| This page is dedicated to my family heritage. More specifically to the stories I was told about by my Mother about when she was growing up and the places that these stories took place at. I include it because these are difinitely part of a backdrop to my own life. Now on with the show... |
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| These first two pictures are of a house that my Mother lived in when she was about 9-10 years old. It is the house that her Father died in, and it is the house that I have hears most of the stories about growing up. My Aunt Lelah used to live in a trailor just down over the hill when I was a child, and we used to drive by it often. This is how the ol' place looks today. It is in a state of decay. As a matter of fact I fell through the floor 3 times when Mom and I recently went there to take these pic's. I had been on the road for many years and hadn't seen any of my family for almost a decade. Now coming back I had this need to recapture a sense of family I guess. So I persuaded Mom to take me out there and go over some of those old familiar stories. She told me how Grandpa used to spend hours up under the corner of the house (top pic) "working" as she called it. He built some pretty amazing things. Things like go-carts, and a toy airplane that two children could fly in that was tethered to a poll. The bottom pic is of the back door entrance. I am glad that the place was still standing there when I returned. |
| The picture to the right is of the old well that Mom said her and her sisters used to have to haul water from. As you can see it sits less than a hundred feet away from the house, but Mom said that it sure seemed alot farther when your a kid hauling water in buckets. I believe her too. Below is a picture of the old out-house, yep it is still standing. She told me how frightened she would get at times because it was reported to have been snake infested. She said that she was always afraid that on was going to bite her on the butt. Below right is a picture of the front room as you were facing the front-door. It is the spot where Grampa died of heart failure while resting on their old couch that used to sit there. I swear to you something that you may think is horse shit, but it is the only place in the whole joint where the floor is still solid! It is the damnest thing I have ever seen, the rest of the floors are rotting through, but there by the open front door, where it should have rotted most it is as solid as a rock! It also sits above the corner that Mom says he worked under all the time. |
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| This is the tree where one of the almost legendary and often repeated stories originated at. It seems that Mom and her 8 sisters and 1 brother used to go swinging on an old grapevine that was growing on this tree at that time. Well Grampa warned them to stop playing on that old vine before someone got hurt. One day Eddie, the only boy was out there swinging away on it when my Mother happened by and thought it looked like a load of fun. After running her litlle brother off the vine for her turn she proceeded to a swanging. It was then that the vine gave way and snapped, sending her head over heels down the ditch and straight into a barbed-wire fence that was there. She tells me this story and how she ripped her good dress, and her shoe was a filling up with blood but she was still frightened to tell her Ma and Pa on account of how her Daddy had just warned them to stop swinging on that ol' vine. |
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| This here picture to the right is of what's left of the kitchen where another memorable story took place. Grampa was shaving a little mirror that hung by the kitchen door, when Ed come up to him and struck a pose asking "Feel my muscle Daddy." Whereat Grampa reached down a lightly squeezed his little biceps and exclaimed "Whew! Boy that sure is a big muscle you got there." And Eddie being the only little man in the house was as proud as a peacock. Well my Mom watched this all take place, and not wanting to be left out of the spotlight she too went up to their Daddy and said "Feel MY muscle Daddy!" Whereat Grampa reached down and pinched her bottom lightly and exclaimed "Whew! You sure do got a big muscle there too!" This of course infuriated my Mom. She said that she spent the next couple of hours in that corner there behind the door feeling hurt and angry and wouldn't come out for a good long time. She laughs about it now of course. |
| This pic over to the left is where there used to be an old barrel-stove. Now you cityfolk might not know what an old barrel-stove is. It is basicall an old 100 gallon drum barrel with a piece of stove pipe stuck on it and a crude door cut into it. It works real well for a heating a house but those old barrels can get glowing hot. Well the story goes that all the kids were up getting ready fo school one morning and doing so close to the ol' barrel-stove to keep warm. Eddie was having a time a getting on his trousers, and that's when disaster struck! He had his legs caught up in his pant legs and was yanking to get them up when he lost his balance and fell ass-first onto (yep you guessed it) the ol' barrel-stove. It cooked a good hunk of flesh right of his buttocks. Mom said that you could smell the meat a cooking that morning on the ol' barrel stove. It's crazy the things we laugh about in hindsight isn't it? |
| This is the creek where Mom and her brother and sisters used to play and swim. In the picture on the left you can just make out a deep and wide spot. That's where she said they used to swim. Mom said that they would throw rocks and sticks in the water then wait and watch all the watermoccosin(highly poisonous snakes!) crawl out. Then someone would yell "It's all right to a go swimming now!" and they would all jump in to swim and play. I must have played that scene out in my minds eye a thousand times. I smile every time. |
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