Monthly Archives: April 2022

By the time I was in third grade, daddy decided to retire from the Navy so we all packed up and moved to Bristol.  They bought a new house in Lowery Hills that wasn’t quite finished.  It must have been a lot of work because mama and daddy decided that my brother and I would live with Grandma Lessie and Grandpa Fred for a few weeks while they finished the house.  By that time, my grandparents lived right next to the coal mine in Harmon where my grandpa worked.    I remember coal trucks running up and down the roads all the time.  This was before they made them cover the coal with screens for obvious environmental reasons.  My poor grandma had to hose down the front porch every day just to get rid of all of the coal dust.

            While living with my grandparents, my brother and I attended Harmon Elementary.  We didn’t go there long enough to make too many friends but it definitely made an impression on me.  I remember a smart aleck girl who was always called to read aloud.  I guess the rest of us were too dumb.  I also remember recess.  Grandma would always give me a quarter to buy some potato chips.  I use to wear these smock tops with pockets and I would pour my greasy chips in them (for some reason) while I ran around the playground.  Maybe that’s why I didn’t have too many friends.

            Grandma was tickled to death that we stayed with them as we had moved around so much before that.  I loved to dust her furniture and spray Lysol all over, which was something my mama never let me do.  She would also peel and slice apples for me to eat or give me a box of pecan sandies to eat in front of the television.  We could drink Pepsi, which we called ‘pop’ and eat potato chips.  She always worried about me because I was so little but I was bad to eat junk food and sweets and nothing else. 

            Grandma and Grandpa had a big claw footbathtub and I would fill it up with hot water until it was up past my neck.  I would sneak and use Grandma’s razor to shave my arms because I had no idea you used it on your legs or armpits, not that I had any hair there.  She said if I didn’t have time to take a bath, to wash up as far as possible and then down as far as possible, and then wash the possible.  This still makes me laugh. 

            She had what I use to call a ‘folding bed’ in her bedroom.  My brother and I would sleep in that or with Grandma.  Grandpa often worked nights in the coal mine and grandma hated to sleep by herself.  We would all pile up in the bed and nothing would make Grandma any happier than having a bunch of “bed fellers.”

            We loved living with our grandparents because we got to see our cousins a lot more.  With all those kids and grandkids, and us being hungry all the time, Grandma was always cooking.  She was a great cook.  One of the favorites with all the grandchildren was chocolate gravy (see recipe below).  She made the best biscuits too, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  Mama says you have to cook your biscuits on high heat (450 degrees) to get them that way and she makes good biscuits too.  I asked mama once how to fix biscuits and she told me to use flour, shredded (partly frozen) butter, and buttermilk.  She said when they have the consistency of your titty (there’s that word again) they were ready to form and put on the pan.  And then I closed my eyes and shook my head.

            Grandma always had a garden and canned everything.  The table would be so full of food; she hardly left enough room for our plates. She always froze her corn from the garden and would heat it up in the microwave.  Many times she would jump up right in the middle of a meal and exclaim, “I forgot the corn!” 

            When they lived in Harmon, she would take her milk cartons and fill them up with leftovers and dump them in the creek, that is if she didn’t have a pig to feed.  She would also throw leftovers outside which wasn’t a big deal.  I don’t remember them having much grass or yard and the mountain was right behind the house.  It went straight up.  Today, my mama lives in a big fancy house, in a fancy gated community and she’ll toss her bad, smelly onions off the deck (just like grandma).   Her back deck is right next to a fancy golf course. 

            When grandma was cooking she was always in a hurry.  Every time she cooked the kitchen looked like a tornado had blown through, leaving the cabinets open, all Helter Skelter; pots and pans piled up everywhere.  It would take you a couple of hours just to clean it up as I figured out later as a teenager.  My aunts would all pay me money to clean up while they sat around and gabbed.  One time Grandma was in such a hurry, as she was grabbing something out of the fridge, she slammed it shut not knowing that the cat had stuck her nose in the door.  Snapped its poor neck.  She cried.

