, especially

being a favorite with them.

     As a commentary on what it formerly took to feed her family, Mrs. Ellis recalls what a chain-store clerk said to one of her boys detailed to buy groceries.

     "Must be buying up for a week, aren't you sonny," the clerk remarked.

     "No, sir, just for supper," was the lad's response.

Mostly Boys

     The Ellis children consist of 11 boys and two girls.  Mr. Ellis, a native of the Fremont section, is an agent for an insurance company in Goldsboro.  Mrs. Ellis, the former Virginia Earp, is the daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Earp of Goldsboro.  Mr. Earp was for 30 years superintendent of Willow Dale cemetery here.

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Most people have trouble keeping up with just a few birth-dates, but Mrs. Ellis can rattle off the day, and hour, that each of her offspring came into the world.

     One arrival, in particular, that stands out in her memory, was that of Jerry, her 10th born.  He came just at dinner time Christmas day, 1939,"  she recalls.  "It was the only time I ever had to do without my turkey on account of them."

     Another arrival that upset the Ellis household was that of Carolyn, the first girl, on March 11, 1937.  Eight boys had preceded her, and they were all rooting for a ninth, so they would have a baseball team.  "They were all greatly disappointed -- including their father,"  Mrs. Ellis says.

     The boys made the best of a bad bargain by teaching Carolyn how to play

ball, and having her fill out the team until Jerry, their next brother, arrived.

     Now, with more maidenly things to think about, Carolyn has been taking piano lessons for four years, and hopes to be a music teacher.  She is also an active Scout, and boasts two curved bars, the highest award in Girl Scouting.

     Dottie, 9, the second of the Ellis girls, is a husky little extrovert that "never knew a stranger," her mother says.  She is a brownie and holds a campership certificate in swimming.  "I named her Dottie, because that is just what her round little face suggested -- a dot, " Mrs. Ellis says.  "I told John we'd have to make it 'Dorothy,' for the records, but 'Dot' was what she'd always be."

Likes Short Names

Understandably, Mrs. Ellis has leaned towards short names for her offspring, but, from a sense of duty, decided to name her second-born with "Edward Barnes," the names of its two grandfathers.  Little Edward Barnes soon became known as "Skinny," however, and that is the only way he has since been recognized.

     Following the experience with Edward Barnes, Mrs. Ellis gave her next five sons more acceptable titles -- Billy, Bobby, Charles, Tommy, and Jimmy.  Waxing high-hat again, she named her eighth son Richard Bryan, but he quickly became know as "Bud," so, for her remaining three boys, Mrs. Ellis chose "Jerry," "Larry," and "Stevie."  Like most of their brothers, they were named for no one in particular,

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Mrs. Ellis says, the names just popped into her mind.

     To date the Ellis children have put in, collectively, 108 school years, with 30 of those years showing perfect attendance.  Seven have graduated from high school, and Bud, the eighth child, is currently a junior.

     Incidentally, Bud, who plays varsity football, is the only one of the children to have "disgraced" the family by breaking a bone.  He suffered a broken ankle in football practice.

     Billy, is the only other Ellis boy to have made high school teams -- he was on both baseball and football varsity teams, winning All-State honorable mention on the latter -- but all were mainstays on midget and Boy's Club

teams.  Currently Larry and Jerry are playing "little" football -- Jerry, Mrs. Ellis says, being the "craziest" of all her sons about athletics.

     To keep themselves in spending money, the Ellis boys have all had newspaper routes -- both morning and afternoon.  This summer Bud got in the big money, helping operate the concession stand at the ball park.

Jimmy, the "Lucky Seventh"

     Perhaps the smartest money-maker of the lot, for his years, has been Jimmy -- "the seventh son of a seventh child," and therefore born to be lucky, according to Dr. G. C. Dale, who brought most of the Ellis children into the world.

     Jimmy gave truth to the adage, right off, by winning a flock of prizes for being the

first child born in Wayne county in 1933.  He made his appearance during the closing minutes of January 1.

     The "gentleman" of the family, Jimmy went on with his winning ways, surviving two attacks of pneumonia and passing his school work with a minimum of effort.  In high school, where he was president of the student body during his senior year, and also voted the "most representative" member of his class, his luck really began to pay off.  As manager of all the varsity athletic teams, he was close to sports events, and found a profitable source of revenue reporting them for state papers and Associated Press.

     At graduation, Jimmy climaxed his lucky streak by winning the $500 Borden Scholarship and also his tuition at Duke by

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reason of being runner-up in the Angier Duke Scholarship contest.

     Jimmy attended Duke in 1950-51, but this fall switched to East Carolina college, partly through the persuasion of Jim Butler of Goldsboro, the new alumni director.  Already he has become a sports writer for the college, in addition to landing a part-time job in the sports department of the Greenville Daily Reflector.  This summer Jimmy was on the staff of the Goldsboro News-Argus.  Apparently he is well on his way to becoming a newspaper man.

All The Boys Doing Well

With the exception of John B., Jr., the oldest son, who got a year at Morehead State College, Kentucky, via the Navy,  Jimmy is the only one of the Ellis boys

 to have a chance of a college education, all but one of the older ones going into service.

