Mrs. Andrews
Yesterday Mrs. Andrews' daughter, Carol, called. She said she had a few things that she would like to email to me, and requested that I read them to Dad. The first one is an essay she wrote about Mrs. Andrews. It has some very interesting facts in it and is a loving portrayal of her mother. The second is a collection of memories that Mrs. Andrews recalls from her childhood. One of them involves Dad. He was up to no good, as you would expect.The last is a poem about Harris' Store, where we all sat and waited for the school bus. It was central to our community. Mrs. Sallie Rowe wrote it in the 1950s. Mrs. Rowe is still alive. Dad believes she is about 83.------------------------------------ A Not So Common LifeI used to think that my Mother must have lived a very boring life that is until I started to pay attention to all the things she has done while living in her small little corner of the world. Mom is 94 and she is still living in the house that she, my dad, relatives, and friends built in 1942. The house is on land that has been in my Mother’s family since the 1840’s and it was only for short periods of time that she has ventured away from the land that she loves.I think of Mother as a pioneer and a salvager. When the home that she lives in now was built, the street where the house was built did not have running water so of course they dug a well and also what in colonial times was called a necessary, but what we called an outhouse. And if you noticed the date the house was built some of you realize that this was during WWII when building materials were hard to purchase for personal use. Mom and Dad and friends and relatives cut the pine trees from the lot given to them by my grandfather and then as they had money they had the logs milled and built the house. They moved into the house with only sub-floors and no wall board. Obtaining windows was out of the question. A friend was living in an apartment complex that had been specifically built for the incoming workers at Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Newport News, Virginia. When the apartments were finally completed the contractor’s house that was on the site was being demolished and the materials sent to the dump. Mom and Dad’s friend asked if he could have the windows to be used in a house and that is how the boards which were propped up with sticks to get air and light were replaced with real windows which are still in the house today.I think of Mother as an international peacekeeper. After the end of WWII many areas of the country had German prisoners of war housed at local military bases and they could not immediately be sent home because ships were bringing our troops home. One of those bases was Ft. Eustis, Virginia. My Dad worked for the Army Corps of Engineers at the base. He came home and told Mom about these young men and she began baking cakes and cookies for Dad to take to them. They did go home, but one of the men and Mother carried on a correspondence until the l950’s.I think of Mother as an economist. Mother was always doing something to help the family finances. She raised chickens and sold the eggs, she raised rabbits (and I don’t remember what she did with those and I really don’t want to know, but I think it probably had to do with food), she raised flowers which a man bought from her and took downtown to sell, she crocheted baby clothes to be sold in a downtown department store, she of course had a garden with all kinds of vegetables, canned fruits and vegetables, and when my Dad became ill worked in the school cafeteria, restaurants, and finally a bakery. She opened a savings account at what was then The Bank of Warwick and always put money in the account routinely. When we needed a new refrigerator, stove, or washing machine Mom’s savings was utilized.I think of Mother as a fashion designer. My cousins and I were fortunate to be the beneficiary of Mom’s talents. My older sister, Joanne, loved beautiful clothes and when she started work that is where most of her money went. She would buy the clothes and wear them for a couple of years and then she gave them to Mom. Mom would remake the clothes for my cousin Brenda or me. If Brenda got the remade item, she would wear it and then I would get it and then it would go to my cousin Violet. We always loved the feel of Jo’s clothes and we really thought we were something when we wore them. One of the outfits that Mom remade for me was a grey and white pin striped dress with a jacket. One of our dear family friends was Mr. Olaf Anderson. We would go to visit him on Sunday afternoons sometimes and I would try to wear that dress because Mr. Anderson liked it – I think he liked it because it had a white bib with buttons which looked a little old fashioned. To this day the first thing that I do when I am looking for something new to wear is to feel the cloth and I can’t begin to think of how many articles have been passed over just on that test.I think of Mother as a naturalist. Mom finds wonder in everything. I just can’t tell you how often she will show my husband or me some small treasure that she has found in her yard. Sometimes it will be a beautiful feather from an owl, sometimes it will be a mushroom with a spectacular color and shape, sometimes it will be a different wildflower and sometimes it will just be a particularly striking flower in her flower bed. Mom makes the discovery of partridge berries in the front yard seem as important and exciting as the discovery of gold.Most of all I think of Mother as a social worker. Some of you may remember that in the l950’s young people would come to the door to sell something. Some of these young people had run away from home and were now being made to work for their food and shelter and had no money. How lucky was one young woman who came to my Mom’s door. Mom is very astute in her observations of people and recognized that all was not right with this young woman and began talking to her. The young woman finally told Mom that she had run away from home and that she was homesick. Mom had asked her to come in and then Mom asked her if she didn’t want to call her Mother to let her know she was alright. The result of the call was that Mom took the young woman to the bus station and purchased her a ticket to go home to her family. Even now Mom bakes Danish rolls, pies, cakes and cookies to give to people who are neighbors or friends. If someone has been ill there will