            I miss Grandma’s cooking and didn’t appreciate it when I was younger as I did when I was older.  One of my favorites was chicken and dumplings.  The dumplings were always soft and fluffy.  When she was cooking it on the stove and the chicken and broth was boiling, she would put the dumplings in one at a time.  She would have me use a spoon to keep everything separated while she put another dumpling in.  Another favorite of mine was her cole slaw.  The cabbage head had to have a small stem; otherwise it would be too tough and chewy.  She would often put the ingredients together ahead of time (shredded cabbage and carrots, mayonnaise and Sweet and Low) and let me mix it up.

            My husband’s favorite was her canned sweet pickles (Virginia Chunk Pickles).  I finally learned how to make them with the cucumbers we grew out of our own garden.  I don’t like gardening like she did.  I just hate the weeding, especially if it’s real hot outside.  She loved it so much that she had a garden until she was in her 80’s and finally had to quit because she wasn’t able to work it anymore.  She taught me how to string the half-runner green beans and then snap them, which I loved to do.

            Grandma always had a cat or two but they never lived long because she always managed to kill them; accidentally of course.  They had an old coal stove in a room off the kitchen where we all ate.  Grandma would fire it up early every morning but she got a surprise one day.  As soon as the fire went up the pipe she heard a cat squall.  Oops!  Daddy was in charge of opening up the pipe and getting the smoked cat out. 

            I got to watch one cat giving birth in a closet which was pretty amazing and gross all at the same time.  The mucus and junk that the cat licked up was a bit too much for me.  It was so exciting though because some of us (me and my other cousins) got to take a kitten home and we all named them tool names.  There was Screwdriver, Nut, Nail and Hammer.  Hammer was my cat.  He disappeared one time and I found out later that mama asked Grandma and Grandpa to take him off one day.  They dropped him off somewhere, but apparently not far enough, because he came back.  He liked to sit on his back and lick his privates. 

            Grandma grieved for her cats, bless her heart.  She had a cat named Conway Kitty, an orange tabby.  He was named after her favorite country music singer.  She’d get pretty excited when he sang, “Hello, darlin’.”  She mostly called him ‘Con’ and he was the strangest cat ever.  She used to bathe him every week and then he had skin issues from all that bathing.  She would dab orange disinfectant all over those bad places causing him to look weird and mangy.  My cousin Elaina cut off his whiskers once or maybe that was Tom Bick.  Elaina has three orange tabbies’ today, named Cornbread Fred, Beans and Tater.  I can still hear grandma calling Elaina’s name today.  “Eeeeeelaiiiiiinaaaaa!”

            Although grandpa worked hard in the mines, he didn’t do much else because grandma cooked, cleaned and always took care of the kids.  He did like to whittle and even taught me how.  I thought that was pretty cool because mama would have had a fit if she knew I was using a knife.  Grandpa also liked to read and follow politics.  He was a die-hard republican but I don’t think he ever actually voted.  I doubt he was even registered to vote.

            Grandpa didn’t have any teeth and he wouldn’t wear his false ones either which use to aggravate Grandma.  He eventually ‘lost’ them so she would leave him alone.  Grandpa liked to chew Beechnut tobacco and he would chew beechnut chewing gum all at the same time so it was all swirled together.  Grandma hated it, especially because he was pretty messy with it.  One time she had just washed their white Pontiac and Grandpa was spitting out the window.  Whenever they got to where they were going, Grandma found brown spit all over the side of the car.  She was mad.

            Grandpa lost part of his thumb, probably in the mine, and used the nub to tickle me, squeezing my knee, until I was screaming for him to stop.  Grandma would say, “Stop it Fred, you’re hurting her.”  Grandma would hurt me too with ‘love licks.’  She would pat me so hard on the back that I would sometimes cry.  Of course she would love and squeeze on me until it was all better.

