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Pat — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:50:35 +0000

OLD FRIENDS

Pat — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:45:16 +0000

Many years ago we took Grandma Bowling to Grassy Gap on Memorial Day to decorate the graves. Mallie Stidham and Florence Lewis were there also. They were all in their mid-80’s at that time.They started talking about their childhoods. And how that they had grown up together. They had gone to school , raised their families, and lost loved ones. I wished that I had a tape recorder. It was such a spontaneous thing.They talked about going to school and climbing trees and getting in trouble together.They talked about their courtships. (Grandpa always said that Grandma was the prettiest girl in the county. He may have been biased.) It was such a cool experience. I will never forget it.

SOUR GRAPES

Pat — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:03:41 +0000

This is for Glenna- Do you remember when Frank and Evelyn Smith came down from Michigan to visit with their two sons? We both had a crush on Stevie. He was older and very cute. He didn’t pay any attention to us. He was gaga over Shirley Gail. I guess that she flashed her dimples. We accused her of throwing herself at him (which she did not) and we were mad at her for a long while. By the way, I read your story about sharing the radio time with Shirley. You didn’t punch her in the stomach over Stevie did you? I think that we owe her a long over due apology. What do you say?

Lightning bugs

Pat — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:11:20 +0000

As I was watching Jack and Rachel catch lightning bugs in the back yard, it brought back many memories of good times at Big Branch. Peg and I and Ted’s bunch would descend on Grandma for days. I guess that she did not mind because they just turned us loose to roam the mountains and creek. We went inside to eat and sleep only. It is a miracle that none of us were ever bitten by a copperhead or rattler. We dammed the creek to make a small swimming hole. We found grapevines to swing on ( and fall off of often, since you did not know how sturdy they were or were not until you crashed). We didn’t get much sympathy for injuries unless they were life threatening. I vividly remember the day that I got into a yellow jacket’s nest. A large tree had uprooted and fallen across the creek. There was a nest in the root ball and I stepped directly on it. Some of the bees actually got imbedded in my hair and they had to cut them out. (I am not exaggerating) It was painful but not fatal. Thank goodness, Carolyn was not born yet, she has allergic reactions to bee stings. And I do not remember which older relative it was who had me yelling down a bug hole at the top of my lungs for the lady bug to come out. We played Red rover and hide-n-seek until it got dark and then we caught lightning bugs. We would pull off their tails and rub them on our skin and make bracelets and necklaces that glowed in the dark. No one told us that this was animal cruelty. I briefly thought about showing this to Jack and Rachel but did not want PETA on my doorstep labeling them as future serial killers. This generation has the best and worst of things. My grandchildren and their friends have to be entertained. They have game cubes, game boys, Wei’s, trampolines, swimming pools, play sets and such. They have missed out on so much by not having to be creative. They love to go to Granny Fran’s and explore. It is a sad commentary on our world that even in the best neighborhoods we can not let them have the freedom the roam.

Aunt Deb’s Wedding Day

Pat — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 20:29:34 +0000

I remember Aunt Debbie’s wedding day. Jewel, Doris and Lois were there at our house also. I watched them primp and was fascinated that they were combing their eyebrows. Bill and Debbie were going to be married and go to Ohio. Bill had an apartment and a job there. To set the scene, Aunt Debbie was known as the “Queen of Big Branch”. She had apparently cut a swathe through the community and left a trail of broken hearts in her wake. The day wore on and there was no sign of Uncle Bill. I remember sitting in the front porch swing and listening to the talk. There were tears and a remark (gleefully, I thought) that maybe what goes around, comes around. Most everyone thought that she had been jilted. This was applachia in the 50’s and telephones were few and very far between. He finally showed up a little worse for wear. He had been in a car accident and had gotten there as soon as he could. My memory is a little shaky, after all it has been 50 plus years, but I think that they woke up the minister and got married around midnight and headed on out for Ohio. They lived happily ever after. We got to visit Uncle Bill after he had gotten a diagnosis of terminal cancer. I told him that story. He loved it, he had not known that she thought that she was jilted. He is gone but not forgotten.

Pat — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:36:15 +0000

I have really enjoyed reading the memories of our grandparents. I have one of Grandma Bowling. She used to sew and when she was finished, she would send in the Rit labels from the lace and rickrack. They would send boxes of material in a wonderful array of colors and sizes. She taught us to make doll clothes on the old pedal sewing machine. I (being unco-ordinated) never got the machine into any kind of rhythm. Thank goodness for electric machines. Mom now has that sewing machine that Great Grandma Johnson and Grandma Bowling used for so many years. It has worn spots on the cabinet where they rested their elbows. This is what MasterCard would call “priceless”.