Memories of "home"

Last weekend I went home to see my parents and do some school supply shopping. On our way home, we stopped by my grandma's house. She hasn't seen Jaxon before and it's been a long time since she's seen the boys. When I got there, memories of the place started flooding my mind. I went outside at one point and the Lord told me to grab my camera and start taking pictures. At one point recently, my grandma was going to sell the place and it broke my heart. Gosh. . . there are so many memories there! I'll share just a few with you.

Here is where our trailer house once stood. Right to the left hand side of that barn. That barn used to be the garage where my dad and his buddies would "hang out" on Friday nights. You can still see the sidewalk if you look real close. When my parents sold the house (or whatever happened) and they moved it, the house actually fell apart. Crazy, huh?


Back there (where the tall grass is now) is where my grandpa would plant corn and black eyed peas. In the summer time, he would set a sign out in front of his house and people would stop and pick black eyed peas by the bushel. He would sit on the porch (picture following) and watch all these people out in his fields picking his peas. They would pick for a while and then go pay him. I remember people driving from all over the place to pick peas there! I remember running through the corn rows and playing hide and seek. My grandpa didn't like that one bit! When my grandpa died, someone came to the funeral home and put a handful of black eyed peas on his coffin. It was weird, but it was a very nice touch.

This is the barn that my dad built. There used to be a basketball goal up there and we would play basketball until all hours of the night. My dad put a light out there for us and the driveway was actually wider than it is now. My dad used to do all kinds of welding and mechanic work in this barn. It's huge. We used to get in trouble for getting his welding chalk and writing all over the cement floors. My dad painted my first car in this garage. Aaron kissed me for the first time on April 19th, 1995 in this garage. (hee hee)


This is a little side porch thing behind my grandma's house. On that little slab of cement, we wasted away our summers crushing cans. My grandparents would go on walks in the evenings and my grandpa would collect cans. We would check every day to see if he had enough cans for us to crush. He made these "can crushers" all by himself. We would fight over who got to crush which can and a few toes were crushed in the process.


Here's where my grandpa would sit and watch everyone in his "patch" as he called it. He also sat here most days and just seemed to enjoy being outside. This is also where he would sit during the annual Easter Egg hunt! Whoever found the most eggs got a penny. . . and it was a prized possession!!


Here's the cellar where we spent many a summer nights. My grandma also kept all of the things that she canned from the garden down there. All kinds of jelly and vegetables, etc. We always laughed at how if we ever had a really bad tornado and debris was all over the top of the door, we would be just fine down there!! We used to fit 11 people down there! Underground is just about the size of that white cement slab on top there. I just cut the end off in the picture. My grandpa had rigged the door with a clip on the door with a MASSIVE chain that would clip on to a hook in the cement stairs. Then, there was another door that closed off the cellar part from the stairs. That was in case the door was ever blown off we would still have a door between us and the outside. I do remember one night that the door did almost blow off. My grandpa was trying to get the outer door clipped to the stairs and we were all telling him to just get in the safe part with us. But, my grandpa was in the navy and now I realize how strong he really was then. He finally struggled enough and got that door latched down. He got in the inner part with us and that outside door still flapped as a tornado flew overhead. Yes, it was crazy.

This was the chicken coop we had at one time. There was a cage there at one time. My job was to go collect the eggs every day. We also had a cow out there at one time. . . that was absolutely crazy!

These were my grandpa's grape vines. Gosh, those were some good grapes!! My grandma would go out every summer and pick grapes off of there to make grape jelly.

Here's a better picture of the cellar. See that other grape vine over there (to the left of that tree)? This is also the clothes line my grandma hung clothes on forever!! She hated to use her dryer and there were always clothes drying out there!! Most summer days you could find her outside by the clothesline.

This is the front of my grandma's house. During the winter, we would wait at that front door and watch for the bus in the mornings. My grandpa would be sitting at the kitchen table eating his sardines and grits and drinking his coffee. But, he drank his coffee a little weird. He poured it into the cup and then poured it from the cup into the saucer. He would drink his coffee from the saucer. This is where the green and gold carpet are still under your feet. This is where my grandpa took naps every afternoon. This is where some of the most amazing Thanksgiving dinners were made. This is where my grandma made most of my clothes when I was younger. This is where I would go when I had to do a report on World War II. My grandpa was in the navy and told many a story about his days in the war. He was the checker champion on his boat. If he had cashed in all that he "won", he would have been a millionaire. My grandma has WWII memoribillia stored in the back bedroom. Things I hope will be mine when she passes away. I always found them fascinating!

So, there's my little walk down memory lane. I'm still not sure why God told me to take pictures, but I'm glad I did. I have a few more pictures, but they need to be turned before I post them and I need to get some laundry done. . . blogging time is up!