            By the time we lived with them they had an indoor toilet, but I remember when I was real little and we would visit them in Belcher’s Fork, they had an outhouse.  I was scared of it so Grandma would hold me over the porch rail while I did my business.  Brother and some of the boy cousins would have contests to see who could pee the farthest off of the porch.  I think it’s because they were scared of the outhouse too.  I have the faintest memories of daddy helping to install Grandma’s first indoor toilet. 

            Sometimes we would go to Tampa, Florida where daddy’s parents lived before they moved to Ocala.  Lottie and Cecil were living their best life.  Granny absolutely loved to fish and she would go every chance she got.  They took me fishing one time and Granny fussed at me because all I did was throw the line in and reel it back.  I didn’t leave it out long enough to catch a fish.  I guess I made her nervous and disturbed all the other fish.  Sometimes they would come to Bristol and that was usually the only time we went to church.  We would go to the State Street Church of Christ or the East Bristol Church of Christ. 

            Before they moved to Florida they lived in a house in Lowery Hills.  It’s still there and mama said it looks exactly the same.  I think it’s the first house on the left as you come into the neighborhood and it has a carport on each side of the house.  It was in that house that I first met my daddy when I was just a few weeks old.  Mama, my brother and I were staying with Granny and Granddaddy when daddy came home on leave from the Navy.

CHOCOLATE GRAVY RECIPE (Thank you Aunt Sandy!)

Ingredients: 2 TBSP Cocoa (more if you like it), 3/4 cup sugar, 3 TBSP flour, 2 cups of milk (or 1 cup evaporated milk & 1 cup of water), 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.

Directions: Mix cocoa, flour and sugar in heavy sauce pan until smooth. Add milk and whisk over medium heat constantly until thickened. (It may take longer than you think but don’t stop whisking because it may burn!) When it thickens, add vanilla flavoring. Serve over homemade biscuits and gobs of butter.

Betty, mom’s oldest sister, was married to Bill Ramey and they had the one son, Donnie.  Grandma had a hard time when she gave birth to Betty.  On Betty’s birthday, she always told about how she was ready to die but when her baby girl was finally born, she felt like she could have run circles around the house; she was that happy.  After Grandma died, Betty’s sisters would have to tell the story on Betty’s birthday because it always made her feel special.  Donnie became a policeman and then a state trooper and finally a crime scene investigator before he eventually retired.  Betty’s husband, Bill, was an alcoholic until the day he almost burned up in a fire while camping.  He was burned all over his body and was in the hospital for a long time.  He finally recovered and never touched a drop of liquor again.  Betty was sure glad about that! 

            Betty was the manager for a bunch of trailer parks.  She was good too.  She didn’t take any monkey business and knew who was lying and who was telling the truth, sort of like Judge Judy.  If they said they didn’t have enough money to pay the lot rent because they had to make the car payment, she would tell them she hoped they liked living in their car.  She was queen of the trailer park AND she had a redwood deck.  Betty died a few years ago.  We all still miss her like crazy.  She was so funny and would crack us up.  Just like Grandma, mama, and all her sisters, she could cook.  I loved to go over to her house when she was making goulash and cornbread.

            Betty loved to laugh.  When all the sisters got together, usually at her house, you never heard so much laughter.  Sometimes they would meet out for lunch and lucky was the person that waited on them because they would pile the tip money on the table. 

            Betty had a little Pekingesedog named, Missy that she had for years.  Missy was the meanest dog and would bite you if you looked at her wrong.  She was so spoiled and even had her own chair in the living room.  You were risking your life if you dared take it, right Kristy?  Later, she got a Yorkie and named her Katy.  Katy was spoiled too and never went outside, but instead used pee pads which were placed all over Betty’s trailer.   You had to jump around them just to get through the house.  Katie was afraid of the grass and she loved to steal money out of your purse.

