Thursday, January 14, 2010

About my Mom and Dad

Thinking that it might be good to tell where my family started and some info about them would be good to write about today,
My Mom was a very loving woman with a great big heart. It seems it was forever she would take in a cousin, aunt or just anyone and let them live with us. Knowing momma's background makes this all very understandable. She was raised in hollers of Tennessee along with 7 siblings and her name was Christine. Never got to go to school but in the early years this was the way of life then. It seems the importance of helping and working had the priority of life. She did at later life teach herself to read some out of our grade shcool books. I can remember her telling me stories of Cow Holler and Happy Holler and living close to Minnie Pearl and for those who ask who is Minnie Pearl? She was a star on the Grand Ole Opry with the mark of her hats. One story she often told was of how Cow Holler became named that. She would tell the story of a cow getting stuck in a crevice in a mountain, of how the men worked and worked to save the cow, finally getting it free and thence the holler was named Cow Holler. Her talks was of how they lived in logging camps and moved with the camps. Her home of a huge tent, she would smile telling me of how they swept the dirt floors and how clean they kept the tents. You have to imagine this huge tent with a cooking stove, table, beds and all just to get the most of what I write and it was big enough to house 10 people. She said they swept the floors so much they become as hard as concrete making her cleaning even easier. There is not much history going back on her family as we have come to a dead end with a great grandma with no last name..Hints of slavery to me is in the information.
My Dad, Jesse along with 7 siblings, lived along side my mom's family and with the death of his mom at an early age after child birth, and his dad's death shortly after, my mom's parents raised all of those children. That is how momma met dad and later married him to be parents of 10 of us children.
My ancestors on my dad's side came from Devonshire England and lived in the Isle of Wright Va. in which my Dads last name is Wright. There is info on doctors,lawyers and a famous Tennessee pottery that was in our family. The pottery is still noted in Hickman County Tennessee as a historical marker as Coble Pottery.
My mom and dad eventually married moving northward into Southeast Missouri working in the cotton fields and making Dogwood, Mo. their first home and where my first sister Doris Helen would be born but also die at the age of 15 months. They would eventually move to St. Louis with more children being born but also loosing 2 more of my sisters, Joan Marlene at the age of 2 yrs. 8 months, and Kathy Lynn at the age of 4 months. They would eventually move to Cahokia Illinois where my brothers and dad built a new house. At my age of 15 we then moved to rural area in Reynolds County Mo. where death would continue to follow in our family. At the age of 15, my sister Jane Christine was loss to a house fire. A very tragic turn in my life in which I will write about another day..Mom and Dad lived there until they became sick. I lost my mom in 1992 at the age of 67 and dad on Christmas day in 1987. He was 70 years old. They along with my 4 sisters are buried in Dogwood Cemetery in Southeast Mo., their first home.
My family is one of many secrets and skeletons in the closet and found this on both sides..My family also had secrets in which later in life finding out some of them only brought so much hurt. I am hoping that this terrible trend of secrets, lies, and skeletons does not continue in our generation. Family is so important and all the love possible that can be shown to one another should be done..My prayer is for my children to be and stay as close as possible.

4 comments:

  1. Your writing is like sitting there listening to your mom tell the stories...Love ya...Shelly

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  2. Welcome to Photo of the Week, Judy. I'll look forward to seeing some photos of your area, or whatever you choose to share!

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  3. Welcome to the Photo of the Week group, Judy. I too will look forward to seeing some of your photos.

    A lovely post about your parents. I had to giggle when you said your Mum swept the floor in the tent because, when I was in my teens, we moved into a caravan with annex/awning while the family home was being built. My Mum would religiously sweep the dirt floor of the annex and we would shake our heads and wonder why because....it was dirt. Over the course of three months, it had indeed become quite hard and solid. My heart went out to your parents on the loss of four children...losing a child would have be the worst pain imaginable.

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  4. not to worry about secrets, skeletons and even scandals... most of us have them aplenty in our family trees....

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