For those who weren’t privileged to know her, Casey was the daughter of Pam Jones Blasingame and Howard Ross. She was later adopted when Pam married her second husband, Sam McLean. Casey was one of the brightest souls you could ever know with a beautiful smile, blessed spirit, and the occasional mischievous side comment!
This is part two of a conversation between Dorothy St.Clair Essex and her brother, John. The general topic is the experience of growing up. This segment is mainly devoted to Dorothy's experiences in nursing.
Recorded August 18, 2020. Dorothy and her brother John talk about growing up in Mobile, Alabama; Biloxi, Mississippi; Waycross, Georgia; LaGrange, Georgia; Nashville, Tennessee; and, Murfreesboro, Tennessee. They talked about the places and people met along the way and how the many moves affected their education. and personality.
When I was five years old, my best friend was a boy named Willie Thompson. I used to walk by myself to his house a half a block away. When I was five it was still considered safe to for me to walk to a friend’s house a half a block away without holding onto Mamma’s hand. I was a big girl; could do it by myself.
“Way the hell across Georgia! You must be out of your mind. I’m not going!” You could tell my mother really didn’t want to move to Waycross, Georgia; not only through her choice of words, but the volume. Oh my no, she didn’t want to go.
“I don’t care what you call her,” said the boy, “I’m going to call her Susie.” He was only seven but he was certainly stubborn and he really liked me a lot. I’m the one named Susie, actually, it’s Susanne. That’s the French spelling, I’ve been told. My Mama did that to me. Hardly anyone spells it right. The boy’s name was Tommy… His mom was going to have a baby soon and their family had been discussing names. He was adamant. If it was a girl, he was going to call her Susie.
Part two of a conversation with Aunt Aileen and Monica about life growing up in Alabama and adult life all around the world!
Aunt Aileen and Monica and I Zoomed together for a conversation of Aileen’s early memories. We talked about her parents, her Aunt Anne and Uncle Jim (Nan & JB), her choice of a career in nursing, Leo’s military career, and lot’s of other things.
Part 2 of my conversation with Whitfield about memories growing up. Included are stories about Howard Ross nearly drowning and Whitfield and Carolyn were marriage.
This conversation with Whitfield happened July 28, 2020. His wife, Carolyn joined in toward the end of the conversation. We talked about memories of our grandparents and cousins on the Gibbons side.
This a continuation of the conversation between John and Margaret, cousins who were childhood friends and friends later in life too!
My cousin, Margaret Marston, and I talked about her memories of our maternal grandparents. Our families unfortunately did not visit for a long time during our middle childhoods and young adult years so I also asked her about growing up.
Several Gibbons/Walsh(e) descendants Zoomed with Aunt Aileen on July 12, 2020. Unfortunately I was not able to attend live but I have reviewed the recording. Margaret has emailed the link to the full Zoom recording (98 minutes). The conversations were lively and entertaining and covered both old memories and current events.
Eating meals together as a family is one our fond memories from childhood and into adult life with our own children. On a short drive, Pat and I recorded a conversation about foods and dinner time growing up. There’s more road noise than I expected so you might prefer reading this one.
art two of my conversation with our cousin, Anne Eisner.
Anne Eisner is our cousin. Her father, Howard, and our mother, Claire, were children of James B. Gibbons and Anne (Nan) Genevieve Walsh. Anne and I talked on Sunday afternoon, July 12, 2020.
This is a single memory of a joyful family experience – and a possible consequence. I hope my siblings will comment to let me know what they remember about popcorn night with the St. Clair family!
My sister Susie and my wife Pat and I sat down (after a lovely brunch!) to talk about what influenced our personas while growing up. Particularly of interest were what books we read and the place of reading in out lives. For context, all of us four siblings, Howard, Susie, John, and Dorothy (and Pat) were avid readers and still are to some degree.
This is a continuation of a conversation about early memories of Mobile.
Memories invoke memories and that’s part of the plan here. For example, my brother Howard remembers calling our maternal grandfather, Granddaddy. But that did not quite ring true to me. After a week or so of working on this project, I remembered that I called him, Gramps.
Memories begetting memories happened to my brother also. I thought this conversation might go one way but it went another because he wanted to talk about those additional memories. And I’m glad he did because not I have even more!