Thanksgiving 1975

Sometimes writing about events and memories serves as a way to release them. I hope this is such a time, because this is not a favorite memory. In November 1975 I worked at the Amherst newspaper for minimum wage, lived in a one-room apartment over a restaurant with a shared a bathroom on the hall. [...]

The 50 year grudge

My parents were delightfully predictable about some things, one of which was Mother’s old grudges against Dad. I realized one day that these grudges were pretty funny and could be manipulated. And so I did. When Mother and Dad were dating – in the early 1930’s – Dad always picked up Mother to take her [...]

Good ‘n Gooey

My mother loved entertaining. When we moved to Birmingham, she was excited to have gatherings at our house, because we had a formal living room as well as a separate dining room she was proud of. Dad once told me the Birmingham house was even better than the dream house she had found in Clanton [...]

Funny girl

Most people who knew my mother didn’t realize what a funny girl she had been growing up. After my father died, I called her Wednesday and Sunday nights, talking for 45 minutes to an hour or more each time. It was the first time she answered questions I asked about her life. Previously, she shrugged [...]

The line between recycling and hoarding

It is possible that my father invented recycling. Well, he never met an object he couldn’t find another use for. He had always been that way, but really came into his own in Birmingham where he had an entire basement just waiting for his books, found objects and doodads. Dad worked in the basement Saturday [...]

A love of cars

I love cars, especially those from the 50′s and 60′s. I think it goes back to a stamp book we got when a child in the 1950′s. Each page told the history of a specific car in a specific year and had a place to put a colored stamp.  My brother and I worked on [...]

Manners

To my mother’s everlasting credit, she never tired of attempting to teach all of her children good manners. My sister and brother will affirm that every time she dropped us off somewhere her last words to us would be “remember who you are and whose you are.” We always nodded quickly and bolted. We got [...]

Dad – the movie police

Visiting my grandparents in Clanton, AL,  was a big event when we lived in Jackson, because it was a five hour trip – pre-interstate days. I remember how excited we’d get when we came to the V in the road outside Clanton. Before she went to college, my sister joined my brother and me in [...]

Dad and the hacksaw

For a man known for his courage, Dad completely came apart when something happened to his children. Then Mother stepped to the fore, and she was like a rock, steady, logical, and in control. Mother and Dad worked in an old house in downtown Jackson, Mississippi. He was the first director of a Southern Baptist [...]