            My mama’s sister Sue was married to Freddy, who was retired from the Army.  They had one son, Michael or Michael P Duty as we called him.  I always loved my aunt Sue.  She called me Kitten and let me do whatever I wanted.  She worked at Montgomery Ward when they lived in Newport News and I thought she was pretty important.  I have no idea what she did but she had the run of the store and let me have whatever I wanted.  Sue and my uncle Freddy were a pair.  Their favorite past time was fighting.  Some people don’t like to fight but Sue and Freddy thrived on it.  Sue was a little thing and Freddy was probably a little bigger than average but she didn’t care.  He would push her down and she would pop up faster than you could say Boo and be right back in his face.  They loved each other dearly though. 

            One time when my mama was first married to daddy she was staying with my daddy’s parents while he was overseas.  Lottie and Cecil were very strict and made you go to church as my daddy used to say, ‘every time the doors were open.’  Sue and Freddy came by to pick up mama for some fun, since all she did was go to church, and Granny and Granddaddy got real aggravated, him being a bad influence and all.  Freddy had a bumper sticker on his car that said All girls who smoke, put your butts in here, which didn’t give mom’s in-laws much of a good opinion, but mama hopped in anyway. 

            Cousin Michael almost killed me once.  We were all at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Harmon.  Michael was a lot bigger than me.  He and my brother got the big idea to put me on one end of a board that had a big rock underneath the middle of it.  Michael ran and jumped on the other end propelling me up into the air.  I landed with a huge thud, knocking the breath right out of me, causing him and my brother to think I was dead for a few seconds.  I’m sure I probably exaggerated my injuries and held it over their heads for as long as I could get by with it.

            My aunt Sue was sassy and I hardly ever saw her without a cigarette in her mouth.  One time I drove her to the gas station because she was out of cigarettes.   She bought two packs.  I asked her why she didn’t just buy a whole carton and save some money.  She said, “If I buy a carton I won’t stop until I smoke the whole carton.”  Those cigarettes eventually killed her.  She tried so many times to quit but never could. Sue was also one of the most giving people I ever knew.  She was like Jesus that way.  If you asked to borrow a dollar, she would give you two.  She would give you whatever you needed, even if that left her with nothing. 

            Eula Fay was only sixteen months younger than mama but she was pretty feisty. She was married to Marion (mom’s family pronounced it Murian).  Mama said Eula whipped her every day of her life growing up.  Sandy, mama’s youngest sister, said that when Eula was out on a date, she would come home and make Sandy leave her warm spot in the bed so she could have it.  All the girls slept in the same bed, piled up.  Eula was always popular and outgoing and everyone knew her and loved her.  She always had boys chasing after her. 

            Eula Fay and Marion had two children, Beth and Anthony.  They lived in Big Rock when I was younger.  Anthony, aka Ant Ant, was closest to me in age but just a little bit younger.  He used to lay all the other cousins pictures down at Grandma’s house because he was jealous.  Grandma used to have to go around after he left her house, putting all the pictures back up.  He would also hide behind a tree when he saw the school bus coming.  Eula would have to call Grandma to tell her to take him to school again.  Eula Fay had a beauty shop in her house and was always busy giving perms and haircuts.  She gave me my first permanent when I was in the 8th grade during our school Christmas break.  She cut my long, straight hair in layers too so that when I went back to school, nobody recognized me.  I wore it that way for many years.  I loved to play around in her shop.  One time, when we were teenagers, Anthony asked me to trim his beard (what little he had) with a straight edge.  I said, “Sure!”  I sliced his neck and blood began pouring, scaring us both to death.

            One year at Christmas, I got some Play Dough, which I was so excited about.  I had all different colors only to wake up in the morning and find that all of my Play Dough had been squished together, making an ugly, swirly mess.  I’m still not sure which cousin did it but I had my suspicions.  Beth, aka Bessie Bo, Eula’s daughter was the likely suspect.   Beth was a couple of years older than me and just a little younger than Michael and my brother.  They didn’t like to play with her because she always smelled like onions (because she liked to eat them).  We have a picture of the three of them only because Michael and Kenny got paid to have their picture made with her.  Today, Beth is the chief nurse at the Clinch Valley Medical Center.  She is also beautiful and no longer smells like onions.

