GRANDMA AND GRAND DADDY’S HOUSE

“Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go! “Is the beginning of a song as a child I learned in school to sing during the Thanksgiving holiday.

Recently I revisited my maternal grandparent’s home town and drove by the old property where I spent many summers. I remembered this is where I learned a lot of family values and a bit about my mother and her siblings. I was the child that asked hundreds of questions, all day long. My grandmother and little patience with me so she would send me to my grandfather for the questions that kept him laughing. I remembered one particular time I asked him about dating before they got married, he told me how  they would go on a picnic after church. After 2 or 3 picnics, they were married and stayed married until death. Here is where I learned about doing laundry with a wringer washing machine. I learned how to look at crop to pick the one that are ripe [that lesson hurt, ouch]. There was the first time I ate chicken that was running around in the yard that morning and was supper that evening. IK refused to eat it at first, but was hungry that next morning and ate it. This was the best I ever had, past or present and begged them every chance I got to make more. Then there was the time a “June-bug’ got on my shirt and I lost my mind running and screaming. My grandma picked it up and showed me how they used to a string on its legs, hold the string and watch it fly around like some moving toy.

I used to drive by when I came to town with one of my cousins Larry Squire, and see the frame of the house, or the chimney still standing and we would be reminded about those times. You see there were at least 18 first cousins that lived in and the surrounding towns that frequent grandma and granddad’s house, I was one of them who came during the summer school break from NYC.

Last August we buried Larry Squire and this gave me a profound look at my life and I am grateful daily. We went to the property this past Sunday and there is nothing I can identify with, it is all gone. Mother Nature has reclaimed the property. The brick chimney is gone; there is no ghost of the house left, nothing.

 I was blessed to have spent so much time with them and have these memories still. What survived are me and the other grandchildren, the grandchildren’s children who still hold the teachings and traditions that were passed down through the generations.

Society Hill, Bishopville, Cheraw, Dovesville South Carolina the towns of some of my mother’s roots

…Pandora