16 May 2008

interviewing Mom

For years I've always asked mom to tell me stories about our family. Even when we were kids, my siblings and I (especially my sister), loved to hear stories about when we were "little." But we often got upset, as kids do, that my mom had more stories about my brother than about my twin sister and I. Although really, it was just that he got into more trouble than we did... a lot more trouble.

Now, as I've gotten into genealogy research, I try to have her tell me stories about her childhood and and other family stories that she might remember. But, I guess she a little shy and feels pressured if I just sit down next to her and ask her for a story. The result is usually that she won't give me a story and says that she can't think of something right then.

So, the solution: she will give me one story a week on Mondays. This gives her a chance to think up stories or memories about an individual in advance. I won't ask her for more than one story and I won't ask her on any day but Monday.

We record audio stories onto my family tree at Ancestry.com. I then transcribe them for my ged.com file. I'm hoping that this scheduled way of interviewing mom for stories will result in a goldmine of information about her childhood and her family.

Her's what I've heard so far:
Barbershop
"When I was a little girl, my cousin Sandra would come over and babysit us. And so, one summer we were all playing outside and Sandra was in the house and, so June and Charlie decided we were gunna to play barbershop. So I sat in the swing and they got a bucket of water, they went in and got a bowl and put water in it and soap and everything and brought it out and shampooed my hair. And then they said 'OK, you're threw." And I said, "no, it's a barbershop, you have to cut my hair." And they said, "no, we can't cut your hair." And I said, "yeah, you have to cut my hair, it's a barbershop." So, they went in the house and got the scissors, and came back and gave me a haircut. And they really gave me a good haircut!

And so we were all, by the time Mamma got home, we were all crying cause we just knew we were gonna get in trouble. And so, of course, Mamma was just... she was upset cause my hair was cut, but she was more upset that we were all cryin' and afraid and thought we were gunna get killed like Sandra said. So she started talkin' about how pretty my hair was and "oh, no, it look fine. It just needs to be trimmed up a little bit." and she trimmed it up and she made such a.... in trying to calm us down and get us to quit cryin', she made such a fuss over my hair that June had to have hers cut too.
So, Sandra would come to the door and she would say... she would look for us all and say "Where's Ruby?" And my sister June said... she would say, "Here she is, she's right here with us playing." And so finally after the third time coming to the door and not seeing me she said, "Where's Ruby?" and they said "she's right here," and they said "well, make her stand up so I can see her, cause I don't see her." And so, when I stood up she realized that I wasn't one of the little boys. And so she, she ran out there and she, she said "oh my gosh, your mom's going to kill us, you cut off all her hair."


The Chinaberry Tree:
I was too young to remember this but... when it happened, but mamma used to tell us sometimes about when we were little and June and Charlie and Lloyd were... I guess we were probably all out in the backyard and they were playin' Sheriff. And so, June or Charlie one was the Sheriff, and they had Uncle Lloyd and they had gotten him up on the tricycle and somehow they had gotten a rope around the chinaberry tree limb and they were gunna hang Uncle Lloyd.
Now, fortunately, mamma looked out the door... out the back door to check on us and saw Lloyd on the tricycle. And she was afraid to haller because she's afraid she'd scare us. So she had to go runnin' out the back door and she grabbed Uncle Lloyd so that she could get the noose off his neck before they kicked the tricycle out from under 'em. So, you never know what kinda crazy stuff that we were doin' when we were kids. but, anyway, it was just playin', fortunately mamma caught us in time.
The Sarah and Valerie Song:
Once upon a time there were two little babies
two little babies, yes there were
Once upon a time there were two little babies
two little babies, yes there were
There was Sarah and there was Valerie,
There was Sarah and there was Valerie.
Sarah and Valerie had a big brother,
had a big brother, yes they did
Sarah and Valerie had a big brother,
had a big brother, yes they did
His name was Allen,
and he was eight years old
His name was Allen,
and he was eight years old.....
And this is the song that I would sing to Valerie and Sarah over and over again, whenever I was trying to teach them what their names was, and what Allen's name was. Because I just felt that having two babies at the same time it would be hard to teach them their individual names. So they wouldn't think they were 'Sarahandvalerie'.

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