Vowell Voices

Vowell Voices

Did anyone leave a black leather jacket at my house or do you know anyone that is missing a black leather jacket???? I think it is a female's jacket. Don't have everyon'e address so this is my only way of getting this out. Love to all, Jo

My Grandaddy--- Jack Vowell

Vowell Voices Kelsey Hale
My grandaddy was a very intelligent man. Everytime that I would go to their house we would give each other a big kiss and hug. We were always happy to see each other whether we were sick or not. He was a very great uncle, grandad, daddy, and a good friend. If it weren't for him, then most likely we wouldnt know each other. Well i have a story to tell and here it is:


The Cold Pill

It was at the beginning of the school year and i just got a big head cold. Well I called my grandmother to come get me from school because i didnt feel good. It turns out that after I ate lunch that I had to take a pill. Not only that but I cant swallow them. Anyway after I ate luch my grandaddy came in there with a pill, and I told him that i couldnt take them. So as soon as it went in my mouth and i put so much water in it, the water just came out of my mouth. We used so many pills that time because they kept on falling on the floor. Well I ended up taking the pill but it was just the powder. A couple of days later and I was all better, I went back to grandmothers and grandaddys house and he had the head cold. I believe that tought him not to force a pill down my throat. It was really funny and i will never forget it. Well Grnadaddy and I had good times together. It is just so hard to believe that he is gone. I love so him much. Even though you might not think that was funny, I still do and I bet he does to.


KELSEY

Memories

Vowell Clan:

I know it was impossible for some of you to get to Cleveland last week and I realize just how much I need to share memories of Uncle Jack with the rest of the crew. I would like for anyone who will to blog your favorite memory of Jack Gibson Vowell on the site.
Here is one of mine:
Uncle Jack always told one of his and Aunt Jo's earlier marriage bed stories. Uncle Jack told Aunt Jo that he was going to spit and it would go straight up and come down in her face. So Aunt Jo put her head under the cover to keep the spit from landing on her. Well, we all know the Vowell's ability to "let one rip" and he did, with Aunt Jo's head under the cover.

Christi reminded me of the year that Uncle Jack came to the reunion with his pony tail. Was he imitating Kent?

Scarlett said: I think he was. Poor Kent. And Jake had a ponytail, too.

Hello Family

Has anyone else had trouble getting on the vowell voices blogspot? My pc had been down for some time and now when I try to get on it reads not available or something. Donna said she had trouble also and wants to know if anyone else does. Hope all is having a great summer and not as HOT as it is here in Mississippi

New Lake Beulah Story

This week's paper had a picture taken last year of a "gator sighting" on the lake. The article stated that according to the distance between the eyes (picture was pretty graphic) the gator was 8 to 10 feet long. Guess where the gator was spotted! Right down from the Fireman's Club.
That is a very scenic spot of the "West Coast", we take wildlife cruises to that end of the lake. We have in the past 2 or 3 years seen: up to 4 bald eagles; a passle of piglets; deer; Asian carp "jumping" fish; and now maybe a gator!!!!
Anyone up for skiing?
Come on over!
Manager 1

from Scarlett: D'ya think the gator ran off the nest of snakes?

Drew and Margaret Bennett

Once Marjorie took Ruby, Sandra, Donna, Gayle and maybe Jake off to the hills to find Nebo Cemetary. She stopped to ask a woman raking the yard the directions to Nebo. The woman took her into a house trailor. When she came out, she said the woman wanted her to talk to the old man. The old man? We thought the woman was old! "This is Marjorie, Eli Jordan's granddaughter," the old woman told the older man. The old man said, "Eli Jordan? He married Nancy Ola, didn't he?" Neither Eli Jordan nor Nancy Ola is in this photo. This is Nancy Ola's parents, with her siblings still at home. I figure it was made after Eli Jordan and Nancy Ola ran off to be married. When I locate my info with their names, I will tell you who the Bennett siblings are. The parents are (An?)Drew and Margaret.

If you click on the picture it will enlarge.

Vowell Voices: A Fun Time

Vowell Voices: A Fun Time
Dominic is still talking about Tristin & the trucks!

A Fun Time

I have to add my two bits. I had a wonderful time at the reunion. I know Tristan did. All the dirt proves that. Everybody who worked so hard to make everything come together deserves kudos. And, Donna, you might have to freeze your bunnies (so they won't melt yet) and think of something to use them for at the next reunion. As Mary said, sharing memories is more fun than keeping them to yourself.

I missed being able to stay up talking. But when you volunteer to keep up with a 3-year old, you generally go to bed shortly after they do. I hope I can help create some memories for him. Maybe next time I can stay up a little longer.

Aunt Donna says: I don't know what Tristan will remember, but I will always remember him running out of the lodge, hitting the sidewalk headed for the green space between the two buildings. He knotted his hands into fists, pumped the air with them, and squealed with pure happiness, like he couldn't believe life could be this good. Watching the kids play with kinfolks they couldn't possibly know, where everyone had a friendly hand to reach out for them, or a ready smile, reminded me of all those times we had when we were growing up...a passel of kids and loads of adults who loved them.

To all the Aunt and Uncle and Cousin Bunnies

THANK YOU!!!!

(and to Good Ed and Holly Bunny, I gobbled that Lindt rabbit up quicker 'n a wink)

Chocolated Again and Again and Again

AND AGAIN

Chocolated

OH NO NOT AGAIN??????

The reunion

I just want you all to know how much I enjoyed this weekend! It was great to see everybody and hear all of the stories firsthand. I also really hope that everyone keeps on blogging! I'm sure that there were stories told that need to be written down somewhere so that everyone can read them!

Mary Alice said: You are correct!!! This weekend was great! There were some stories told that do NOT need to be written down HA - for example: My mother in Nashville with Jean and there was not any bathrooms at there disposal. Pizza anyone? That story prolly needs to stay off of the blog. I did enjoy many stories and visiting with everyone. I am already looking forward to 2 years from now.

Donna says: I had a wonderful time at the reunion. Stories...I love stories. And if you are passing through Mississippi, or Greenwood, Mississippi, stop, rest a while and tell me some more stories. I agree with Elise and Mary Alice...seeing everyone was great.

Becky says: I have a hard time telling people what they each mean to a reunion and to me, I seem to choke up really bad! But I do want to say to the WHOLE group how great this reunion was and thank you all for your part. Let's do this again sometime!
Love to all - I AM PROUD TO BE A VOWELL!!!

I did it ONE Memory a day until I left for the reunion

Well this is the last day at home here in chicago. I was able to find and publish a memory a day until I left for the reunion. I am on the road tomorrow with a full car and 2 children that are mine and 2 grand children that are mine also. To think I thought I was going to have a quiet drive to mississippi this time. Well things change and I will be listening to Thomas the train and DORA movies for 11 hours over the next 2 days. See yall on Friday

Why did Granny Vowell's yard have St Augustine grass

Does anyone remember? My dad decided once that he could bring plugs from New Orleans and start them in Grannies yard. So everytime for awhile on trips to Ruleville he would bring St Augustine grass to granny's to plant in her yard. He started planting them just to the right of the porch as you were facing her house.

Camellia said: Oh, Good Ed, thanks for this memory...that's the same reason 310 McClain had St. Augustine. I remember plug detail, and I think once when we visited in N.O. we came home with a sack of plugs? Scarlett, is this true? How on earth would we have fit a sack of grass in our car to come home? OH, yeah...Daddy was packing.

St.Augustine at 1511 Deering also came from N.O. by way of 310 McClain. When Charles edged his yard, he gave us the runners which we planted in the front yard. We had a good stand for a while, until bugs moved in. Still have a good bit in the back yard.

St Augustine at 317 Skeeter Robertson Road also came from NO - I didn't know this until this week, when Gary starting raking the dead cinch bug's grass.

Vowell Voices

Vowell Voices

Hey,my name is Kelsey Hale.I could not get on vowell voices so I am on with my grandmothers.I have wonderful ideas.The idea is what I always wanted to do with children.Athough I am only 13 years old I will need alot of help if you accept it.My idea was to have a scavenger hunt with all the little childdren.I am not sure when,where, or if there is alot of children that we could do it.I think it would be fun to do this actvity but, we will need some adults or older people that can direct the children.I hope that you will accept this.I dont know exactly how many chilren there is but,I also have another idea and that is to dress up like an easter bunny and let the children take pictures with the easter bunny.Maybe one of my brothers could help this come true but,I am not sure.After the hunt and after the easter bunny then maybe we could take a walk and look at the lake. If any adults need a babysitter then I would be glad to watch their or your child while you visit with the family.I promise I will be the best.Those are some of my ideas so please let me know how you feel about these activities.I will also be glad to hide easter eggs if you would like any help.Thank you so much for reading my blog.

INDIAN MOUNDS

Once a long time ago way went out in the country to an indian mound. I think we were visiting Uncle Carlos in Memphis. But it could have been Aunt Nita. I remember going out on an old road and then crossing some railroad tracks . THen we came to a mound. I think we walked into an excavation under a roof or dome. And layed out in front of us was the Inidan bones they were excavating. This was a long time ago. But the memory is still there.
If this was Uncle Carlos hause we did stay the night at his house. I got to watch Howdy Doody for the first time. Remember I did not have a tv when I was growing up.

Camellia says: when did you get a tv? Our first was when Uncle Carlis spent the night with us. We might have already discussed this...I think the Terrells got the first tv, and we went over to watch it...all we could see was snow with shadows moving across it. And Pearl and Ross got the first color tv...and the color was so bad, I wondered why.

Now...the Chukalissa Indian villege http://cas.memphis.edu/chucalissa/ is in Memphis. Jake and I saw it when I took him and a friend to the zoo, and we got lost on our way out of town. Jake told his friend, "My mother gets lost in the best places." We had done it enough, he knew it to be true. I figured getting lost was tourist instructions from God, so we took advantage of it. The villege was great...especially the grave. There was a woman with a baby who also had her head between her legs. I have pondered that for many years. And a young man of high status who died of a tooth abcess. I don't think they show the grave any more.

