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

ED - You have created a monster!

Good ed
In all fairness, I really didn't think anyone was up to the challenge (one memory a day), but Scarlett and Camellia, even Elise are hanging in there.
This blog stuff is pretty addictive, I have to see what other people remember.
But thanks, good ed, for challagening us all- this really is great. Man! haven't we had a great life and have a great family!

Scarlett agrees--ADDICTIVE! But so much fun.

Scary stories

Uncle Ronald has always told the best scary stories. I don't remember any in particular. But when he lived at the cemetary Melanie and I would ride around with him after dark so he could show us the "glowing" tombstones. And I can't believe no one has mentioned the Wampus Kitty!


Manager 1 says:
Wampuss Kitty was one of the 1st post - you may have to hit the archives.
When we were younger, Ronald was the scariest! The rooms in the old house had pull cords in the center of the room to turn on the lights. Ronald would not go in to turn a light on (Gary and I would have to). And he could not watch a scary movie- And you could jump out and scare him really bad! Not that I ever did that! Never - And to think he is the one who has caused my grandchildren to have nightmares!
The bestest scary story teller is Donna!

Food, food, food

Jake's favorite is Aunt Imogene's fried corn. What do her children call it?
and vegetables grown in the garden, picked and put up immediately are the best in the world. Home grown tomatoes. Imogene and Franklin are professionals, and I know Gary and Ronald both continued the tradition.

Do any of you remember when Charles and Marjorie and Jack and Jo and somebody else truck farmed outside of Boyle. And it drove Marjorie crazy if the vegetables weren't picked at the youngest and tenderest? And the summer days shelling parties, when we used to get the whole neighborhood of kids in on shelling bushels of peas and beans, then we would eat homemade popcycles on the front porch.

And I watched Becky and Bobby shuck corn (hate those worms). They could get every little hair out of the kernals. It's kind of like dust...I just can't be that precise.

I remember watching Granny make biscuits in the biscuit board. Jack and Jo now have the board. Who made it? I think Mae and Audie got one of the two made. More about them later.

And when we would go on trips together, like to Chicago or Baltimore to see the New Orleans Cousins. You wouldn't believe how much food it took to leave home. And Daddy (that would be Uncle Charles) would go and get sausage and biscuits from Rudolph's (Rudolph did barbeque and also breakfast. He killed a man and had to go the Parchman, where he cooked, of course. When the train derailed, and they had to evacuate Ruleville, Drew and Parchman, Rudolph refused to leave. He was cooking barbeque for the governor, and he wasn't going anywhere, so they left him on his on). Those biscuits were goooood, but even better were Granny's butterscotch brownies, which she brought in a shoe box. I always sat in the back seat with them. We often traveled in multiple cars and Jack and Jo went, too. Eating at a drive in was high entertainment, while Jack tried to get each of the girls orders of hamburger, add this, not this, just right. And when Jack and Jo lived in Amory? Crystals had arrived. Tiny little burgers. I could have eaten twenty.

Oh...and the fried fish suppers when Granny had enough fish in the freezer. The kids ate on the floor in the living room. I remember it was one of the few times I remember toddler Gayle putting her feet on the floor in the first couple of years of her life. She would come in where the kids were eating and we would have to have lots of ketchup with our fish, and and we would make bets on whose plate she would plop her little rear on. It was a great game. Then when she had ketchup on those plastic over pants, one of the grown-ups would say, wasn't anybody watching her?, and we were smart enough not to erupt with laughter until the grown-up was out of the room and headed toward the bathroom.

Oh...and do you remember the year of the blue cheese sausage biscuits? As they baked, our normally close family moved further and further apart. We all thought we had come down with a terrible b.o. problem, and wanted to get ourselves out of sniffing range.

And one holiday Marjorie came home from Cleveland Clinic laughing. The women there were anxious because they were serving the holiday meal for sooo many people--12 0r 16. The week before Sandra and Don had come home with shrimp, and Marjorie put out the invitation to come over if you could, and we had an inpromptu supper for forty. A lot of people were out of town.


there's more, but it's someone else's turn..oh, those peanuts were cooked in a big black pot, and we would throw the vines onto Bossy's (is that her name) horns.

Oh, and the time we went to Baltimore and Scarlet,Pat and I rode the trains into see Uncle Ed in his office and he took us to a deli, and I had my pastrami on rye with swiss cheese. And those big Kosher dill pickles. Is that a Reuben?

