GED4WEB version 4.41 Spiers Marian [Female] b. 04 OCT 1923 - d. 22 DEC 2012
Worked for the Chesapeake Railroad for 20 years.
When Grandpa married Grandma Lena it was during the War. Her school had closed and Grandpa did not run the engine as much. The Yankees finally blew up his engine up. He met Grandma Lena by taking the Petersburg and Weldon train to take the Yankee girls to the School of Young Ladies. Which is not Chow an College. My husband and I went down there and the chaplain was the one that looked up the genealogy for everyone, and I told him I was looking for Grandma Lena that was all the name I knew. He looked at me kinda funny and said you mean Helena Ireland Spiers. Well after I was treated as royalty. Claude said who did I marry. Anyway it seems that Grandma Lena
's father built the school and the McDowells furnished the money. Grandma had a beautiful colotours voice and spoke 5 different languages and taught them also and played the piano. Her sister did the same. When the war started they closed the school as so many of the students were Yankees, I have a letter she wrote to a friend in the North.
Anyway when she married Grandpa Emmett they moved to Carson. There with all her brains they hated her. She used to take a little scissors and cut the suckers off the vegetables and the people did not understand it. She did not try to tell them as they would not understand, she just did it. And they said she was the meanest woman. Anyway she was cooking with the only pot she had left and a Yankee soldier tried to take it from her. The Yankees stayed at their house as it was the best one in town. She said I will see you in Hell before I let you have my only pot. Well she had one side and the Yankee had another and the Captain came by and saw them fighting and asked what was the matter. She told him and that was the only pot she had left. They took all the others. He laughed and told the soldier to leave her the pot. and Saluted.
She was not so pretty but she could sing, and the children could sing also.
Her daughter Eunice used to sing for colored churches. At weddings, Mary her daughter says she remembers sitting on the back seat with her brothers and sisters while her Mother Eunice used to sing for them. The is where my brother and sister Lucy got their voices, but that is another story. Thanks for listening, Marian
The last notes were of Grandpa Robert Emmett Spiers and Grandma Helena Spiers on page 77 and 133
Now for World War II
on page 31 is William Dale Kennette who was a Marine. He was home for his first leave and a car ran up on the sidewalk and hit him, and that was the end of his career. He never was his brilliant self again.
Next is Robert Beverly Spiers page 27 and 45. He was a cadet at John Marshall High School. In fact he was head of the Cadet Corps. He needed a sponsor, one that could entertain and so he chose, June Carter. She was a big success and later married Johnny Cash and of course Bobby married Joyce whom he was dating all along. He went to work for NASA and was a success of that. So we are proud of him, and the family.
Next is Morris Allie Dawson page 25 and 133. He was a hero, in fact when they went to give him his metals they had to send for one, as they did not have it. He was 15 when his father signed him in the USNavy. His father had remarried and he did not know what to do with Morris so in the Navy he went.
I asked him what he did being so young, and he said he learned to say No Sir and Yes Sir in a hurry. He was in England when the War broke out and so they send the US Yorktown over to the Islands. There the US Yorktown was sunk and so the West Virginia picked them up. After being at Pearl Harbor recruiting he was assigned to the US California. He then served out the War with Admiral Harsley. He really had a hard life, and served his country, at so early age. Helen and he had three children and now have umpteen great grandchildren. Of course he died with Mesopotamia the lung disease you get from asbestos as he was down in the bottom so long. On the day he was sunk he said he remembered running and as he got to the top and started up the hatch someone shut the hatch and broke all of his fingers. He then turned around and had to find another hatch. He was a true hero. We loved him dearly.
Now my brother page 24 and 78 he is another 5 or 6 times a Spiers as is my two sisters also.
He was at College U of Richmond, and they took him would not let him finish, so they asked him what he was studying and he said bookkeeping, and what did his father do, and he told them he was a Railroad Machinist. So they put him in the working part of the 8th Air Force. He went through all the bombings in England, and he would write Mother and tell her to send him some things, like a 42 size girdle. Of course Mother did not ask any questions just sent whatever he wanted. He was wounded while walking in England and it was foggy and someone asked him what time it was and he remembered hearing Big Bend chiming so he told them. He woke up and he was lying in the gutter. They took 8 stitches, and his papers and identification was gone. They wanted his identy and they got it. Anyway we did not hear of it until one day he and Morris were talking and he told him of it.
