Mother's Day memories

Mother's Day has come and gone for another year and I am late posting this blog. I thought about it all last week, and even located the photo to post. Then I got busy and am just now writing a tribute to my mother.

Mildred Ruth Smith Wilson was born on October 21, 1914, to Oswald Cole and Bessie Jewel Mayberry Smith. She was their 2nd daughter. Mother attended schools at Curtis, Basin and Elba. She graduated at the top of her class at Elba High School in 1933 and got married that summer to my father, James Lawrence Wilson, a farmer from the Curtis community.

I remember mother talking about her classes at Elba High School. She loved her Latin class. Most of all I think she enjoyed literature. I remember when I was growing up, that we got the Montgomery Advertiser newspaper in the mail and she loved reading the editorials. She would read the funnies to us until we were old enough to read them. I remember that she read to us "Tales of Marco Polo" and that's how I learned about China. (My playmates and I would try to dig a hole to China but we never could get through the center of the earth! Mother said China was half-way around the world.) On Christmas she gave me a book "At the Back of the North Wind" and encouraged me to read it. It was a big book and I thought I'd never finish it.

Mother enjoyed listening to radio programs in the evenings. One of her favorites when I was small was "Dr. I.Q" - a forerunner of game shows. You could send in questions and if they used your entry, you would receive a box of Milky Way candy bars. More than once her questions were used and we enjoyed the candy bars that arrived in the mail.

When I was 12 (almost 13) , and mother was expecting her 6th child, I remember how she loved listening to the Phil Harris and Alice Faye show on Sunday nights. I was not too surprised when our baby sister was born and she named her Alice Faye. Mother also had a sister named Faye. Alice was born on Halloween night, although her birth certificate has October 30 on it.

I remember that mother had a little white wooden chest that she kept the baby clothes in. As they outgrew the clothes, she folded them and put them back in the chest to use for the next baby. In between babies, she sometimes let us dress our dolls with the baby clothes.

Mother went to school during the Depression and there wasn't enough funds for her to go on to college. But she made sure that all of her 7 children would go to college.

She never worked outside the home until I started to Troy State Teachers College in 1953. Then she started to work at Covington Industries sewing factory in Opp as an Inspector. She was working there when she died 10 years later. She and daddy wanted to build a new house and she wanted to work to help furnish the new 2-story brick home.

Mother was an expert seamstress and made all of our clothes, including coats, and our panties when we were little.

She was a hard worker, always laboring at something. I remember that she always took about a 15 minute nap after lunch every day and would get up and get right back to work. She always had a big garden and we helped her plant, hoe and harvest it. How I hated picking and shelling butterbeans; didn't mind peas and beans as much. She never let anything go to waste.

Mother died suddenly of a blood clot on April 28, 1963. We were living in Bremen, GA. We were all in shock. Our mother was never sick! She was a very kind person and people loved her. This was demonstrated the day of her funeral when school closed and the plant where she worked closed so people could attend her funeral. I never saw so many cars going to the church and cemetery. And even now, when I meet someone that she worked with as I did recently, they always tell me things that she said or did and how she always helped others.

On thing I remember was the time she made me a short, white corduroy coat with a flared back and mailed it to me at Troy State. I didn't have a light winter coat but knew there wasn't money to buy one so I just got by with what I had. I opened the package when it arrived and I don't think I've ever received a gift that I appreciated more. She made the coat and when I asked where she got the beautiful fabric, she said a friend had it left over when she made a garment and brought mother the scraps. Someone else gave her some cotton fabric that she used for the lining. My Aunt Barbara made large covered buttons for the coat. I treasured that coat for many years.

After I was married and living away, she wrote to us every week, telling us about what they were doing back home. These letters kept me from getting home sick when in college and when Jim and I were living in Germany for 2 years. I still have a letter that she wrote and put in the mail box the Sunday afternoon before she died later that same afternoon. The letter was in our mail box when we got back home in GA after attending the funeral.

Bill, Ronnie, and James Gilmer with grandparents, Lawrence and Ruth Wilson

Our boys enjoyed visiting mother and daddy at the farm in the summertime. She only had 6 grandchildren when she died; later there were 13 more.

Mother liked to can vegetables, make all kinds of jellies, jams and preserves and later when she got a freezer, would try to fill it during the summer. I didn't inherit her love for doing all of this but some of my sisters did. I like buying my frozen food in the grocery store, or getting fresh veggies at roadside curb markets in the summer, already shelled!

I think that if I could sum up how I remember my mother, it would be "a loving, caring mother who wanted the best for her children". She was a great encourager.

My brother Perry and his little red fire truck

Perry, Christine, Nell holding Judy, Sue

I came across this old photo of our only brother, Perry, when he was 2 years old. (He didn't like having his picture made when he was little.)  Santa brought him this red fire truck for Christmas and I think our daddy was more excited than he was on Christmas Day.

