I was born into a rural Baptist preacher’s family – the first born –in the Byram, Mississippi area. My father and mother were serving a small church at the time and my little family lived with my mother’s parents. My grandparents on my father’s side - Little Granny and Granddaddy - operated a small truck farm and my grandparents on my mother’s side - Big Granny and Pawpaw - ran a dairy that had the first mechanized milking machines in the area.
Granddaddy fought in World War II and suffered from shell shock, a condition which took him in and out of the Veterans Hospital in Gulfport, Mississippi many times during the years I knew him. Little Granny crocheted beautifully and between the income from the things they grew, Granddaddy’s pension, and the sale of her crocheted items, they seemed to get along very nicely.
I have such pleasant memories of times with them. I stayed at their home a good bit during my preschool years. Little Granny, an avid gardener, grew beautiful flowers that filled beds and borders around the home place. I can recall the beauty and fragrance of her peony garden near the house and the great fun I had poking the seed pods of touch-me-nots just to see them burst and dispense their seeds around the flower bed! As I got older and visited Little Granny during the summer, she would spoil me so by scraping a cold, sweet apple with one of her silver teaspoons, and feed me the delicious pulp! She also taught me to crochet which led to my love of working with my hands to make something beautiful.
My Granddaddy, perhaps because of his condition, was a very quiet man and I really don’t recall that much conversation passed between us. What I do recall is that he made a tent consisting of a sheet hung over a clothesline and anchored to the ground. Could anything be better than that to a small girl who loved cozy places? I remember that often in the cool of the afternoon, he and I would visit a certain fallen log in the corner of the yard. Together we would sit quietly – he playing “Red Wing” on his harmonica and I close beside him drinking in the music and the comfort of his presence. Just “being” with him was his legacy to me.