grammys memories

My two little playmates

2011-03-02T16:28:00.000-08:00

There was a house next door to us. Billy and Betty Jean Lang lived there with their three children, Alison, Janet, and their little brother, I can't remerber his name right now. I will be talking about the little girls anyway. I used to go over to play with them even though they were about 6 and 8 years younger than I was. They would stand on their front porch and call over to our house," Tootlellen, Tootlellen, come play with us". So I would go over and play with them. That is how I got the nickname of "Tootellen", which they still call me to this day when we see each other. They were two of Mrs. Langs granddaughters, the lady that put the trailor next to our house and was our neighbor until she died. My grandparents lived in the little white house a few years after the girls lived there, and stayed there for several years until they went to live my Aunt Sue in Aberdeen, Mississippi.

Interesting Neighbor

2011-03-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

When we were growing up we had some unusual neighbors, at least we thought so at the time. One of those people was a woman named Miss Julia Lewis. What made her unusual was she had one leg quite a bit shorter, maybe about 8 to 10 inches. I am guessing trying to remember back all those years. Anyway, I used to visit her and she would be sitting in a chair by the window usuing a big embrodiery hoop, or maybe it was a quilting hoop, quilting on a quilt. She made lots of quilts like this and I thought it was interesting because everyone else used the traditional frames which were four boards held together with c-clamps. She would just be holding the hoop on her lap. I guess she wasn't able to use the usual ones as it was hard for her to get around plus she probably didn't have anyone to help her roll the quilts as she finished a side. She always let us come in and visit her while she worked. Usually, she would give us some cookies or something. She had sone black servents to help her around the house. She lived together with her brother, I don't think he ever married either.
The reason her leg was shorter she was riding in a horse drawn buggy and the horse got spooked and starting running. She was thrown out of the buggy but was dragged behind and her leg was badly damaged. She wore a built up shoe with a really thick sole. Her brother's name was Dudley Lewis. He supplied our house with water from his "ram", a water tank, to our house until we were able to have our own well dug.

Mishaps of childhood

2010-02-09T12:00:00.000-08:00

There was a store across the crossroads and one across the road from our house as I was growing up. We always had dogs and some of them loved to drag cans and garbage people left around the stores into our yard. One day while I was playing outside, I must have been less than 5 because I don't remember the incedent, I jumped down from the fence that was in the back yard. The dog had left a cornbeef can on the ground where I jumped down. These cans used to be opened by using a key that was attached to the can and rolled around the top and a little strip of the can pealed off to take the top off the can. This left a very sharp edge along the rest of the can. Yes, when I jumped my big toe on my left foot hit this sharp edge and cut all the meat off the side of my toe but was still attached by a piece of skin. My mother must have seen what happened really quick, maybe she was close by, because she bandeged it up really quick. She cleaned it up and wrapped gause around it and the toe grew back together but left an impressive scar. If you would like to see it just ask me sometime.:)

Yellowstone Park

2010-01-18T05:47:00.000-08:00

When I was 8 years old we took a trip out west. This time it was my family, Aunt Maggie and Grandma Langston ( MaMoo). Don't ask me how 7 people fit in a 5 passenger car but we did. Grandma was quite contrary on that trip. If Aunt Maggie wanted some air with the window down Grandma would want it back up immediately. (this was in the days before air conditioning in cars, at least ours). Just anything oppisite of Aunt Maggie.
We visited Yellowstone Park and were fortunate to see some black bears. One mother bear was out close to the road with twin cubs, they were so cute. Mama got out to take a picture, which is in her pictures some where, I will try to find and post it some day, anyway, she was standing inbetween the mother bear and her cubs. When the mother bear realized Mama was a little too close the her cubs she started running towards Mama. Fortunately, Mama wasn't that far from the car and made it bach OK.
I wanted to share my trip to the park with my friends back home so I bought some post cards and wrote a note to everyone, probably about 5 or 6 cards, all the money I had available to me. I put the cards in the mail slot at the hotel in the park and felt really good about sending my friends a card until Mama asked me if I had put stamps on the cards! I had not!! No matter how hard I cried and pleaded with the lady at the desk to have to cards back to put stamps on them she said she couldn't do that. Needless to say, my friends did not get their beautiful cards from Yellowstone Park.

Little Sister

2010-01-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

When I was five years old my family along with Uncle Willard and his family went to Utah to be sealed in the temple. On the way home we stopped by an Indian reservation, probably in New Mexice. My Mom and Dad were told that if they could stay and extra day they would be able to adopt a little girl. But my dad and uncle had to get back to go to work so we were unable to stay the extra day. I have often wondered how our lives would have changed had we been able to stay and get me a little sister.

2009-12-27T17:17:00.000-08:00

Maryann took this picture of us so we could put a picture on my blog. Hopefully I will remember how to put more pictures on for future use.

Christmas past

2009-12-21T18:26:00.000-08:00

When I was probably around 5 or 6 we were visiting with Uncle Williard and Aunt Mary and their family on Christmas Eve in McCalla, Alabama. I was so worried that Santa would not know where to find us if we were not at home. Everyone told me not to worry, that Santa always knew where to find good boys and girls but some how that didn't stop my worrying. When I got up the next morning he had found us and I was so releived. Ah, the joys of childhoold!