Daddy spent many hours repairing this metal toy and painting it. In 1944, you couldn't buy metal toys and he found this one that had been well used, and restored it. It was beautiful and Perry loved the bell that he could ring by pulling a string. We all took turns pushing him around in the fire truck when he got tired of pedaling.

This photo was taken in the front yard of Mama and Papa Wilson's house where we lived with them until the fall of 1944. We moved to a rental house about 1/2 mile away just before our sister Judy (shown here) was born on New Year's Day, 1945.

It was probably Easter 1945 when this photo was made. I'm guessing that we spent the day with Mama and Papa Wilson, even bringing Perry's fire truck so he could ride in in their big yard. 

I had just turned 10 in this picture and remember well the red and white stripe rayon dress I am wearing. Mother made it from a dress my aunt sent from Washington, DC. She would gather up nice clothing from her friends and send it to mother to use to make clothes for us. Fabric was not available due to war shortages. We always had nice clothes to wear because our mother was so creative and a very good seamstress.

My sister Christine is on the left side of the photo, I'm in the middle - holding baby Judy, and on the right side is my sister Susan (Sue). Alice and Carolyn came along later. Perry was the only boy in the family.

Only God can make a tree!

Our home when we moved in in Nov 2003

Our home 3 years later

I love trees and forests and lakes. When we moved into our present home in Elba, AL, there was not a single tree or bush or anything in our yard, just 2 acres of clay soil with wild grass and weeds. We had left behind 80 acres of pine trees, lots of hardwood trees in the woods, a lake and spring. We were so weary of taking care of our farm that we wanted to move to town and have a small city lot. But the only house we could find that fit into our plans was in the middle of two city lots! We moved into it in the winter of 2003 and in 2004 we began to landscape the new yard.

The bermuda grass lawn looks nice in the summer months but turns brown in the winter. We have a nice crop of weeds in the spring before the bermuda starts to turn green. We planted a lot of trees in 2004 and now 4 years later they look like they have been here forever. Some are now providing shade. Many of the shrubs I propagated after we moved here. It's exciting to watch them grow. Our only disaster was the banana bush that grew so fast and so big we had to dig it up. We put the big roots in a gulley behind our house and I expect any day to see a "banana forest" in that area!

back porch

I have a potting shed where I propagate plants and keep them watered. I have been giving away muscadine and concord grape vines this spring. Have lots of crepe myrtles to pass along.


My Master Gardening knowledge is so helpful.

Autumn Blaze Maple 2004

Autumn Blaze maple fall 2005

swing arbor we built 2005

Swing Arbor 1 year later

Welcome to my garden!

This morning when the early morning sun was shining on the dew laden flowers in our yard, I went outside and took some photos to share. I tried to capture the pink climbing roses on the wooden fence but you can't see the overall beauty in a photo. Nor can you smell the sweet fragrance of the antique roses. I like to cut them and make bouquets for church, friends, etc and keep some on our breakfast table to enjoy. I also root these roses to give away.
(Click small photos to enlarge)

Sweet Shrub bush

I planted a sweet shrub near our outdoor swing so I can smell them. But there's a problem with this bush. It is not from the wild, but given to me by a friend who bought it a nursery, and it doesn't have the sweet perfumey smell as those taken from the woods. I might replace it or add another variety nearby. At least the tea olive bush (tree) fills the air with the best smelling perfume around, several times a year. We are letting it grow into a tree.

The purple blooms of the clematis welcome us as we walk out the back door, as it climbs up a post on the corner of the porch. It blooms most of the summer, a few big blooms at the time.

The purple iris have had a good spring. Once there were over 2 doz blooms in the corner of our back yard bulb flower bed. I guess the gladiolas will be blooming next in that flower bed.

The geranium on the back porch was purchased this spring for $10 and I've never gotten such a bargain! It has been blooming ever since March. Might be because I feed it Schultz bloom fertilizer.

Near the geranium is a flower bed of hostas. They love the shade along the porch and add texture and color to the cement porch.

Our window boxes are filled with old fashioned petunias from the yard of my friend Glenda Williams. She gave me these before she moved to Geneva this spring. I put pots of plants in the window boxes so I can take them out and replace them when they begin to look bad.

The little yellow coreopsis are blooming all over the yard. These hardy perennials come back every year and are drought resistant. The bees and butterflies love them, as do the hummingbirds.

I hope you have enjoyed a tour of flowers blooming in our yard on May 1, 2008.

On the Sidewalks of Elba

Elba will soon have new sidewalks and underground utilities (telephone, electric and cable wires will all be underground and new lighting on the streets around the court house area. It will be beautiful when this is completed in July 2008. Construction began mid April and they have 90 days to complete it - which is mid July. I am posting some photos takenMonday (April 28); one side of the sidewalks has already been taken up and just today they put the utilities on the ground and covered them with cement. I guess tomorrow they will put more cement and finish up the north side.

