My parents were older than most of my friend's parents. My mother was 43 and my father was 47 when I was born. I had five older siblings, the youngest was 14 when I came along. I grew up with the grandchildren. I had a nephew and a niece older than me.
During the summer months , most of the time, it was just Mama and me at home unless she was keeping some of the grandchildren. Seems like she spent alot of time in the kitchen. Every every morning the radio was turned on and we listened to DON MCNEIL'S BREAKFAST CLUB. The music was always upbeat with lots of applause and lots of talking and laughing.
Just before lunch, as I remember, SECOND SPRING came on. That time period's soap opera. I can still hear," Can a woman who's once loved completely ever find true love again, can she ever find a SECOND SPRING?" On Sunday nights we listened to "Beulah", "Our Miss Brooks", "The Shadow","Amos and Andy" and many more that have slipped my mind.
My Daddy always came home for lunch at 11:00 am on the dot. Since he owned his own business I suppose he had his choice of lunch times. Two things that would always be on the table at lunch and supper were ice tea (He did not drink water...so you can live without it) and lacy cornbread.
After lunch, three seasons of the year, we all went out on the front porch and sat in the porch rockers. Daddy listened to the news on a portable radio. Friends were walking up and down the street .... home for lunch or going back to work. Many stopped for a chat....about the weather, how much it rained the night before, who was sick, how the election would turn out.....whatever was happening town.
Daddy would go back to work, Mama would read the paper and I'd go to the kitchen.....to wash the dishes.
Do you have a special memory from when you were growing up?
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What wonderful memories you have, Betty. You could convince me that you grew up in Mayberry! I always love stopping by here to read your stories.
I was going to say that about Mayberry also! I really enjoyed this post!
What lovely memories! I have many fond memories of my childhood. A good many of them are of being in the kitchen with my mother and grandmother. My Meme had a little stool in her kitchen and I remember standing on it and washing dishes at her sink. I love those memories!
Thanks for sharing, I always enjoy your blog!
Beth
My mom was 42 and my dad was 45 or 46 when I was born. My mom was a widow with seven kids when she and my dad married (most of them teenagers!) so I have brothers and sisters but they were all a lot older.
I remember my parents always watching Bonanza on Sunday nights and my father walking around with a small radio listening to a Chicago baseball game. They weren't on television like they are now. :)
Lovely memories that you've shared.
I especially loved the part about sitting on the front porch and chatting with neighbors passing by!
My favorite memories from childhood involve my weekly visits to my grandparent's house. The six grandchildren would gather there every Saturday.
I enjoyed this post!!
:)
Okay, I'm jumping in on this one! As you very well know, since you grew up with your nieces and nephews, I grew up with my second cousins! Most of my first cousins are your age! Anyway, some of my favorite memories of being at Grandma and Grandpa's house are of sitting with everyone on the front porch, playing with all the cousins in the back yard (and trying to snitch Grandpa's blueberries!), and getting a snack from the warehouse out back where Uncle V. stored all the goodies for his 'tater chip' truck deliveries! I also remember how we'd eat with Grandpa and Grandma on many Sundays after church. You always took off my church dress, and I ate in my slip sitting on top of a Sears and Roebuck catalog or on a big pot. LOL I always enjoyed walking with Grandma to Walker's 5 & 10, and also eating some of her fried apple turnovers. Those were some good days, and I sure do miss Grandma and Grandpa...I wish my children could've known them!
Love you,
Amy
Betty, my parents and I lived with my grandparents for 6 months when our house was being built. I still remember the Saturday nights like it was yesterday. We would ALWAYS have sirloins off the grill, homemade skinny french fries, the thinnest sliced iceberg lettuce salad tossed with Italian dressing, and coffee. Yes, I was a coffee drinker from age 2! After clean-up, all 8 of us would gather in the front room to watch Lawrence Welk. I MISS those simpler days....
reminicing with you,
Karen
Oh, I am sure the little heart made by your grandchildren will be treasured forever! What a wonderful gift!