             My aunt Eula also got me a hamster one year, only because I had begged and begged while we were at a store in downtown Grundy.  It was white and looked more like a rat.  We brought the poor thing home in the little box they gave us, no food, no cage or any of the many things you need when buying a hamster.  We found a bigger box and put some shredded paper in it.  Sometime during that first night it escaped.  Our dog, Titch, must have chased it all over the house until the poor thing had a heart attack and died, or so that’s what my mama told me.   When my kids were young, I bought them a couple of hamsters; Little Bit and Bob.  I found out Little Bit was a female one day when I walked in out found them carrying on.  She eventually had babies and we found homes for them.  My youngest, Sam, was about 7 or 8 when he found Little Bit dead.  I said, “How do you know she’s dead?”  He cried, “Because she’s hard!”  I nodded thinking he deduced that pretty good.  Eula got liver cancer, shocking us all.  After she died, her husband Marion died soon after. 

            Sandy, mama’s youngest sister, was first married to Curtis Shortridge.  They had Kristy, but their marriage didn’t last.  She then married Jerry from Paris, Texas.  He went to college with Farrah Fawcett.  When Sandy and Jerry were dating, mom invited them over for dinner so we could all get to know them.  My brother and I ate with Kristy at the kids table in the kitchen while the grownups sat in the dining room.  I’m not sure whose bright idea it was but being the older cousins and all, we wanted to impress Jerry so we taught Kristy the song, Beans, Beans, good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you fart and then encouraged Kristy to sing it to her soon to be step-daddy.  We got in trouble good for that one but thankfully they got married anyway and are still married today. They had a son, Corey, or Corey Dorey, as we liked to call him.  I was 12 when he was born and I thought he was my baby. Kristy used to call me Kareno and then when Corey was little he started calling me Narno because he couldn’t pronounce his K’s.  They lived in the same neighborhood we did when Corey was a baby so I would babysit sometimes.  One day when school was out because of snow, I went to their house and found Corey in his playpen all covered in poop.  Sandy was long gone to work by then but I cleaned him up because I loved him so much, even though I gagged the whole time.

            I think I get my love of writing from Sandy.  She loves to write poems.  Maybe I can get her to let me post one of her poems.  Sandy and mama are the only sisters left, but before Betty, Sue and Eula died, they would have a special Christmas get together just for them.  Sandy would write poems to commemorate the occasion.  They were all close.  Seeing their relationships made me long for a sister of my own.  They always had so much fun together.  I loved being around them, listening to their conversations.  There was never a dull moment.  I learned all kinds of stuff because nobody was off limits.  They talked about everyone.

            When we were little Kristy, aka Cricket, and I use to drag out all of Grandma’s scraps of material she used for slips and panties, wrapping them around us like we were wearing fancy ball gowns.  Grandma liked to sew and made slips and panties (that’s what she always called them) for everyone.  I still have her pattern for her own panties.  I really didn’t like to wear her homemade panties.  She must have thought my legs were the size of a bean pole.  The panties would cut off my circulation causing pain and I wasn’t into pain, being a big baby and all.  Kristy was a Thumb sucker and she had this thing where she had to rub her silky panties between her fingers while she sucked.  If she didn’t have any silkies on she would have to rub yours.

            Besides clothes, Grandma would make pillows and potholders too.  I have some potholders stockpiled in bags so I don’t ever run out.  They’re all in wild colors too, made out of material she found on sale.  They’re really great but very flammable.  I’ve caught a few on fire.  Grandma also crocheted Afghans and butterflies which she would glue on googly eyes and magnets to hang on your refrigerator.

            Uncle Garry was married to Debbie, divorced Debbie and then married her again and divorced her again.  He then married Sabrina and they had a daughter, Elaina.  Garry and Sabrina divorced and now he’s been with Sue (not Aunt Sue) for about 30 years but they can’t agree on the day they met in February so they just celebrate the whole month.  Elaina is the youngest of the grandkids.  She got to live with Grandma the better part of her childhood, which made Grandma extra happy.  Elaina was one of those grandkids who have fond memories of watching soap operas with their grandma.  She still laughs about it today and remembers Victor Newman from Young and the Restless and also Sami from Days of our Lives.  Grandma used to say that ‘mean old Sami’ because she was always up to no good.  Elaina is a very talented musician and went to ETSU on a full band scholarship.  She can sing and play the guitar like her daddy.  Garry still plays the drums and guitar and puts a lot of his music on YouTube. 

