It's My Life

It's that time again!

If your new to it's my life (a family history project) go here for the details.

If not, welcome back!

Here's the list of this week's questions:

1. Was yours a religious family? Yes, our lives revolved around church. When I was little I remember going to church on Sunday morning, and Sunday night for service, Monday night for choir practice, Tuesday night for band practice, Wednesday church service in Dalton, Thursday night church service at our church, Saturday night church service. The only night we didn't have church was Friday night and that was if we weren't in a revival which I felt like happened every other week! Isn't it funny how you remember things from when you were a kid? Were Sunday's spent together with family? Absolutely! We always went to church together, and ate dinner together in between services.

2. Did your family take vacations? hmmm... vacations....well, do you count revivals as vacation? Usually during the summer Daddy would go somewhere in revival and then we'd extend the trip to include a little vacation time. This is how we vacationed until my parents divorced when I was 12. After that things were very different. My step-dad, who is also a preacher, didn't quite do things the same way. and our Summers were usually spent going between parents. Did you go to the same place every year? Absolutely not! Let's see if I can remember a few of the trips...I remember going to Kokomo Indiana for revival and then we went on a road trip to Mackinaw Island, Detroit, Toronto, back through Chicago, St Louis on our way home to Pampa TX where we lived until I was 12. I remember going in revival to Rockhill SC, and then going to Myrtle Beach. That was lots of fun! I do have 1 memory of a vacation that didn't include a revival...we went from Pampa TX to Colorado Springs, the Royal Gorge, and through New Mexico. I've been lots of places in the US. Some just passing through, others actually spending the night. My Daddy knows his way around the country by restaurants. It doesn't matter where we go, I can always call him and ask do you know of a good restaurant in ______ and he'll tell you right where to go, and what is good on the menu!

3. Do you remember any special stories your grandparents told you? I don't remember any particular life stories that they told me. I do remember a poem that my Mama would tell us..."Little Boy Blue come blow your horn, the sheep are in the meadow and the cows are in the corn, but where is that little boy blue? Behind the haystack fast asleep!" Granddaddy passed away when I was 3 1/2 but I remember him telling Mama to give us candy out of her stash! She would hide candy so we couldn't find it, but he always wanted her to give it to us. Did you sit on a lap when you heard these stories or did you hear them when you and your grandparent would walk hand-in-hand, taking a stroll? I remember one very special memory with my Granddaddy. My brothers and sister think I made it up because it sounds very Lion Kingish, but I didn't! I remember the day. I was really little. He was pulling weeds out of the flower bed around the church sign in Chattanooga, and of course I was helping. He began to talk to me about the brothers in the church who had died before us. He told me that they were wise and were the stars in the sky looking down on us. He also told me that when it Thunders it just God talking, and when it rains it is because God is providing water to the plants and animals that don't have anyone to take care of them. Do you tell any of these same stories to your children? I have told these things to my children. After I became an adult, and my brothers and sisters kidded me so much about it, I looked these things up for myself in the bible to see if they were true....There are several verses that refer to the thunder just a couple are ...2 Samuel 22:14 ; Job 37:4-6. The wise as stars is referred to in Daniel 12:3.

4. Did your grandparents live nearby? When we lived in Chattanooga TN, my dad's parents lived their too, and then when we moved to Texas, Mama moved with us. She kept her house in TN, and sometimes she'd go back and forth, but she always came back! My mother's parents lived in Knoxville, and we didn't see them very much. How often did you visit their homes? Their house in Chattanooga was like a second home. Mama would go back home many summers and I'd go with her. It was always lots of fun. The back bedroom was officially mine! Did the house have any special smells? Mama was always cooking. I think she spent most of the day in the kitchen. So, the food always smelled of food. When she passed away I was given the stove that she always cooked on. As a matter of fact it was the first stove that I had in mine & Charlie's apartment. Every time I cooked on it I would think of her! What did their couch feel like? The couch was brown & orange tweed. I think all couches were like that in the 70's. It was so soft though, and it seemed huge. I can remember laying on it, and 2 people still being able to sit on the other end. How big was their kitchen? The kitchen was huge! The kitchen and dining room were all 1 room. She had two big tables end to end so it felt like we could all sit in the same room and be at the same table. When I was about 6 I was running in round and round one of the tables chasing one of my friends and I fell. I hit my head on the rung of one of the chairs. I had to have stitches! I'll never forget it because Mama was in the shower getting ready for church, and she was so upset with me. She had to call Bro. Ray Smith, a deacon at the church, to come and get us to take me to the hospital. She couldn't drive because she was so nervous. I still have the scar on my forehead. Now that I am an adult I can imagine what she was going through because I was gushing blood, but then I could tell she was so nervous I just kept saying "I'm okay Mama. I promise I'm okay" At my Mamaw Brewer's house I can always remember a table with a bench behind it, and the bar stools. I remember Mamaw Brewer always had nuts that we could crack and eat. Funny thing I remember is that Mamaw always took her ice cream out of the box and put it in a Tupperware dish. My Mamaw Brewer is the only grandparent that I have that is still living. She turned 82 last week and she we all went to Aubrey's for her birthday. You know I think Mamaw Brewer still puts her ice cream in a Tupperware dish! She also had plastic cups that came out of oatmeal! When I first got married they still sold that oatmeal and I bought it just so my kids could have the same kind of cups that I drank out of as a kid!

Memories....You know what is so funny...as I'm writing these things I think about how different my sister's memories of our grandparents probably are. She is 8 years younger than me, and things were so different after our parents divorced. She was only 3 when they divorced so she doesn't remember the life "before" as we call it. She only remembers the life after.... They were both great, just different!