Your situation was very much like my husband's...his mom was 48 and his dad was 56 when they had him! He was an uncle before he was even born also! lol My favourite childhood memories were spending the summers at our little cabin which dad had built right beside my gran's house...I loved spending time with gran, going fishing, picking raspberries, etc. xox
I was just transported right to your kitchen...
too many memories to even begin...five of us, mom and dad who were farmers,worked late in the fields...we all had job lists to help take up the slack of a "working mother"...not really she was just always on call if my dad needed her to help move tractors from this field to that.
A family working together and playing together, camping swimming, snowmobiling, skiing and the like...my dad still skiis to this day he's 78!!!!
thank you for such thought provoking thoughts.
Betty that was very interesting! What did your Daddy do for a living? So were you the spoiled baby? Your childhood sounds alot like my mother-in-laws. Do tell more!
my mom was 37 and I was the baby and only girl with 4 older brothers. Every morning my mom would listen to Haven of Rest and the Biola Hour and knit. I have vivid memories of that time before I went to school. At lunchtime it was just her and I (my Dad couldn't come home for lunch) we would pull out the bread board and make it a table and have some lunch. Thank you for such a nice peek into your past.
Your childhood sounds wonderful Rosemary is right about the ~Mayberry~ mine was not as my father died when I was an infant leaving my mother to care for 2 small children ..life was all about survival.My children had the ~wonderfull childhood~ I dreamed of. Hugs NG
What beautiful memories (except perhaps the doing the dishes part!) My fondest childhood memories stem from time spent with my grandparents...
How wonderful your memory story is. I'd love to have a porch with rocking chairs on, it's not something we really have in GB.
I'm only 32 yrs old....but my favorite memory of growing up was to wake up in the morning to the song Just A Swingin.....on the radio and my mama getting ready in the bathroom I could smell her hairspray....then she would make me pancakes...with strawberry syrup...homemade....oh how I love old memories....I really enjoyed this post.
It was so nice be taken back to another time with your memories. They were somewhat like mine as a child. There were 9 of us kids. 7 girls and two boys. My youngest brother was born when my Mom was 43 and my Dad was 48. He was more like a nephew than a brother. Didn't we have the good times listening to the radio. Us girls were always in the kitchen or wherever my mom was working with us helping and learning. It was a wonderful life. I have now been married to my husband for 45 years and we have 4 boys and a daughter. Thanks for letting me share some of my memories. Connie from Texas
Oh, such wonderful memories, Betty! Thank you for sharing them with us, you are a wonderful writer!
One special memory I have from growing up is sledding down a hill with my brothers and sisters all afternoon. When our mittens got cold and sopping wet, we'd go in for new pairs and then back to sledding until dark. :0)
Betty, you tell some wonderful stories and I especially like this one. Recalling fond memories from the past is what I love to do.
Years ago families lived in close proximity to each other, in these times its not so common and I find that nowadays my family is even further flung and we are separated not only by counties but by countries too. As a child, I had the joys of grandparents living nearby and lots of aunts, uncles and cousins. I do miss the togetherness we all enjoyed in those days.
Family memories are so important. I am an avid diarist for my own personal pleasure, but at the same time, I think it will be nice for my grandchildren in years to come, to read that despite the miles that separated us, the joys they have given us as they have grown up and also tell how we have lived our lives too. Admittedly, the family reunions are not as frequent as I’d like them to be since we moved to Wales, but we maintain a strong daily contact by ‘phone. Marion
Betty, you must be around my age because I remember some of those radio shows. Radio shows...man I really do miss them. We had to use our imagination then!! I loved listening to them. I remember taking a nap in the afternoon to hearing a choir singing,"We are a poor little lambs who have lost our way..Baa,Baa, Baa" and waking up to a soap opera with the music..."I'm forever blowing bubbles". I don't remember what the programs were. I was very small then. What memories. Thanks for sharing yours.
Sandy
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