I remember Granny Vowell's sugar biscuits. That is why I am so large. She would take the homemade biscuits out of the oven, butter them, and put 1 spoon of sugar in them. mmmmmm
I can almost taste them now, they were great!
MA Camellia says, I REMEMBER THOSE SUGAR BISCUITS!!!! THEY WERE SOOO GOOD. And my dad made sugar and cinnamon toast (don't toast the bottom side) with butter, and the sugar glazed and cracked, like the sugar on creme brulee now, which I think they do with a torch, and I can't do that any more. How did he do it?*************

Shelling parties:
Yea, like they were really parties. We had to have 1 quart of each vegetable for each week of the year (that's 52) and a few extras. Okay think about it: Purple hull peas; colored butter beans; white butter beans (we now call these baby limas); green beans (in a jar); corn - on the cob and fried ("smochy" as me kids call it) tomatoes (in jars), okra and of course pickes. You can see that these parties were long and hard. I didn't have to pick stuff - I think I must have messed up at one time so they did make me anymore.
I remember cousins helping to shell and counting how many peas or beans in their bowl!!!! Now how much time did that take, when the time would have been better spent--finishing!
Manager1 Camellia says, you are such a grouch. Were you like that when you were a kid? NOT! The shelling parties were at McClain, though I remember shelling with you. Does anybody know the debate about not shelling into the same pan as the unshelled veggies? And those green beans in a jar. Did your mom do the vinegar ones? My fav. Does anybody still do those? Have a recipe? And did your family do refrigerator soup? My dad made the best? And who ate ketchup sandwiches?*******

And berry -picking. I remember going out to Aunt Imogene's to go blackberry picking. It might have been dewberries. I didn't have to pick berries because I was going to some kind of party/dance that night and Mother didn't want me to have my arms all scratched. (Was it the Debutante Ball when I represented the Fireman's Club?) I was rather glad because I didn't want to come face to face with some snake.
Scarlett

Camellia says: that's where you were. Nell was here, and we didn't pick at Imogene's, it was over by the Sunflower River (or were you there for that one). We picked lots and lots, and Nell and Granny decided to go into the woods (SNAKES) and get more, and left us out to finish the bushes by the road, and somebody threw a berry and then somebody else threw one, and then somebody threw a bunch, and I don't know why Nell was perturbed...we had picked them, hadn't we?

Scarlett says: Daddy would slather (it has to be pretty think so the sugar can melt into it) butter on the piece of bread and then put about two tablespoons of sugar on that. Then he would sprinkle cinnamon on that. He would put the oven on broil and have it pretty hot and slide in the pan of cinnamon toast. (Perhaps the stove was gas and that made a difference.) But he would broil the toast and it would come out all crusty. I can't get it to do that. Maybe I don't put enough butter or sugar. And do you remember him making sugar syrup when we didn't have any other kind in the house?

I think Mother had the recipe for the vinegar green beans (sweet and sour). I even tried to do them once myself. I think Donna got all the cooking genes.

More food

I guess we can see where many of our memories come from. I was told by a psychology professor once that this is normal in the South because most people had lots of food when families got together. In fact I remember hearing that sweets and dessert have been a big part of family meals because they were such a treat to have after the crops made and Granny Vowell had a little extra money to buy sugar.

Crops making are also part of the history of more fireworks at Christmas and New Year's than on July 4th.

Anybody remember the dishpans of boiled peanuts at Aunt Imogene and Uncle Franklin's? Sometimes we got them still warm. The liquid was salty; the shell was salty; the peanuts were salty. I would put the wet peanut in my mouth, shell and all, and suck the juice out; then open it and eat the peanuts out. I still like boiled peanuts better than roasted peanuts in the shell.

Scarlett: I thought of something else. Remember making ice cream--before electric freezers came to be? Cranking, taking turns, packing quilts on top and having some kid sit on it to keep the freezer from moving? I think many of the generation above us liked ice cream from hand-cranked freezers better because they said it froze firmer. Peach, vanilla, strawberry, mmmmm.
I'm glad the good ed is doing this.

Vowell Voices

Eating watermelons

I remember eating fresh picked watermelons on the back porch of aunt imogene's in the country.

We put a lot of salt on them and because it was easier to swallow the seeds I usually did. Then got yelled at by the parents because they said I would have a watermelon growing in my stomach.

ed

Mary Alice

I think one of my favorite memories would be when Jean & I came south for the summer. We stayed a week with each of our Grandmothers and some with our older brothers & sisters. When we were at Granny Vowells, we went to town and bought a watermelon from the produce stand on Hwy 49. After lunch, Jean, Granny & I sat on the porch and had a watermelon seed spitting contest. It was great. I can't recall who won. Probably Jean, we all know she is VERY full of HOT AIR.

