The good ole days.

This weekend was good. Exhausting, but good. I literally feel like my eyes are going to close at any second as I type this. We spent the night at my mom and dads, and visited with my family. We sat on the porch of my moms cousins house and listened to my grandma and her sisters tell stories of when they were little, how it was for them growing up. I couldn't get enough. It felt like the most interesting history lesson I've ever heard. I was in awe, and laughed more last night than I have in a long time. Listening to them talk about their mother, my great grandmother, was surreal. I could just see her, and them, the stories were so real. Everyday they would come home from school,  eat a sweet potato she had cooked for them and then head out to the cotton fields or apple orchards, they would work hard at a very young age. Wow, so completly different than our lives. They would take a salt shaker out to the apple trees and climb up and set for hours eating apples. Oh, I bet those days were just so great! I love hearing about how calm and laid back my great grandma Ethel was. She would sit quietly and read her books, her bible included. She would spit snuff, or dip, into the fireplace. She was patient and kind and loved her family. Everyone had such good things to say about her. I just wish I would have had the chance to know her better, she died when I was very young. My mom told me stories of them waking up early and going to the barn to milk the cows, her grandma would squirt milk from the cows to the cats in the barn and laugh. 

My great grandpa, Hollis, who Evelyn would have been named after had she been a boy, was a milk man. He also drove the kids in town to school in a covered wagon before buses were around. They said he would heat a big rock and put it in the wagon for all the kids to keep their feet on to stay warm.  He was a worrier, and Ethel was calm. They were poor but had everything. They never went hungry, Ethel always had food on the table, food was one thing everyone talked about, the food she made, how good it was, I think my love for food is just in my blood. My love for feeding my family. He was a hard worker and built a beautiful white house for his family, that I have really great memories of. Unfortunately it burned down several years ago but I still remember it really well. For some reason the green sink and bathtub were always my favorite! I remember loving the glass doorknobs when I was little. The fireplace still stands. 

It was just so fun listening to all their stories, we asked them to please write them down so we'll never forget.  I hope they do! 

It made me wish a little to live on a farm with my family, a simple uncomplicated life. I do dream of having my own chickens one day! It sounds so lovely. You never know, maybe one day.