How many of you went to the Winterville mounds outside of Greenville? and raise your hands now, how many of you have seen the Petrified Forest at Flora? I have! I have!...and it really doesn't look like that forest where Annie hid out in Orphan Annie. But it's a nice trek. ****

Shelling peas

I am running to the end I dont know if I can pull 2 more memories out of my old mind before I leave
on Thursday morning. But I will keep trying

But back to shelling peas.

I do remember been given a bowl and told to shell them. Enough said.

Vowell Voices

SPECIAL MEMORIES

In all our memories lets not forget the latest ones:::::::
Aunt Nita and the RiverRoad Restaurant, all the family meeting we had there and the many times she fed us all the good food I hated to cook at home. Uncle Jack at the Pic-A-Bit with the kinfolk icee. Aunt Margie and Uncle Charles dressing the church with The Cleveland Rent All (that rents almost everything) wedding equipment and making the receptions so special for all our girls that were married here. Uncle Yogi that always gave us a good deal on a car, (wonder if I could get a good deal now?) Lady Jane directing our weddings altho she had to talk some into changes, SHE DID IT. Aunt Nell and Uncle Eddie, all the trips we made to their home in N.O. Maryland and Chicago, then to Diamondhead and to the casinos. Jack and Charles always trying to help Eddie pack his car to go home, Eddie had his own way of doing this. and where would we all be without the veggies from Aunt Imogene and Uncle Franklin's Truck Patch He always planted enough for everybody. Our first family reunion at their home in Ruleville. These memories will be hard to beat We all can't remember the younger memories like you young ones but these stick in my mind

Raw peanuts

I remember Gary and I driving in the old pickup truck, and stopping in the fields to throw some peanut bushes in the back. WE then would stop and eat the raw peanuts. They were really good. I thought this was neat but Holly has better memories with visiting Dothan Al. and her mothers side of the family. THis was the heart of the peanut country. THe only bad memory was that her grandmother would take her to Baptist church services and she would be pushed forward for the altar calls to be saved. Real bad memories.

Another trip

So once we decided we were going on vacation, only we didn't know where. Jake elected to go to Sherveport with Grandmother and pick up Michael and Amanda. We stuck Erin and Elise in the car, and started debating about which direction to head in. "What about the mountains?" Kent or I asked. "I've seen mountains," Erin said, "I live in the Oxford mountains." "I've seen mountains," Elise said, "we stay in the Starkville mountains." Oh, yeah. We better see mountains. And we did, until Elise and I satpressed against the seats and sucked our thumbs, and Kent and Erin ooohed and aaaahed out the windows. On the way back we were real glad they couldn't read yet...we passed all the signs for Dollywood and didn't have to stop.

THE PIG

Ok, I've been waiting on my sister to tell the pig story because she tells it so much better than me, so someone PLEASE remember to ask her about my mother's experience with the big greeen car and the stray pig!!


DO NOT ASK - It really isn't a funny story!
guess who?

Uncle Charles auto repair place

Ok I remember going with Dad to Uncle Charles auto shop. He had to work on the ski boat engine because it was not running right.
He set it up in a big drum and then started it after tinkering with it.

I also remember Uncle Charles car it had emergency lights I think in the hood area and also a siren. WE were told to never set of the siren
in the car but I think we did one time. He also had an emergency radio in his bedroom to listen to fire calls so he could go on calls.

This might be why I became emergency response manager in my town because I had it in my blood.

Scarlett: We also went there one year to do the pinata at Christmas. It was too cold to try it outside and we couldn't figure out how to hang it under Uncle Jack's garage. No one in Cleveland had a tree big enough to throw it across a branch anyway. And I think he was always tinkering with the boat motor. Thank goodnes he could or we wouldn't have all those wonderful memories about skiing at Beulah.

Vowell Voices

Vowell Voices

SURPRISES

Since Lori does not blog she said I could post her surprise
On her wedding day we were all on edge. This was our family's first and we didn't want to do anything wrong. We were walking around trying to think of something to take our minds off walking down the isle when the door opens and Greg Seghers walks in. What a wonderful surprise !!!!! He was selling books in Arkansas ( I think ) and drove over to see Lori and Gary get married. It was so great to see him we all forgot about everything but him for a while. That was 25 years ago.

While on weddings, who remembers Cindy and Frank's wedding in N.O? This is one I will never forget! Most of us stayed in a hotel downtown and am glad all were able to make it to the wedding the next day. WHAT A WONDERFUL TIME

Camellia says: Oh, that party, and staying in the hotel. I was wondering when somebody would bring that party up. I think Nell was invited to fly with an airhostess to Atlanta, but being a good mommy, she stayed for the wedding. And Greg was "Lori's" cousin...you know, when you matched the cousins up.

Vowell Voices: Eating

Vowell Voices: Eating

Still not the secret ingredient. A favorite Aunt told me once. You are not close

Small Town Info

One cousin's wife grew up in a small town down the road. Do you know how to cross a hot tar road when you're barefoot? Get paper bags from the Chinese grocery store and wear them like galooshes. And if you are bored at night, you can always kick the street lights. One good kick and you can put out all five of them at one time and plunge the town into darknesses. She and I tried it in a much bigger town, but we never were able to knock that first one out.

Easter egg hunts

Who remembers easter egg hunts over the years. Granny vowells yard stands out even when we had one of our first reunions. Making us go in the back room and then the eggs were hid and every one ran out of the front door. The eggs were everywhere. In the grasses around the house and in the oak tree roots, Around the pecan tree. Aunt Margie yelling she found an egg. Who can forget. I think we might have hid eggs at Aunt Margies once or even Aunt Imogenes but I don't remember. The best fun was watching the little ones find eggs.

Eating

Breakfast at aunt imogene's,
I remember the butter at the table made from fresh churned milk. It had a weird color but tasted good.

Lunch same place,
The cornbread put in the middle of the plate and the veggie soup or cut veggies poured on top.

Special lunch Uncle Franklin style
He taught me how to take white bread, mayo, big slice of ham and a big slice of white onion. Can't be beat.

And who can forget Aunt Imogene's ice tea pitcher and sweet tea. By the way I consider this desert.
Now I know the recipe but does anyone want to officially document it here. I know the secret ingredient that will be hard to get but lets see if anyone can guess it

Secret recipe - my foot!
It's called water/ tea bags (Lipton only) /sugar(lots) and an aluminum pitcher with a dent in the side. It was used to dip water out of the wringer washer.
Becky said this!!!!

Port Sulpher

I don't know how long we lived in Port Sulpher...Lori came to see us once. I had great fun letting her drive stick around the townsite, and taking her ice skating. She was embarrassed to try...I told her nobody from home would know if she fell down. Apparantly she wasn't as used to looking foolish as I was. She also got tonsillitus...something the Vowells girls were famous for.

The day we were moving from Port Sulpher, I went into a local restaurant to get a paper. There was my cousin Marvin. He had been living there for six months. This, folks, is a town of 3,000 people, one grocery store, no fast food, one road going through it and no stop light. And I hadn't run into him or Honey in six months. I guess it was the no stop light. Nobody slowed down enough to be spotted.

P.S. Marvin knew I was there. I didn't know he was.

In the counrty again

Gary took me out into the country one time to buy fireworks.
We pulled up to this really country looking place. I had a new jacket on that I had just gotten.
Well I got out of the car with Gary and started walking around the car and this big old junk yard dog started running
up barking its head off. Well i guess I looked like the easier target so it jumped up and chomped on my arm in the coat.
No damage to the arm but the coat had a good rip in it. We got our fireworks and got out of there.
I think we also got a red soda also

Camellia says: Where was this place? We used to get our fireworks in our stockings until we started buying them out of tents between Ruleville and Cleveland, but that was much later. By the way, Good Ed, I was not tired of the hunting stories, but I had already told mine of the one time I went with you guys...but surely you would have had more hunting stories if you had gone duck hunting on the Mississippi with Uncle Jack. *******

Pig Stand

Back to food again? How many of us have eaten at Belzoni's Pig Stand, that landmark eatery offering bar-b-que and mushy frenchfries? Whenever we headed to Jackson, we had to eat at the Pig Stand. And what was the name of the seafood restaurant at Manchac? Did we go with the New Orleans cousins to eat there? And to go to New Orleans and eat beniets at the Cafe du Monde, or po boys with olive salad at ? where? Central Grocery. And wasn't Uncle Ed's family living above a hardware store on Decatur street when he was born?

Scarlett: Is the Pig Stand still there? And how many of us drank cream from the little glass milk bottles when our parents got coffee? It seems we stopped there more as a break with Mother and Daddy getting coffee and us kids getting Cokes and chips. But we did eat there some. And what was the name of the place besides Cafe du Monde that was known for begniets and cafe au lait? I think it went out of business and Cafe du Monde was the only one left. Don and I took his brother and sister-in-law to Central Grocery for mufalettas once when we were there. They loved it! I know Cafe du Monde is repopened. Is Central Grocery?

Driving to ruleville from New orleans

Ok so no one likes guns and shooting. Whenever we headed north we always fought over who would sit where in the car. I always got the floor boards. That way I could read better. We would go across the lake and as we passed through a town called bugaloosa. It stank and you could not get away from the smell. It was a paper mill in the town and it smelled really bad. Then a lot of times we would stop at the place where they did cane syrup to get a can of it. I remember the mule going around in circles to crush the sugar cane. Then as we got near Ruleville we would all sit up to see who could see the 2 tanks first.
My sisters claim I saw these always first. That was the sign that we would be at granny's soon.

