Momma went to school just up the hill from her house. It was a one room school, Oak Hill School, and she claims she never liked school the whole time she went. She talks about the games they played says the best part of school was the walks to and from. She said when you had to go to the outside toilet, you put a book in the doorway and then picked it up when you got back. Just like the television show, "Little House on the Prairie," she took a lunch bucket with a biscuit and jam for her lunch. She remembers that the whole class drank out of the same dipper at the well when they went out for recess.
Momma stands out in pictures because she had white, not blond, but white hair. It was cute short with bangs. She said the other students always made fun of her hair. When my youngest child, Neil, was born with a head full of snow white hair, she was so proud because he had inherited her genes. Now at age 86 when she should have white hair, she doesn't. Her hair is the same light brown it's been ever since I can remember. She has very little gray in her hair.
Momma, like myself, is a story teller. She has so many stories. Almost all of them are humorous. The only serious things she's ever talked about was World War II and when her cousin was killed by a train when he was only 24 years old. As many times as I've heard them, I still have to ask her details, my memory is nothing like hers. I love to hear her tell about getting her first permanent. The rods were attached to a huge standing apparatus that looked like a coat rack with arms. She said the permanent solution and the heat fried her hair. She had so many blisters on her scalp that they burst for days and she walked around with wet hair just from the blisters. I also like to hear her tell about how she met my Daddy. By then she and my grandparents lived in Conway, Ky. Daddy was from just down the road in Snyder. He drove a fancy car that had "Just Blew In" wrote on the back. Momma was working in a grocery story and she said she fell for him the first time she saw him. He was nine years older than her, but after a short courtship they married and lived happily for 23 years until he passed away in 1971.
Doctors had told momma once that she probably would never have any children. Momma thought that would be a problem with Daddy because he was from a big family and he loved children. But, he loved her so much he married her anyway. But, 9 years into their marriage, a miracle occurred-Me. I was born on Derby Day. The Dr. who was scheduled to deliver me went to the Derby and left someone to take over for him. Trouble was that the substitute Dr. was an Orthopedic Surgeon. He delivered me without complications. Momma didn't fare as well as me. Her blood pressure dropped and to this day, she doesn't remember much about my birth. When she came home, she would faint every time she stood up. Poor Daddy was such a worrier, he said,"This is the only child we will have. I will not put you through this ever again." When I was six weeks old, we moved to Gadsen, AL. Daddy was a construction worker and was always moving. Momma says they rented a room from an older black lady named Pearl who helped Mom out a lot. She took care of me so mom could do laundry and other things she needed to do. Also, there were times momma didn't know what to do with me, like when I had the colic and cried for days. Pearl helped her to get through this trying time for a new mother a long way from home. It was really hot there momma said. That August, Hurricane Audrey hit South Carolina and her aftermath brought storms and flooding to Alabama. After Daddy finished working in Al., he and momma were more than glad to come home to Kentucky.
Before Momma married Daddy, she had worked in a bakery in Ohio. She says she can hardly eat baked goods even today because of all the things she saw at the bakery. After she married Daddy and had me, she didn't work outside the home. We lived beside my grandparents who owned their own little country store. Sometimes she helped out there. She always had a good supper on the table when I came home from school. Me and Daddy loved to eat. Daddy also loved to hunt so I grew to love rabbit, squirrel, grouse, and fish. Daddy was a good shot and would go to shooting matches on Thanksgiving. We had to wait until he came home with the turkey before we could have our turkey dinner. Momma was afraid when I ate fish that I would eat a bone, so she sat me on the kitchen table and fed the fish to me. I can remember getting off the school bus in the winter and noticing that the doors and windows were steamed up. That usually meant we were having pinto beans for supper. How great it was to put my books down, turn on "Gilligan's Island" or "The Rifleman" and just wait for Momma to tell us supper was ready.
After Daddy died from a sudden heart attack, I was so worried about Momma that I could barely concentrate at school. She was young and seemed to have lost all interest in me or any thing else. I didn't want to go places with my friends because I didn't want to leave her alone. We started sleeping together the night Daddy was buried and I slept with Momma right up until the night before I got married. Momma allowed me to date when I was sixteen. I was more comfortable having my boyfriend and other friends come to my house rather than go out. It wasn't until I met Mike that I finally broke away and left Momma alone while I went out. She was always scared to be alone, but when I married in 1975, she toughened up and learned to stay by herself.
After Daddy's death, Momma took a job working at Fletcher's Grocery in Brodhead. We drew Daddy's social security, but it wasn't enough to make all the payments. My grandparents helped us a lot. We got all of our groceries from their store. I was eligible for a government program called CETA . It's main purpose was to help children with a single parent work during the summer break from school. My cousin, Kaye, had lost her father so both of us worked one summer at the BES library. I was 15, Kaye was 16 and drove us to work. I know momma could have used the money I made that summer, but she let me keep it to buy my school clothes.
