Black and White Wednesday

I think I get a little carried away with memories on this Black and White meme. Thank you, Teri for coming up with this idea. I am enjoying it immensely! Join in the fun and link up with Your Friend from Florida, Teri to share your memories here.

My black and whites today are from a Christmas or Thanksgiving in 1954. The photos say Dec 1954, however, almost never were pictures developed until after the fact and that is why I am thinking this is from Thanksgiving. Still, it very well could be Christmas, but for today's purposes, it doesn't matter. 

Grandpa and Grandma McCoy … my Dad's parents. They lived up on a hill in Northwest Arkansas and there were other people who lived on the long dirt/gravel road outside of the town, but they were few and far between My Daddy grew up in these hills not far from this place and Grandpa was a sharecropper and a carpenter. The family lived in a two room cabin with six children! I will never understand how these things happen!!! 

Daddy went to school in a little schoolroom like you see on old westerns. I wish I had a picture of it. He took us there when we were kids to see it. He told us he carried his lunch of biscuits and bacon in a lard bucket. When he was 9 years old, he contracted typhoid fever and almost died. He said that Grandpa walked into town every day … several miles each way to get Daddy's medicine which had to be kept cool and, of course, they had no way of doing that without a refrigerator. I'm very thankful for my Grandpa and that my Dad survived that fever.

After I was born, my parents moved down the road from my grandparents. When I was a baby they say my Grandpa used to come often for a visit just to see me! Mom and Dad had it pretty rough living there and my Grandma and Grandpa lived off the land. They had a garden and chickens, no plumbing, a well for drawing their water, a cellar for storing all the canned goods my Grandma canned. Mom and Dad had to have done the same as there were no conveniences down the road either. 

The pot-bellied stove in the center of my grandparents' house and a wood cooking stove in the kitchen provided heat in the winter. I remember in the winter everyone sitting around the stove talking and staying warm. Now that will bring a group together for visiting and staying close. The only times they left the room were for eating meals in the kitchen, sleeping in the big feather beds buried under lots of quilts, or having to leave the house for private reasons!!! It was FREEZING up there in the winter!! And, of course, there was no air conditioning. I guess there was electricity because I think I remember a light bulb in the ceiling lighting the room. Hmmmmm. 

When you went outside at night, it was pitch black and we had so much fun chasing fireflies to put in jars or on our fingers to make a shiny ring. It surprises me that I don't once ever remember seeing any snakes, but I know they were up there. So glad we never crossed paths with one.

Anyway, they had a big front porch on which everybody sat in warmer weather on cane bottom/back chairs. The men leaned back in their chairs smoking and whittling as they visited after having hunted for squirrels and other game that day. Yuck!! The truth is, I was always a little shy about eating at Grandma's house not knowing for sure what everything was. Once I asked for tomato juice and she went down to the cellar and brought up a jar of canned tomatoes!! Lol! That wasn't what I had in mind. I wouldn't drink the milk because it didn't come out of a carton … it came from a cow!!! Can you believe it?!?! Poor Grandma. I'm sure her feelings must have been hurt by such a persnickety child.

Posing for the Brownie camera

Me with Charlene, my sister and my cousin

Leonard Dean

Most everybody was called by two names. Although my name is Connie Jeanette, I still to this day am called Conniejean, all run together. My sister is Roberta Sue, brother is Philip Van. Mama is Betty Jean, and so on.

Me with Charlene and her brothers Glen and Jimmy

That is me with the tongue out!

Now this is looking from in front of Grandma's house down the driveway toward the dirt/gravel road which would take you back to town. When we would stay at Grandma's house, one of the things we liked to do was walk down the drive to get the mail. You can just barely see the mailbox down there. It was a pretty good walk, but we loved doing it. Down the road to the left was a crystal clear creek with a rocky (more like pebbles) bottom and Mom and Dad would take us down there in summertime to wade, play and take a bath!!!

My cousin Charlene and I spent a few days together with my Grandma and Grandpa one summer and it was hot as blue blazes. I will never forget coming in from play one day and going to the back cool room where the water bucket with the dipper was kept. She pulled off all her clothes, took the dipper and began pouring water over her head and letting it cool her off! My sister and I were very modest and so this action of hers was quite shocking!!! 

The building up behind Charlene and me was a church. The doors were always unlocked and we would go inside and play church. We practiced singing a song and on Sunday morning, they let us sing Just a Closer Walk With Thee!!! 

Charlene and I played together very well and I always looked forward to our trips to Arkansas so we could be together. It was great fun to spend the night at their home and jump on the beds, among other things. Charlene lived in a nicer house in the small town there and on weekends, Mom and Dad would take us down to the town square and let us attend the movie with Charlene and her friends while they sat on the square and visited with family and old friends. Going to the movies was something we didn't do back in Tulsa. I'm not quite sure why we were allowed to in Arkansas! Another one of those mysteries about the rules!!!

The little town square had a drugstore which I always remember how cold it was when you walked inside and we got a Coke filled with that very fine chipped ice. One of the stores on the square had a bargain basement which we loved to visit to look around and maybe find something we could afford. For some reason, I have no idea why, we actually sat inside a courtroom in the courthouse while some proceeding was going on! Brief little snippets of memories from days long ago.  A couple of times while we were there we even visited their school!

As Charlene and I grew older, we drifted apart as she had her friends there and we were just visitors. She was a year older than me and much more mature. In fact, she ended up getting married at 15 and having her first baby at 16, the age in which I was legally allowed to date! 

My cousin and both her brothers are no longer with us. However, Charlene's younger sister still lives in the town and recently purchased an older home on a very large number of acres up in the hills. My Grandpa actually helped build the house where they will live.

I would love to live up there!