Adam's brain

I love Adam's funny drawings!  I'll be sharing more of them.

Mama in Her Other Life

You think you know your mama until you start writing a book about her!  First off, Mama was not interested in having her book written. Her life was too ordinary, she insisted.  Who would want to read it?  Well, I got out my tape recorder and asked her a couple of questions and then it was like the cork popped out of the bottle and she told me her entire childhood in about 2 hours!

Here is a little of what my mom, Helen, told me:

                                     Eddie and Helen 1928

"When I was in the first and second grade, Eddie and I had a little group of neighborhood friends.  As young children we did a lot of stuff I'm sure our parents never knew about.  It seemed like people didn't watch their children very closely in those days   Next door to our house was the foundation of a house that was never finished.  It was just a basement with the rooms sectioned off.  We would go down in there and play house.  We made little fires to cook with.  We used to cook things we got out of people's gardens.  Eddie was always the baby when we played house because he was the youngest.  We'd stroll him around in an old baby carriage."

"There was an old German couple who lived down the street who made sauerkraut.  We called them Aunt Minnie and Uncle Fritz.  We used to go down to their house and play.  We liked Aunt Minnie a whole lot, but we were scared of Uncle Fritz and when he came home we would hide under the dining room table.  They'd sit down and have dinner and we'd be hiding under the table the whole time!"
                   

(Drawing by Chris)

One Small Step for Mankind

Adam (age 8)

"Mom, I am going to step forward just one molecule.  Watch my feet and see if you notice any movement."

Dear Scotland

Because Frank worked for SunTrust Bank, Rebecca always loved to play bank secretary:

The Shocking Solution

                        Jon                      Adam                  Matthew

Back in 1994 when the O.J. Simpson trial was going on, Adam and his friends were 8 years old.  I overheard them trying to figure it out.  His friend Matthew said the boyfriend did it, but Adam said it would be really hard to stab yourself many, many times.  No, somebody else had to have killed that boyfriend.  Matthew nodded in the affirmative, his lips pursed and one eyebrow slightly raised.  Then Adam said he thought they should just hook O.J. up to one of those lie detector machines that gives you a shock if you tell a lie.  They all liked that idea.  

Then I poked my head in and said that I might get one of those machines for around the house.  The boys exchanged sideways glances as they pictured their mothers borrowing it.  "Uh, no...", Adam said, "I think you better hold off on that, Mom.  I heard they cost a couple million dollars."  He looked kind of sweaty.

More Notes From the Past

These are notes Rebecca wrote to Frank 

when she was 8 and Janet was 3.

The Winsome Witness

I overheard this conversation between my 16-year-old daughter, Janet, and her friend, Lindsey.  I didn't hear Lindsey's end of the conversation, but here is what Janet said:

"You ought to go to church with me like you used to."

"Yes you are, you're still a member.  Remember that time we got confirmed and went to Kissimmee and saw the Pope?" (We were Methodists and they saw the bishop.)

"It wasn't?  Yes it was, wasn't it?"

"The Pope, you know the guy with the ring and you kiss the ring--he lives in England."

"No, I'm sure it was."

"Anyhow, then we got baptized in the lake behind the Van Dykes house, I'm sure you remember THAT."

"Remember how I slipped in the water and cut my butt, I still have a little scar there.  So you see, you are still a member.  Wanna go?"

Lindsey and Janet age 16 in 1995