Manager 1: Don't know about you but I hate long distance trips - not as much now as I did when our children were younger. I am sure that the boys and I never did the "He's on my side" or the "he's looking out my window" or just the "he looked at me".
My kids had to have been the worst travellers! Once their Dad had had just about all of it - and stopped the van (we were about 500 yards from our house), told the two youngest to get out. They must have thought that he was really going to fuss or maybe beat them? But when they got out he closed the door and started driving away! They both started beating on the side of the van and begging to be let back in! Bobby stopped and let them in. That was the most pleasant drive ever!!! They did not say one word all the way to Sunflower!


We really thought that he was going to leave us!!! And if he wouldn't have been looking at me, I would not have had to tell on him!!!
~elise

Granddaddy Vowell

Does anyone else remember Grandaddy Vowell coming home and letting the little ones go through his pockets? He always had a piece of gum, or penny candy, or even penny (when it was a big deal the the kids) for each.

Dove hunting

Ok once Gary took me Dove hunting. I don't know about anyone else but this was the most expensive dove hunt in the world and I did not get far from Uncle franklins farm.

I bought a box of shells, went into the field and hid in the beans. Well I had to watch for Doves flying overhead and snakes crawling up my pants. I hit one dove after shooting off the entire box. I don't know how much that dove cost but after cleaning it it was maybe 1 or 2 ounces of breast meat and the cost of one box of shells. Needless to say I did not hunt doves ever again. To rich for my blood.

Sister Games and Eh-ah's

Those Wilkens/Storys are great game players. And once Scarlett and I joined them for Pictionary, and I discovered how bonded my sister and I were. They threatened to kick us out of the game because Scarlett could make a squiggle and I could guess the word immediately. Oh, the days of the quick brain. But once we got stuck, and I couldn't guess and she took the flat of her hand and pounded my forehead until I blurted out the right word! Big sisters. How would we ever make it without their loving care?

Talking about all the fun games makes me wish we could have a week to play. Three days. We can't even get all our eating in with three days.

More Guns and Family

These are the stories I have heard. I may have who said what mixed up. I heard the Vowells and the Bennets, seven siblings who each married a sibling from the other family) had family reunions in the hills until some lot of them got into a fight about who was going to direct the reunion and they burned down the community house.

Once Marvin and his brother Blannon were driving through the hills when a hillbilly, a wild man in coveralls, tore through the underbrush, waving a gun. Marvin gunned the accelerator. "Stop," Blannon yelled, "it's our double first cousin. We're kin." "I don't care who he's kin to," Marvin said, "I'm getting out of here. "

I heard later this particular double-first was jailed some time after for moonshining.

It Is Written

At some point Manager 1 and Camellia got involved in planning for the Easter reunion (our reunions...they have been going on long enough to be called vintage if not actually antique...imagine...but that's another blog). One year everyone was busy, and Camellia just took an old reunion notice and swapped names around for the current reunion. Manager 1 said it was okay, but Margie (Manager Extraodinere) called Camellia and said, "I'm down for plastic cutlery. Jimskinner's sister E-ah can get that at a much better price through the River Road." Margie was quite anxious about it. "No problem," Camellia said. "E-ah can bring that and we can find something else for you to bring." " But we can't," Margie said, "--IT IS WRITTEN!" Camellia was stunned about the new law before she remembered. "I wrote it, Mother," Camellia said, "I can unwrite it."

More shooting

I was real young. I was pestering grand daddy and my dad to let me shoot the shotgun. Well they pulled over to the side of a country road and gave me this old big shot gun. I held it up but did not rest it in my shoulder, aimed at the fence post and pulled the trigger. Well lucky the car was behind me. when I figured out what had happened I was sitting on the ground by the car. They were having a good laugh. This was not a little 410 . I was sore for days after this.

Hunting

Ok time to start hunting stories for a few days. One morning Gary wakes me up we are going hunting. It is still real dark.
We drive to a friends house in the country. And as we are driving into the front yard he warns me if the dad wakes up to not speak. Because he would here my northern accent. I said why? And Gary said his friends dad was a leader of the KKK in that area and he did not know how he would react to a northerner. Well needless to say I walked into that dark house with Gary and did not say a word. We did get out with his friend without me getting shot so that hunting day started great.

Granny Terrell

I remember Granny Terrell being the absolutely sweet. We didn't get to go to their house much. I think the boys got to do that more...the boys being on the farm, and the girls being in Cleveland. Wasn't the farm at the end of the road? Once we did go there, and she sent us out to crack the eggs a chicken quit laying. I had never seen unhatched chicklings, and they were astonishing. When Goldie Hawn was on Laugh-in she looked just like one of those chicklings.

Granny told the story of Ronald's birthday. He got a new car for his birthday,and he loved to take toys apart. Franklin asked his mother not to let Ronald take his toys apart on the first day he got them, so she was watching when he took his car in a corner to disassemble it. She went over to make him quit, which she felt a burning pain in her arm. Becky was biting her for fussing at Ronald. Don't make Becky mad at the reunion.

And Terrell used to stay with her after school. The report was always what cookies she and Granny Terrell made that afternoon. We used to count our Grannies just the way we added up cousins....we were rich with Grannies.

Just don't mess with my Nonald - or so they said I said!
Granny Terrell lived over the river and turn at the store spot, then down that road. Ronald and Gary got to go over on their bikes or even on the infamous horse "Red", I always had to wait on someone to take me.
Granny had a telephone, we couldn't because the phone company would not run poles over the river and if they went around the long way it would be too expensive. I think that the bill for the poles would be mom and dad's?
Down the road from Granny Terrell's was where Mom and Dad lived when they first married. That house burned while they lived there and if memory serves me correctly, Yogi was spending the night with them.
We have always been rich in grannies. You know all of us cousins called the others granny- Granny, so I always thought I had more than 2!
Manager1

Scarlett says: I think Gayle was the one who was most confused for a while. She tried to make the teachers as school believe (as she did) that Granny Powers was her real grandmother. Of course, to the rest of us cousins the teachers didn't know what they were talking about. We all had Granny Vowell, Granny Powers, Granny Terrell, and Granny Seghers (later Granny and Grandaddy Lipps). Nobody understands when I talk about my four Grannies.

Camellia says: Part of Gayle's problem was that she thought Aunt Margie was her mother (because Scarlett and Gayle looked so much alike) who just wasn't up to more babies, so she gave Gayle to Jack and Jo.

Great Grandaddy Poppa wake

ot every memory is a happy memory but it does stay with you. I remember when grandaddy poppa passed away. We drove up from New Orleans and also another relative came with us. But the memory was grandaddy poppa. He was layed out in the living room of granny's house and had a clear covering over him. I dont know whether this was fabric or plastic. I also slept in the front bedroom while there and could remember as a small child worrying about him in the next room to me. Also I was not allowed to go with the family up in the hills. They said it was a walk up the hill and I was to young. I think some of you have been up in the hills to this cemetary.

Scarlett: Isn't the Gibson family cemetary somewhere outside of Mathison? I remember going there, but not for Grandaddy Papa's funeral. I think I went when one of Grandaddy Vowell's sisters died. And I seem to remember going once when the main purpose of everybody coming was to clean off the graves (Memorial Day ?) I remember Granny Vowell going then. If you and Holly would come early one year, or come in the summer, I am sure somebody would go with you. We would have to ask one of the siblings exactly how to get there.


Camellia...the Gibsons were in Webster County, the Vowells in winston County. The Gibson cemetary is between Maben and Mathiston, I think. I don't remember Granddaddy Pappa in the living room. Do you Scarett? Perhaps they did not take us over for that. Granddaddy was in the living room, the last of the family members to be at home instead of a funeral parlor. I remember one of the Vowell girls coming to me and telling me Grandaddy wasn't dead, only sleeping. Oh, the poor confused baby. I explained carefully Grandaddy really was dead. It was years later I learned Uncle Blannon had fallen asleep on the couch in the living room, and he was the one the Vowell child was talking about. Also somebody brought in sugar cubes, the first I had ever seen, and we took some to the back room to share and eat. And Granddaddy, the day he died, was leaving the house, and came back in to kiss Granny good-bye, something he never did.

Scarlett, I think you went to Mars Hill when Aunt Anner died. We were given the choice and I stayed home. You came back and everybody had talked about how darling you were. Rats, I thought, I could have shared the darling limelight.*****

Scarlett says: I seem to remember Grandaddy Papa laying out. I think that is the first time I ever knew anybody who died (maybe not). I know I went to Aunt Anner's funeral. Aunt Annie Laura's daughters ( or maybe only one) rode in the same car. But I have a vague memory of another road that didn't lead to Mars Hill. It was on flat topography ( which couldn't have been toward Mars Hill) and something about Starkville but we turned off before then. I really think I went, if not to Grandaddy Papa's burial, then to one of the other brothers. But that could only have been Uncle Audie (who died much too early for me to be going to funerals) and Uncle T.N. and I don't think he was buried there. I have too many pieces of memory that I can't jigsaw with anything else.

Gibsons and Cars

Grandaddy Poppa bought a car, and made Ruby and Ada learn to drive to drive him around. Ruby doesn't look like she minded at all. Can you name your Gibsons?

Comic books

Ok I am a reader so I am going with this memory. Who had the best comic book collection? We would sit for hours and read the stacks of comic books.
Chuck, Sandra and Donna always had the historical comic books. Gary and Ronald Wayne had the action ones and did they have stacks of them. I remember fights over who's they were. We would always bring a stack that Dad let us buy for the trip up to Ruleville.

Camellia said: I liked the Fantastic Four, and Les Misrables. Gary got Mad Magazine, and I just didn't get it. But I didn't get Rocky and Bullwinkle and the three Stooges, either. Once when we went to New Orleans, I found this really great book on the bookshelf: The Little Prince. Uncle Ed's aunt had given it to him. I read it until we got in the car, then went to the library and found it. Did any of you love The Little Prince, too?

