Going WAY Back In the Day!

It's getting dark outside here at The Doublewide. I just took a trip back to when I was a child in my mind, and I just HAD to blog about it!
As some of you already know, I'm the oldest child of three. Our parents were really young when I was born. Mama was 18 and Daddy was 17. As a matter of fact, I was almost a year old when my daddy graduated from high school.
They had a hard row to hoe with three kids. By the time my sister, the baby, was born, my daddy was 23 years old with THREE kids. They did a great job--did the best they could. I'm proud to tell you that they're still married. On February 12th, my parents will celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary. Some said they'd never make it since they were so young, but I'm proud of my parents for proving them ALL wrong! A good marriage takes a lot of hard work and I'm thankful my parents put that work into making a great life for us and for themselves.
Now...with all that said...my parents took Saturday nights and Sundays off! Hmmmmm....maybe that was their secret, ya think? hahahah

Every Saturday afternoon, around three or four o'clock, we'd start begging mama to take us to Mammaw and Pappaw's house. They just lived up the field from us, and we were ready to GO!
After getting our things together and making sure our church clothes were ready, off we'd go. If the weather allowed, we'd play all over the yard. My pappaw was an avid junk collector, so there was always an old car to hop in, an old building to roam through, an old barn to play in, or a pile of something to plunder through...ALWAYS! Did I tell you about the time, when I was about 14, I took a big handful of crisco and an old quilt and sunbathed on the hood of a 1960s model Lincoln Continental? That old car look a lot like this one---just add rust and take away that shine and you've got it!

Let's just say I couldn't walk for a day or two, so crispy was I!
Anyway....
We'd always eat something for supper. It was usually beans, taters and cornbread. A treat was had by all if mammaw fixed turnip greens too! Law have mercy! I miss those!
After supper, we'd always have to go get our showers. The house mammaw and pappaw lived in was super duper old. The bathroom had actually been built onto the back of the house and it didn't have a tub in it. There was only a stand up shower and I remember the floor of the shower being concrete. After getting our pajamas on, we'd all pile in the den to watch Hee-Haw. I remember lots of times sitting in the floor and listening to my Pappaw bellerin' laughing over something that I didn't get! After Hee-Haw went off we'd watch The Lawrence Welk Show. During these shows was when my mammaw would perform her weekly duty of rolling mine and Amanda's hair up on paper bag strips. If you're not familiar with this because you're from the city, (hee hee) mammaw would cut paper grocery bags into long strips, roll our hair up on individual strips, and then tie the ends of the strips in knots. Me and Amanda loved listening to the SWoooSSHing sound that was made by flinging our heads around.
Then we'd all pile in the bed and be ready for Pappaw's breakfasts in the morning.
He'd get up and fry country ham EVERY Sunday. We'd also have grits, toast, and fried eggs that were just a little bit runny. I can still see him in his white short sleeved t-shirt, gray work pants, and his brown coffee cup, just like this one, working in the kitchen.

After getting all of us ready for church, mammaw would usually stay home and wave goodbye as we all headed off to be the first ones at Alexis Baptist Church. I don't know what it was with my pappaw, but if you were less than 30 minutes early for church, you were late. This is an actual picture of my home church. I now play piano at Community Baptist Church, but Alexis will always have a special place in my heart!

For a fat girl growing up, Sunday Dinners were my favorite! My mammaw was the BEST cook and we looked forward to wonderful meals around her table. After dinner, we'd do a lot of different things. If it was hot outside, my pappaw would herd us up and we'd walk about a mile down through the woods to the creek. We'd play and splash and wear ourselves out. If it was raining, we'd usually sit and "watch a storm come up." Pappaw loved this and it was an awesome experience to be on the porch, safe with him, to see a good storm blow in. Other times we'd nap, sing/play piano, bake something with mammaw, or play somewhere on the farm.
I so wish the old house and all it's junk was still there sometimes. I so wish Pappaw was still here sometimes. I so wish Mammaw had her mind sometimes and could remember all of these things that I write about.
Also, I so wish that your memories of the weekends while you were growing up are as wonderful as mine.
Enjoy every moment of your weekend because you never know what your children or your grandchildren will remember when they're grown.
I thank God that I had a wonderful set of grandparents who filled each and every weekend of ours with love and fun and unforgettable memories!