When it came time for him to come home, they asked him to stay over there on standby as he was not married, so he told them if they would give him a year at Oxford he would stay. They did and he worked in the Air Force and went to Oxford. He said that was a good opportunity. When he got home he stayed in the reserves, and if he wanted to go anywhere, he would just go to the Air base and if any planes were going there, he could go with them. He died last year of a hole in his heart, that he and his father had. Didn't kill him, just made him not healthy like all other people.
That's all I can think of the WWII anyone know of any more?
Of course Howard Russell drove a car from Washington DC to Georgia with secret messages for the President. He would come by the house and visit and he had a little white flag on the fender which meant they were supposed to let him go as fast as he could. Of course he took the flag off when he stopped to visit. Thanks for listening
On page are two sets of LESpiers. Mother was ironing and we were all doing out thing and on the radio came an announcement. No TV in those days. Well it said we have the honor to announce that L E Spiers has a new baby. Mothers ears picked up. My brother was at college and this announcement came on. My brother was LESpiers also. Just wait until he gets home from college, he lived at home and went to U of Richmond. Well was he surprised, so Mother called around and found there was another LESpiers and he lived down in the country. So all was settled. We were all shook up by that one.
Here is one of my favorite Spiers my grandfather, Grandma Lena's first child.
He was red head like her. When he was a child he had scarlet fever and they thought he died no embalming in those days. So they put him in a little white coffin and put it in the living room. The cook on the day of the funeral said she had not said Goodby to him so she went in the living room to do so. When she got in there, Grandpa Beverly woke up and told her he was hungry. She turned white and Grandpa says he remembers walking around the coffin and looking at it. When he was nine years old he went to work on the RR. The children went to work, no rules. He was in the section gang, and instead of walking to the work, they would ride the rails that they were going to put down. Well, Grandpa broke his pelvis bone riding those rails and he never walked good after that.
Anyway he worked himself up to engineer, and he had a fireman named Ark, and if he did not go Grandpa would no either, and if Grandpa did not go Ark would stay off the train also. The two were a team. One time Grandpa looked up and a train was coming down the tracks the same one he was on. He was on the way to Petersburg. First I must describe Grandpa was very small about 5 ft 6in and Ark was over 6 feet and weighted over 200. They looked like Mutt and Jeff. Anyway Grandpa told Ark to jump. Ark was on the left and it was clear and a hillside, so he jumped. Grandpa jumped and he was on the side of the river going downhill. Well, when Ark found Grandpa he picked him up and walked him to Petersburg Hospital. The RR people were looking for him on the tracks and Ark had taken him to the hospital. That is how much of a team they were. Anyway Grandpa said when he woke up a nurse had a little scapal and he was inching her skin off, as when he jumped the hot steam from the engine all fell on him. Well, he told the nurse to get back and he took his overalls and pulled them off, and they wrapped him in cotton. He survived it all and went to work again.
Another time, he ran over a homeless man on the tracks. When the Railroad could not find out about him, Grandpa had just inherited the land where and his wife, an Anderson, were going to be buried. Plenty of room says Grandpa so the Railroad buried him in the plot. We have an unknown just the word tramp in the plot over in Muarry Cemetery. I could go on about Beverly he was a colorful person, on Daddy's side as it was his Daddy. Thanks for listening, Marian
On page 79 is Uncle Emmett and Aunt Nellie, They were lovely people hard workers and he worked on the Railroad as well as my daughter Nancy Lane Jenkins.
During the depression, my father was laid off and Uncle Robert Emmett used to have us over for Sunday dinner, as he knew we were hungry. They lived in south side, and so we would walk over and have lunch. He was a good Christian and they had a crow that could talk, Big black crow and when Uncle Emmett planted the crow would walk behind him and get the seeds that he put down, until they found out. Anyway Uncle Emmett read the Bible before each meal so you can picture us very hungry after walking over the bridge to their house, and listening to the Bible being read while smelling all the good stuff on the table. It seemed that Uncle Emmett read the longest verses, but I know that was not true. Mother and Lucy did not go, I think she was a baby and of course Mother could not walk so far either.
page 24 & 78 Daddy got laid off from the RR and he got a job as a clerk of the A&P store.
