Precious Memories

by Jerry Blackerby

“Precious mem’ries, how they linger” are words from an old hymn. I have many precious memories of my grandparents and great-grandparents.

In 1937, we moved into a two-room house near one set of grandparents and two sets of great-grandparents in a small west Texas town. The only houses near us were relatives. Our houses had electricity, running water from a tank on a platform beside a windmill, but no indoor bathrooms until the 1940s. We still used outhouses.

One of my great-grandfathers was the Cantor in a Primitive Baptist Church. The other great-grandfather was a Baptist preacher and always called me Jeremiah even though my actual name was Jerry. The great-grandfather that was a Cantor was so modest that he would go to the outhouse before daylight so no one would see him. He would not go to the outhouse again until after dark, because the women in the neighborhood, although related to him, might see him and know what he was doing. Here is a picture of Grandpa and Grandma.

At bedtime, Grandpa went to the bedroom before Granny. He would take off his clothes and long johns and put on a long nightshirt. After he was in bed, Granny would come into the room, turn off the light, undress, and put on her gown. Grandpa would get up before daylight, dress in the dark, and go to the outhouse. Then Granny would get up, turn on the light, and get dressed.

Granny probably never saw her husband naked until one fateful day in their later years. Eighty-year old Grandpa got out of bed one chilly morning and became mixed up as he tried to put on his long johns in the dark. He put his legs into the arms and tried to stretch the long johns upward to get his arms into the legs. When his head popped through the seat flap, he lost his balance and fell to the floor all tangled up.

Granny heard him fall and begin thrashing around on the floor. She jumped out of bed and turned on the light. When she saw him on the floor, naked and tangled up in his long johns with his head sticking out the seat flap, she started laughing. She finally helped him get the long johns off and left the room so he could get dressed. After Grandpa was dressed, he went to the outhouse and Granny got dressed.

At first light, Granny ran next door to tell her son and daughter-in-law, my grandparents, about the funny sight she had seen. Grandpa usually sat in his rocking chair on the front porch most of the day. He was so embarrassed that he did not set foot out of the house during daylight for several days.

My other great-grandfather was a Baptist preacher. When I was three-years old running between our house and my grandparents, he would call, “Jeremiah, come have some grapes.” He always kept a package of raisins to snack on and I enjoyed eating raisins with him. Here is a picture of him and my great-grandmother.

After he died in February 1938, my great-grandmother took turns living with each of her children. She was 84 when she came to stay with her daughter Bessie, my grandmother, for a few months in 1940. When Granny visited, she always brought her cane-back rocker, trunk, and feather bed.

Granny spent most of her days piecing quilts. She sat in her rocker with a lap full of scraps, cutting them to pattern and sewing them together. At 84 Granny could still thread a needle easily. If she was not piecing quilts, she was reading her Bible. I do not know how many times Granny read the Bible from cover to cover.

Granny missed her husband of 64 years and wanted to keep house again. She was often dissatisfied because she had nothing to do. She longed to cook a meal. One morning about 11 o’clock, Granny complained, “I don’t know why I have to eat what you fix. I can still cook.”

Bessie said, “Mother, would you like to cook lunch today? You can use my kitchen any time.”

“YES! I will cook,” Granny replied as she rushed into the kitchen. Granny looked around the kitchen and opened first one cabinet and then another. She got out a pan or two and turned around several times without doing anything. She stared at the coal-oil cook stove and the new electric refrigerator.

Suddenly Granny swished back to her rocker and said, “Fix your own dinner. I’M NOT YOUR SERVANT!”

Granny did not want to use the coal-oil cook stove or open the new refrigerator. She never did trust those “new fangled” gadgets and was always saying the day would come when we'd be happy to go back to cooking on a wood stove, cooling things in a window cooler or the well house, and washing clothes in a wash pot with a rub board. Granny never again asked to cook!

Granny shared a bedroom with 13-year old Jo. Each night when she went to bed, she began praying in a whisper that Jo could barely hear across the room. The longer she prayed, the louder she got. Most of Granny’s prayers were beautiful and touching. Occasionally one would be out of character. One cold night she had prayed for a long time when Jo heard the clear words, ”Lord, help them not to be so stingy. Why, I can see them now, skimming that milk until it’s blue.”

The prayer went on, but Jo heard no more. She was too busy stuffing the pillow and half the covers into her mouth to stifle her laughter.

Granny always wore long dresses. All of her dresses had long sleeves and high collars. Most were soft pale colors, grey or black. Granny wore an apron over her dress, even to church. She had a black silk apron for winter and a white organdy one for summer for wearing on Sunday. Granny always wore a bonnet when outdoors and sometimes in the house. She had bonnets to match most of her cotton dresses. She had black silk and white organdy bonnets to match her Sunday aprons.

Granny was very pleased when a new bride asked to borrow an outfit to wear in the Christmas parade. Granny was beaming over having the proper styles for the girl to wear and was hoping it would start the return of such styles for everyone. Many times Granny admonished the younger generation on how to dress modestly in keeping with Biblical standards.

Granny did not know that the young lady would wear her outfit to the Christmas dance. The young bride and her new husband were to drive a buggy in the parade and lead the Grand March at the Christmas dance. When Granny found out about the dance, she was very displeased. She fussed and fumed, although to everyone’s surprise, she did not give the girl her sermon on the evils of dancing when she returned the clothes.

Granny visited each year for a few months until she died when she was 91. Those visits left us with many beautiful memories. I will be forever thankful for the precious memories of my grandparents and great-grandparents.

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Thanks to my late aunt, Mary Jo Rogers Hestand, for some of the information in this story. Jo wrote her memories of her grandparents and provided copies to the family. I can remember my great-grandparents and some of the incidents, but Jo's writings helped my memory.