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Describe your Sundays as a mother/father or as a child
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
When our kids were growing up, we lived in Florida a couple of different times, having moved there for jobs.
While living there we would go to the beach every Sunday.
Sunday mornings were spent loading up the car with the necessities for a day at the beach:
Towels, chairs, suntan lotion, books to read, camera, flip flops, Sunday newspaper, snorkel, flippers, mask, PBJ sandwiches, pretzels, cold drinks, cooler.
The day was spent soaking up the sun, napping to the sound of the waves, watching the boats go by, the planes with their ads, kites flying overhead. After a day at the beach we would be covered in sand and salt and pina-colada-smelling suntan lotion, then we would load the car up once again and head back home.
On the way home we would always stop by and get a pizza to go, take it home and watch that new cartoon show on Sunday nights – the Simpsons.
Florida was a nice place to visit, but we never really called it home, and always just acted like tourists or at least short-timers, as we knew our home in the mountains was waiting on us whenever dad would finish up the job he was on.
how did you like being the oldest, youngest, or middle child? what were the advantages or disadvantages?
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
I was the youngest, the baby of the family, the only girl, so – well duh I liked it just fine! It is true, everything you hear about the baby…
It was actually like being an only child most of the time, as my brothers were both much older. And being like an only child is OK too!
tell about anniversaries, celebrations, trips, gifts…
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
was I really there?
did it really happen?
why don’t I remember?
so the story goes…
we were in Europe for 2 years
the tender age of 5
kindergarten on the army base
school pictures to prove it
the memories I have
look suspiciously
like the flickering images
from the home movies we took
with the vintage clicking sound
in the background
made by the projector…
smile at the camera!
was that really me?
that little blonde girl
standing at the
leaning tower of Pisa
or in the endless
fields of tulips in Holland
with the windmills
in the background
was I really at the
Octoberfest in Germany
or camping in the Alps?
did I really see all those
cathedrals and castles?
was I really there?
did it really happen?
why don’t I remember?
did you have a close relationship with your grandparents – tell about it…
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
I was never close to my grandparents as a young child, as we always lived far away, until my grandmother moved next door to us in Georgia in her older years.
She was very independent and drove a baby blue Oldsmobile. She decided to drive to Missouri to my cousin’s wedding.
I went along to help her drive – I wonder now if that was orchestrated by my mom so my grandmother would not be alone on the long trip.
Whatever the reason, it was a great road trip. We stayed in motels and ate at restaurants – something my parents and I never did.
I got to see all the distant relatives and spend some time with my grandmother.
Tell about home cures or old wives tales, hiccups, toothaches, earaches, arthritis.
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
I remember my brother taking sulfur and molasses to prevent chiggers from biting him, it seems the sulfur smell comes out of your pores and smells bad so the chiggers won’t bite…
holding an aspirin on a toothache until it melts
putting butter on burns
Coke for hiccups (after holding my breath didn’t work)
gargle with warm salt water for a sore throat
Clorox on a wasp sting
starve a fever, feed a cold – or was it the other way around?
Of course the most effective cures came from my mom:
a stern look would stop you in your tracks
a swat on the backside would send you to your room
a hickory switch cured a whole lot of things – smart mouth, arguing, fighting with your brother…
were you responsible for household chores? what were they? which did you enjoy most/least?
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
the baby of the family – what chores?
I sort of remember loading the dishwasher occasionally.
I would attempt to straighten up the living room if I had a date…
Though this was a good situation at the time, unfortunately I never learned to wash clothes, cook, or clean house before leaving home.
Describe getting a Christmas tree as a child, when did you put it up and decorate it?
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
When I was 10 we moved to the mountains and, for the first time in my lifetime, we had our own land to find a tree.
We would head out on foot, carrying a saw, and start our search. When we picked the winner for that year, Dad would cut it down and we would drag it back to the house. My dad would nail a couple of boards on the bottom so it would stand up (I did not know you were supposed to water Christmas trees until I moved away from home).
Our trees were not always perfect like those we could buy in town, but they were ours from our property, and most important – free!
It would sit in front of the big windows in the living room, ready for all the lights and ornaments we had saved over the years. And of course, those silver icicles!
did you and your father share any interest together – what and why?