To The Rescue

Scarlett and I both remember the Saving Of Pat at a lake...Grenada, we think...Good Ed, we need your Grenada Lake memories. Pat went under the fence to a huge concrete slope which ended in the lake, maybe connected to the spillway. Pat was the only one little enough to fit under that fence...it had a drain dip there. Some one put a hand through and grabbed her clothes and hauled her back out. It was the happy-ever-after ending, and we were all so happy. And I felt the grown-ups were going to keep us safe forever.

Visiting in ruleville

aWhenever we were in Ruleville mom would take us to an older house. It was one of her aunt and Uncle's house.
Uncle audi? I think if anyone know their names chime in. He was bed ridden and did not know us. We would go in and visit and say hello then go out in the yard to play while mom visited. I don't know how old I was but I remember this.

Scarlett says:
Aunt May (Mae ?) and Uncle Audie lived somewhere across the railroad track from Granny Vowell's. I seem to remember them coming to Granny's house some before Uncle Audie got beddridden. He was one of Granny's brothers. Aunt May had the same silver pattern as Mother. Donna, did I get that silver? I think I did; I think it is is my closet. Granny had another brother who moved back to Cleveland some time after Uncle Audie and Aunt May had died. Uncle T.N. and (?) wife moved back from somewhere in Tennessee to Deering, just down the street from Aunt Jo and Uncle Jack. They had a son named Gary. They were around for a good while. Do you remember visiting them? I seem to remember both those uncles looking very much like Grandaddy Papa

Camellia says: Ruby said Tilman and Roxieanna were building a house, and Audie would bring May over and ask her what room she wanted. Ruby hated that, but she and May enjoyed each other. They used to get sent away from the table for giggling....and May was married. T. N.'s wife's name was Ruby, too, but he had married earlier, to Blanche Newsome? Nell and Nita will know these things. Nita and Bobbye Lee stayed with May and Audie to help them. Nita will have to tell us about this. May had a dresser with lots of interesting stuff on it. And Scarlett, you do have Mother's and May's silver. I hope it is in your closet. I have Lera's, but I haven't come across it yet. H'mmmm. So I'll play: Dink, Dee, Audie (Michael Raby looks like him) Ada, Ruby, T. N. (I think Judd looks like him, and the T. stood for Tilman) and Lloyd, whom am I missing? If E ah or Diamond Nell or Jimskinner don't fill us in, I will tomorrow......

Uncle Audie and Anut Mae lived in the house that Cindy Willingham (that fixed flowers for both the Merigold weddings) lives in now, next to Nubby and Merle Tolbert. After they moved or passed, Aunt Elsie and Uncle Carl lived there. Was it a duplex apartment? I can't remember going thru the entire house. It had a wonderful screened in porch all around the side and back. I remember Uncle Audie as a tall man (but I could have been short) and Aunt Mae as shorter than Granny Vowell. Was Aunt Mae a sister to one of the other aunts? Maybe double-first whatevers?
David and Lisa went to Arlington last year and got pictures of Uncle Lloyd's grave. I remember Aunt Nita going with Aunt Nell to the funeral, but then I kind of get his funeral mixed in my head with JFK.

Cool Aunts and Uncles

One cold winter night - under the water tower in Cleveland, all the girls got to have a slumber party. I even think that the NO cousins were here. After dark it started snowing - and we all got to go outside and play in the snow. Then we played "twister" and the aunt and uncle played too! That was way too cool!

driving in cars

We are all lucky we made it through our teen driving years. No seat belts and cars full of cousins. I remember a game we used to play.
We would be driving down the road between cleveland and ruleville and drive into the ditch fast and turn the lights out to try to hide from cars following us.
We were pretty stupid then. Anybody want to bare their souls on driving cars? Also sitting in the back of pick up trucks. Its a wonder none of us were bounced out.

Camellia says: This must of been boy-stuff. I don't remember the ditch and lights out....though Scarlett and I did some lights out duck down alleys with Johnny and Joe in Hollandale. And Manager 1 and I have already mentioned Chinese Redlight (why Chinese?) when we stopped and everyone jumped out of the car and ran around it. But do you remember 12:00 high? Does anybody remember that but me? It was the most stupid car trick?

How could we have worn seat belts, that would have limited the number of kids we could put in one car. But who was with Uncle Franklin the night he took us on back roads, and it was cold and we were hiding under seed sacks?

is wasn't a cousin thing, but our mother wouldn't let us ride with anybody without a license. My friends could drive without a license, so I had to lie down on the floor until we got out of town...then we drove to Indianola, and I could sit on the seat and look.

Manager 1 remembers 12:00 high as: the driver flips into the back seat and the next on the front seat drives. How did the driver know when to flip?

Camellia said: I thought you didn't remember that. As I recall we were going about two miles an hour. The driver inched up on the top of the back of the front seat, and when he yelled Twelve O'Clock high, he flipped, and the passenger in the middle of the seat scooted over. How dumb can you get?******

Visiting Aunt Anna's

Ok I know I am spelling this wrong. But I never saw this name in writing just orally said to me. I remember driving into the yard and the guinee hens would start making noise. These were the watch dogs. Mom always would take us to visit whenever we went to Ruleville.
I remember being asleep one night and I am sure dad or mom carried me into the house and put me to bed. I woke up the next morning in a back room and did not know where I was. That was the day aunt anna brought me to the corn field and I remember it was twice as high as me. She had me stand at the end of a row and wave a flag. Then the crop duster used me to pull up at the end of the row. I think this is why my hair is turning white before my dads did which was never. Also I remember going to the corral. The fence was really tall and the cattle were pretty mean. You knew you did not want to fall in. Well I know I have butchered Aunt Anna's name can someone help.

Marjorie Ann

Marjorie Ann (Margie Ann, if you grew up with her in Ruleville) told me this story. The Boy Scouts camped out at Dockery. I think her son Chuck camped out there when he was a Boy Scout. She said she used to sneak out and go to Dockery when she was young. Nita, do you remember anything about this? Also she said her dad kept his cigarettes in that back closet with no inside door handle. She always took one to smoke on the way to school. Her mother caught her. Gosh, not only was she smoking, she was STEALING FROM HER DADDY! She said she felt terrible about it. "So you quit taking the cigarettes?" I said. "Of course not," she said.

Family history

Does anyone remember being told that the family migrated east? What little I remember had to do with migrating west (Okalahoma ?) and not doing well then turning around and coming back east. It seems that is the bunch who settled in the Delta right about where Granny Vowell's house stood. Anybody?


Camellia says, We'll ask the siblings. Mr. History says the migration from the hill country in the south began before the Civil War, as the settlers' kids grew up and ran out of room to claim their own. They went West (Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma), and those who went the earliest tended to get the best land and stay. The later arrivals found it hard to make a living, so they returned to the last frontier: The Mississippi Delta. Our neighbor (Bonnie Joel, who was also a Vowell, a distant cousin) was a baby when her family returned to the South. She traveled by covered wagon, and she got a severe case of poison ivy. She said an Indian took her and 'cured' her and she was never allergic to poison ivy again. Just an aside note here.

driveins

There were 2 driveins One in Cleveland that we would all get in cars and rive around in circles. We would stop and order something. I think it was chuck that like kamikasies. I know I liked cherry coke the best. What was everyone elses favorite. THen there was the one in ruleville by the ball parks? We went there a lot after playing baseball. Who remembers the names of these driveins.

Scarlett:
The one in Cleveland was Bob's. It was on the highway next to the bowling alley. O.K. Ruleville folks. I've forgotten the one in Ruleville. Or are you referring to . . . . (senior moment--I can't pull up the name). Just got it (I think)--the King (Keen) Freeze on the road across from the high school.

There was something else about the King Freeze. After I got my license, I stopped one summer day to get something. I was at the window and suddenly realized the car was rolling backwards. I panicked. It rolled into the street and stopped at a sign post across the street. Nothing was coming, thank goodness, and no damage was evident. But it sure scared me.


Manager 1:
Ruleville's was the Mecca - it was by what once was a little league ball field (on the same spot that Yogi had a car lot -{name please, Yogi}). Mecca wasn't like Bob's that had car hops, we had to get out and order or go in to eat. A Mecca burger (chilli, cheese, slaw) was the best. Once I stayed in Eudora with Jackie and while I was there I got sick - tonsils you know, Uncle Edward came to pick us up and we stopped in Indianola at Labella's to get a Labella burger (like a Mecca burger) I was too sick to eat and enjoy it. Oh yeah, Aunt Nita, I won't tell how you gave me Alka Seltzer for my tonsillitis.
Bob's had a sandwich like a ham hoagie that was wonderful! You know we Vowell's talk a lot about food, don't we?
When I saw drive in , Ed, I thought first of the Chief Drive In (show) in Cleveland. Did we ever go there as a family?

Camellia says: The Chief drive-in in Cleveland was much fun. Uncle Edward managed it at one time, and Aunt Nita and Uncle Edward lived in that long house that was at its side. The drive-in had a playground up front, and during the summer months when boys couldn't camp out in a house with no windows, door or roof, you had to use Pic. And you could see it from Granmy Powers house? One more thing about the King Freeze. Am I crazy, or wasn't that the first location of the Cleveland RentAll?

Scarlett says: Yes, I think it was. And do you mean see the screen from Granny Powers house? I think we could because we could see Baxter's if we looked down the street.

Fireworks

Back in the olden days, when you could walk the edge of danger and get back safely, I remember being in Granny's house. It seemed like an older, country kind of house, the living room dimly lit (I always remember that living room without much light, but shadowy, like underwater. Very nice), and it was night. Grand-daddy Pappa was sitting in his chair next to the fireplace. The floors were wooden. All at once there was noise outside in the cold, and Terrells erupted into the living room, laughing and roiling like Tasmanin Devils. The fun had begun. The boys came in lighting fireworks and sticking them under people's feet and throwing them with abandon INSIDE THE HOUSE. (Children, do not try this at home! Times were different then)

Aunt Margie (who happened to be my mother) always said they had fireworks at New Years and not the fourth of July,because nobody had money in the summer. All money had gone to putting the crops in the field and there would be no money until after they were harvested, so they only had fireworks for New Years. And we always did, when we were growing up. Fourth of July fireworks came later. But to tell the truth, in Mississippi, winter was the best time for fireworks...no misquitoes and no sweat.

