Christmas

Was nice. I was able to spend it with all my children and grandchildren in Florida. Good times,good food and great fun. My daughter Kim plan a lot of things for us to do and it was swell. Our favorite family game is Taboo and of course the team I was on, we won.

Disney Worlds' Epcot Center was very,very nice. This was and experience not soon to be forgotten. Pictures with Mickey Mouse,Minnie Mouse and friends,were especially nice.

We always try to see a movie together as a family. This year we went to see a movie called To Complicated. Yes, it was complicated but so much fun and I would like to see it again. As always it was so nice to see my children having so much fun and thinking to myself,wow am here with them.

December 31 1982

This year and day was indeed a blast.

This was the day my first grandchild was born. Unlike any other day,it change my life for the better. Today she turned twenty-seven years of age. She says that I had some part in the early shaping years,of her life. I am so proud of her and all of her accomplishments.

When she was a baby and through her school years she has always been very tiny. We know now that size is not important because she is giant in her on right.

Young leader in non-profit,talk radio host,world traveler and public speaker. Just to name few things to let you know what a wonderful grandchild I have and the joy she brings to my life.

I love you Ro

My father had secrets

I think of my,sweet mother always scrimping,for us to have the things that we needed. Always trying to make the best out of what she had. We always had a clean house, clothes and great meals. My mom was special lady!

Then, I think of my father and his sneaky ways. Always sneaking around the house hiding money. I was to little to know that this was something that I should tell my mother.

My father had many hiding places and I'll share a few of them. He would take rusty cans and fill them with a roll of money and dig holes and bury them in the back yard. Back in the those days they just had wood planks and not plastered walls and they would then use wall paper. The one that I feel so sad about is that he made a crack in the wall. The crack was right in front of my mom at the kitchen sink where she washed dishes every day. He'd peel back the wall paper and stick a can of money in the wall and then press the paper back down and it just looked like an old crack in the wall.

Thom,gave my mom what he thought she needed. I can't help but think, what if she knew? What would she have done?

More to come about Thom and his secrets.

Thom Don't Hurt Tennie

I love lemon meringue pie almost as much as I love sweet potato pie. Even though we were very poor my Dad always found a way to indulge me with some of the things that I wanted as a child. I remember on many occasions my Dad going to the store and he would buy these huge lemon meringue pies. Sometimes he would let me go and get them. Seems like to me because I was so small they looked like the biggest pies ever.

One day my Dad gave me a five dollar bill to go and get a pie. uh-ho! On this one particular day I lost the five dollars and I knew that it was five dollar bill because my Mother and Father were discussing the fact that I had lost the money. My Father wanted I guess to mess with my mother and make her think that he was whipping me. I didn't make it any better because I just yelled and and screamed like he was really hurting me. He used a piece of this old fashioned bushel basket made with thin pressed woven wood and wire handles on the side. Noway did it hurt and my Mom yelled out,Thom don't you hurt Tennie.

My mother was a very,very sweet lady and she never raised her voice,never spanked me and didn't allow my father to spank me.

Baby chicks

My Father came home one day. Through the back door he stood with a wide but short box. Inside the box were at least ten to twelve very yellow and fluffy baby chickens. They were all chirping away and all over each other. He let them out on the back porch and we thought that we had some pets for the first time. My father let us hold and play with them but we had to be gentle. As I got older I realized that my dad was going to raise them most likely for food. Unfortunately it didn't matter Pets or Food. The very next morning when we woke up, we found the chicks all laying there lifeless with their legs off. A gofer rat had come in and dashed all of our wishes. We cried so much my mother had to console us.

My sisters' keeper

My mother always wanted me to go with my sisters when they had dates. As a young child I went on more dates than when I was an adult. Ella had a date at a honky tonk bar. At the time she was dating Chuck Berry. Chuck was singing and playing the guitar. I was outside at the back door,listening and dancing to the music. The kitchen workers kinda looked out for me. My sister was pregnant and in the audience drinking 7-Up. Ella thought she had gas and it turns out that she was having labor pains.

After being rushed home. I peeped in my mothers back bedroom. This room was just for her and my dad. I'm not sure if it was my mother or a midwife that took care of her. That night my little egghead nephew was born.

Childhood

I remember as I laid in my mother's bed on a Sunday morning a black cat ran into the house and jumped in my mother's bed with me. I will never forget that morning because that was the morning that my sister Ella Mae broke me from drinking a baby bottle and mine you I was five years of age. Ella was able to to this because she poured turpentine in my bottle and rinsed it out and then she poured a can of Pet Milk right on top of that terrible smell,and needless to say but that did it for me and I never wanted a baby bottle again.

It was a little harsh but very necessary. I was good at finding ways to get my bottle filled. I can remember walking down the street with my clabber filled bottle and my sash ties for my dress not tied in a bow but dragging and dirty on the ends. I walked all the way to the corner store where my father had an account with the elderly white store owner. I'd would reach up high and put by bottle on the counter. He would greet me and take my dirty bottle and rinse it out. Then he would fill it with a whole can of Pet Milk and put it on my fathers tab. You know the rest,me walking back home,with my head high drinking out of my bottle.