He worked up to the Manager and the RR called and told them they had a part time job if he wanted it, and he quit his Managers job and went back to the RR. RR people were always that way. Nothing like working for the RR.
While he was off and no job, he got a letter from the State telling he was the last person on the list of people that were on a lot in Chesterfield. All he had to do was pay $50.00 in back taxes. He went everywhere all of his friends and kin and they did not have the 50 which was a fortune is those days so he had to loose the lot. Now DuPont is sitting on the lot and the county was trying to clear up the lots so DuPont could buy them. DuPont told the city of Richmond that they would move somewhere else if they tried to take it in, as they did not want it when DuPont offered it. Would love to know who owned the lot and who it belonged too.
I know you are getting tired of me talking about Grandma, but she a beautiful person. Just a few more things before I get on another subject. After my daughter was born, Grandma took me and Nancy to Ashland to see the Caldwell's. They were some of the royalty, and Lucy Caldwell admired my little girl and then looked around and said someone get this child a cookie. She was just about two weeks old.
One of Grandmas brothers worked on the Panama Canal. He also dropped a hundred thousand dollars in the first depression. It was on the front page of the Petersburg VA newspaper.
Uncle Jim was on the Railroad and so many of the Spiers
Here is something different, Bernard Marks Poole Sr had little dog hunters. Well one day one of them disappeared and then the next days they had bad weather. Well Jack just knew something had happened to that little hunter.
So they waited and one dog here she came all fat and sassy. She had lived in a peanut field and ate those until she could come home. I remember Jack laughing about that. He is on page 23
Here I go again The Memorial Parade went past our house on the way to Hollywood to the big stones that each one was supposed to be a confederate veteran. Each year our house was cleaned from Asshole to Appetite. Because after the parade Mother served tea to our Grandmother and Mr Sublett who was the main speaker at the parade. The Confederate Veterans started out marching, then as the years passed they rode in a bus and there were few of them. If it were raining we sat on the poarch and wrapped in blankets watched. When it was over Grandmother and Mr Sublett came to how house for tea. Mr Sublett was the minister of St John's Episcopal Church.
The parade was long and it was usually hot or very cold as it was in May.
Another time at the parade for the Governors parade and it was cold and rainy but the parade went on just the same. Every high school that had a band marched in that parade. Of course John Marshall and Thomas Jefferson arch rivals marched. It got so bad the instruments froze in the peoples mouths and they had to beat them in the mouth to get the instruments out. We were all watching on the side lines down Franklin St. Imagine our surprise when the Thomas Jefferson Band and Cadettes got out of line and took cabs back to the school. John Marshall still marched and boy did we let TJ know about that for a long time. Them's were the good old days. Thanks for listening, Marian
My brother was five years older that me and he had a beautiful voice, and he could play the piano by ear. His wife played by note and you could tell the difference. One day Mother went downtown and us three girls use to be bored as we did not like classical music. So we would get out doors and yell fish, fresh fish. Well, I guess he took it as long as he could and when Mother came home there we sat all tied down in our chairs with mask on and he was quietly playing the piano. She did not say anything, she knew we deserved it.
The WPA during the depression would have concerts free of charge for everyone to enjoy, as no one had much money. Any way they would rehearse at the Mosque, and my brother would sneak in so he could listen to the music.
Mother used to tell me go find your brother, and I knew where he was so I would go up the ramp at the Mosque and stand in the door and yell, Junior Momma said to come home. It was dark in there and he would be down in the audience listening. Anyway I would run home and first thing I know here he came to eat. One way to do it.
He had a beautiful voice and he led the St Johns choir every Sunday. He was very little but he could sing. He said he was nine years old before he knew that the hymn was The cross I did bear. He thought it was about a cross eyed bear. Some time the hymn book would be up side down, but he could sing. He did not know the church he liked to he took mother to see and then she found out it was St Johns Church that grandmother went too. She said he used to come home with me in one hand and my diaper in the other where I had lost it.
Then he went to sing at All Saints, and he was up for winning the watch they gave the boys a watch the best boy. He did not win as one time his shoes were not polished. One day a lady came to the church and she wanted to draw the perfect choir boy. Well, she used my brothers hands and parts of other boys. The painting is hanging in the museum in Washington, DC. I hope its still there they change things so.
