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| Grandparents by � chibilunacat Hmmmmm, the family doesn't talk about my family history very much, I guess there were to many "family scandals" and stuff, but what I do know about some of my older family is that I had a great great grandmother named Mae C. Leslie and she was the mother of my great granma Betty, I never met Mae, or Betty, because they died long before I was born. I know that they were adding on to the old farm house and Betty lit a cigarette while they were gluing down tiles and it caught on fire, she went to the hospital and her 2 and 1/2 year old daughter Camille, and Camille died as a result of the injuries, Betty was badly scarred, but lived through that, I am not sure how old my Grandfather Robert was at the time, but Camille was younger than him, by quite a few years. Betty died some time later (I am not sure on any dates) due to diabetes complications, she died three days after her mother, Mae possibly died of the same thing. During the time Betty was sick, before she died my Great Grandfather and her husband Everet was renting a small side of the house out as a one bedroom apartment, to a lady named Peggy Bidel, he was also having an afair with her, she was younger than him, but I don't know by how much, he had already been having the affair with her when she moved in. As far as I know at this time my great grandfather Everet had his older sister living with him, helping to take care of things, her name was Edna, but when Betty died and Everet decided to marry Peg he kicked Edna out, my grandfather Robert had already promised the apartment to my Father and Mother who were getting ready to be married, Peg and Everette weren't very happy about this cause they wanted the whole house, but they had to give in, my Dad and Mom were married in 1975, just before their twelth grade year in school. They waited four years to have me, and then they had my brother nearly three years after that, so I grew up only knowing Peg as my great granma, I learned later about Betty when Peg started giving me some of her things, and I have some of Mae's old books, one even signed by the author, though I don't remember the name just now. When I was still pretty little Peg and Everet had built a new house sort of next door but closer to the highway and they moved into it, and my Dad and Mom got the rest of the house, it was a three story farm house, five bedrooms, two living rooms two kitchens, two bathrooms, but it needed alot of work, it is a very old house. My great grandfather R.F. Leslie (Bettys father) had owned a garage, R.F. Leslies New and Used Cars, but my Grandfather changed the name, to this day it is still R.L. Jacksons Used Trucks Inc. in Maryland. At one point R.F. Leslie had owned 27 farms, including the one I grew up on, he rented out most of them, and running stills on a lot of them, he was known for his whiskey. The Leslies had come over from Germany, but when they came to the United States they had their name changed to Germany, they had fled from Germany, and immediatly changed the names, but I don't know what their names had been before, no one has ever said. Mae was from here, though, R. F. was not. All together the property I grew up on was a full 75 acres, and my family is spread out on that, my Great Grandma Peg, my grandfather Robert and his wife Jane, and their five remaining kids, out of six, the five being my Uncle Robert, my Father, my Uncle Mark and his wife, my Aunt Sara and her husband, my Aunt Mary. My Grandfather Robert, Uncle Mark, and my Father are all owners of the R.L. Jacksons Used Trucks Inc. as of now, the farm I was raised on untill I was 13 is the only farm left of the 27, and the barn itself is rented out to a guy thats been renting it since before I was born, he keeps his horses there. My Aunt Mary took up being the secretary of the business after my Aunt Penny died, there is a nice creek on the land and alot of woods, but the woods are full of damaged cars, cars chopped up for parts,some from back in the 50's old police cars, buses, bread trucks, moving vans, toe trucks, I think even a fire truck. Some of the cars aren't so old, there is old car carriers back there and everything. In an unused part of the woods, close to the fence that marks off the one field is an old shack thats pretty much flat to the ground, I think it was an old club house or something, but its hard to tell. There is an old spring house that pumps the water to the barn, we used to use it in the house as well, but we had to have a well put in. There is also an old an old stone room type thing built right into the side of a hill by the spring house, it was used for a wine cellar for a long time, but the bars that serve as an outside door that locks to the wall leaves no doubt in anyones mind that slaves were kept there once, I never did want to play there, explored once or twice, but never played. And an old hitching post still stands outside of our house, on one side of the drive way. Behind the house is an old chicken house, that now stores old fixed up cars and stuff, and a line of old garages, with one end storing corn thats dried, I have only been upstairs once, but its really old and the floor up there might give way, so we were forbidden to go up there, also at the end closes to our house is a room on the back thats locked up that has all kinds of horse saddles and stuff, I don't think the man who rents the barn has been in there in a long long time though. Sorry to have gotten a bit side tracked, lol, anyhow, what I can tell you about my Fathers parents is that my Grandmother is a very respectable lady, she raised her kids, and has helped with the extensive paperwork and answering the phone and watching grandkids and cleaning house all at the same time for quite some time now. I am their oldest grandchild and while they never had to babysit me or my brother but a couple times, since my mom was a house wife, she has had to raise or help raise most of my cousins, watching them while her kids worked, right now she gets to see four of them everyday and the oldest one is only six or seven, and yet she doesn't complain. I have always looked up to my granma, even times I didn't understand things she decided on or something, now that I am older I see in a way she is stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to alot of things, and the fact that she has never broke down or wilted away is sheerly amazing to tell the truth. The sad part is, I don't think anyone has ever really thanked her, or even shown appreciation, she has always been there, and they take her for granted it seems, I haven't gotten to see her in a few years now, since I turned 18, I live over 500 miles away from her, but she is with me in my heart every day. I think I am going to go write her a letter now..... thanks for listening to some of my memories, I think its more than anyone has heard about me in a long time, lol. Terra Mae |