The Chronicles of Amazing Mema! #5

A bit of history that many of my readers may not identify with from Mema's journals:

On November 25, 1996 Mom had attached a picture of an old dresser that I remember seeing in my childhood which I think was in my Dad's parents home, and she wrote an interesting note about it -

"The most important thing i remember about this piece was everyone was not fortunate to have a beautiful dresser as this. If you were 'in the money' and had a dresser it was the only mirror in the house. It was a piece that was surrounded with young girls trying to look in the same mirror. They would light kerosene lamps and put the curling iron in the chimney of the lamp and heat it to curl their hair. It was hilarious. People then had very little to fill the drawer space, as I remember."

On the facing page with the same date she also attached a picture of an old crank type telephone. In my very young years I remember this phone hanging in the living room of my dad's parents. Every time it would ring my grandmother would jump up to listen in to see who was talking to whom. My mom wrote -

"The old telephone brings back many memories. It dates back to the 20's when we lived in Paducah and visited our grandparents in Marshall County. There was a telephone mounted on their wall just like this one. The Central Telephone Office was located several miles away on Slick Back Road. Our grandfather Darnall was left alone when grandmother died so in 1932 my dad bought the farm and we moved there with grandad to care for him. I was a freshman at Benton High School and the old telephone was so helpful to us. Our phone ring was 1 long and 2 shorts.
Houses were miles apart in those days so those old telephones were very important to everyone. The people at the switchboard were very courteous and helpful then. They served an important purpose in our lives for communication and covered many miles."

Yesterday afternoon the Rose and I went to visit mom at the nursing home and walked in on a live performance of country gospel music in the dining room. The lead singer and emcee of the program talked some about "the good ole days" and after describing some of the hardships he and his audience had endured commented that in his experience, those "good ole days" may not have been so good after all. I was kinda happy Mema wasn't able to hear what he said because she would have jumped straight up and set him straight. TO HER - the hardships of life on a small farm in Marshall Country Kentucky were the very best ever! She loved every minute of her life because she was surrounded by so many wonderful people who loved her and watched out for her. She still is and she is still enjoying every WAKING minute of every day. HALLELUJAH!