We had sparklers and firecrackers, and the boys liked to light their firecrackers (180 pack?) all at once. Some kid always burned a hand on the sparklers. We had roman candles, but usually dads had to help you hold them. I know Jake and Elizabeth had roman candles explode in their hands.

The fireworks got more elaborate and we eventually moved New Year's to Deering Street in Cleveland. Every year I thought we were going to burn the neighbors houses.

And Michael LOVED fireworks. He got them for the Fourth of July and for Christmas. And he had a batch when we stopped on Skeeter Robinson Road, and we (I) let him shoot them off in the back yard. He had put his stash on the ground next to the utlity room door, and began shooting. Only the spark, oh, the spark, and they all went off and scortched the back wall and maybe killed the ac unit next door, and maybe the elderly lady in the house next door, too. Franklin will have to tell you that story.



I remeber shooting fireworks on New Year's at Grandmother's (Imogene) with Elizabeth and Melanie. I'm sure there were many more people (there always was) , but Melanie ended up falling into the huge ditch out front and being so upset because she had on her new clothes that she had just gotten for Christmas!

~elise

from Scarlett
I thought the inside fireworks came a little later in the day. I didn't think they came in lighting them. But when everybody was there and getting ready to do fireworks, then the inside fireworks would be set off.
I also remember several years, I think both New Year's (or Christmas) and the Fourth of July after some parents got a little concerned about their children shooting fireworks (on down the line from the first or even second group of cousins), Jean would have bought what seemed like a whole stand of fireworks and would spearhead shooting them off at the old farmstead. Several carloads would trek out to the country for Jean's fireworks. But we were usually in Ruleville--not Cleveland--so we continued to worry about the Deering neighbors' houses when we were in Cleveland.
Jean would put a fireworks display on

Cousin Math

Now you could figure out who was in that swing when it fell...we always protected the babies and wouldn't put them in mortal danger that way...but cousin math...did you do it? How did you divide the cousins up...just a start here, so anybody can jump in and lump them any way they wish...

Scarlett...the oldest who got held by grandmother Gibson, and drank coffee from a saucer, and could rough it up with the rest of us, but still liked to spend lots of time sitting in with the adults. I heard she didn't much like it when

Ed, Camellia and Gary arrived within six months of each other

Then Therapy Pat came along as a singleton so she was always included in the second batch.

Then Chuck, Ronald and

Jackie Faye came along, but Jackie Faye was always cast in a group with

Becky and Sue, well, if they weren't being too exclusionary

Then Marvin and Kenny Michael

and after that, I kind of lose the sets. I think I remember Cindy Nell as a baby, though Gayle was really the first baby that was ours to play with.

So on the swing: Scarlett, Ed, Gary, Camellia, Pat, Ronald, Chuck, Becky, Jackie and Sue...

At some point, we began dividing for spend the nights, boys and girls...that included all the kids down through Marvin and Ken.


WOW! Dejavu- I had a conversation with three sisters and we discussed twins - not as in birthing at the same time! But as in cousins - One sister said "I just had to keep up - when she got pregnant I did too!" They each had 7!
But Camellia: the pairs can be counted down to the currecnt generation (with some help, of course): I can't think of all - but I'm sure someone can -
Sandra - The Path - Paver
Donna, Ed, Gary -
Pat - right behind the group before - (not enough space to not be considered single)
Chuck, Jackie, Ronald
Becky, Sue
Marvin, Ken , Gayle, Cindy Nell(this this where I am not sure)
Cindy Leigh and who
Greg, Janice, Lori (?) who am I leaving out?
where does Bob go?
David, Jackie, Jean
Mary - you can't be a single - can you ?
Lady L, Lois, Kathy
Terrell, James, Heath
Judd - right here?
Josh, Melanie, Kate
Elise, Elizabeth, Amy

Okay I can't begat any more!
Please continue the list (my mind has faded.....)

Back to the swing - We tried hard to put as many as we could! And then some!

Manager 1

I can't add much, but

Robert, Micheal, Ryan, Tucker, Trent , Matthew, Mitchell, Corey, Taylor
Parker, Kelsey, Malyn, Jackson, Lora
Kylie, Elenor?
Micheal Raby, Jessica?

And the next generation
and aren't Kathleen and Cindy's granddaughter the same age?
Josh(Kathy's), Will(Melanie's)

~elise

Meghan "with that pretty red hair" Dallas and Olivia You forgot Kathy's twins Greg and Tony and Cindy Nell's Francis, Liz and Sarah. Sue's Danny and Ruby, then Ken's Madison and Garret. Greg's Ryne, Corbin and Kyle, Lady's Duncan and Corrin but if you can put them in order of their age 'YOUR'E GOOD' Sure I missed some also

Swings

I was rereading some archived blogs and remembered something that had crossed my mind several times. Who remembers the swing on Granny Vowell's front porch? We would load up that swing with as many kids as we could and then swing as high as we could. How many times did that swing pull out of the ceiling? Who was in it when it fell any of those times?

Old Ruleville Baseball stadium

I remember climbing around in the stadium behind the high school.
We would then slide down under the seats to the drop off. It is a wonder we did not fall out of the stadium and break something.
Gary might remember us doing this and I think this stadium was torn down also.

ed

Easter Confession

One Easter Sunday we dressed in all those clothes Manager 1 spoke of, loaded up the car and went to church on our way to Ruleville. Scarlett and Little Brother put their Easter baskets in the shade in the back seat. I wanted to put mine in the shade, but Mother said it would be fine where it was. When church was over we discovered Scarlett and Little Brother's Little Frankies were fine (those chocolate Easter Rabbits were called Little Frankies, and I love saying that)...mine had melted...all over my easter grass, all over my Easter candy. Out it all had to go. Mother told me not to be upset, Scarlett and Little Brother would share with me. Yeah. Marshmellow chickens. Creme Eggs. Yuk. I was a chocolate girl all the way. Okay. Here's the deal. Some of the other kids shared with me, too, but I STOLE all the Hershey's kisses I could get my mitts on. If you missed your Hershey's kisses one year, it was me. Deprived children do not make good citizens. And old habits die hard. So warn your kids to watch their baskets closely if they have hershey's kisses in their Easter basket.

OLD fallen down house in the cow pasture

Who remembers the old house in the field behind uncle franklin's farm. I remember playing in the house but we probably were not supposed to.
We did a lot of stuff we were not supposed to but I can't say everything or I might still get that switch again.
We used to climb around in the house probably to get away from the cow that never liked me. I did not like that cow she had horns. I remember one time diving under the electric wire just before she was trying to get me in the you know what. It was either get shocked or get horned. I picked getting shocked.

Camellia says: I've been thinking about that house since we've started our trip down memory lane. I remember cottonseed in it? And it seemed far out in the field, though I don't remember it being off limits. I remember once we were in there, and somebody started walking in another room...somebody that wasn't us! We saw the foot shadows beneath the door. It turned out to be a cat. And your mother tried to clap kids up who were out at that house. She said handclaps didn't carry as far in the country as they did in New Olreans. I think the cow's name was Bossy. She ruled the pasture. What I didn't do was swim in the irrigation ditch! How did I miss out on that? Did you? Will you tell me the stuff you did you weren't supposed to. I'm afraid I missed out on too much. *****

Okay, I'm BACK!
The old house in the field was really the old house in the pasture. My memory is not quite as good about that as it should be..... But
That was the house that Mother and Daddy lived in when they first came back to Ruleville. They were living in Nashville (I think) and Granny Terrell needed them to come home (I don't know why) (Gary, can you help me here?) So I guess that that means the other house was built and they were the first to live there?
The cow (I don't remember her (?) (horns on a Her?) name) but anyway the cow probably only chased you if you were harrassing her(?).
I do remember that one year the boys built a play house in the back yard. One room with many floors, windows (4), one door, no roof. Some young kids would get on the top of the house and yell at above mentioned cow!
Once the boys decided to camp out in the play house. Anyone who has ever been in the Mississippi Delta knows you can't camp out in the summer, in anything that doesn't have window closures or a roof or a closable door!!! The mosquitoes chased them inside. But we delicate girls really wanted to be out there with them bugs or not!
Irrigation ditch: the way that water was transferred to the rice fields. The water was icy cold! But where it came out of the pump the place was deep. We just knew that there were no snakes in that water because it was so cold - I was never that sure!
Manager 1

Crochet and Knitting

When we were young, one of the Granny's, Vowell or Powers , taught us how to make a chain. When I got older, I wanted to make a shawl, but kept getting stuck in the same place in the instructions. I went to Granny Vowell's, and she crocheted a bit, and then gave it to me. I had to turn it around because she crocheted lefthanded, but I learned and made many a shawl. Sitting in her living room and crocheting and talking with her wonderful.

She told me she learned to knit righthanded. She said she learned to knit when the government asked the women to make sweaters for the boys fighting in World War I. She said she put her name in the sweater she knitted, and the fellow who got it wrote a thank you note, but then someone came and asked her not to put her name in the box, because they wanted every boy to think it might could have come from his mother or his own sister.

CORN CRIB

I have been off for a few days. Sorry it was giving me trouble signing in.

