The Inspired Wren: Join the Squares: Crochet Along Afghan Sampler

The Inspired Wren: Join the Squares: Crochet Along Afghan Sampler

New Year's Eve

HaveHow many New Years have come and gone in my lifetime? I remember some of them but not with a great deal of  fondness.

It seems like I never thought much about
New Year's when my children were small. I remember that we went to Emma's house for a late Denton Christmas.  The Dentons agreed to have their Christmas on New Years Day so that the families could have Christmas with the in-laws. That usually worked out fine. A few times we had it at Granny's house but later on it was at Emma's.

At first we all drew names--adults with adults and children with children. As our families grew we soon limited the gift exchange to the children.  Sometimes some adults bought gifts for the children. One year Emma gave Tony a ceramic wishing well. It was inexpensive at the time but has since become a collector's item, being a McCoy. These same little brown wishing wells sell at antique stores for $20 to $30. Tony still has the one Emma gave him. Others in the family have some they bought at antique stores.

Later on, there were sometimes New Years' Eve family dances at the LDS Church cultural hall. These typically ended at 11:00 p.m. to allow people to get home before midnight. As the kids were growing up we sometime went to some of these.

Later on, in their dating years, we sometimes stayed up until midnight. They would be listening to their music or doing fireworks and I would be drinking eggnog and  listening to Guy Lombardo's New Year 's Eve TV show, which always ushered in the new year with his moving rendition of Auld Lange Syne. New Year's was never the same after Guy Lombardo's show stopped.

The kids grew up, married, and moved on. They had children and granchildren. The Denton family Christmas stopped many years ago. I don't know if there are still church dances. If so they are for the young and not family dances. I don't know if anyone stays up to see the New Year in.

As for me, I write about New Year's Eves of bygone days, drink my egg nog, and go to bed at ten. Happy New Year.

Little Purple Daisies

Daffodils heralded the spring for Wordsworth.  Daffodils still speak springtime.  But for me, springtime is synonymous with little wild purple daisies.  When I was a child, the first thing I noticed as winter edged out was the appearance of little purple daisies. They covered every expanse of grass around the house.  Not in the yard itself, for that was kept hoed and brush-broomed clean, with only flowers Mother planted left growing and blooming.  And not in the barnyard, for that was kept clean by the mules' grazing and stomping.  And not in the chicken yard, for it was pecked clean.  But all around and in between, wherever there was grass, were the little purple daisies.  The well worn path to the cotton field, over the hill and across the gurgling branch (before Daddy built the pond) was lined with them.  The dirt road which ran in front of the house, leading northward to our grandparents' home (Tom and Ida Bivins's home) sported patches of purple along the fence row which marked its sandy edges.  The pasture east of the little white church (Mt. Gilead Methodist Church) where we had our Easter egg hunt, was dotted with purple, even before the colored eggs were hidden.

Each spring of my life I have looked for the little purple wild flowers which were always a source of joy to me.  When I lived in Utah, I could not find them.  There were some kinds of little wildflowers to be sure, but not the same as those I remembered, and none of them purple.

Springtime is here again (well, beginning).  Yesterday I walked outdoors, to the mailbox and around the yard.  Daffodils nodded their yellow faces here and there, in beds, where Mother once planted them.  A short line of jonquils winked bravely, still where I planted them in the spring of 1964 (talk about perserverance)! A hawthorne bush at the corner of the house pushed its red blossoms out from between its thorns. The pearl bushes budded white.  And on the ground lay a carpet of little wildflowers, little daisies.  Yes, they still bloom for me.  But they are different this year.  They are not purple.  They are white.  I have a snowfall of little white daisies, here, there, and everywhere.  My hair is white and so is theirs.

Amie Margaret Pool Bivins and daughter, Ruby Ida Bivins

This picture was taken near the front of the old house where I grew up.  The tree in the background is a chinaberry tree.

Hallonquist Family

Children of Laurent Frank Hallonquist and Martha Jane Henson Hallonquist.  Martha Jane was a daughter of Orren Austin Henson and Martha Cartwright Henson, and a sister to my grandmother, Ida Victoria Henson Bivins.

The Old House

My Great Grandmother—Mammy Pool

 

Margaret Sidney Johnson Ross Pool: "Mammy"