I was a teenager before I ever wore anything that my momma hadn't made for me. She could make anything. She spent a lot of time at her sewing machine making me dresses for school. She made both my prom dresses and they were beautiful. When everybody started wearing blue jeans, that was something she couldn't make. She tried to make them, but they looked so much different from what everybody else was wearing that I wasn't satisfied with them. I bought my first pair of blue jeans at Cromer's Discount store in Brodhead. They were $12.00. I wore them almost everyday. When they needed patched, Momma did that for me. When the bottom became frayed, she fixed that with another piece of denim sewed around the bottom. She still made all my blouses, which in the 1970's weren't very big. I wore a lot of halter tops. Back then I had the figure for it at 88 pounds. Years later, when Momma was in her late 60's, she decided to quilt. Her grandmother and mother both had quilted and their work was perfect. Momma felt she had big shoes to fill and her work would pale in comparision to theirs. I wasn't surprised when her quilts came out beautiful. Her stitches were perfect, all the same size and the quilt designs were so pretty. She quilted about 15 quilts in a very short time.
My Grandpa passed away in 1975, just a month after Mike and I got married. Momma said it was the saddest time of her life. She and I had been in an automobile accident in June of that year. We were hit from behind. I wasn't hurt, but momma had a concussion and a crack in her neck. She had to take time off from work that summer. Granny was at the hospital with Grandpa and I was making plans to get married. She said she was so lonesome. Then when grandpa passed and I was living in Louisville, there was no one but her and Granny. I worried about her during this time. I didn't realize until years later how depressed she was.
In 1976, Granny retired from the grocery store and turned it over to Momma. In 1977, Mike and I moved back home from Louisville. Granny gave us a piece of land to build a house on. We moved in our new house in December 1977. Momma was a big help to us. She took care of Granny and helped me with all my anxieties. In 1978, Kyle Michael Childress was born and Momma game to life. She treasured her grandsons. She babysat them while I worked and later when I went to Cosmetology School. It was a hard job to work at the store and watch my wild sons at the same time. When the boys got old enough to play baseball, Momma took one to Brodhead for a game while I took the other one to Roundstone. She took such pleasure in watching them play baseball. She was and still is an Atlanta Braves fan and of course a huge Ky. Wildcat fan. During the time that the boys were playing baseball, she met Hershel Taylor. His son was Kyle's coach so he was at practice with his grandsons at the same time Momma was. A romance started between them and I was so happy. Momma had been a widow for nineteen years. I wanted her to have someone in her life. I knew Hershel would be good to her and he has been for 23 years.
I don't remember ever being away from Momma on Mother's Day. One of the best ones, was a few years back. I bought her an outside swing. She came to my house for the day. We hadn't spent the whole day together for years.
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| Me and Mom on Mother's Day |
After Momma retired and closed the store in 1990, she had plenty time to do things with me. She went to Lexington with me to every doctor's appt. I had and there were several.. I have to go by myself now and I miss her company so much. We went on several vacations together. She loved the ocean and the beach, but was afraid of the water. I finally talked her into just walking a little bit in the waves. She did fine until a huge one roared in, knocked her down, pulled her under and swept her hat and glasses off. I first grabbed her, then her glasses. After I got her standing up and re-assured that she hadn't drowned, I went for her hat. We didn't try that again. When the kids were little, Mike, Mom and Me would go on a day trip about once a month. We went to several Ky. state parks. We enjoyed those times so much. Anytime Mike and I took a vacation, we always took Momma with us. She loved going to Kings Island. She rode the big roller coaster, "The Beast" with me several times. She was afraid to scream because she thougJht her false teeth would fall out. We took her to see the Reds play the Braves in Cincinnati once too. And before daddy died, they went to Memorial Coliseum and watch Coach Rupp, Dan Issel and that team play. Momma said they sat so high up she was afraid to stand up because she felt like she would fall all the way to the floor.
Momma doesn't have any bad habits. She never drank and tried smoking once as a child which made her sick and she never tried again. The one vice she does have is her love of frogs. She has a huge collection of frogs. Everything in her house is frogs. She can remember who gave her each one and she probably has 300. Jack once asked me why No-No had so many frogs in her house. I told him she liked to collect them to which he said he would collect something better than old frogs.
Momma doesn't get out much these days. She has trouble with her balance. I bring her to my house on nice days to sit on the porch and talk while we watch Jack play. I take her to Georgetown to see Neil and his boys when she feels like it. She works jigsaw puzzles to keep her mind sharp. She must have worked 1000 puzzles in the last few years. She enjoys company, but fusses because no one comes to see her. She misses all her friends and customers from the store. She lives just for the days when I take Jack and her only great granddaughter, Layla Wade who is named after her, to see her.
She misses doing all the stuff she used to be able to do. Working in the garden, canning her vegetables, visiting her friends, going to Kings Island, and driving back and forth to and from my house to help me with something. The neck she cracked in 1975 is giving her troubles all these years later. She is in constant pain. One thing I am thankful for is that she's satisfied at this time in her life. She's happier now than she's been in a long time. I remember for awhile our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners would only be, Momma, Granny, Grandpa and myself. Now there is twelve of us to try to gather around a table. She thought she would never have children and now she's got more than she's ever had.
I wish Momma a very special Mother's Day. Our plans are to spend it with her family which includes her husband, one child, one son in law, two grandsons, two grandson's wives, and four great-grandchildren. I know how blessed we are to have my sweet, little Momma still around and enjoying life at age 86. I plan on getting her a new bird feeder. She will fuss at me because she says she doesn't want anything, but she's getting something anyhow. I look forward to writing about my Momma again next year on Mother's Day.
