Life when Mama was growing up was difficult (to say the least!) by our standards, but for her family things just were the way they were and the family learned to make do.  In this video, she recalls their lack of indoor plumbing, the excitement of getting electricity, and trips to the grocery store.

originally posted July 24, 2009

Mama, Jones Central High School Class of 1954.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Mama.  She was 15 years old, just starting high school in September of 1951.

Mama (on the right) and her younger sister Shirley were adventurous tomboys when they were growing up.  They were always running off together, doing who-knows-what, but one of their most memorable expeditions was when they discovered a treasure at the nearby dump.

This is my great-grandmother, my Grandpa Andy's mother, as I remember he in 1976.

School sure has changed since Mama was a little girl!

Mama, 7th grade...

This is Mama's daddy (and my grandpa) Andy.  He only went to school through 5th grade, but he was a smart man and able to fix and do anything he set his mind to.

(This series of posts was originally published in October 2010.)

Ever since I was a little girl, I have heard Mama tell stories about her childhood years in North Carolina.  She comes from a big family, very poor but good, hard-working Christian folks who didn't own a lot but they always had what was most important.

She has countless family stories and a history that I don't want to ever be lost or forgotten, so recently I asked Mama to videotape her as she recalled some of her childhood memories.

I hope you enjoy this peek into her life as a little girl growing up as a southern sawyer's daughter in rural North Carolina.

Mama has very few photos of her early life, but she does have this picture of the house where she was born.  This photo was taken in 1996, 60 years after Mama made her way into this world right inside these very walls.