Mama

This is what I called my Father's , Mother, my Grandmother...I always felt like this almost like my second Mother,..She was one of the sweetest, kindest lady, that you would ever want to know...she always had time for her Grandchildren, and I spent a lot of time with her , and loved it...I remember talking her to sleep, when I would spend the night with her, telling her what I had heard on the radio, read, or just plain stuff that now I know was important to me, but I am sure at times, she just wished I would stop talking and GO TO SLEEP, but she never acted like it was a bother...she would just say something to keep me talking, till i would either hear her softly snoring, or she stopped saying anything, and I knew then that she was asleep...even when I became a Teen, I still loved to go to her house, although , we would go shopping, and we both loved to read, ...she was still so much pleasure to be around, she loved me, and she showed it..when Mama passed away, I was about 17 , and I was heartbroken, and cried for days, ...I know when my time here is done, I will see her waiting there in Heaven, with open arms...

radio

we all listened to the radio in those days....we had a Philco..that sit in the Living Room.... and later on , I had a small radio in my room, ...I remember listening to it at night, a lot of time when I was supposed to be asleep..the radio to us was a link to the "outside world"...all of the important happenings of that time was on the radio, and the newspapers..My Father took the "Press", a daily paper, and every night , he faithfully read it from front page to last..If you have seen the old movies, of families sitting around the radio, and looking at it , like we watch a television now , well, that is the way it was...My Mother had her "Soap Opera"s in the day, and a lot of them, went on to be on television when it came in..IN fact, "as The World Turns" started the year, Irvin and I married, we got a black and white used t.v., in a console, (very pretty piece of furniture)....we were SO proud of it, and made small monthly payments on it....He worked at night, so, I watched it at night..and at that time, everything went off about 10:00pm, so I was left to do handwork, read, clean house, iron, etc the rest of the night...now this was before Children.. but, as a Child, I remember listening to many programs, like "The Lone Ranger", Inner Sankdrum(,mystery show), I loved the mystery shows, there were many more, Bob Hope, Jack Benny...I think even, Lucille Ball ...we depended on the radio for all of our war news, that and the newspaper, every evening, my Father would turn on the news, and we all sit and listened to the updates of the war...It was a while after my Brother came home that we got our first television, a 12 inch black and while...so after that, we were hooked, but I still loved my little radio in my room, and my favorite programs, a special time...

Red Coat, Big Bull, Skinny Girl- BAD MIX

This is funny to me now, but at the time, it was SO Scarey.....One afternoon after school was out, as we were waiting for the school bus to come from the high school (at that time , my Brother was in high school (Jeff Davis) Well the bus picked up them first, then on to our school, ...well, the driver was running late for some reason, and it was a cold, sunny day, and my group of friends that rode that bus EVERY day, decided that it would be really "fun" to just walk home, probably a good 2 or 3 miles across a pasture , into our addition..There were about 5 or 6 of us, and we had never done this (stupid ) thing...All of our parents had told us over and over not to ever walk, Well, no one remembered this, just that "What a adventure, we would have, and we all had our coats...we ranged in age from 11 to 12...I think I was 11..all of us should have been old enough to know better...we set off , from the back of the school, toward the field, at that time , there was no road from the school to the Addition that direction...only a road at the front of the school, and the bus had to take a long about way to get to our addition...well, we were going to be "smart" and take a "short cut"...I was the only one wearing a RED coat, as this was my Mother's favorite color, I had a lot of red objects of clothing in my closet( I never liked red, and now I try to remember if that was before this day or after....We wer all talking, walking, enjoying the cool fall weather, and came to a fenced- in section of the field,(with 3 or 4 bulls in it)...The boys said " oh , they won't hurt anyone, but they just stood there, the girls said"o.k., lets climb in and go on", well , I think the boys probably lifted up the wire for us girls, as I really would not climb anything...as it happens, I was about the first one in, with the other girls right behind me...well, one of those BIG Bulls looked up, started making "funny sounds, (I was about 1/3 of the way across the area that was fenced, ..the girls behind me started screaming, and running back, I froze...they were all screaming for me to turn around and run back,...finally, I did, and believe me , I have never run as fast as I did that day...i got to the fence, with that big bull behind me, and he seemed to get bigger every time, I repeated this to anyone....but , needless to say, we started back to the school, and the bus had already come and gone....When Charles got home, and Mother asked..where I was, he said, I don't know, and after a while, Mother found out the other kids were not on the bus either...well, she got in the car and headed for the school, we kids were all really nervous, especially after we all remembered our Mothers telling us never to walk home...We all were so happy to see my Mother, and at the same time, knowing that
We were in a lot of trouble.. I didn't get a spanking, but a really loud, "I told you NEVER to walk home, didn' t I? 

growing up

After the war, it took some time for everyone to adjust to the changes...My Brother came home, and brought one of his friends with him, that served on the same ship as he...He didn't have a

  very  family, and really fit into our family and decided to just room in ,,Charles's girlfriend had just moved back home, (next door to us) and they started dating again, and very soon planned a Wedding..Charles and Benny got jobs, and starting civilian life...I was the "pesty younger  sister, and since we had a two bedroom home, I was assigned the couch for my bed...now this was distrubing, to say the least for me, as I was  a  teen-ager , and thought I was (grownup)...actually , had a long way to go with that...Charles and Frances were married at her home in April of that year, just a few months after Charles came home...Benny was his best man, and Dorothy(he had just met her, and they were dating) was Maid of Honor...Charles and Frances rented a small apt. and Benny moved out on his own, SO, I had my bedroom back, but we all missed the boys! ...about 10 momths later, I was a Aunt... Frances Gail was born, and  a joy to us all!!

