Stories From My Mother's Memory Book

My mother and her sisters once wrote letters to their mother and put them all in a book of childhood memories. Here is a few excerpts from the letter my Mom wrote. I thought they were funny:

"In Missouri when we went to visit Mamy (Martha Rowena Grant Smith) and Pa (James Calvin Smith), one of her hens crowed. That was a “no-no” because Mamy was real superstitious. She ran out the back door of the log house and snatching up the old hen before she could open her eyes, wrung her head off. She looked like a fly wheel going around in Mamy’s hand. We had chicken for dinner." (Mama said that Mamy believed that something bad would happen if a hen crowed like a rooster, so you had to kill it before it quit crowing.)

"We never saw cars anywhere. The first car I ever saw was driven by a nice looking lady from Wheeler Heights. She drove through Bassett (Kansas). All the kids ran along on the sidewalk to keep up and watch it, and all the dogs did too—barking. They called it an electric car. No steering wheel, just a stick like on a plane, I guess. It was shaped and looked like a fine buggy without any staves or horse. It sounded like a lawn mower. I must have been about six then.""Mama, do you remember the little gold knife and chain I found in a crack in the cement sidewalk? I ran over it with my bicycle. I brought it home and gave it to you. Another time I was digging by the back step at a house in Bassett that we had moved into a day or two before. I dug up a gold watch and chain and a gold locket. Someone must have swept them out in the trash. I think I gave the watch and chain to Pa (my Grandpa Henry Clay Sims)."

"I remember one time back in Bassett when I was seven, you were washing clothes in a tub outside the kitchen window. I was sitting in the window watching you. You came in the kitchen for a minute. We had no screens then and all at once I fell out the window in the tub of nice warm soapy water. The wash board kept me from going under. You ran outside the back door yelling, 'Tom, come here, Hazel is going to drown!' "

"Gladys was going with a farm boy then named Charley Ross. I always had to go with Gladys on her dates, as a chaperone, I guess. Charley came after her in a buggy pulled by one horse. He always reached around Gladys to pinch me just so he could put his arm around Gladys. We went to a box supper with him one night. We had covered shoe boxes with bananas for handles and because one of us had cotton Easter chickens on top of our box, it sold way high. Everyone thought it had chicken in it. I remember one day Bob Way was in the yard talking to Gladys as Charley drove up in his shiny buggy. Gladys told him she was going with Bob after this. Charley was so mad his face was redder than his bright pink shirt. (He always wore bright pink shirts.) He almost turned the buggy over turning around to go home. (Now in 1979 she is still with Bob after having been married for over 50 years.) "

(Pictured is Hazel & Gladys dressed and ready for school. Mama told me that when they got out of the sight of their Mother, they would roll down their knee socks and roll their skirts up so that their legs would show.)

"Bob found out how to get rid of me at the gate when we got home from his date with Gladys. We all walked to town to the show about a mile away. Bob wanted to kiss Gladys good night and he knew I would tell (or thought I would anyway) so he grabs me and kisses me right quick. I was so red faced I ran in the house fast and left Gladys out at the gate with the wolf. I always walked right in the house after that when we got to the gate."






















My mother and Aunt Gladys both lived to be 94 years old. Mama was born in 1908 and Aunt Gladys was born in 1905. When they were together, they had lots of fun!

Here is picture of them taken a few years ago. Aunt Gladys went to be with the Lord on January 27, 2000 and Hazel (Mom) on January 29, 2003. They were both in their 80's in this photo