Scarlett said
I don't remember having one-on-one with Granny Vowell for watermelons. But I think we all had some quality time with her and Grandaddy. I think I got to go fishing with her once.

More Spending time with

Always spending time with someone--
Riding to Jackson with Yogi and a friend (on their way to Hattiesburg?) to stay with Jack, Jo and the girls.

Going to N.O. with Granny Vowell and Jo and Gayle and Gayle got sick in the car. I remember one time (maybe a different time) whoever was driving and took a wrong turn. We ended up on a shell road that just sort of ended in the middle of nowhere.

Spending a week with Nita and family in Hollandale and falling the day we were leaving and cutting my knee. (I probably needed stiches because I still have the remnants of a scar.)

Visiting the Seghers in Chicago with Mother and Daddy after Don and I married. We rode the commuter train down to where Ed (Big Ed, not good ed) worked. It snowed on the way home.to Mississippi. We were going to stop in Springfield, IL but the weather turned too bad.

Having a p.e. class at Delta State and meeting a girl (can't remember her name now) that we had played with several years before while staying with Aunt Nita.

Taking Saturday night baths in the big washtub at Imogene's. They pumped the water at the kitchen sink, heated it on the stove, and poured it in the big washtub in the middle of the kitchen floor. All the doors were closed when the girls bathed and then the boys had to do the same. (Same time they had the outhouse.)

Spending the week with

Oh, there is so much I want to mention, and I want to hear what everybody else has to say, too...I can't even get back to Ed's food, and my mind is going in fifteen different directions.

Who did you spend time with? All of the New Orleans crew came home, alternating Christmases and Easters and then some in the summer. Ed and Pat came at least twice on the train, and had to be picked up in Grenada. There was a drugstore there (food!) that serves real fountain cokes, and we would get one after we got Ed and Pat. Once I think we picked them up at night.

We would stay at Nita's it seemed like every summer. We would go to a store and buy presents to take home.

We stayed with Jack and Jo where ever they were living. I don't really remember Starkville. Did they live there? And in Amory. There was a concrete porch under the carport and a big house on the hill at the end of the road. And in one of those places, an old fashion dairy (more food!). Becky and I went one summer and I burned her with grease, making her the cornbread cooking. And one of the girls got mad because she wanted to wear her Sunday shoes, and she started walking to the Kroger store where her mom and dad were. Also in one of those places they had a picnic table at the bottom of the hill they lived on. We loved to watch the girls walk in a row like ducks, up the hill. They were afraid of the dark, and had to have the curtains closed all the way, no cracks. A woman lived across the street who was really large, and she went on a diet and got dizzy. The doctor told her she cut back too sharply on cokes. Sometimes several families went to spend the week-end, so we were there for the lipstick wars. Also the boys peered out the window, and slumbered in their beds and, all of the time, their epidermis was showing.

I don't remember weeks in the country, probably because we were there many, many week-ends.

I think I went to spend a little time in Memphis with Lady and Yogi, but with Granny Vowell, I think. Gayle went many places with Granny and with Marjorie and Charles, after an inauspicious visiting start. When she was small she and maybe Cindy tried to come and stay in Cleveland and Ruleville. They were fine during the day, but at night they wanted to go home. I believe Imogene and Franklin returned her to our house in the middle of the night, and on the third day we meet her parents at the PIG STAND in Belzoni. After they got there, she wanted to go home with us, but everybody said NO.

We didn't go on our own to the N.O. bunch, but visited as family units. oh...to be continued...(Lake Ponchatrain?, and more)

More to think about

Okay who remembers....

The tree that fell (or was cut down) in Granny Vowell's side yard and we crawled around on it much to the chagrin of parent who thought someone would fall and get hurt? And guess who "fell" (but he didn't really get hurt, he just scared the kids).

Chinaberry fights?

Granny picking up pecans before the little children who walked by stopped and got them?

The grape vines growing on the side of the house?

Contests to see who could jump the farthest off the brick sides to the front steps?

Piling up chairs on tables and climbing the tree out back? And not being able to get down.