Ok I remember sitting up in the corn crib with BB guns with Gary. Trying to kill the mice or were they rats that were eating the corn. I think we made them mad. The BB guns were to small for these corn eaters.
I know this next statement is sexist but I need to say it.
Do the boys in the Vowell family remember when they got their BB gun's. Mine came one Xmas. I think the girls in the family did not get BB guns because of the concern that they would turn them on the boy cousins when we got them mad at us. Ok I started it again Sandra.

from Scarlett
I remember a BB gun that I got for Christmas one year. I don't know how long I had it and I don't think I was allowed to take it to Ruleville. I did shoot it at home. And when I killed a bird, I cried. Maybe girls didn't need BB guns but we wanted them.

A Question to JimSkinner and the Terrells

The monster lived in the canal by the Quiver River. It had green or red hair. I thought the Terrell boys told me you told them it lived there. they did not have much information about it at the time, but I felt there was a lot I wasn't being told. I do not think I was the only kid to go faster if I rode a bike past the canal. I didn't believe in the monster, but there was that shivery feeling and no sense taking chances. And it may have contributed to this insane notion in my later life, that a great hand could rise out of Beulah and snatch me under water if I sat on the pier at night by myself.

Also we had an ax murderer who live in our storeroom. Like Ronald I hated to lift up my arm to reach for a pull chain in the dark. And we had a witch who lived by our garbage can. I hated taking the garbage out at night. I found out later my mom had some similar small problem with either the storeroom or the garbage can at night. I guess life is more exciting if you have monsters hanging about. Not!

Can anyone tell me more about the canal or the monster?

The Hay barn

Uncle Franklin's barn...it had a tractor shed, and a cow stall. Uncle Franklin milked the cows, and he let us try...I wasn't any good at it. He also squirted us with the milk. Did we drink that milk? Did Aunt Imogene churn butter? But it had a huge hay storage area. You had to climb up to get to where the hay was stored, and it was deep and cavernous. I don't remember us playing in there, though it was a perfect spot for secret adventures. Terrells, why didn't we play in the hay bin?

I thought we played in the hay bin. But you could not play in the cotton trailers. You might suffocate, remember that?
Mother did churn butter. I really just remember Granny Terrell churning on our back porch, wonder why she was on our porch?, but Maddie (our maid) sold butter, she had the neatest molds for her butter, they had flowers on them!
Manager 1

Country Grocery stores

This is one of my earliest memories. Sitting on the counter in grandaddies store just down from Gary's house in the country.

I remember the floors were wood boards. I remember the good things that were in the jars. Don't remember much else but if anyone can let me know when did this store close I could get a my age when I remembered this.

Also we use to go and help Uncle Jack at the store at the half way point. I think that is why they called it half way i think? I don't think we were much help. I remember climbing around on the roof and playing robbers or indians I don't know which?

THE GREAT CHICKEN CAPER or WAS BIG BLACKIE A MYTH?

Uncle Franklin had a coop for the hatchling chickens, and cute they were. One day we got a wild (and stupid) notion to round up all the chickens and stuff them in the coop. There was a medium sized brown chicken who thought we were insane and deserved to die. She tried to kill us and we had to take refuge in the kitchen. Franklin came home and let the chickens out. The brown one calmed down. And not one word was mentioned about Big Blackie. Maybe he just loaded us up and took us home. Did those chickens survive, or was there a big die-off in the flock?

Games

I don't remember the radio game, but I would have NOT won. I am not musically inclined. I remember:
Chinese Checkers
Checkers (this was granddaddy's game and we wanted to play as well as he did)
Dominoes...oh, those were great. Lots of strategy, the men seemed to really love it, and before we actually learned how to play we could build those lines that we then knocked down)
pick-up sticks
jacks..Sandra was the best
ROOK the first card game the kids were invitied to join
gin rummy
pinochle when you played pinochle you really knew you were growing up
pounce, battle they could make you sick
oh, battle ship?
murder in the dark
piggy wants a signal
egg toss ...aka as chicken
crochet
badminton
stilts?
walking with cans?
pogo sticks
hoola hoops
ball in the front yard...nobody has really talked about that ditch

Scarlett adds
What about tops? Remember winding the string and throwing to make it spin? I tried it again recently for Tristan. And I can still do it sometimes.

And yo-yo's and the tricks we tried to do--walk the dog, around the world--what else?

Moving to another room at grannies

Radio Games

I remember sitting in front of the radio in the back room. We used to listen and then write down the song we heard.
The winner was the one with the most songs. Now I am wondering how anyone won we were listening together to the same radio.

I see an egg!

Easter:
Putting eggs in tailpipes! Who did that?

Sorry Aunt Jo - The year of the undone eggs?

I can remember Bob and Marvin eating their eggs sitting on the porch. Seems to me like they were hiding. (Probably selective memory again.)

I remember at least one year that the eggs had to be hidden inside - once at Imogene and Franklin's. Was that the only year that it rained on Easter?

Remember new Easter clothes? and Hats? and Gloves???????? and wearing all that to Granny's house - I couldn't wait to get that junk off!


My eggs were soorta soft ----- but pretty. I spent more time decorating them than cooking them. Sorry, Guess I knew way back then that cooking was not something I wanted to do.

G_Maw

Feather beds

OK sleeping at grannies

Who remembers when the feather beds were pulled out. I think we got into so much trouble because we never could go to sleep when we were all together. I also remember the feather beds being put under the table in the corner of the dining room. Over by where the bed used to be. Ok looking for feather bed memories

Camellia says: I never slept under the table. Wow. 5 kids on a feather bed on the floor. Not very comffy. Very hard. Feather bed on top of the mattress in the front bedroom, winter, many quilts, Granny as a sleeping partner. Best sleep in the whole world. Waking up with all parts of me still asleep except for my very cold nose, the rest of me warm, warm, warm, and Granny up, in the kitchen, making what? Biscuits. Heaven. Aunt Nell made everyone feather pillows out of the feather bed.

Who made the feather bed? ******

Where We Were

Several years ago, after Mary had moved out of the Front Street house, I went through it before anyone else moved in. I was shocked at how the house had shrunk during those years. Pat, you were right. It seemed to go on forever. I wonder what the siblings remember about that house, and other houses they lived in. People say if you remember the physcial details, other details return to you. What were the magic spots in Granny's house? Do you remember when she had a screened in back porch, partially covered with some plastic that flapped? The back porch was where the ice chests were kept when everybody gathered, and one feat of grimy kids was to sneak on the porch and grab ice from the chest without getting caught. What else was on that porch?

Jonquils, Iris, Chinaberries, and Figs...

Granny loved her flowers. I always think of her with jonquils, two long rows of them out in that huge front yard, and the thick cluster around the pecan in the front yard. She called them King Alberts. Eggs were hard to find around the pecan tree. After the tree fell in the front side yard, she planted a bed of iris there. She knew the colors of her iris, and collected them. She had beds along the north side yard of the yard. Whenever I stayed with her alone, we would take the iris tour. There were also iris and daylilies separating the side yard from the back yard, and in the back there was the fig tree and the grape vines. And of course, at the very back of the yard, were the dewberry patches. And the long iris bed along the border of the back yard. Scarlett was right about the china berry tree. It was very accessible for climbing, but very brittle. Someone was bound to come hurtling down out of that tree. One year Aunt Pearl and Aunt Pauline made china berry necklaces. Uncle Ross might have helped. I never got the hang of it, but they looked like little wooden beads. Very fetching. We just used them to throw at each other. And the mimosas in the front corner of the yard were very easy to climb. There was a black walnut on the north side yard....oh, yes, she had a jonquil bed cutting off the front yard from the north side. Ooops...the black walnut had come from the family place in the hills, but she had it cut down because it was trashy. And she had hydrangias on the side, under the dining room window. One year she started either camellias or gardenias with a bloom cutting put into the ground and covered with a gallon glass jug. She let me help her put down the brick for her patio. That's when I noticed how she said aege for edge, and I would wait for her to say it because I loved the sound of it. I think the Terrell boys came over to cut her yard after Yogi left.

OAK TREES

Well granny's oak trees were always a game waiting to invent.
I remember trying to go all the way around the big ones on the bedroom side of the house. I won if I could go around without
touching the ground. Also this big tree was the reason I can't stand mushrooms. I used to kick the big mushrooms growing on the tree.
I don't know where I heard this but I was cursed by the mushroom witch to never eat mushrooms again. Camellia did you ever curse me for kicking the mushrooms?
Well then they all fell down. It must have been some kind of storm to take down all those big trees. The new game we played was how far around the house we could get walking on the tree trunks without touching the ground.


Camellia says: oooohhhh, I had forgotten about the mushrooms! Thanks for reminding me. No, I never cursed you, but I didn't know you were responsible for taking those trees down. H'mmmm. I'll have to rethink my stance on that. I only cursed you for three things: stealing my icing ball at Bay St. Louis, though it was your birthday, starting the gender wars, and flipping the checker board when you were losing, since you didn't lose a lot. Otherwise you were okay and pretty interesting. I loved walking those trees. Scarlett talked about it earlier. And what about the rope swing in the tree that didn't fall in the front side yard? *****

Two more memories

I missed a day was at a wine tasting the last 2 days. Added 3 more cases to the wine cellar.
I guess you could call holly and I wino's but we sure like our bottle of wine with Saturday dinners.

Well the first memory is XMAS again. or really anytime we ate at Granny's. The kids were always fed first and sent out on the porch.
The men were fed next at the table. I don't really know when the aunt's and granny ate. I guess this was before women's lib?

The second memory is granny giving us I think 10 cents maybe 15 and we could walk down the street to town where the little store was on the corner. We would stand there in front of the candy counter deciding how much candy we could get for that amount of money. We always came back with a paper bag full of candy or was it pockets full. I think it usually lasted a few hours.

Camellia says: Tables...I remember the men and kids ate at the same time. The men ate in the dining room, and the kids ate on floors or the kitchen table. It seems like over the years, they began making room for the women, but they still ran and fetched and served. It was a big deal to 'graduate' to the grown-ups table. And later, plotting your strategy about where you were going to eat....the grown-ups had more gossip, but the kids had more giggles.

