Hey y'all -
You would think I'd'a run out of pictures and stories from the Georgia leg of our vacation, since we've been in Alabama since Wednesday, but no - there's more!
For over 50 years, my grandparents Red and Mary lived in the same house on Church St. I went there every year on vacation. I sat at the kids' table in the front room at Thanksgiving. I got yelled at for slamming the screen door and picking Mama Lee's berries off the bush in front. I cursed the gnats in the summer, and let my more fearless cousin Heidi light the ancient gas heaters in the winter. I thought my grandfather was weird for keeping his television remote inside a Ziploc bag, but now that I have small children and a Wii remote that doesn't work 'cause it's full of strawberry yogurt, I get it. I once poured an entire bottle of Prell Shampoo into a hole under the house, because I thought I could make a secret potion. I did make a hundred mud pies. I ate gobs of fried chicken and pork chops and rice and gravy and peas and beans, and I developed a taste for Taster's Choice with at least three tablespoons of sugar. I read a library's worth of books on the porch swing, and skipped down those front porch steps on my way to the playground, or vacation bible school, or Carterburger's.
It's been years since Mama Lee and Pop passed away, but their house so informed my childhood that I called my uncle David while I was in Vienna and asked him to come unlock the house for me so I could look around.
It wasn't the same.
It didn't smell like chicken. Mama Lee wasn't in the front hall talking on the rotary phone. Pop wasn't reading the newspaper at the kitchen table. My cousins weren't hanging out in the front room, dreaming up something to do.
I don't know what I expected - A Museum Of My Childhood, maybe - but this wasn't it. You can dream about it every now and then, but you can't go home again.
What you can do is prop your children up on those magical front porch steps, and take their picture:
...and then you can close your eyes and say a silent prayer that they find a place in their lives that means as much to them as this place did to you. And you can fervently hope that they have a childhood full of happy memories made in Dooly County.
Love,
Mom
You made me cry but I appreciate the unexpected trip down memory lane. I too have many happy memories of this house, like sitting on the front porch shelling peas into a dish pan (somehow it didn't seem like a chore at all.) I loved sleeping in the big back bedroom with that window fan that brought in the most wonderful breeze and hearing the train whistle during the night. I never hear a train that it doesn't take me back to those times. I remember helping Mama Lee make biscuits in that huge wooden bowl. I ran across that bowl a few days ago at Mama's house and was shocked at how small it was. It's funny that even in the South Georgia heat I never remember being hot in that house,even though they didn't have an air conditioner of kind until the 90's. I find it very refreshing to know that you don't have to spend money (God knows they never did) to create memories. I do remember Pop saying that there were 3 things he would never do without no matter how much they cost. A remote control, gas heat and gingersnaps, he was kinda uppidy ya know. Thanks again for your thoughts. Your children are very blessed that you not only are creating a scrapbook of their lives but that you are sharing with them the people that shapped their Mama, the people that they were not fortunate enough to know. I love you all. Debbie
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