Part 2: I was borned a coal miner’s granddaughter but my dad joined the Navy

            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!!!!