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
my father was…
tall, dark, and handsome
the strong silent type
light-hearted
easy going
laid back
a great kidder
could add large numbers in his head
served in the military for 24 years
traveled the world
would haul me around to ballgames, dances, friend’s houses
was very patient
down to earth
soft spoken
was a big flirt (according to my mom)
I always thought I took after my dad, until I made this list. I think we had the same personality, easy going. I wish I had gotten to know him better.
Tell about the houses you lived in childhood – addresses, phone #s, etc.
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
Oh which house? Where to begin?
There was the house in the country near Ft. Bragg, North Carolina – big yard, garden. I was in first grade, and I remember this was our first house after living in Army housing, and my parents went back to their roots – growing vegetables, canning, freezing. I witnessed first hand what it means by ‘running around like a chicken with its head cut off’. My dad went to Korea while we lived there, my mom got a job, and my brother and I became latch-key kids. Once when we came home from school, the house had been broken into. My brother said he was going to call the sheriff. I thought he had lost his mind, they don’t have sheriffs any more – that is just on Gunsmoke – call the police! The TV dinner was popular at our house during this time, and my mom would save the aluminum comparted trays and refill them with home cooking for our own personal TV dinners.
Then the next house was a duplex in Army housing at Fort Rucker, Alabama. This was great fun, paved sidewalks for bike riding, lots of neighborhood kids to play with, warm weather, just 90 minutes from the beach at Panama City, Florida. We would walk from the school in a line down the sidewalk through the houses to the nearby playground or swimming pool. Once while walking single file a mom ran out to tell our 4th grade teacher about the assassination of President Kennedy. Also while living on the base, my mom became very good at bowling and even golf.
After leaving LA (lower Alabama) when my dad retired, we moved to the mountains of North Georgia. Our first house was just a little 4 room shack house without a bathroom. It was an adventure to say the least. My folks once again went back to nature and their roots, planting a garden, having chickens, and even a couple of calves. The little house served as a roof over our heads for a couple of years while my dad built us a new house. My brother was 5 years older than me, he listened to the Beatles and Roger Miller. While in the little house I joined many other young girls in watching the Monkees – ooohhh Davy Jones! By the time we got in the new house, my brother was out of high school and well on his way out of the house. The house had wonderful large windows – floor to ceiling – along with a beautiful front door and mantlepiece that had been salvaged from an old house torn down by my father.
As a military family, we moved around a lot and did not develop ties to any one place. The longest time I spent in any of our houses was about 5 years. There is no old homeplace to go back to visit, to pass down to the kids and grandkids. There are just places we stopped for a while before moving on to the next place. But it was always home where ever we were, a home with a family and a pet or two.
I feel fortunate to have married into the family I have now, everyone is so close. My husband and his sisters only ever lived in one house growing up, the one their dad built. The land we live on now has been in the family for over a half century, and plans are to pass it on for future generations.
Do you remember any of your four grandparents? Any greats? What were their names? Any memories that you have.
(on today’s slip of paper drawn from the jar)
My dad’s mom was Susan (my namesake), we called her Mama Austin, and I was 9 when she passed away. I remember her being very old and frail, sitting in the wicker chair on her front porch in McDonough. My father was the baby of the family, so his parents were much older. I never met my grandfather on dad’s side, he passed away before my time.
My mother was the oldest of her siblings, so her parents were much younger than my dad’s. Daddy Hanie and Mother Hanie, they had a big old house in Ellenwood, Georgia. He worked as a mechanic out back of the house at the garage. She was a good cook, I remember drinking sweet iced tea from big glass goblets with lemon. She bought little six ounce cokes in green glass bottles. She would wash the dishes in a big porcelain sink with a separate dish pain for rinsing. The side porch off the kitchen was a great place to sit on the glider or shell peas out of the garden. After supper she sometimes played cards – canasta, samba.
Later she moved to live next door to us and was always crocheting something. Folks said she was strong willed and stubborn, but I remember her as soft and sweet and fun to visit. I remember when she told my boyfriend (now husband) to take off his hat at the dinner table!
I remember the story of when she was very old and blind and in a home, her son was asking questions to get down some family history and she asked him, “What are you doing, writing a book?” Maybe we should…