The old sidewalks were high off the street and you had to take steps to get up to the sidewalk. Car bumpers were always hitting the high sidewalk bank. With the new sidewalks, a section closest to the street will be lowered to avoid cars hitting them, and then you step up one step to the sidewalk near the buildings. In the center of each sidewalk, near the street, there will be small green spaces with shrubs and flowers.

You can see in the photo here of the old Elba Exchange Bank, that the old sidewalks were one width, dropping down to the street at corners and with steps in between. This will soon be changed. By the way, this old bank has been converted to a beautiful town house for a family that lives in Elba during the week and at their home on Gantt Lake at other times. You can see how they covered some of the large windows with plaster but leaving the arched outlines and the front entrance on the corner which has beautiful patterned glass on sides and over the front door. The old bank vault was torn off at the back and a garage with room overhead was added plus a penthouse on top.

Others have built apartments downtown and more are planned. When the US 84 bypass is completed around Elba, downtown will be a beautiful place to live, work, or to just stroll around and enjoy the park, courthouse square, shops, restaurants, and take walks on the levee trail.

When all of the overhead wires are gone from downtown and new lights installed, it will take on an entire new look. The new coffee house/theater "Just Folk" at the site of the old Claire Theater (next to the Jewel Box which is now closed) is almost finished and I'll post some photos soon of the interior of that beautiful place. I'm going to a concert there one night next week.

Our little town has come a long way since the two floods in the 1990's. The new levee is supposed to protect us for years to come.

Where my paternal grandparents are laid to rest

Katie Gilmer at her great-grandparents' grave

Katie and her g-g-grandfather
 James Shorter's grave

My dad's parents, James Arthur and Fannie Melissa Grimes Wilson are buried at New Ebenezer Baptist Church cemetery in the Curtis community, between Elba and Opp. My grandmother Wilson's father, James Shorter Grimes, was the first person to be buried in this cemetery. Now many of his family are buried there with him. When you enter the cemetery from the front side, you see nothing but "Grimes" graves.

My grandmother Wilson's grandparents, John W. and Julia Ann Garrett Grimes, are buried in a family cemetery near Curtis, the Holland-Grimes cemetery. For many years the cemetery was forgotten and overgrown with weeds, bushes and trees. My cousin Linda and I worked to get the small cemetery cleaned up and the tombstones cleaned. Today it is well taken care of by seasonal caretakers. At the October Grimes reunion in 2008, we plan to put a Civil War marker at the gravesite of John W. Grimes.

Grandmother Wilson's maternal grandmother , Malissia Tillis, is buried at Danley's Cross Roads. Nobody knows what happened to her husband or where he is buried.

Sophia Wyatt Wilson

Papa Wilson's mother Sophia died when he was a young man. She is buried in Friendship Baptist Church Cemetery at Bulloch, near Brantley, AL.His father, H. A. Wilson, along with my granddaddy and his twin siblings Mattie and Frank, moved from Bulloch in Crenshaw Co. to Curtis Community in Coffee Co. He later remarried and died while living in Opp, AL, where he is buried in the city cemetery there.

James Wilson was the father of H.A. Wilson and he came from GA to Crenshaw Co. Buried at Bulloch cemetery.

My g-g-grandfather, James Wilson

These are my paternal ancestors who are buried in Alabama.

Time Marches On!

Today I attended a graveside service at Evergreen Cemetery in Elba for a sister of my friend. It was a beautiful, sunny, cool morning and not a cloud in the sky.


 I got to the cemetery early and searched for the graves of my maternal great grandparents, William Cole Smith and Barbara Ann Mays Smith, his 2nd wife. I didn't know they were buried there until I started working on the Smith Family genealogy a few years ago. Over the years I have taken photos of graves of my ancestors and for this blog, I am going to post them here for a record of all of these. Today I will include my maternal grandparents and tell where they are buried.





My mother's parents were Oswald Cole and Bessie Jewel Mayberry Smith. They are buried near Danley's Cross Roads at Liberty, a country cemetery. Until a few years ago there was a Methodist Church across the road from the cemetery. The church has been moved.





Mama Smith's parents, Joel Thomas and Emma Elizabeth Mayberry, are
also buried at Liberty cemetery also. Great Grandmother Mayberry's family were Spratlings from Waverly, AL. This would be my great-great-grandparents. Papa Smith's grandfather, Joshua Cole Smith, went back to NC during the Civil War and we don't know the location of his grave, although we have pictures of his father Samuel's and grandfather John Smith's graves in Reidsville, NC.



My mother, Ruth Smith Wilson, and my dad, James Lawrence Wilson, are buried at New Ebenezer Baptist Church cemetery in Curtis community, between Elba and Opp, AL. We own the plot behind them.