More Food Memories

I never remember a stove in Granny's front bed room but there was a fireplace on the left wall as you enter the room. It opened up to a fireplace in the living room and was sealed when the house was remodeled in 1959. I know nothing about Deer meat patties. Don't know of anyone that did any hunting back then unless grandaddy brought them home from the store where he worked. He may have help dress a deer for some of the meat.

G-Maw

Manager 1:
I can't continue that memory, good ed, but...
Granny told a story about when Ganddaddy did some animal hide (pelt) selling. I don't know if he hunted or trapped the creatures. But he would skin the animals and sell the pelt. Beaver pelt & tail, coon hide and the most money could be had for a POLECAT HIDE.
He caught a pole cat and proceeded to skin it, I think Granny tried hard to talk him out of it. But that was extra money - so he went on with his business - For those of you city slickers - a pole cat is a SKUNK and if you rupture the scent gland - there is a definite aroma. Well Granddaddy did skin it and did rupture the gland and Granny said that no amount of washing could get the smell out of their clothes. So she finally had to burn them and at that time there was no Baker's Department Store! She said she always got upset with Marvin about that!

Camellia says: I believe when we ate that squirrel, Big Ed had gone hunting, the good Ed. You might get your mom to tell you about his hunting trip, and you tell us. Uncle Charles said he never went hunting when he was young because they were too poor to buy bullets.

Scarlett says: Polecats seem to get around. I remember the weekend Chuck went with one of his friends to a grandmother's in the country/hills. The two boys thought they were pretty cool when they trapped a skunk in a 55 gallon drum. They dropped a couple of firecrackers in and had to ride home with their clothes hanging out the window. I think they had gotten washed off pretty well with tomato juice. But I think his clothes were a lost cause. (Camellia, am I close? I think memories get all jumbled.)

I can almost remember the name of the kid he went with. I don't know about the tomato juice. I think it was cold and getting your winter coat stunk up was something to consider. But I do remember daddy saying, "Why did you do that?' and Chuck answering, "I had never encountered a skunk before."

Twins

Three out of four of the sets of twins were born to the youngest child in their family.

BE CAREFUL !!!!

G-Maw

More Food Memories

Does anyone remember a stove or oven in the front bedroom of Granny Vowell's?

I have a memory or a dream of a stove that was in this bedroom and it had deer meat patties in it. They were really dry. Can anyone help on this?

Also to continue with the wild meat. I remember eating squirrel stew in the main table at Granny vowell's. We had to be real carefull with the buck shot that was still in the stew pot. Could not chew down until we made sure no shot was in that mouthfull
stew

Leroy Percy and the Monkey Store

On the way to Leroy Percy there is a covenience store on 61 (Don said 1) named Swiftwater. If you keep going you get to the cut off that used to have the monkey store in the curve. I don't know highway numbers. But this Swiftwater is on the way out of Greenville--and we were always told that it was at that point that the water was the swiftest in the flood. Do you remember the monkey store?

Camellia begs...tell us more about the monkey store.

Scarlett complies
I guess it is #1. The monkey store was a truck stop--it was really busy. I remember going with Granny and Grandaddy Powers some. I am sure we wanted to stop every time we went by there. There were chicken wire cages out front with monkeys in them. I remember 20 or 25. But it probably was ten or fewer. We would just get out and watch the monkeys. I don't even remember buying anything at the store. But it was always a treat to get to stop at the monkey store.

As I was going to St. Ives

Riddle

Take a couple, say Ruby and Marvin

How many siblings?

How many aunts and uncles?

How many first cousins?

How many first cousins' spouses...if you married the same person twice, it only counts once.

How many first cousins once removed...or is that second cousins?

How many oh, Kate, Terrell, Josh, Melanie you have to help with the next generation.

At Beulah (which was kind of magical)how many kids can you sleep on two bunk beds?

Four bunk beds?

Where do you sleep the left-over kids?

Where do the adults sleep? (hint, this is a trick question)


Scarlett said
I don't do high numbers like brothers, sisters, spouses and so forth. But I have also been thinking about Beulah. Two bunk beds could sleep 8; so four could sleep 16. We would push the beds together and sleep crossways--four on bottom and four on top. Of course, if the kids were smaller, there might be more. As for adults sleeping, most didn't. They played cards or dominoes all night. Uncle Franklin slept in the single bed in the big middle room(kitchen/eating). It was in the corner under the first aid kit. And he would drop his pants if he got ready to go to bed--no matter who was in the room. He did warn us though.

Manager 1:
Left over kids had options:
1 - to sleep on cots on the porch
2 - to sleep in the little house across from the club house
3 - to sleep in the trailer - Simpsons (was it?)

