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I am not related to any of the Johnson family. However, I do remember some details about them. Arnold Johnson, son of Major Johnson (I never heard Major's first Christian name) owned a grocery store in Canadian, TX. and I started working in that store when I was about 12 years old--sacking groceries. That was 1955. At that time, Major Johnson and his wife, Mabel, were divorced, and Mabel and son, Arnold, lived together in Canadian. Mabel worked in the grocery store on Saturdays, arriving to work shortly before the noon hour to help "cover" lunches. She was an avid talker who usually only paused for a breathe as she said "and-uh" and then continued on. Mabel's responsibility was to run the cash register, and as people in a small town do, there would be a small "run" just before lunch. In the course of checking someone out, Mabel would begin talking and stop all work, just continuing to talk with that person no matter how long the line was of people waiting to be checked out. Subsequently, at a very young age I learned to operate the cash register and would step in and check out people so they could get out of the grocery store and home to their lunch. Occasionally, Major Johnson would stop by the store--I think he didn't drive, so he was dependent on someone else for a ride since he lived in the Oklahoma panhandle (approximately 30 miles out) at the time. Mabel was always glad to see him and they would get into long conversations. I heard stories from more than one person in Canadian--and also some details of things that happened between Major and Mabel when they were married and ran a country store, with lunch counter, in the Gem area of Hemphill County. The stories I heard were about the terrific fights between the two of them. Mabel once told me that she had a really beautiful set of dishes that were a wedding present. Major hung some shelves to place the dishes on; eventually one of the shelves fell and broke what was on it. She said it made her so angry that she just pulled all the dishes off the other shelves and broke them, too--saying, "If you want to break dishes, we'll break dishes." Other Gem and Canadian residents told stories of her throwing dishes across the store trying to hit Major when they were having a fight. One individual told me "...it was not safe to shop there when they were fighting..."
Major and Mabel had three sons, Arnold being one, another living in South Dakota, and the third might have lived in the Amarillo area. I heard of some contact with the one in South Dakota, but never knew of any with the one in Amarillo.
With the passage of time, Mabel stopped working in the store and by 1958 or 59 never came around much. Ronnie Webb, a descendant of Mabel's sister, Genevieve Webb, probably still lives in the Canadian area. I was unaware of the death of Major Johnson. I also never knew of his brothers. Arnold Johnson, who was divorced (with no children, I think, at the time I knew him) later married a woman named Maxine Cockrell Wilson. I believe both of them are dead, but do not know who died first. Maxine had a daughter named Gail Wilson who might still live in the Amarillo area. Please contact me if there is any way I can assist you...
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