    The six are all making good, however, John, 27, is Electrician's Mate, first class, U.S. Navy, and recently passed the examination for Chief Mate.  On the Carrier Valley Forge when it made its 'round-the-world' cruise, he has been in the Navy nine years and intends to follow it as a career.

     Skinny, 25, who served as Pharmacist's Mate, second class, in the Navy during World War Two was recalled to active duty last July and is stationed in Norfolk.

     Billy, 24, served 15 months in the Marine Corps, following graduation from high school.  Now a radar air technician,

  second class, with the Coast Guard.  He is stationed in California.

     Bobby, 23, was turned down by Army and Navy because of an eye defect, but has manage to get into the National Guard.  He lives in Goldsboro, and like his father, is in the insurance business.

     Charles, 22, has been in the Navy three years, and is now Electrician's Mate, third class.  Attached to the Carrier Bon Homme Richard in Korean waters, he recently sent his mother a silk painting that he picked up in Tokyo.  Mrs. Ellis calls him the "artistic" member of the family, since he always liked to draw and paint.

     Tommy, almost 21, has also been in the Navy 3 years, and helps recondition ships in Orange, Texas.  He, too, is an electrician's mate.

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     The four oldest sons are married and have five boys between them -- no girls.  Just whey the Ellis's seem to run to boys,  Mrs. Ellis can't figure.  In her own family there were five girls and two boys, and in her husband's, four girls and three boys.

Mass Mischief

     All mothers treasure innocent pranks, and other memories of their offspring, but foe Mrs. Ellis, the problem is to pick one of the outstanding ones.

There was the time, for instance, when John Jr., filled up the gas tank of his father's car with water.  Mr. Ellis had the tank drained and cleaned, but his car never was any good after that, and he had to trade it in for another one.

     On another occasion the Ellis'

returned home to find the fins and tails of a dozen or more goldfish a neighbor, George S. Dewey, had given the children, cut off with a tin snipper.  Although the evidence strongly pointed to Bobby, the latter still protests his innocence.

     A similar operation was performed by Charles, who manicured the nails of his father's bird-dog.

     Then there was the morning that the Ellis' were awakened at 4 a.m. by a screeching noise outside in the backyard.  It developed that Billy and Bobby were sawing off a board to replace a bed-slat they had broken in jumping from a chest of drawers to the bed.

     Jimmy, the gentleman, was involved in one scare for his parents.  They had taken their brood out in the country, to cut down

a Christmas tree, when Jimmy was suddenly missed.  Mr. Ellis turned his car around so suddenly that the man behind him ran into a ditch, but controlled his wrath when informed of the parents' fears.  Actually their fears were groundless, Jimmy having just been overlooked when they set out, and being found safe at home, though frightened because he had seen a mouse.

     Except for four cases of pneumonia, the Ellis children never had any serious illnesses, though they did have the usual run of children's diseases -- seven of them going down at one time once with the measles.  It was in the middle of the winter and Mrs. Ellis put them all in one room -- the house has four bedrooms -- where they would be warm, and not so much

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trouble to look after.  Even so, it took Mrs. Ellis' and a maid's full time, running from one child to another with the bed-pan -- all of them being very nauseated.

     Nine years ago there was another mass siege, with eleven of the children -- and Mrs. Ellis -- going to bed with the mumps.  Four of the children who had escaped before, also had the measles.

     Mrs. Ellis has to chuckle, remember that occasion.  Skinny, a junior in high school at the time, was the last to succumb.  He came home from decorating the school for the Junior-Senior banquet, a little worried.  "Look, mother, at my face," he said.  "Do you see anything wrong?"

     "There he was, all swollen up with the mumps,"  Mrs. Ellis recalls.  "I had to

laugh, but was really sorry for him -- he wanted to go to that banquet so badly."

Eight Little Heads

     Like most other children, the Ellis brood were taken to the seashore for vacation, but if it was for over a day, their parents chose a quiet spot, like Core Point, on the Pamlico River.  Another place they used to go was Hurst Beach, in Onslow County, now a part of Camp Lejeune.

     "I used to keep a watch on them, playing out there in the water," Mrs. Ellis recalls, "and as long as I saw eight little heads bobbing up and down, I knew they were safe."

     For all her large family, Mrs. Ellis is only 46, and apparently none the worse-for-wear, because of her experience.  "I

guess it was my sense of humor that pulled me through," the mother of thirteen says.  "That, and my natural love for children."

     Despite her busy schedule, Mrs. Ellis has found time to attend parent-teacher meetings for the past 20 years, and also to take an active part in the affairs of Elm Street Methodist church, of which her parents were charter members.  She has been pianist at the church sine she was 12, and of late has turned reporter for the Wayne County Sub-District Young Adult Fellowship.

  If Mrs. Ellis doesn't get around to writing her book, she will at least be kept busy preparing lunches for another 12 years -- possibly longer, if Stevie has his way.  enamoured of his first teacher, Stevie has

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announced his intention of going back in the first grade, when he finishes Walnut Street school.

     This, in a way, would please Mrs. Ellis, who lives just across from the school playground.

     "I guess it will be a little sad, looking over there and not seeing at least one Ellis face," she says.  ■

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