--Ruby Ida Bivins Denton

Author's note: The following account is based on several sources of information regarding Margaret Sidney Johnson Ross Pool. As in any account taken from "word of mouth" or compiled written information, some variance in detail occurs. These variances are of small import, since the real purpose of this account is to portray a picture of the unique little woman known by her family and also by many friends, as "Mammy."
Margaret Sidney Johnson Ross was born in Kentucky, October 11, 1865. She was a daughter of Hugh Mendenaul Ross and Elizabeth (Betsy) Grider. The family moved from Kentucky to Henderson County, Tennessee in the 1860s. They came to Upshur County in 1876 when Margaret was eleven years old.
Margaret Sidney Johnson Ross was named for the Southern general, Albert Sidney Johnson, who fell at the battle of Shiloh. It is said that her father, as a Confederate soldier, had been a personal friend of General Johnson. Family members have said that Mammy told many times of her folks hearing the big guns from the Battle of Shiloh which was fought near where her family lived in Henderson County, Tennessee. The story goes that Hugh Ross had told General Johnston that his next child, if a boy, would be named for the general. When that next child was a girl, Hugh kept his promise and named her for the general anyway, replacing "Albert" with "Margaret." The name Margaret could have been for her paternal grandmother, Margaret Nash.
     The Ross family moved to Upshur County in 1876. Margaret was eleven years old. They settled at Double Springs (now Rosewood). One source says they joined the Baptist Church there about 1880. Mother (Amie Margaret Pool Bivins) said Mammy was a member of the Enon Baptist Church.
     At some point in the next few years after her family moved to Double Springs, Margaret was helping with housework at the home of Tom and Harriet Grider Hurt. Harriet was Margaret's aunt, being a sister to Margaret's mother, Betsy Grider Ross.
     In 1883, a young man came from North Carolina and settled at Rosewood. He was living with relatives. The relatives are said to have been a Barnett family, as one of his aunts married a Barnett and moved to Double Springs. This young man was James Nelson Pool, Jr.
James Nelson (Jim) came to work for the Hurt family where Margaret was helping out with housework. Mother said this was how Margaret Ross (Mammy) and Jim Pool (Pappy) met. Whether it was "love at first sight" we don't know, but we do know they were married on March 3, 1885. And we do know that their love was an enduring one. They bought a home and land at Rosewood and raised their family of eleven children there.
     Mammy was a little black-haired woman, dark complexioned. Some of her grandchildren would ask her if she had Indian blood. She always said, "No. I'm little black Dutch." Uncle Clifton thought Mammy's great grandpa, John Womack, came from Holland. Other research shows John Womack as being born in England. (He may have later lived in Holland.) The Ross line also goes back to England. One of Mammy's ancestral lines goes back to Germany, with earlier ones having German royalty titles!
Mammy's and Pappy's home was on what is now Caribou Rd. It was up on top of a hill, a short distance east of the home of Grandpapa and Grandmama (Otis and Ruby Pool). It was a big old house similar to many rural homes of the era. It was made of unpainted wood. It had a long front porch. In later years, Pappy would sit out on the porch.
     Leona Pool Newkirk, a granddaughter, has a mobile home on the spot where Mammy's and Pappy's house stood.
     I can remember only bits and pieces of Mammy and Pappy in their old house. I was eight when Pappy died. Mammy was sick so they had the funeral at home. I can remember when Pappy died, and going to their house, but not any details.
     I can remember times of walking through a garden north of the house and of coming in and seeing Mammy working in her kitchen. Like other rural residents of the time, they had no electricity. She drew water from the well for cooking, dishwashing, and bathing. She also drew water for the washing of clothes, and for watering livestock and farm fowl. Mammy had chickens, guineas, geese, and peacocks. It was a big treat to see a peacock spread his tail feathers. She plucked feathers from the geese to stuff pillows and mattresses.
     Uncle Bill Pool and his son, Julian, lived with Mammy and Pappy. Uncle Bill and his first wife, Golda Gipson Pool, Julian's mother, were divorced. Uncle Bill lived there until he remarried to Eva Dee Palmer. They moved to Dallas, but Julian stayed with Mammy and Pappy. Mammy raised Julian after already having raised her own large family. The circumstances of Bill and Golda's divorce are unknown, but Mammy was of no mind to let Golda visit her son Julian. But sometimes when Julian was playing at Grandmama's house, Golda would come by for a short visit. Golda died when Julian was young, but after Julian grew up, he visited with some of his mother's family. Mammy's attitude in this family relationship reflects her strong mindedness.
     As she grew older, Mammy came to live with Grandpapa and Grandmama. I think they were in the little white house by that time. Then Grandpapa became very ill with cancer and Mammy went to live with Uncle Pete and Aunt Exa. They lived on a little road that goes from Hwy. 154 south to the Rosewood Baptist Church. She lived there until she died.
     Margaret Sidney Johnson Ross Pool died on December 23, 1952. She is buried at Enon Cemetery, beside her husband.

***

     Audrey Pool Smith told me of a saying Mammy used to say a lot:
"Beauty is skin deep, but ugly to the bone;
"Beauty fades away, but ugly holds its own."

      Mammy and Grandpapa (Otis Pool, her oldest son) both loved to talk. Nobody had to worry about a hearing aid when they were talking. Mother said Mammy loved to go to town with Grandpapa. He would go in the wagon and he would stop by and ask her if she wanted to go and she always did. Mother said they could always tell when Grandpapa and Mammy were getting back from town because you could hear them talking a long way down the road. They loved to tell stories and "hash over" old times.
     Mother said Mammy and Grandpapa both loved to sing. I can't remember Mammy singing but I can remember Grandpapa singing. One song I remember him singing a lot was "Barbry Allen." Mother said he sang church songs a lot too. She said his favorite hymn was "O, Come Angel Band." She said Mammy sang the same kinds of songs—church songs and old folk songs that had been handed down through the years.
     Mammy brought some of the old ways of talking with her. I can remember her and Grandpapa too saying "Hit were" for "it was." I wondered why they said "hit" instead of "it." I found out later that in Old English the "h" was in front of the "it," and was aspirated (pronounced.) Later it was dropped. Many such earlier versions of speaking came over with the first immigrants and continued several generations. Dialects from different countries were common in the Appalachian country.
Mother remembered Mammy had a little chair by the fireplace where she sat. She said Mammy cut out pictures from magazines and tacked them up on the wall by the fireplace. She had the whole wall there covered with such pictures. The magazines were probably something like Farm and Ranch or Farmer Stockman. She might have used old calendar pages too.
     Mammy always had a big garden from which she gathered fresh vegetables for eating and canning. She also had a big fruit orchard with many apples, peaches, apricots, pears, berries, grapes, and figs. Some of the grandchildren remembered she would let them eat the figs but it was "hands off" the rest of the fruit. Mammy wanted most of it for pies and for canning and for jellies, jams, preserves, etc. It took a lot of such foods for her big family. The orchard was on the east side of the house. For a long time you could still see remnants of it, long after Mammy and Pappy and the house were gone.