I head more than one sibling sister say when they were kids, the children ate after the men finished, and the men thought nothing of sitting for hours after lunch drinking coffee royale. They swore their children were never going to have to sit around hungry and wait. We didn't either. By the way, Good Ed, I don't recall being mad about your climbing the water towers (why should I when it seems like I would have been in on that decision), but when the girls got old enough, they helped clean up and wash dishes, and the guys didn't have to. Now does that seem fair? ******

Christmas Continues

I also remember the car trips to Ruleville, even though I was crammed in the very back of the station wagon, all the way to the ceiling of the car because I was smallest. Well, that's where I always wanted to be, but the truth is I usually had to sit in front between Mom and Dad or that's how I remember it by the time I could remember the trip. I always loved seeing all the farm lands, that's when I knew we were very close. One time Dad stopped the car and Mom got out and picked off some cotton from someone's field.Before we left from Homewood we would always stop and get Dunkin' Donuts and Mom would fill her green (?) coffee travel thermos. Dad drove all the way. His hands would get tired and he would clap them together and put them right back on the wheel. Does anyone remember when Ken suprised all that Christmas Eve Night. That was so exciting. Everyone was sleeping everywhere on the floors.
I remember burning my feet everytime I'd walk across the floor heater.
What about the deer next door to Granny's?
Goodness, the bunnys at Aunt Margie's & Uncle Charles house.
I am so ready to hear "I see an egg" I can hear it in my head. We are all so excited to see all of you!

Big Ed's Waffles

How many of you had the pleasure of having Eddie, Sr. make waffles for you? When Momma and Daddy and I went for a visit at the end of summer, 1999, we played in the whirlpool, were chauffered in the convertible, went to the casino, had some good seafood for supper (was it bar-b-qued shrimp?), and had the deluxe waffle breakfast, with strawberries. Breakfast was so wonderful and gracious, I came home and bought a waffle iron, and went to search for the perfect waffle recipe. The secret is cornstarch. I have worn out that waffle iron, for guests and the occasional Sunday delight. When I was staying during the week with dad and coming home on week-ends, Sunday waffles were a way Kent and I celebated our time together. Every time I make waffles, I think of Ed and of his contagious delight in making his guests waffles. Tonight I am going to use our new waffle iron for the first time. We will have strawberries with them. And once again, I will celebrate that time when Ed made our time together very special.

Biscuits again, and teacakes

Before we leave biscuits: I thought biscuits were the necessary bonding agent to hold the family together. I wish the siblings would tell me what they remember about the biscuit board. I do remember Granny making biscuits in it, but I don't believe she used it every time she made biscuits. I can see it on her counter, with the early morning light glowing in her yellow kitchen. And Aunt Jo told me Jack told her once if she ever served him canned biscuits, he would divorce her (I am not sure if she had served him canned biscuits or it was a prenuptual agreement). Now she says he does okay with the frozen ones, and she can just pull out as many as they need to cook. At any rate, I struggled to learn to make good biscuits so I could show my family how much I loved them. But if you talk biscuits to people, the debate ranges from flat biscuits to fluffy one. In Tom Harrison's family, flat biscuits were deemed the only acceptable biscuit, so I should have known our cultures were incompatible.

Nita has told us about having to take biscuits to school, but I've never heard any of the rest of the kids talk about it. I would love to have Nita's story again, and if any of the siblings have their own biscuit memories, to let us know.

And when the family lived...where? Boogar Den?...the family down the road was really poor, and Granny tried to have something for her own kids to eat when they came home, usually cold biscuits? but she could not feed the neighbor children, and it caused her grief, because she knew they were hungry. Do any of you remember this time? Is this when you rode to school in a pen?


It was many years and 4 children after we married that Jack and I had it out about canned biscuits. We were late for Sunday school, Gayle had decited to hid, we looked everywhere for her but no Gayle. Most everyone on our block was in sunday school already (don't think we even thought of calling police). We didn't know what to do !!!! Finally, here comes Gayle out of a closet etc. laughing like she had really done something. I"m sure she couldn't sit down for some time since we never made it to church. I thought since we were going to be at home I would cook us a nice breakfast. I got everything on the table and called my family to breakfast, saving the biscuits for last. I was so proud until Jack walked in and saw the canned biscuits. He hit the roof, "I don't eat canned biscuits" was a few of his words. Thought that was the end but he realized he needed me more than " home made" biscuits. It was several yearls later that Granny taught me how ti make biscuits. It was always a treat but guess what I discovered FROZEN biscuits. We eat the several times a week now and Jack always says "Thank you, that was good." My how times change!!!!!!!

G_Maw

Scarlett

Scarlett and daughter are in Birmingham, England. She will return after the 18th.

New memory new baby

Kate had her baby today, Little girl 7 lbs 2 o.

Her name is Braelyn Witte

???????

Chitterlings?

Muscadines?

Was there a ghost in the pump house?

Ditch muscles sauteed in butter sauce?

Did we drink unpasturized milk?

Oh, yeah, those crunchy fish fins were just as good as the tails.

Quiver River

Many of you know that the Terrell Family grew up on the banks of the Quiver River - or atleast close to the Quiver River.
I have made mention of the mailbox being past the river bridge and we had to ride bikes or walk to get the mail. Jackie and Marvin spent time with us in the summer and one time Ronald and Marvin went to get the mail on the Ford tractor. (Question: alot of Ford tractors were around the area, but were all of them smaller?). Okay back- they rode to the mailbox on the tractor. Ronald was driving and Marvin was sitting on the hood, some how when crossing the bridge to return home - Ronald hit the side (not the center of the bridge) right at the first part and went down the river bank. Remember Marvin is on the front hood. The tractor would not stop even though Ronald kept trying to press the brake with his foot. The tractor finally stopped just short of the water. Marvin survived. Ronald messed his foot up bad where he kept stomping the brake. Mr Lovett, a neighbor of ours got him to the hospital. It seemed like he had to stay for weeks and he will have to tell the story about the hospital friends!


This is the same bridge that had to be crossed over to get to the store that Granddaddy Vowell once worked in (or owned?)

The store was in the spot that Mr. Lovett (above) had his house.

WHY ARE EMPTY CARTONS LIKE FREEZER BAGS

Two memories today
I remember fishing with Granny and Gary on the lake at the fishermans club. Gary and I would cast and cast and pretty much never catch anything.
Granny would sit in the back with her cane pole and pull bream and sunfish out of the lake over and over again.
She never seemed to get tired.

Now has anyone guessed what the empty cartons are for. Granny would clean her catch and put the fillets in the carton and then fill with water. Then freeze this.
When she had enough cartons then we could have a fish fry.

More Santa

How many of you (or your children) received a call from Santa telling them to go to bed? And what distinctive Vowell did Santa sound like?

And Wilkens...I loved the way Buck waited up for Santa, then woke you up immediately, everybody played, and then went back to bed for good winter's nap. Tell me that story was true.

Baby Ruth?

I have another baby ruth story, well I'm not exactly sure how it goes but something about Terrell and a swimming pool. I think it was Gayle who made up a cheer for it. Well nevermind I thought I remembered more than I did! Ok help me out with the story mom.

Saurkraut

SAURKRAUT

Ok I remember watching or helping grandaddy vowell make saurkraut one year. Does anyone remember how?
First dig a hole under the oak tree behind the kitchen. Then using a big sharp knife chop up the cabbage.
Next it was put in an old churn and the churn was placed down in the hole.
The hole was then covered with blankets and a wooden board and I think dirt?
I wonder if grandaddy got into trouble if he used some of granny's quilts?
And this is how he made saurkraut. Guess what I never got to eat any.
Does anyone remember eating any and what did it taste like?

More Christmas memories

Anybody remember the stockings Aunt Marjorie made with names on the front and stuffed with goodies? Her kids were jealous because she had not made them one. But on Christmas morning there were stockings just like she had made for all the cousins. And those same stockings kept going up year after year. In fact I still have mine.

XMAS memories

Ok you want to start XMAS memories. Please make sure young eyes do not see this because it will cause major heart burn with parents.
Does any one remember very large boxes that would be stored in the front bedroom at granny's. These would be the Santa gifts that my dad would send ahead by train. They would be dropped off on the train platform and would be brought to granny's prior to us showing up. I remember checking out these boxes but not knowing what they were for. They would always be gone on xmas morning. Who could have guessed what was in them.

****************************

I for one am so glad to know this !!! I never could figure out how Santa for 7 (plus the Golf equipment) got to Rulevill in one car. We had a hard time getting everything in our car coming from Jackson. We all could have been smart like one person I know and waited until Christmas Eve to do our shopping.

G_Maw

The Fireman's Club

Vowell Voices

Does anyone remember the night we stayed at the fireman's club when Marjorie and Charles stayed in Mr. Simpson's little house that was just to the left of the club We had put all the children to bed up stairs in the firemans club while the adults play cards in Mr Simpson's house. About 2 or 3 AM the front door opens and Lori comes in. We sent her right back up stairs all by herself and learned the next morning Lori was sleep walking. She did not even remember going downstairs. I am so proud she found her way back to bed rather going for a swim.
G-Maw


I only remember staying at the fireman's club one time. I don't know who all was there, other than Josh, Elizabeth and I, but I remember them telling me about all kinds of things that my mother had not shared with me yet. Including the Santa secret. I remember being shocked that they knew so much more than me. Thank y'all for having the couage to tell the sheltered preacher's daughter the ways of the world!!
~elise

Ponchatrain

You have spent the day picnicking and swimming in Lake Ponchatrain. You are now going to the amusement park, (Ponchatrain Park?), but you can't wear your swimsuit. How do you change into shorts?

