MINNIE ADELINE...

Granny was a tiny, diminutive figure of a woman who always had the exact same hairstyle, black horn-rimmed glasses, and a familiar, slightly arthritic shuffle to her gait. At 4'11", she wasn't much more than my height as a small child. I can still remember her voice, calling out to "Lawrence" on a fairly regular basis, as he seemed to be the answer to every problem, and the one who carried the wisdom of many generations on his shoulders. As I remember, she deferred to his decisions on a most regular basis, although she most definitely had a mind and will of her own. And a voice to boot.

One of my funniest recollections of Granny's typical demeanor with her kids was a lovely story told by Aunt Bib (Vivian), who it seems inherited the most incredible gift of storytelling that just about every person of Grandpa's older generation seemed to be wonderfully gifted with. The setting for this particular story was, I believe, in the early 30's, with a brood of 7, six of which were of school age by this time. It was summer, and most likely a time which would try the patience of a saint with all of those kids out of school and looking for a way to pass the time. Granny was not a model for sainthood, but she was an interesting study of contrasts, for sure. Especially in the area of discipline.

At this one particular time, the oldest kids - I believe it was Buck, Vivian, Mac and Alma who were the culprits here - apparently found a way to mix cocoa and some other substance (possibly dirt) to replace tobacco, which was fairly expensive, and also not too tasty to any of them. They had apparently just learned how to chew and spit, most likely the result of watching relatives and friends who usually gathered at one porch or another in the evening time, to 'chew the fat', and the tobacco. So, as the story goes, the kids lined up on the back porch one morning with their latest pasttime, and held a spitting contest - apparently to see who could spit the farthest into the wind. Unfortunately for Granny, the only target within spitting distance of the back porch was the clothesline, upon which she had earlier hung out her morning's freshly washed laundry to dry.

Granny apparently decided she had a vested interest in seeing who won the contest as well, for according to Aunt Bib, she waited rather patiently at the back screen door for them to complete their dirty work with the cocoa. Whether the contest was actually completed, Aunt Bib never recollected. But Granny eventually called them to the back door, lined them up, and each were bent over to take their punishment fair and square. After that, they were ordered to remove the laundry from the clothesline, and told to proceed with washing every last item (even those not targeted by the hapless spitters) on the family washboard. They never attempted that contest again, and learned that for them, passing time meant passing time AWAY from the home, and away the ever watchful eyes of their mother, as well.