One time he saved my neck, a Teacher at John Marshall told me I did write a story about Superstition as it was far beyond my intelligence. I saw my brother in the hall and I called him. Junior and he came in and the teacher asked him about the paper. He told her he saw me over in the corner writing something last night. Then she had to believe me.
During the War they called him a string saver, because he saved all the string and paper people sent over there. But when they needed to send something home they knew where to come. Also they were gamblers and he did not gamble, sometimes he had two or three thousand on him where the others gambled and did no trust each other so they would give it to him to hold.
He sang at First Baptist where his wife attended. And at college he was in charge of the music that the choir sang from. You see you can do your work quietly and no one knows the difference but you know you have done some good.
One time the theaters gave all the children free movie tickets for the new Shirley Temple movie. It was down at the old Lowe's. Well a gang of us went and half way down there, Anne Mahone lost her ticket and she would not go home, but came along and crying. When we got there there were all the children in Richmond, it looked like and they all pushed in and Anne got to see the movie too. Another story I remember.
Here is some more on my brother, the children called him Journey. When I went to JM the first teachers would look at me and say Are you Lawrence's sister with a discus ting look on their face.
The teachers down there had been there since year one. Some of them taught my Aunt Florence, my Aunt Mary and my Aunt Kathryn and a lot of cousins, so the name Spiers was one that the teachers remembered. The funny part they had two classes, the X and the Y classes, so most of them were put in the Y classes, and to my surprise I was put in the X. Classes.
More fun.
My brother took papers, and every Saturday he had to take his money to a place in an alley to give to the District Manager that managed the boys.
Well, one day he came home and he was green looking and Mother wanted to know what had happened. He said some men had held the Station up, and he was just about to give the man his money and the robber told the Manager to give him a receipt for the money, he was not robbing the boys, just the News Leader.
One time when he was a little boy at Easter he was wearing a all white suit, after all he sung in the choir. Well we had been at Grandmas and Roberta was there from school in NC. Well, Mother told Lawrence not to get dirty as it cost so much to get that white suit cleaned. She let us stay a while longer as she had to do some shopping, and we could come home later. Well she had not gotten out of the door, and Aunt Roberta told Lawrence Jr to get her a scuttle of coal. We looked at each other, and he told Aunt Berta, did you not hear what Mother said. She looked at him and turned around and slapped him. Well we just looked at each other and got our coats and walked on home and were sitting on the porch when she got there. We told her what happened and she did not say anything.
In later years I heard Aunt Roberta say she was going to hell as what she tried to make Lawrence do. She could spank the students in NC but Mother had told her never to touch her children.
One time Virginia Norris and her two children lived up stairs at Grandma's. Dorothy was complaining about not having any one to play with, Grandma told her to go up the street there were some little girls that would play with her. Dorothy came back and she had a stick in one hand and in the other a brick, and she told Grandma that no one would play with her.
Ray was her brother, I have never seen him come in the front door and close it, he always left it open, until Uncle Conway would call from the living room and Ray would go in there and Uncle Conway would hit him on the head with his knuckle and the Ray would go out and close the front door and then go on upstairs. I don't think Ray over closed that door unless Uncle Conway flipped him with his knuckle. It happened every time.
Virginia had a brilliant mind, and she took a government exam and made no errors on it, and that is hard to do. One time Mother asked her how she roamed all over the world and no one bothered her, and she told Mother when someone would try to talk to her or get amorous she would either quote the Bible or throw up on them. And apparently it worked.
Grandma had little King's Barbara Ann, granddaughter that used to come over and stay, and at Grandmas you could look all you wanted to do but don't touch. Sometime your nose would be on the object but don't touch. Well, little Barbara Ann came in the room and she had one of the teen agers powder all over her head, and Grandma said have you been in there messing with that powder and she said No Mam, and it was piled up all over her head.
One time she used to get out of the front gate and Grandma used to have to look for her. So Grandma got a little switch and then she locked the front gate and took Barbara Ann on the outside and told her to get back in the same way she got out. Barbara Ann ran up and down the fence and then she found her little hole and ran back in. Grandma got Uncle Conway to plug the hole in and that was the end of Barbara Ann running away.
Lucy used to sing in the choir at Chruch and she sang a solo that I think Miss May Greener made up for her.