be something that she knows they like that she will prepare for them.These are just a few of the memories of a woman who has lead a not so common life at all.Carol A. G. July 2006(Following: Recollections of Mrs. Andrews)Things that I remember:I remember that the first time that I ever rode on the ferry was when Granddaddy Fox took me to visit his sister who lived close to Portsmouth. We took the ferry and then took the streetcar to close to where she lived. I don’t remember how old I was, but I was little.When we were children, Daddy would take the juice from where Mother cooked cabbage and give each of us girls a cup to drink and he would tell us that it would make us pretty and of course we believed him.We didn’t have rolls of string from the store to tie things up so Daddy used leaves of the yucca plant to hang hams to cure and to hang animal skins up to dry. To keep us from playing in the plant and ruining it he told us that it was “bear grass” and that the bears wouldn’t have anything to eat if we ruined it.All of us loved Daddy’s brother, Uncle Joe and thought he was the most fun. One Sunday when there was ice on the roads Uncle Joe drove a group of us kids home from church. The area between where Rachel now lives and where Charlotte and Elwood Reid lived was icy. Uncle Joe put on the brakes and turned the car around in the middle of the road. He put the breaks on several times and the car skidded. We thought this was fun and laughed and giggled. When we got home we told Momma and we didn’t understand why she got mad at Uncle Joe when we had such a good time. When I went to the Deep Creek School I remember that the boys used to catch frogs and green snakes and put them in the teacher’s desk.When I was 13 or 14 Pauline Jacobs, Ruby Russell and I were allowed to go to Norfolk to stay with Anne Melzer(I forget her married name). Mother and Daddy would have died if they had known that she let us go to the swimming pool by ourselves (the pool was in the park close to where the Norfolk Zoo is today). In the evening we were also allowed to ride the streetcar to Ocean View to ride some of the rides and then we went to the fun house. It was so exciting to us. We laughed and laughed.A group of young people from Denbigh Baptist Church BYU planned to go on a moonlight cruise. We started out but a really bad storm came up and we had to come back in before we really got too far out of the creek. When we got back to the dock we had to wait on the boat before we could get off because the storm was so bad. We never did get to go on the cruise.We used to go down to the beach where the Melzers lived (where the Huffman’s live now in the corner as you start to go down the hill to Deep Creek). You would walk down the hill and then across a foot bridge made of boards. About six feet before you got to the bridge in the middle of the path Joe and Johnny Melzer dug a hole, put a water moccasin they had killed in the bottom and covered it up so you wouldn’t know there was a hole. Someone found out about it and warned us so we didn’t fall in. I met Ed when I was with Ruby Russell visiting her aunt and uncle who lived in Norge. The Lutheran church in Norge sponsored a watermelon party that was on the beach a little above Carter’s Grove. All of the people in the group walked down a narrow rutted road down the hill to the beach. We were laughing and talking around a bonfire when Ed came driving over the hill and down the road to the beach daredevil fashion.Daddy always wanted to give you something. One day he came to the house to bring me some fish. He also brought me a big stone. When I asked him what it was for he told me that it was “The Blarney Stone” but I could use it for cracking walnuts or opening oysters. I still use it to crack nuts.I used to love to visit Aunt Annie and Uncle Bill. I remember that they were always so happy to see us. Aunt Annie would go and put on a pot of beans or soup while we talked to Uncle Bill. Then Aunt Annie would come back in and sit down to talk to us and Uncle Bill would get up and go in and set the table and make biscuits. I think he made the best biscuits that I have ever tasted. Things about Mother that you might not know:Mother looks for a four-leaf clover every year until she finds one. She has done this since she was about 8 years old.Mother still calls me to look outside at a beautiful sunset so that I won’t miss it.Mother picks up feathers in the yard so that she can show them to others when they come to visit so she can share their beauty.Mother finds beauty in the small treasures that she finds: an acorn, the first jonquil of the season to bloom, an unusual mushroom, the wild azalea that is in her yard when it blooms, the turkey berries that are several places in her yard, or an unusual wildflower that she sees.Mother tries new recipes and is a master of substitution.Mother loves to read and reads all different types of books. Two of the latest books that she has read are Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and The Red Tent.Mother loves flowers and almost always has some type of arrangement on her table. She likes natural things like the blooms from the tulip tree in her yard or ivy mixed with wildflowers.In the spring Mother didn’t cut the grass on her side yard in front next to the ravine until after the bluets stop blooming. Now that Oscar and I cut the grass we don’t cut that part either.Mother is making a quilt from scraps of material that she has had. She is doing this all by hand. She started this because she likes to have a project to work on in the winter.Country StoreThere is a place I love to go,And sit there by the hour.To talk about the spinach crop,And buy a bag of flour.It is the country store you know,Where all the men do go.It’s where the longest fish are caught,And the largest tatters grow.There is a place I love to go,And lean against the rail.To talk about the greatest hound,That scents the hardest trail.It is the country store, you know,Where all the men do go,It’s where the largest coons are skinned,And the most famous rabbits grow.There is a place I love to go,And shoot a lot of bull,It’s where the wife don’t have the say,And the man’s got all the pull.It is the country store you know,Where all the men do go.It’s where the air gets awful stale,And the room gets awful full. Written by childhood friend and neighbor,Sallie B. Rowe, in the 1950’s about Harris’ store.
posted by B6GaB1tH @ 6:37 AM