            We moved back to the states when I was about 4 years old.  We lived in Navy Housing next to the military airport in Norfolk, Virginia.  The whole duplex would shake; loud thundering jets coming and going all hours of the night.  Everyone got use to it so it didn’t seem to be a big deal.  My brother and I loved living there because there were a lot of kids to play with.  I was about 5 years old when I taught myself to ride a bike, going up and down the sidewalks until I could ride without falling over.  

In 1970, I was 5 years old and Loretta’s song, Coal Miner’s Daughter, came out.  I can just imagine the thrill of mama, her sisters and coal miner’s daughters everywhere.  Just like Loretta, mom and her sisters grew up poor but happy and loved.  Grandpa worked hard in the mines and Grandma worked hard making sure everyone was fed and taken care of, which wasn’t easy with little money and so many kids.

Daddy must have gotten a promotion while he was in the Navy because we soon moved from Norfolk and bought a house in Virginia Beach.  It was a big, 4 bedroom house in a nice neighborhood.  I had skipped kindergarten but by that time, I had to go to school because apparently you couldn’t skip first grade.  We had lots of kids running around in our neighborhood, even some other Navy brats.  Military families become very close, not having a lot of family around.  I’m still friends with some of those brats today, thanks to Facebook.  Hey Carol and Johnny, Melva Rae and Butch, Tammy and Chris, and Marissa and David! 

Johnny reminded me of our parents taking us out one weekend to ride motorbikes.  We have some funny videos of the parents riding, especially Johnny and Carol’s mother, Peggy.  You can see her husband, Doug, following behind her, afraid she’s going to fall off.  I guess I was too young to ride at that time but daddy was always real good about getting my brother mini-bikes, go karts and fun stuff like that.  When we were teenagers, my brother had an off-road motorcycle and he let me sit on the front to steer the bike, which was unfortunate, because I ran us right into a tree. 

Growing up back then was a lot different than it is today.  We were running around the whole neighborhood, not a care in the world.  Mama was just glad to get us out of the house.  She didn’t work and she was a little obsessed with cleaning the house.  I’m not exaggerating either.  She would literally dust and vacuum every day.  If you walk in her house today, I can guarantee you that there’s not a thing out of place but don’t open her drawers or closets (or mine either). 

            Our neighbors next door in Virginia Beach had a daughter my age.  She had a big walk-in closet in her bedroom that had been turned into a playroom.  I thought that was the coolest room ever and really liked her until she formed a club. For some reason she decided she didn’t like me and didn’t want anyone else to like me either so the club was for ‘All Kids Who Hated Karen.’  I was devastated at the time but now I think back and figured she was jealous of me for some reason.  My friends all felt bad but she talked everyone into joining her club.  That was my first experience with a bully.  I don’t know whatever came of her.  I had another friend that lived across the street.  She was English and was a little older than me.  She had this extra small bike and I thought it was the cutest bike ever She talked me into trading my regular size bike for the little bike because it was way too small for her.  I remember saying later that I wanted my bike back (after the cuteness wore off) but she said it was a done deal.  I cried to my mom but she wouldn’t ask for my bike back.  Mama said she hoped I learned my lesson. 

            Mama was very strict back then, not that you would know it today.  She’d let her grandkids and great grandkids get by with murder.  She did not spare the rod and we often had to go outside and pick out our own switches.  Of course, we would pick the wimpiest switches we could find.  My brother and I got in trouble one time; although for the life of me I can’t remember why.  She took us to the garage to give us a whipping.  I went first because brother always made me go first, for whippings, shots and anything else he was scared of.  I took my whipping and then stood there watching my brother get his turn.  He started carrying on something awful, squalling like she was killing him, dancing around in a circle while mama tried to hang on to him.  I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my mouth because it was so funny.  My mom, seeing the humor as well, tried to keep at it but she started laughing too.