Childhood

My Childhood as a whole was pretty much like most of the kids during that time...I was a "Depression Baby, as was Irvin, I was born October 23, 1931, Irvin, July 8, 1931...Even if we cannot remember the actual Depression(it was called and still known as the "Great Depression"), according to what we heard from our Parents , it was the worst of times, and something that one remembers , whether they were old enough or from hearing about it . ...there were no jobs, and if you were lucky enough to have a job, any kind of job, it was usually one that was heavy manual work, families had to move in with whoever of the family had a house, whether that house was large enough for everyone or not..that was a time that everyone shared whatever they were able to get..many of the Houston streets were put down during that period, by men out of work, for a very small amount of pay each day...I heard my Dad say 50 cents, and I know that sounds unreal, but you have to remember that was in the 30's and that bought a lot then, like a loaf of bread at 5cents a loaf, etc...By the way, those streets were brick, and even in the 1950 and beyond , there were still a few left..of course, there are none now...By the Grace of God, we came thru that dreadful time, and then in the 40's the Second World War happened...I still remember the day of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I was about 10 years old or so, and in a couple of years after the war started, my Brother, Charles joined the Navy at 17 years old..Being my Big Brother, he was my hero...This was everyones war, and we all did our part to help the troops, there were "blackouts", rationing of gasoline, many groceries, such as sugar, etc...we had ration coupons for all of those things..there was the USO that all the stars entertained the servicemen, there were not a lot of women in service during that time, of course there were nurses , and in time, the Waves, (Navy) and the women in the Army and Marines were starting to make their way into the armed services> One of my Uncles, (my Dad's Brother(youngest of 5 boys) was a Prisonsor of War, in Germany ..they were treated very , very badly, and I shudder at the things he told when he returned home.. as a result of inhuman treatment, he came home with TB, at that time a dreaded disease, that a lot of times , people died with...but with my Dear Grandmother's care, he got over it, and lived to be in his 70's...My Grandmother is another chapter that I will devote to her...WE finally defeated Germany, Japan, and our Servicemen were able to come home, by the way, at that time , either you joined by your choice, or you were drafted, even at the age of 40(at the time, 40 was considered older than it is now), unless you were disabled in some way, you were drafted ...It was a Wonderful time, when the war was finally over...My Brother was home, my 2 uncles were home, and we had a neighbor that was home , all of these men from different parts of the military...

Still on the subject of AC

well, still on this subject, during the before AC days, the stores were the first to actually get Airconditioning, and everyone found every excuse to go to these stores, ...I remember it was the "high end" stores that got it first, like Foley's(well then it was called Foley's) Sears, most of them still had the hugh ceiling fans, and attic fans,(which only moved the hot air around)even the grocery stores still had this form of cooling the customers, but hey, we were used to that... we looked forward to going to the Movies, after they all installed their AC's...back then, the Drive-In 's were popular..on Monday nights, a entire car could get in for one dollar., during our dating days, Irvin and I went to a lot of movies at the drive -in...there was one on Market St. (the street I grew up on).. I think right before I got married, my parents put in a window unit in the dining room, which had to cool the entire house...then our first house we did the same in the living room...now this actually "cooled the room it was in", but we were happy for that...I have probably said enough about AC, but even I amaze at how times have changed in my 80 years, and am so thankful that they have...

This goes "way back"

"I Remember When", there was NO Air Conditioning, we depended on fans, yes , the kind that sit on tables, and on very hot days , you sit in front of them, or nighttime we put them on our bed side tables..I think maybe as I was a child at that time, it probably didn't really bother me as much as my Mother, Daddy, Grandparents, etc...but I do remember them wishing for cooler weather real often... it also seems all in all the weather at that time had a Season, such as in the Summer , it was hot, Fall was cool, Winter was Cold, and in the Spring, it was warm.. well in Texas, even back then , the seasons sort of sometimes overlapped, or "changed places", but in the last few years, it is hard to tell one season from another...well, you know what I mean, and on to something else....

Down Memory Lane

O.K, After much thought , I decided to start this blog, some of my family have urged me to start a journal about my life, or should I say , Mine , Irvin's(my wonderful Husband of almost 57 years), and my memories thru those years...I think just putting my thoughts and memories down in this blog will be the best way to go....