RD, RRean, Winnie, Grandpa, Thelma, Grandma, Jim, Horace
Bobbie, Betty, Grace, Rachel, Ray
W.W. & Mary McCoy's 50th Wedding Anniversary
Last night at Karl's birthday dinner I told the kids about a memory I had about my Grandma & Grandpa McCoy - which brought back a lot of other scattered memories. Nancy and maybe Joe could tell you lots of stories about our grandparents but my memories (and I suspect Jimmy's) are more bits & pieces.
The paticular memory I shared last night was about a mean old rooster that would chase you when you were out in the yard. I remember Grandpa chasing the rooster away from me and saying something about rooster stew. That old rooster really made it difficult to get to the outhouse - not that I really enjoyed going there anyway. The outhouse memories are mostly of an unpleasant odor, flies, and Sears catalogs for toilet paper. Their last house had indoor plumbing when they had to move for Highway 55.
I don't have a lot of memories of Grandpa - he liked to sit on the porch in a rocking chair and smoke - a pipe or chewing tobacco maybe? He had a dog they called Puppy and they say that when he knew we were coming for a visit he would go down to the road and look for us- or actually daddy, his oldest son. They also told me that he never went to a single one of his children's weddings because he wouldn't go in a church. The one memory I do have is him stopping me on the porch one time and asking me who's kid I was. But they did have 11 grown children, 27 grandkids and 8 great grandkids - plus he was old by then and he only saw me for a few hours maybe once a month - so I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. At least Grandma was there to answer for me - she knew who I belonged to.
I remember Grandma as a gentle kind woman. She was always busy cause when we came for Sunday lunch there were always a lot of the other family there - it was never just us and the grandparents. For years I thought they all lived there together and I was an adult before I knew who belonged to who. She always took a few minutes to make me feel welcomed though even though I was just a kid. She cooked a lot of good country food - but being finicky I usually just ate peanut butter & crackers unless she made her peach fried pies - they were the best! I remember there was a water pump outside where you got the water and to this day I can't smell Ivory soap without thinking of getting cleaned up for the trip home.
I remember playing out in the yard in the summer - the house I remember was up off the ground and the chickens and dogs would go under there. The men would all sit on the porch and smoke and laugh and tell stories and the women would be in the kitchen either cooking or cleaning the dishes and laugh and tell stories. In the winter we would sit in a circle around the potbelly stove and visit (instead of tv). Your face was red from the heat and your backside was freezing.
My grandparents didn't live in a fancy house or have a lot of 'things' - but the family always had a good time together and they had each other.
This picture is Grandma and Uncle RD - notice the house off the ground, the bare landscape, and how they parked right up to the porch.