Twins

Ok, I have a question to throw out. Are all of the sets of twins from the youngest of the siblings? I just wanted to make sure it wasn't my turn (not that I'm even considering that right now!!)

To answer your question:

Jackie V.H., Ken, Lois, MamaKat3...do your generational math, don't get adopted by Aunt Nell, and use b.c. Your fav cousin... the unaksed-for-advice cousin

oh, and as for the youngest of the siblings, I guess Judd is the one to ask this question...Ken took Donna's spot. Thanks, Ken. Oh, and David...whatcha' think, Lisa?

Thin Hair

Jack and I moved to Ruleville when he got out of the Air Force. We stayed with his parents for awhile so Jack could run his Dad's store since his Dad was recovering from heart problems. After Dad was well enough to work again Jack bought a country store between Ruleville and Minter City and we rented the little green house across from where Beverly lives now. Jack was gone from early morning till later at night. I was so unhappy. I knew no one in Ruleville so everyday or so I would get up early and take Jack to work, then drive out to the country to worry Imogene all day. I was expecting Gayle, I was bigger than big and thought I knew everything about raising children. One day the cows got out and Imogene left me with the children while she got them put up. Gary, Becky and Ronald were suppose to be taking a nap. (David had not been thought about at this time) Gary and Becky didn't sleep but were no trouble-- but-- let me tell you about Mr RONALD. He did everything that he could and I gave him a spanking !!!! I still don't believe I did that. Imogene should have spanked me but Ronald got in big trouble. He never forgot that because several days later I had driven to Jack's store to take him some lunch and Ronald rode with me. I was driving through the country, not sure where I was but Ronald was in the back seat. All of a sudden Ronald grabbed me by my hair and pulled out hands full. He would not let my hair go and I could do nothing but sat there and yell. Ronald was so happy, he laughed all the way home. That hair never grew back thus my hair is now very very thin.
This is the same Ronald that visited Jack and me in Starkville. broke my girls bed and got lipstick all over my sofa. Every time Jack saw Ronald taking a nap he would put lipstick on him and wait for him to wake up so he could laugh at him. Ronald did a lot of lip painting Jack too.
GOOD OLE DAYS
G-Maw


Scarlett said
(Camellia finally told me how to do this)
Is this the same store with the wrestling bear?

Scarlett - please tell the bear one - it is one of my favorites. Manager 1

Scarlett said
This is where the collective memory may have to come in. I remember a tent--travelling show. They set up to the side of the store. Why the Powers family was there, I don't remember unless it was the "travelling show." I think the big draw was a bear which would wrestle a man. Of course, Chuck jumped up and said "I want to." Nobody could stop him before he got down off the bleachers (real just being logical?) to the "ring." Of course the bear was on a chain and was at least three times bigger than Chuck. But Chuck wrestled that bear. Was there a prize if he stayed for a certain amount of time? Was Ronald there? Did he wrestle too?

I probably wasn't old enough to have memories (maybe I just heard the story alot and I think it is my memory):
There was a bear cub. There was a Momma bear (No daddy bear) and you could wrestle the cub. I think that Ronald and Chuck both begged to wrestle but their moms said no. Well, as Jo can attest - Never tell those two - no. They sneaked in and wrestled, Aunt Marjorie turned around and saw the boys in the ring and yelled!!!! " That's my baby!" Now that is the way I remember it.
Manager 1

Vowell Voices

Swimming Pools, Lakes and Snakes

Oh, good Ed...you have moved on to the food, and I am not even finished with pools and lakes and snakes...but...who remembers the swimming pool at the Benoit Outing Club? My favorite story is from my darling niece. She was standing by the deep end when Dr. Dorough came to the pool. "Do you want to see me dive?" she said. "How well can you swim?" he asked. "Not very well and not very far," she said. He declined but I believe she plunged in any way. Not very well, and not very far has been used many times in my family to describe enterprises begun on nothing much more than faith.

And once when I lived in N.C. Gary and Christi came to see me. For some reason, we only had one child between us for the visit (where Heath and Jake were, I don't know)...but we went to Lynn Lake, a little lake nestled in the city limits of Raleigh, I think. Christi chose to sit in the shade on the bank, and Gary, Josh and I went in to splash in the shallows. All at once Christi started pointing--the signal that caused many a child to crash toward land, or someone who had been lubbering at the side of the boat to propell into the air and over the side into the safety of the boat. This time was no exception. Gary and I dashed for shore, and one of us remembered to bring the child with us. "Where is it? Where is it?" we asked. "Where is what?" Christi asked back. She sounded slightly petchulant. "The snake!" Gary and I said together. "There wasn't any snake," she said, "Josh was drowning."

