Things I remember - part 2..

1. I remember riding the bus from Shreveport Louisiana to Bastrop Louisiana to see my grandparents.

2. I remember sleeping with my mama and brothers in a full size bed at my grandparents' house.

3. My grandparents lived in a wood frame house, and in the winter, we only used the heater in the room where we watched TV, or in the bathroom when we took a bath. We did not use heaters at night while sleeping. We slept under handmade quilts.. several of them. It was still F-R-E-E-Z-I-N-G!! We depended on each other's body heat, a lot!

4. In the summertime, we had window fans and attic fans to keep us cool. My grandparents house looked like a duplex with two front doors. The door on the left walked into the living room and from the living room you went into the kitchen, and then you walked into what was at one time a porch, but my grandpa turned it into a bedroom. The front door on the right walked directly into a bedroom, and from that bedroom, you walked into another bedroom, and then a very small hall with a bathroom on the right and a door into the kitchen on the left. If you kept walking straight through the hall, there was another bedroom, and through that bedroom was another bedroom. The house was not big, but it had 5 bedrooms. Most were only big enough for a bed and only two of the bedrooms had closets. Very small closets. Not big enough to hold the collection of blue jeans I currently own. In the summertime, we closed off the left side of the house and turned on the attic fan so we would be comfortable while we slept. I remember sleeping very well during our summertime visits back then.

5. My grandparents grew almost everything they ate. They had Goldie the cow for milk, butter and cream, and chickens for eggs, and for frying. We didn't name the chickens. They were never around long enough. The only thing I ever remember them buying from the grocery store was stuff like flour, sugar, tea and lard. Not cooking oil, but lard. That white stuff in a can. And they used it over and over again. I am not sure how they determined it was time to throw it away. During the summer we spent a lot of time at my grandparents sitting on the front porch shelling peas, butter beans, snapping green beans, and canning and freezing all this stuff for use during the winter. My grandpa sold some of the stuff to make extra money. They were definitely poor, but they were never without something good to eat.

6. I remember Christmas time at my grandparents. They had twelve kids... Seven boys and five girls. And they raised one of their granddaughters as their own child. Can you imagine having thirteen kids to feed and clothe??? I think the age difference between the oldest child, who is still living, and the youngest, who died from cancer a few years ago, was about 27 years. My grandmother was having babies for 27 years, and if I remember correctly, she miscarried a couple of times. My grandparents had grandchildren that were older than their youngest child. But, Christmas at my grandparents was always fun. Everyone came to their house. Twelve kids, their spouses, if they were married, and their children's children. Christmas was not about presents back then. It was about spending time with family, eating, fireworks and hoping Santa would come. My grandmother made an effort to buy each family a gift every year. I don't know how she did it, but she did. I remember she gave my mom a non-stick pot one year and mama never liked that pot. She couldn't use her metal spoons in it because it would scratch the non-stick surface. Seriously... Now all she wants is non-stick pots.

More exciting stuff to come...