            My dad whipped me and my brother one time.  He said, “This is going to hurt me more than it will hurt you.”  I don’t remember the actual whipping but I do remember thinking, how’s it going to hurt you?  He was really mad at us.  He had some dirty cartoon books in his office desk drawer.  They had naked ladies on them.  My brother and I showed them to our friends and embarrassed my dad to death.  I felt really bad at the time because my dad hardly ever got mad at us.

            Our elementary school was in the neighborhood so we all walked to school.  We also had a 7-11 market close by.  On mother’s day, my brother and I wanted to walk there so we asked mama for some money so we could by her a present.  We were so proud because we found some panty hose but unfortunately we didn’t pay any attention to the size and we got some extra-large.  Mama carried on like it was the best present ever.

            Virginia Beach was really growing but the coolest thing I remember about it was Mount Trashmore which was an old dump that was covered with dirt until it was the size of a small mountain.  Virginia Beach also had a lot of toll booths.  Mama got a ticket one time because she didn’t have any dimes and threw in a penny instead.  There was also the underground tunnel on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge which was pretty cool. 

            Halloween was always fun with a huge neighborhood full of kids except my mom was never very good at creating costumes or buying them.  Casper masks were very popular and of course we liked to dress up like gypsies or Indians.  My brother would throw his loot in his closet and I would sneak in and eat it a little at a time.  He had bunk beds and I would often sleep in his room because he didn’t mind.  He always thought there was a monster in the closet and you know, safety in numbers and all.

            By this time it was the early 70’s.  I have to say that I’m so glad I grew up in that era.  We grew up watching cool shows like The Brady Bunch, The Munsters and Scooby Doo.  Stranger Danger wasn’t a thing back then so we could play outside and run around, having the time of our lives.  By that time, daddy wasn’t gone overseas as much, and mama didn’t work.  Daddy was in his mid-30’s about that time and finally decided to quit smoking.  He said he always kept a pack in his shirt pocket.  Most people would be too tempted to smoke with them that close at hand but he felt the opposite.  He said it made him less anxious until one day another fella asked him for a smoke and daddy gave him the whole pack and then that was it. 

            Mama said I wasn’t going to be born in the Naval Hospital like my brother, which made her lay for hours by herself, not a cool rag or ice chip in sight.  She said she yelled and screamed a lot but nobody bothered to check on her until she was finally ready to deliver her baby.  She was by herself, no family to support her.  Brother was over 8 pounds which was huge for her tiny frame.  He came out all red and scrunched up; scaring her to death (she was expecting a little blond, cherub looking baby like her sister Sue had had a few months before).  My brother had a head full of black hair which needed to be trimmed by the time he was six months old.  Mama took him to the barber shop, on orders from my daddy because he didn’t want his son to look like a girl.  Before she knew it, they proceeded to shave his head with the clippers.  Brother had improved on his looks by then and looked pretty cute, until he had a buzz cut.  Mama cried.

            While daddy was overseas, I was born in Buchanan General Hospital, the old one in town before the flood demolished it.  I was only 6 pounds but apparently my claim to fame was giving my mama a bad case of the hemorrhoids.  I also had black hair which stuck out all over my head.  Some people may think I’m a natural blond since I’ve been coloring my hair since my 20’s but my roots are still pretty dark.  I was a few months old before I even met my daddy.  Welcome home!  Here’s your new daughter!  Daddy now had a boy and a girl and mama said I’m done and you’re welcome.

            Mama always told me I was a good baby until I got pneumonia when I was 3 months old.  She said she had to take me off the ‘titty’ because in those days you couldn’t visit your baby in the hospital (mama and grandma always called boobs titties, which use to embarrass me to death).  Mama’s ‘titties’ dried up by the time I got out of the hospital and I lived on evaporated milk and Karo syrup after that.  Can you imagine giving a baby evaporated milk now?  You’d probably be arrested for child endangerment.  Unlike my brother, I have never liked plain milk and it makes me sick to my stomach to even smell it.  When I was little, mama made me sit at the table until I finished my milk.  I would sit there patiently staring at the vile stuff until she got aggravated and let me get up.

