out to lunch at a restaurant in nearby Luverne. We had a good time
talking about our family members. We stopped by a country church on the way home, in Bulloch community, to show Perry where our great grandmother Sophia Antoinette Woods Wilson and great great grandparents (James and Mary Ann Wilson) are buried at Friendship Baptist Church cemetery. They were glad to know this.
Then tonight was a sad occasion. Went to the funeral home to visit with the family of our neighbor Gus McCall. I grew up with his wife, Janice Crocker McCall, out in the country. The Crocker family lived in a big white house and they said I told someone once that they must be rich since they lived in a "painted" house". It's funny that they remembered that. I didn't know they were renting the house. They had a big family; 4 girls and 2 boys. Their father farmed as did most of our neighbors. The girls, Ethelene, Janice, Fay and June, all live in Elba now and they are all beautiful ladies with silver hair. Their brothers Ralph (my age) and Willie Ray also live in Elba. Their father was living until a couple of years ago. Gus once told me that if he ever remarried, it wouldn't be a "Crocker" girl, that they all worked too hard and made him feel guilty. I think that growing up in the country made all of us feel that we had to be productive and work.Gus served on a submarine in the navy and loved going to annual reunions of his unit. He told us so many stories of his navy days. Last year he brought our son a cap with the name of his submarine on it. When they gathered in Louisville, KY, he visited the Slugger baseball factory store and bought James a wooden minature baseball bat. He and James were special friends.
In the future, when I look down the street I will be looking for Gus and his red pickup backing out of the driveway, coming up the street and honking and waving to us. Farewell to a good friend.
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