Conference memories

2009-10-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

Since this is conference weekend it got me to thinking about how we were able to first get to see general conference when I was growing up. As you know I was born in the dark ages (before tv).When the tv stations were talked into broadcasting a session it was the Saturday morning session brought to us on Sunday morning. We were overjoyed at this. When we lived in Utah, we were able to see each session on tv, amazing! When we were in Germany we were able to go to the stake center and the audio was sent out but no picture. So they would put slides up of the person giving the talk. When we visited Herb's family we even got to watch it there at the church and could hear it in German if we wanted to but went to the room with English. Then when the church put satelitte dishes in we could enjoy all of conference. I was even able to go to a conference session in the Conference Center. But the best way is in the comfort of our own home. I hope all of you will enjoy watching conference however you will be seeing it. I like to think I have all of my family with me listening to our leaders. I love all of you!!!

Family Tree

2009-09-20T16:24:00.000-07:00

11 September 2009 my last uncle died, Charles Gosa, my Aunt Sue's husband. Aunt Sue is my Dad's youngest sister and last living sibling in his family. Cecil came down and we went to his funeral in Aberdeen, Ms. on Tuesday, 15 Sept. On a previous trip to Alabama Cecil had visited most of the cemetaries where we had relatives burried and copied down the information from the headstones. We were entering this information into new family search and were able to get some cards printed out Saturday when Dad and I worked in the temple. Uncle Hugh and his wife, Robbie Gates; Uncle J.S. and his wife Avis Law; and Aunt Margaret's husband, John Whitfield, were baptised and confirmed on Saturday. We were trying to get Aunt Margarit's work done also but she had been reserved by someone already. After Cecil called all of his children that could have done this we found out Kristen had reserved her the night before. When all of this work is done we can have these couples sealed and my Dad's siblings sealed to their parents. It made me feel really good to get some genealogy done. So check it out!

Play house

2009-07-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

I guess maybe I was about 5 or 6 when my Dad started building me a play house in the front yard. He got the frame work up and a floor put in and Cecil said he thought he got the walls put up about 3 feet but I don't remember whether there were walls or not. I had many long hours of fun playing in my playhouse with my dolls. I don't think I could have had any more fun if it had been finished. It stayed up for a few years and when it got in a condition that wasn't safe it was torn down and a basketball goal was put up. I don't remember one being put there as the on I remember playing with was in the side yard but Cecil said the first one was in the front yard. l also had a favorite tree in the front yard that was made for climbing. It had low limbs and nice wide branches that made little pockets that were just right for sitting in. I spent lots of time in the tree. It was still there when I graduaded from high school but I had not climbed it for many years, I am not sure when it had to be cut down.

Uncle Charlie's Beard

2009-06-22T12:32:00.000-07:00

Charlie used to brag about how he was getting a beard when he was a teenager. He had about 3 hairs growing from his chin, and he would keep rubbing his hand along his chin and grin. One day when their family was visiting with my family, Wilson, your dad and I decided to do something about it. Wilson and Johnnie held Charlie down on the couch and I got a pair of tweasers and pulled his "beard"(3 hairs) out. If you listen hard you can probably still hear him howling. We thought it was funny at the time but now I can see that was a little cruel. I guess he has forgiven us but it probably took a good while.

2009-06-16T14:55:00.000-07:00

When I was 2 years old my mother started cooking lunch for the little school in our community. Sometimes I stayed home with my grandmother but most of the time I think I went to school with her. I would wander into the classrooms but probably stayed in the lower grades as Cecil was in the first grade and Wilson and I would listen in. After 3 years of doing this the first grade teacher told my mother if she would get the books and teach me at home she would test me and put me in the appropriate grade. When I turned 6 they closed our school and we were bused to the next school over (Carlowville,12 miles away). I stayed in the first grade 2 weeks and was moved to the 2nd grade and I knew most of that grade also. This is how I graduated from high school at the age of 16.

Carlowville is where my mother and father both went to high school and maybe junior high also. Anyway that is where they met but is a story for another day.
One of the things I remember about being at the Pleasant Hill School was the music class. One of the ladies in the community came a few days a week and taught us how to sing. It was lots of fun.

One thing I liked to eat during that time was peanut butter rolled in sugar. It would come out long like an earth worm and I called it a worm. I walked into the classroom one day eating one and the teacher asked me what I was eating and I told her it was a worm. She got all excited and went to my mother and told her I was eating a worm. Mama laughed and told her it was only peanut butter, the teacher joined in the laughter. This teacher,Mrs. Eunice Simmons, was always one of my favorite teachers, she later taught as an English teacher in the high school.
My mother worked in the lunchroom at the new school also and after a few years became the manager of the lunchroom as well as the bus driver for our community. So I never missed the bus and always had good things to eat for lunch.

2009-06-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

OK kids, here it is. You want some memories of my childhood.Since I have to think about the first time I remember your father, I'll have to tell about that later, but I can start with our first date. It was February 4, 1961. We to the drive-in in Selma but I do not remember what the movie was and yes ,we really did watch the movie, but you know how bad my memory is on some things. I do remember that was't the first time he had asked me on a date. The first time he asked me I turned him down because he asked me to go to his school's homecoming dance. I did not know anyone from his school besides your dad and his brothers so I was scared to go and therefore turned him down. Aren't you glad he didn't give up? Anyway this is enough for now.