            Before I was even 2 years old, we all moved to Scotland where daddy was stationed.  Daddy sailed over the Atlantic with his buddies on a Naval ship, while mama took a toddler and a 4 year old on a plane; my brother screaming his head off with an ear infection.  Back then, you did what you had to do but I can’t imagine how hard it was for her, leaving her family with two small children in tow.  To a young country girl with two small kids, it must have been exciting and a little bit daunting at the same time.  Once there, she had to find us a place to live, with furniture.  Things in Scotland were a bit different than they were back in the states.  Mama stepped up and took care of business.  We never had a lot but mama always made sure we had a nice place to live. 

            Brother was old enough to go to pre-school, which he did, and soon came home talking like the other kids, with a Scottish accent.  Mama didn’t know what to think.  Today, my brother is as country as you can get, the Scottish accent long gone.   His favorite greeting now is, “Whatya say now?!”  ‘What do you’ being all one word.   And he talks real loud. He used to love to hunt but not so much anymore.  His first gun was a BB gun that he got from our aunt Eula.  She gave it to him because her son accidentally shot my brother with it. 

            I don’t remember much from our time in Dunoon, Scotland (close to Glasgow) but I do remember my brother and I getting our picture made in a kilt.  I wasn’t having it and threw a fit but they finally got a shot which I still have today.  Mama still couldn’t do anything with my hair so she kept it short and manageable.  I looked like a boy.  She wouldn’t let my hair grow out until I was old enough to fight the tangles on my own.  I still fight with it every time it’s wet but I don’t want to look like a boy.  Mama loves bangs and didn’t want me to let them grow out, even after I begged and begged.  Grandma finally talked her into letting me grow them out when I was in the 5th grade or so. It’s funny that when she was young, she wanted to cut them and when I was young, I wanted to grow them out.

            Daddy had an old movie projector so we have lots of movies from our time there.  We camped on the banks of the Loch Ness, went to the Edinburgh Zoo, toured castles and spent lots of time with other Navy families.  Mom and dad had a German Shepherd named Duke and he was a hot mess.  Mom said she couldn’t go out of the house without him tearing up something, whether it was chewing up boxes of cereal and dumping them on the bed or pulling the curtains down.  When he got too hard to handle and control, they donated him to the police.  Still wanting a dog, they got Yorkshire Terriers instead, male and female.  That was the beginning of our love with Yorkies.  Their names were Scottish; Titch and Tuppence. 

            We have a lot of pictures from our time in Scotland but they’re not the best quality.  In the videos and pictures of my dad, he almost always had a cigarette in his hand.  He said he started sneaking cigarettes when he was only 13 years old.  He smoked until he was about 35 years old.  In that time span, it did affect his lungs and he developed COPD.  As I write this blog, he died two weeks ago, March 22, 2022, a little after 7:00 in the morning.  Besides Alzheimers, Parkinson’s and COPD, he also contracted COVID while he was in the nursing home, even after his vaccines and booster. My sweet step-mother, Evelyn took such great care of him but I know he’s glad to be in heaven now.

When I was younger, daddy had a hard time showing his emotions but as he got older he couldn’t tell you he loved you enough.  ‘I love you’ were the only words I heard him say when he didn’t (or couldn’t) say anything else.  Evelyn said he told her he loved her every day multiple times a day.   I don’t know why he went through all he did towards the end but I do know God had a reason.  I’m always telling people I love them.  You never know what will happen tomorrow.  I remember my daddy with love and I will always cherish the love he had for me. 

Leave a comment if you like the blog. I’m going to try and add to it every Wednesday. Thanks for all of the positive comments here and on Facebook. Your support is greatly appreciated!!!!