AUNT AND UNCLE CAPS

This snapshot was taken at the Miller back porch. My dad is the first on the lower left, my mom is the last on the upper right.


For those of you following MarylandMama.blogspot story lines, I’m here to add these little caps of memory. As “matriarch” (her term) of our family Isobel knows more family history than I; and she likely spent a little more time with those special folks. I love her stories. Perhaps everyone finds a special quality to childhood memories, but it seems our heritage is rich with anecdotes of the kind that are vanishing all too quickly. Shows our age – and as our brother Andy recently wrote, “It puts things in perspective when your little sister is a grey haired grandmother.”

Community courting – could be limiting but they managed well. Not only did Uncles Gale and Bon marry sisters, but Aunt Carrie and Uncle David married siblings Bonnie and Dane. Both the oldest (Aunt Minnie) and youngest (Uncle Bly) married Normans – only in this case I think it was uncle/niece, not siblings. Our Mom and her first cousin Vera Miller married two of the Brady brothers, too. That made for a lot of double first and second cousins, but didn’t seem to tarnish the gene pool – I don’t recall any of those cousins being other than smart and good looking.

Vance was one of my favorite cousins and I made a pest of myself to visit with him at Aunt Minnie and Uncle Coy’s house. Before or when she was first married, Aunt Minnie taught her younger siblings at the one room schoolhouse on Tanner. One Sunday after meeting I tagged along for lunch – she fixed a hamburger skillet (innovative for the 50’s) by making a doughnut ring of a pound of hamburger (to help it cook quickly?) and covering it with chopped onions and a quart of home-canned tomatoes. Later she made what I always called ‘biscuit cookies.’ Soft vanilla mounds…a Sunday dessert that appeared especially because a niece had come to call. While they were baking Vance took my first boyfriend’s bracelet out to the shop and buffed away the scratches. (Don’t panic Nina – I was only in junior high, but a ‘steady’ only meant talking on the phone a couple times a week. Even so, don’t let my grandchildren do that! No chance.)

My most vivid memory of Aunt Carrie involves berries, too. Not strawberries, though. I don’t know what kind they were, but these little red berries grew close to the ground and were best eaten fresh – I probably ate more than got to the buckets. While picking berries a host of chiggers snuggled beneath the waistband of my skirt. The next day I wore a fiery red chigger belt. Arthritis notwithstanding, she was the best housekeeper I ever knew. Many years later I visited Shock for Sunday services and a sweet postcard followed from Aunt Carrie. She wrote on the margin, “you have your mother’s hands.”

In adulthood, every time I dropped by to see Uncle Bly he’d hug me and ask, “How’s my favorite niece?” He likely said that to all the girls, but I loved him no less for it. When he and Aunt Mavis lived in South Charleston (again, in the 50’s) they introduced us to pizza. Only in those days it wasn’t “Pizza,” it was “Piz-z-za PIE.” You need to lean on the z-z-z’s so they tilt like the tower.

Now I’ve gone on and on and still haven’t told about Uncle Bon and Aunt Janet letting me soak all afternoon in the pond and feeding me home-canned chicken for lunch; or Uncle Gale and Aunt Ruth prompting us to be a very young story tellers, (seemed we weren’t at grandma’s more than 15 minutes until we were begging to walk up to Uncle Gale’s); or Aunt Luanne’s story book romance. Another day - another story or two.

Thanks for the memories, Isobel!