Cousin Jean

I will always remember how much fun we all had when Jean came around. She was the big kid who would run and play with with all of us when all of the other adults were sitting around "begotting", playing cards, or whatever it was they did. She made up embarrassing names for everybody (mine being D.P.), she is always the one cousin that never grew up! Loads of fun!!

Oh, and who else remembers the Christmas that she was one of Santa's helpers. She even came to Schlater to help my mom prove to me and Robert that Josh and Elizabeth were not telling me the truth!!

Scarlett says didn't she also play Santa at the Rulevile nursing home?

Vowell Voices

BAY ST LOUIS

Who remembers the house that was rented about a mile off the beach.
I think most of us first cousins and the families met down there one summer.
I remember swinging upside down in the tree in the front yard. But maybe this is because I have seen movies of this.
We slept on the porch i think? Does any of the older cousins have this memory?

The big question is if this house is still standing after Bay St Louis was demolished this past summer?

************

I don't know if this is the same house (think it is) but Eddie and Nell use to rent one every summer. Jack and I went down one week end before we had children and had a ball Eddie was such a wonderful host. Jack and I had matching swim suits (we were so cute) I was and still am afraid of the water. Charles tried to catch me and put me in the water until he realized I was really afraid, then he stepped back. I too think there are pictures of this. I know we have one picture of Eddie jumping into the arms of a man with a beer bottle in his hand.
Seems like Nell told us this house was demolished

G-Maw

Camellia says: We went one summer. Bay St. Louis had that same kind of magic Beulah had. We boiled crabs, and crabbed on the sea wall. The trees were loaded with Spanish moss. We jumped on car tops, or put smaller kids on top of cars to jump on car tops. It was at the end of july because Ed and Pat had a birthday. Ed had some home movies of people arriving there, I think. Who else remembers Bay St. Louis?*****

Home Alone

Because You ask Camellia

We moved to Starkville about 6 weeks before Cindy was born. Dr Dorrough agreed to let me go only to get settled then come back to Rulevill for Cindy's was birth. During the 2 weeks I was in Starkville I met a wonderful person--Ruth Douglas. Ruth had two little girls and we became good friends right away. I was really ready to deliver Cindy and get back to my new home and new friend in Starkville. It wasn't long before Cindy arrived and after my long stay in the hospital (you had to stay a week) Marjorie and Charles loaded up Gayle, me and Cindy and took us to Starkville. Jack had taken the day off from work (probably one of the only days he ever took off. After Marjorie and Charles left, I put Cindy in bed. She slept a lot then also!!! Jack took a nap too. I needed to go to the drug store I put Gayle in the car since Cindy and Jack were asleep and we took off. I thought since I was out Jack and Cindy were asleep we would go back and see my friend Ruth only Ruth was not at home I had to come back to our house. As I got close to my front door I heard Cindy crying. Jack was no were to be found. I learned later that his friend had come by and wanted Jack to go fishing with him. Not being use to having a baby in the house (he may have thought Cindy was with me) but as he left the house, he slambed the door and it woke Cindy up. It couldn't have been more than 5 minutes since he left. Good thing Ruth was not at home or I may have stayed awhile Everytking turned our alright. No fights. etc.
Jack will probably say it ain't so but so help me it is
G-Maw

Camellia says: Oh, I thought it was the movies because you first told me this story Cindy was there. All at once she started crying and ran from the room. "I knew it," she was saying. "I just knew it. I just knew you and Gayle went out without me!"(I thought she said, went to the movies without me!" *******
Vowell Voices

Other People's Memories

Now I will start on other people's memories. This is how I heard/remembered them. If it is your memory, feel free to correct mine.

The Vowel girls were picky eaters. Jackie, the baby, may have existed on three peas, if she ate peas. One day, Daddy Jack decided enough was enough, and he fought with Jackie and she refused to eat (what?) and he spanked her. Later that day she went to the doctor who said, "I don't know how this poor child has been eating, she has strep throat so bad, her throat is almost closed. " Jack vowed never to spank his children again, and to this day, Jackie has eaten what she wanted to, which may have accounted for our amusement at those hamburger drive-in's on vacation.

"Memories and Photographs"

West Coast Riveria

(are you tired of these yet?)

Aunt Jo, Is this the house that Lori came to?

HERE IT IS! - March 2006

Look Familiar?

Front Street - Ruleville - March 2006

Vowell Voices

Wampus Cat

Ok, this is how i remember this story. Grandaddy, would sit on the couch in the front room. He would tell us the story of the wampus cat.
It was real scary especially with us looking out the windows or on the front porch. Grandaddy could make it seem like it was right outside the house. Then at the end of the story he would point to the picture on the wall and say there is a picture of one.

It would be neat if whomever has this picture could scan it onto a computer and post it on this site.

Camellia says: The wampus kitty had a barbed wire tail. You made up a song about it..he's here he's there, he's everywhere, and something about it crawling up the walls. The Wampus Cat is all across the south. In Tennessee it is a cherokee maid, half woman and half cat. But in other places it's a furry scary thing. So did the sibling generation grow up with the wamput kitty tales? And JimSkinner, did the monster in the canal have red hair, green hair? And did you just make that up on the spur of the moment?****

Vowell Voices

Movies

I remember when we got 25 cents to go to the movies in ruleville. This payed for everything, movie and candy. We were on our own. So we really felt grown up.

But I bet no one remembers how we earned money once to go to the movies.

Uncle franklin gave us cotton picking bags and took us out to the cotton field. We pulled those bags down the row. I don't remember how many rows we made it down. But it was maybe 1. We then took our bags to the farm and Uncle franklin weighed them. I think my bag was maybe a little more then a quarter. But guess what it got me in the movies that day.
So that is 3 memories in one. Cotton picking, movies and food.

Camellia says, I remember the cotton picking, but what do I know. I am willing to remember everything, even if I was not there. I do not believe I made 25 cents worth, and I am not sure that was not the time I went and stood under corn as high as an elephant's eye. Was there a cornfield near the cotton field?

Kate Remembers

Elise.....Here is a good one for the younger generation, Who all was in the trailer when we got to spend the night outside by ourselves at aunt Imogene's & uncle Franklin's? We could not have been that old (I might have been 10 which would have made you & Amy 7 or 8).....or were Heath or Terrell with us? I just know we ran around outside all night and never slept. We all crashed on the floor the next morning & missed all the Easter festivities (egg hunting). I know my mom has the picture of us somewhere....I will try to post it if I can find it.

Okay, it's addictive

When is the absolute, best, most perfect time to ski?

I know! I know! says Scarlett. I always liked late afternoon when the wind had died down and the lake was smooth as glass.

Can you remember when either Yogi or Uncle Jack skied onto the bank at Grenada Lake?
Manager1

It's Time To Tell

We were still going to Beulah into the fourth generation. Those of us 'grandchildren' who had children divided up the watch duty, so by the time we were grown, the Seghers rule of an adult on the lake bank at all times was in place. One hot summer's day Becky and Gary and I were sitting and watching the young 'uns play. (I don't think we were all on duty, just maybe one or two of us, and the other(s) came down to visit.) Uncle Charles sauntered down and stood behind us, watching with us, and then he said, "What are you doing? When y'all were that age, you were down here playing all by yourselves. There weren't any adults watching."

"We know!" the three of us said together.

Uncle Eddie, you were right.

And once we had gone to spend the night in Ruleville, Skeeter Robinson Road. Gary, Ronald and Becky were all excited. There were ghosts in Doddsville, but as usual, we weren't to tell. I don't think we were supposed to go to Doddsville. They were excited and whispering about it. "These walls have thin ears," Imogene said. I don't know what she heard but we got to go anyway. We even took David, and I don't think we had to, but we might have threatened him not to tell. We went over to Doddsville, and one of them was telling the story about somehow the ghost made the doors of the car fly open, and at the dramatic moment, the doors of the car flew open. No ghost, but a great joke. Then we went back home.

So, the Turners are saying not enough young posters. And certainly not enough of the sibling generation, though Jo, you're doing the sibling gen proud. Don't you think it's time to tell? These walls have thin ears, and we want to know what you did.

Movies

How many were at the movie theater in Ruleville when Ronald fell asleep and Gary had to practically drag him out--Ronald bent at the waist just nearly asleep all the way out.

Why do I remember and dog that did tricks (chased and cauhgt its tail among them) and western serials? Scarlett

Camellia says: Was that Pinocchio, and was that the night we got to walk home along the railroad tracks, rather than being picked up by the grown-ups? I remember Ronald not waking up.

And when we were even younger than that, we used to go to the serials on Saturday,both at Cleveland and Ruleville. It cost 35 cents, and that was the movie, candy or popcorn and a coke..not enough for both candy and popcorn.

And once Imogene and Franklin took us to the movie in Drew. It had a curtain across the door to the theatre and Lavender and Old Lace was playing.

Did we see a movie about Ray Charles one time? I seem to remember that--like Jamie Fox's movie is not the first. Scarlett

FISHING

The summer after Jack and I married, we came to Ruleville for a visit. I had never been fishing so Jack and Grandaddy took me to Grenada Lake. I think we rented a boat and got on the water. "I hate being on the water" Seems like we were there for hours, had not caught a fish, when Grandaddy said "Jo you will have to look the other way because I have to use the bathroom" Just as I turned my back, Grandaddy got a fish on his hook. He forgot all about going to the bathroom. I was so happy to finally see a fish, Just knew we could go home after that but we had to stay until dark That was probably the only fish that was caught that day
G_Maw

3-7-06
Manager 1 says:
Does anyone remember going fishing with Granny? Not often for me - I always talked too much & scared the fish away. And I would get so tired of just sitting there in the first "blue hole". Usually by the time I thought I couldn't take one more minute - here would come Chuck in another boat and take me back to the fireman's club! Hey do you remember the dog food cans that Granny took. Both ends were cut out so that the can could be put over the pole, down the line, to the hook to the hang up and get the hook loose!





Vowell Voices