Aunt Bobbie

January 22 at 3:53pmOkay, you asked for it! I promise I won't bombard you with stories everyday! But since we just had Christmas---When Mama was a girl, her favorite thing to do was to play Dick Tracy. She read every DT comic book she could get her hands on. Bett was always her sidekick--I think she had a name, but I'll have to ask Mama about that again. Anyway, Mama would write out whole scenarios of a crime or a mystery. She would work out all the clues, etc. and then they would play it out. One day her "play" called for them to go up in the hayloft to look for clues. They were carefully scouring the whole loft for clues when they noticed a tarp covering something over in a dark corner. (This unexpected find added a whole new level of excitement to their game!) Staying in character, they crept over to the tarp and lifted it up. There they saw all of their Christmas gifts for that year! Mama said, "We didn't solve a crime that day, but we did solve the mystery of Santa Claus!" That is when she and Bett found out that there isn't a Santa Claus!

Edi Turner's Memories

When I was 14, Corelle (the dinnerware) was invented. In 1971, our family returned to Greenville for 3 months so that Daddy could sell Granddaddy Turner's livestock (Granddaddy had broken his leg and was going to have to give up his side job of farming--he was employed fulltime with Southern Railroad.) One day, some of the family was at Edith's for a meal. I remember sitting on one of those "chair stools" at Edith's counter, and I was watching Momzi, Bett, Edith, and Mama clean up the kitchen. (This wasn't a Kay family dinner-we weren't using paper plates. We were using the glorious recent invention:Corelle dishes!) Momzi was washing the dishes, Bett was drying, and Edith and Mama were putting up the leftovers. All four women were talking at the same time-and they each knew everything the other was saying! At this particular moment, they were extolling the virtues of Corelle. Its claim to fame was that it was unbreakable. They all were chattering about how great this invention was and wondering if it was really true--that you couldn't break it. Momzi said, "Well, let's find out," and all of a sudden, her hand flew up out of the dishwater with a plate in it, and she tossed it over her shoulder-soapsuds and dishwater flying! The plate landed on the kitchen floor with a crash--and we beheld the miracle!! It wasn't even cracked! Bett and Mama just died laughing. Edith had this startled look on her face for a few seconds (can you imagine anyone slinging soapsuds and dirty dishwater on EDITH"S FLOOR?!!!--Only Momzi could have gotten away with it!). Then Edith started laughing. Momzi just had this mischievious grin on her face! I sat there grinning from ear to ear, enjoying 4 of the most wonderful women God had ever created!

Aunt Bobbie

The question Mama answers is:"As a young person did you volunteer for work in church, community, or social services?"Mama writes:Not really--We went to church and did our "duties" concerning that--and we were "good neighbors," usually--unless Papa had to shoot a man in the leg or something--but we had enough social services to take care of at home!This just cracked me up! Not that Papa shot somebody,but the way Mama wrote it! Daddy and Mama have told me several stories about Papa loosing his temper. Once Papa walked into a little store and some men were badmouthing my daddy(he wouldn't let them hunt on his farm anymore because they kept leaving the gates open and the cows would get out).These men didn't know that Papa was Daddy's father-in-law. So Papa walked up to the biggest one in the bunch (Papa was tall but he was skinny) and grabbed his shirt at the throat, and said, "That's my son-in-law you're talking about and if I ever hear you say anything like that again, I'll come looking for you with my gun!" The men knew Papa and knew he meant business, so they didn't say a word! Mama said Papa could be so sweet, but he was short-tempered, especially if he was tired. She said that Bett got so many spankings because she always had to have her say!! Mama said Papa never spanked her, but Mama would hardly talk if he was in the room. Sad, isn't it?

Bett and Bobbie

Mama wrote about the times they would dress up. "We didn't have many dress-up outfits, but we would get an Easter dress every year. We were always so thankful for our Easter outfits. The most dress-up outfits we wore were when Bett, Norma, Martha, and I {Norma and Martha were Bett and Mama's two best friends in their preteen and teen years.} would go to the attic and dress up in all kinds of garb stored there.Then we would go outside and walk up and down the road like we were grand ladies! Can you imagine how we must have looked?! But we were young and silly so I guess we are excused