My Grandparents were very good people. I'm not sure how much of the family has stayed with them throughout the years but there have been several family members and their children that needed a place to stay. They took it all in stride and from my vantage point as a grandchild, I never once heard them complain. It had to be hard on them though. One of the families was mine of course. I come from a broken family. My Mom was married twice. I have two half brothers and one sister. There would have been a second half sister but she died in the womb. I also have two step brothers and a step sister on my Dad's side. I'm not exactly sure how many times we have returned to live with my grandparents but I have very fond memories of the farm in Blue Ridge, TX.
Before I was born, my grandparents had two daughters and a son on a normal schedule to have kids. I say that because when my Mom was pregnant with my brother, Ricky (I call him brother, never half brother), my grandparents were pregnant too. The two babies were born less than a year apart. My grandparents had a boy and named him Kyle. After Mom had her baby she named him Ricky.
When Mom left Ricky's Dad, he chose to live with my Mom while his brother Richie decided to stay with his Dad. I do not have contact with Richie though I would like to. Ricky was in and out of my life during my childhood. Sometimes he would live with our grandparents and sometimes he would live with us. This is mostly due to the fact that his playmate and Uncle Kyle grew up with our grandparents. They played baseball together, double-dated together, and got into trouble together.
My grandparents' house was a good size. It was a one story, three bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, and single bath home. The master bedroom was big enough for about three beds and still had room for chest of drawers and other miscellaneous furniture. There was a covered back porch where the washer and dryer were kept and a covered front porch. Behind the house there was a storm cellar, garden, and barn. There were also several broken down classic automobiles. Wish I had them all now. To the right, left, and back of the house was a total of 60 acres that my Grandfather (I call him Pipa) farmed. He had the traditional old tractor with the old plows. At one time he owned cattle and pigs. I used to love to go and feed the pigs. There was one large pig and it would make the grunt/snort sound. I don't know if any of you remember me making that noise but I can mimic that pig to this day :) Anyway, to the left of the house was a large, and during my time, old pear tree. Far to the left of that there was a pond. I'm sure at one time it was a vibrant pond but during my time it held stagnant water.
As I said earlier, families would come and stay with my grandparents. At one point there were three families living under the same roof: my grandparents and their youngest son Kyle, my Mom's family consisting of Ricky, Nikki (my sister), and me, and my Mom's sister Beverly and her son Kevin. Kevin was the same age as my sister but him, Nikki and I were like Kyle and Ricky. Nikki didn't have a chance. She grew up a tomboy. She was surrounded by boys. I don't even remember the living arrangements but it was packed. Did I mention only one bathroom? I have to tell you though, we were very efficient. I was young so I don't remember any troubles but I'm sure the adults had a hard time with it all. To us kids it was as good as a theme park. We rarely played indoors. We had bikes and lots of land to explore. We had a basketball goal we played on all the time and we played football. We even went snipe hunting once. I never did find one and somehow I ended up all alone :)
There is a reason there is a storm cellar behind the house. Blue Ridge tends to get pretty bad weather. Anytime it got stormy the adults were watching the clouds. If it started looking real bad, into the cellar we would go. There were many types of bees on the farm, dirt dobbers, yellow jackets, and bumble bees. The bumble bees would hang out in the barn and the yellow jackets would hang around on whatever ledge they could find around the house. The yellow jackets would also make their nests in the fruit trees we had around the house and the large pear tree. Did I mention I fear bees more than anything in this world? I hate bees.
To get to the house, there was a rock lane from the main road. The lane was over 100 yards long. We would ride our bikes up and down that lane pretending we were in sport cars or just to get away from the adults. We were threatened within inches of our lives not to ride on the road. Yea that's right, we did it anyway. We didn't do it that much though. My Mom put the fear of God into us about getting run over if we got on the road. So it was more like, I'm touching the road, nah nah nah-nah-nah.
There was also a garden to the right of the house in addition to the back. Pipa grew green onions, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, corn, and my favorite okra. When it came time to pick the vegetables, I would go straight to the okra. I loved to eat it right off the stalk.
There was a tree in the front yard we would climb in and have a great time jumping out of. I guess we played so much in it that there were never any bees in it. We would swing from branches like monkeys and we knew every place in that tree we could climb up or jump out of without fearing falling and hurting ourselves.
It wasn't always peaches and cream though. If you pushed my Grandmother, we called her Grandmomma, she would get waspish and you knew you were in trouble. If you really went too far she would get Pipa after us. He would have us run and get him a switch (stick) that you would bring back to him and he would lightly hit you (of course to us, it felt much harder). We didn't get that very often though we probably should have gotten it much more than we did :)
The large pear tree produced a lot of pears over the years. It was a great tree until it was struck by lightning. We had to cut it down afterward. It was a sad day because it was one of the farm's icons. It was a real eyesore after it was gone. After many years the house started deteriorating and my Uncle Doug (my grandparents oldest son but youngest of the girls) built them a new home to the left of the old house. The old house and basketball goal were tore down. It was necessary but we all hated to see it happen. A few years later my poor Grandmother got pancreatic cancer and there was nothing that could be done but ease her pain. It was a very sad time. She was everyone's Mom. I consider my Grandparents my parents as much as my real parents. We were in their lives so much that you couldn't help but feel that. So when we lost her it was hard on all of us.
Pipa still lives but stays in a veteran's home. Fourteen acres of the land has been sold outside of the family. Forty-six acres still exist, 23 with my Mom and 23 with my Great-Aunt Viva, Pipa's sister. If I had the money and know-how, I would buy it all and continue farming it. I would plant gardens, keep cattle and pigs, and plow and seed the land. It is currently rented out by other farmers except for the 14 acres we no longer own.
Ok, I have come to the end and its too sad. I don't want to leave it like this. Unfortunately this is the current state of the farm and family. I visited Pipa not too long ago with my Mom. He looks great and is still sharp as a tack. He always knows who I am. He forgets my kid's names but that is natural at his age. He loves to hear me play the piano for him but I get a lot of enjoyment having him play the piano for me. He knows so many songs and plays both treble and bass cleft parts. He plays the old songs and I wish I had his knowledge of them. He taught me how to play checkers. He is a very good player and I feel like I got his strategical mind. I play chess much better than checkers but I am not too shabby at checkers either. We are a gaming family. We played a domino game called 42. I was taught to play when I was about fourteen or so. Its a game for four players (two teams) where you try to get the highest bid and make enough points to cover your bid. As a kid it was very enjoyable to be included to play with the adults. Grandmomma taught me to play Chinese Checkers. She was very good at that game.
The Growin Up... posts cover my entire childhood though there is much left out as a couple of people have commented in facebook. I plan on writing about everyone but in different arenas. Mostly it will be band and school memories. I will touch on family as well. It is really good to get all of this down in writing. Especially the traveling post. My Mom helped me remember where all we traveled to and what we did at each location. Thanks Mom!
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