Really, I did.
This is my Great Grandmother, "Mammie." (My Daddy's Grandmother)
When I was scanning all these photos, I knew who she was immediately. But, I really didn't remember her as a youngish, and pretty lady. What a doll!
I knew her well. She lived until I was in my mid-twenties (I think she was about 93 when she went on to Heaven), and I spent a whole lot of time with her as a kid, and young adult.
So, what does watching Lawrence Welk on PBS tonight have to do with it?
It went a little something like this.
What a wonderful story about your great-grandmother. My mama loved Lawrence Welk too, never missed it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed that story, but I did not know anybody that enjoyed Lawrence Welk back then. My parents, my grandparents who lived in another house on the same farm, and us kids all watched the Wilburn Brothers and the Porter Waggoner Show right after supper on Saturday nights. I especially enjoyed watching Dolly get her start in showbiz, but we were all fans of Loretta. Saturday was a big television night with Gunsmoke and Perry Mason. I was barely aware that Lawrence Welk existed, figured it was for high falutin folks, not us redneck hillbillies, and I never watched it until recent years, and now I enjoy it on PBS. Television is just so bad nowadays, and popular culture is so far away from anything that I want to experience that I enjoy anything on TV that takes me back to the past.
ReplyDeleteYeah Realist, we were more of the Hee Haw types, too.
ReplyDeleteBut, Mammie loved her some Lawrence Welk...so that was it most Saturday evenings.
I still enjoy it, even though I don't watch it regularly. Don't watch anything regularly, really.
Jim, thank you very much, sir.
My great-grandmother's name was Effie, too. Effie Mae Janes. And Saturday nights at my grandmother and great-grandmother's house in Atlanta... they lived together, and that was where I spent a few summers as a young teenager... was the same as in Bossier, with the Welk. That left a lasting impression on me: I can't stand Mr. Welk and his freakin' bubbles to this day.
ReplyDeleteVive La Difference.
C'mon Buck! You know you loves you some Myron Floren accordion music...and I know you're a Norma Zimmer fan!
ReplyDeleteHeh. Yah, two of my all-time faves. The thing that amazes me? I was 13 when I first saw Mr. Welk, and that was FIFTY-FREAKIN'-TWO years ago. I think some sort of deal with the Debbil went down. That's the ONLY answer. Or mebbe him and Dick Clark have the same geriatric specialist. One or t'other, but more likely the former.
ReplyDeleteAndy, your great grandmother was a lovely lady.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I'm not so regular nowdays either.
I shoulda clicked the link before I made the comment. That was a great post from 2008. Really good writing. Some book I read once about writing talked about details, he said there were two types: the quick and the dead. The dead don't do anything to help the reader see or feel what you're describing, but the "quick" open up the whole scene in the reader's imagination. The venetian blinds in the old Falcon did that for me! So I gonna say it again, that little essay from last year is some great stuff. I mean it.
ReplyDeleteDan, there were a lot of those "quick" things about Mammie.
ReplyDeleteThe venetian blinds for one. Plus, when us boys got a set of weights for Christmas one year, watching her lift the entire set to her waist, and curling it on Christmas morning in the back yard...
Well, she was an old lady, but made of sturdy stuff.
And oh yeah, Dan...thanks for the kind words. It means a lot.
ReplyDeleteBuck, my great-granny (Dad's grandma) was a Janes from Cairo GA.
ReplyDeleteHey Nancy!
ReplyDeleteI think Buck has got an e-mail link on his blog. But if he doesn't, I'll send it to you (it's hidden in my super secret vault)...y'all might rake up kinfolks.
Ya' know, actually the best, and most favorite teacher I ever had in school was an old maid lady with the same last name. She was from Jonesboro, Arkansas. One of the highlights of my life was her teaching, and stern friendship.
I really don't know much about the people up there, but Dad always talked about his granny, Janie Belle Janes, his mom's mother.
ReplyDeleteNancy: I googled Cairo and see that it's down close to the Fla border. I kinda doubt that there's some sort of relation here, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility. My Mom's family were all born and raised in Atlanta (this is my maternal great-grandmother we're on about).
ReplyDeleteIt appears that name it not so uncommon in Georgia. I've never heard of it here before. I never knew of anyone with my husband's last name either, but there are pages and pages of that name listed in North Carolina phone books.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if my dad was born in '23, and his mom was about 40 (he was #10), then her mom,Janie Janes, had to be from sometime ....phff..waay on back.
Even could of known someone who saw Atlanta burn.
:)