Josh, thank your mother.

Manager 1:
Okay I have a tough Beulah one (not tough - maybe just a little)
How many of the Vowell Crew learned how to water ski at Beulah? And who was driving the boat? And now that gas is over $2.00 a gallon, who put all of the gas in the boat?
First - As many as wanted to! I would have a hard time counting.
Second - Uncle Charles, the man had the patience of Job. When one shier dropped off in front of the Fireman's Club another was already in the water with the skies on, waiting for Uncle Charles to pick them up. All around the lake - through the post (what did he call them? mats?) and back to the fireman's club to get another one! And then if it was a new skier - Wow, hours on end trying to help the skier get up!! He never seem to get tired!
Not many of us have that bit of kindness.
Third - Uncle Charles, but if gas had been as much back then, he surely would have put out a can to collect money!
and - How many pair of glasses - sun or regular - did Aunt Marjorie try to scim across the water when she was fixing to ski? I know of at least two.
And remember the time someone brought a neat newer boat? Whose was it? that had a surf style board on a rope that we rode and the board sunk and never came up to my knowledge. Those of you who have never been to Beulah lake need to know that there is a lot of mud in the lake!!!!
And if you haven't or if you just want to come see for yourselves - we have a place on the west coast of Mississippi, called the "West coast Riveria" - Come on over

Scarlett said
I remember Uncle Franklin being pretty good about riding "shotgun" as watcher, too. And you know, even when the older cousins got old enough to drive, it just didn't feel the same when Uncle Charles wasn't driving (even though he let us).

Manager 1:
When the older kids got to drive - do you remember all the instructions - every time you went out. Most of the time, the boat had problems - only at the other end of the lake. So it became necessary to jump in the water and pull the boat back to the fireman's club.
That was even fun

Camellia: Isn't there a lake rule, like never go boating without a mechanic? And when my lawn mower ran over something clangy, and my neighbor came to see about it, I told him if it were a boat, I would have said it sheered a pin. What's the furtherest you ever sheered a pin in the boat? Remember the cut off to river, the channel under the trees with drippy vines and lots of poking out things in the water? That was my personal pin sheering place.

THE CANAL:
Between Quiver River and our house was a canal on either side of the road (gravel). I am not sure what the purpose was of this canal, it was just there. The grass grew tall on the banks of the canal and the water was stagnant (so that means green stuff growing on it).
Our mail was delivered to a box beside the river (oh that reminds me of another story -later) and to get to the mailbox, you had to go by the canal. Yogi told us this tale about a monster that lived in the canal that ate children, I can't remember the entire construction of the monster or why he lived in the canal. I just remember riding my bike past the canal REAL FAST!
Manager

FOOD STORIES

Ok it's time to start talking food for a few days.

I remember sitting at the kitchen table while granny mixed biscuits up by hand. Beleive it or not I don't remember eating them.
But I do remember grandaddy sitting next to me and pouring his coffee into the saucer blowing on it and then sipping out of the saucer. He did not sip that quietly.

Another coffee story that is very vivid is not a vowell story but a seghers story. My granny seghers in New Orleans would always bring out the tiny demitasse cups and make us a coffee with steamed milk. She would scald the milk on the stove and then pour most of it in the cup with a little coffee.
The first time I had what is called now a caffe au lait. I guess this is what caused my addiction to Starbucks. But I am trying to wean myself off onto Dunkin donuts coffee. It is cheaper and still tastes very good.
More tomorrow on food memories.

Scarlett said
I guess we can call these blogs our collective memory. I don't seem to have as many as Camellia or the good ed, but I do have a few. Some of my earliest are the Indian and four nickels I was promised for being still for an Xray. Mother always said she didn't know how I remember that because I wasn't two. And another memory I have (or have been told enough to think I have it) is being given coffee at the table by Grandmother Gibson. (I couldn't really remember this.) But I have always been told that was the first "food" from the big table and I believe she poured it in a saucer and cooled it before giving me some. It sure created a habit I haven't been able to break many years later.

Manager 1:
I remember Granny making round waffles! and I remember the spoon rest - yellow like a gingerbread man. Alas, but my favorite son broke that spoon rest. (Sigh!)