The time of my life

I was listening to my iPod the other day, totally immersed in Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes’ having the time of their lives, when someone drove by laughing at my car dance. A long time ago I decided to have the time of my life every day, regardless of what other people think, and I’ve [...]

A letter from Uncle Thurman

I received this letter from my father’s brother, Thurman, almost twenty years ago and only recently found it among my genealogy notes. I’d written asking him for any information he had gathered doing his exhaustive genealogical research on our family line which I could computerize and submit to national databanks so others would have access [...]

The day my world changed

I was nine years old, and there was no one available to take care of me. My dad was out of town setting up seminary extensions so preachers could receive educations they might otherwise never have. My mother was busy with preparations for her Sunday School department’s annual Valentine banquet for young married couples in [...]

Backyard adventures

After my brother’s Irish Mail disintegrated, broke or rusted – we aren’t sure what happened to it – we decided to build a car. Dad had some scrap lumber he donated and allowed us to use his tools. So with scrap lumber galore, a saw and a hammer, we began. As you can see, the [...]

Elvis

Since this is the fifty-third anniversary of the release of the movie “Love Me Tender” it’s a good day to talk about Elvis. Of course, we lived in Mississippi, and he was from Tupelo, MS, almost 200 miles northeast of Jackson – practically neighbors. We didn’t care that his family had moved to Memphis in [...]

George Wallace

The first time I saw George Wallace I was babysitting for friends of my parents and watching their television in early fall 1962. He was so utterly disgusting and racist that I thought to myself “well, at least nobody will vote for anyone that awful.” Clearly, I did not have the pulse of the people [...]

Scary stuff

When I was five, we had the kind of encounter a mother hopes her children will never face. It started out innocently enough when we were in the angel chorus of the Christmas play put on by several of the Baptists churches in Jackson. The play was to be held at the City Auditorium in [...]

Kindergarten

It was unusual for white women to work outside of the home in the early 1950’s, but when I was five, Mother became the office manager and went to his office every day in downtown Jackson.  There weren’t many daycare options at the time, but they finally found a place that would keep me all [...]

The Irish mail, beer, and Howdy Doody

We lived in four different locations in the eight years we lived in Jackson, MS, the third one being Verdemont Drive.  My parents took a lot of photos of us there, but I don’t think we lived in the house very long.  It did provide some interesting times for us, however. For some reason neither [...]

Golden Eagle Syrup

Granddaddy Thomas introduced me to the wonders of Golden Eagle Syrup, The Pride of Alabama, in the kitchen of the Clanton house where he and Grandmother always kept a huge jar. There really isn’t anything anywhere quite like Golden Eagle Syrup, although this is not to say it’s good for you. Manufactured in Fayette, Alabama, [...]