The Little Yellow House On The Corner

This weekend all the family is gathering in Mooresville, NC, my hometown for a very special reason.  It's our grandmother's 94th birthday celebration.  She is the matriarch of this family.  She is the very glue that holds us all together.
Our Grandfather met her while working on a farm in Harmony, NC.   She was known as one of the Hodgson Beauties.  Those girls were known far and wide for their beauty and to even be graced with a smile from one was pure heaven for any young man.  Grandpa used to say he married her because he liked her red hair and Grandma would always say "He must be thinking about someone else. Because I never had red hair!"  What she didn't see was the mischievous grin on his face at having "gotten one" over on her. 

Their marriage blessed them with 5 children, 15 grandchildren, 23 great-grand children, not to mention the great great grandchildren....oh and then the endless step grand children, and so on...... And before I forget,  everyone who ever spent anytime at the little yellow house on the corner called our grandmother, Grandma.  So you see we share her with this whole town.   I can't remember when she wasn't holding a baby or changing someones diaper....Can you?

Recently she has been not quite herself.  Had to spend the night in the hospital to get her meds straightened out.  When talking with her on the phone I asked her, "Grandma, how did you talk the Aunts into leaving you alone?"  I was totally amazed how well she sounded. I had to know how she pulled this latest caper off!  "Well, I just told them if I needed anything I had my big stick!" she replied.   I said "Wow, Grandma, you have a big stick?"  She just laughed her silly laugh and replied "Yes, I carry a big stick!  How many of your friends' grandmas carry a big stick?  Why don't you write a story about that?"  So I thought about it for a few days and asked around and here are a few of the answers I got.

One friend told me her grandmother never left the house without a pair of pruning shears.  She said she always wanted to be ready to take a cutting should she see a plant she wanted to root.  That one made me think of my own mother and how she was forever rooting something in a jar.  My Uncle Sam agreed and recently reminded me of a road trip he and my aunt took with my parents where my mother made my father stop the car to do just that very thing!

I got a few strange ones too.  Like the flask of whiskey in her purse but she didn't drink only carried it in case it was needed.  Ok.......But I think the strangest of all was the lady who carried a bullwhip everywhere she went.  You see she had 12 kids and lived on a pig farm. Whenever one of them would get out all she had to do was crack the whip over their heads and back in they went.......uh pigs that is....not the kids!  Yeah I had to ask too.....Look if I had 12 kids on a pig farm I would be carrying more than a bull whip what about you?

So I ask you dear reader.  My grandma carries a big stick.  What does your grandma carry?  Let me know ........

Well it's time for me to hit the sack. Tomorrow is a big day for a dear lady. She's the glue that holds us together, the very heartbeat within us all. Good Night to you all! Good Night Betty!

As a side note, I asked my grandma at her birthday party what did her grandma carry and here is what she had to say:

"My grandma carried a Bible and her burying clothes in a box.  And do you think we kids touched it?  NOOOO  we were afraid to touch it!  But I can tell you what was in it!  It had a long black skirt and a black waist.  That's what they called a blouse back then, a waist.  My grandma always said you need to be ready.  You need to be ready for the Lord." 

She went on to tell us that her grandma broke her hip and laid in bed for the rest of her life.  All she wanted was for someone to read to her from her Bible.  Grandma says she remembers crawling in bed with her and reading.  Back in the day there was very little they could do for you once you had broken your hip.