Wind through the olive trees, softly did blow, Round little Bethlehem, long long ago. Sheep on the hillside lay white as the snow, Angles watched over them long long ago. It is a beautiful song and I wonder is it in some song book or did Miss May Greener make it up for Lucy.
She used to keep Lucy and make her sing so she would be sure she knew it all. One day I noticed Lucy's veins on her neck, were sticking out, and I told Miss May Lucy has to go home. Miss May said no, no. I told her she had Lucy's veins sticking on her neck and she was going home. She did not argue with me.
Here's another one, Aunt Florence was studying nursing and she would come home each night. Well, I don't know how I got to be there, but I did not have my night gown on, Grandma put an old teddie on me and pinned it on both shoulders and that was my night grown. Well, Florence came in and she said I should not be sleeping with Poppa and Grandma, and so she took me up stairs to sleep in Mrs Richardson apartment as she had moved out. In the middle of the night she heard me moaning and groaning, so she went up there and pulled the sheets back and there I was and a lot of bed bugs all eating on me. She said Good Lord, and I had a bath and back I went down to Poppas and Grandmas bed and we all went back to sleep. The next day they burned the bed and springs from Mrs Richardson's apartment.
I remember it was cool and I could smell the tobacco burning from down the hill, and I kept backing and Grandma put her arm around me and I felt warm and went on back to sleep.
Pay day that was always a good day. We would ask Daddy if we could go and he'd look at us and say blow your nose, pull you britches up and come on.
In those days you had no elastic for your pants, and if you had no hips, the button on them would be loose and your pants always hung below your dresses. Well we would go and see the sights of the yard. Some of the men would give us pennies and dimes, and if we were lucky we would get a silver dollar. Helen put one in her mouth one time and one of the men fussed at her because he was afraid she would swallow it, and she has never forgotten that.
Some of the engineers would look at us and tell Daddy, Don't want no petticoats on my engine, they were that superstitious. It was always fun to go to get Daddy's paycheck. He would stop off at the bakery and get Mother a chocolate cake or some candy.
One time we were walking down town to see Miller & Rhoads window, that was a favorite passtime. and Mothers pants she felt slipping, so she stepped out of them right on the street and Daddy was right behind her and he picked them up and no one saw it happen. Funny how things like that we remember.
One time he went to see the National Stage Show, always on a Friday night and he came home early. He had sat in someone's seat that they had relived themselves in and he smelt so bad Mother made him undress out in the backyard and leave the clothes out there.
He always wanted to have chitlins, and Mother would not let them in the house, so he would get some and cook them in the backyard then eat them.
One time we had a rabbit for a pet, and she had little rabbits and Daddy made the mistake of going in the cage and picking them up and looking at them and she smelled him on them and she killed every one of them. So Daddy got rid of her, and Mother would ask us if we wanted some supper and we all said no. so Daddy enjoyed his meal, but not one of us would touch the delicious supper that night.
We did not have games like you all have, we would play jack rocks and hide & seek, and one of our pastimes was paper dolls. They came in magazines and Grandma got a magazine and in it were paper dolls. Well if you were over at Grandmas when it came in you put your name on it and after everyone got through reading it you would have it for the paperdolls. It was an honor system and all respected it.
One time we were at Aunt Eliz and Uncle Bills for thanksgiving, and have you ever had to sit at the second table. Let me tell you, that is one time you smelled and hoped. You had to stay outdoors if weather permitted and listen to the grown ups talk and laugh and enjoy their dinner, while your stomach growled. One time Halold I think it was, said there are 13 legs under this table, and John William said no 14 well, this went on for a while then Johnny started to counting and when he got to Uncle Conway he looked down and kept on eating. Well, Uncle Conway used to say, see what I have to put up with. That was the stuff we had to endure while we were quietly starving to death. Aunt Elizabeth kept a iron frying pan of cornbread on the back of the stove for the dogs, and if you were completely starving, you could get a piece of that to tide you over.
Well you want to know what we had when we did not have all these things that the children play with nowadays. Well, we had our brains, and we used them. My brother had his stamps, and his voice and he was five years older that us so he would not play with his little sisters.
We, Mother sent us to church activities three days a week, and twice on Sunday. She never went or Daddy, I guess that was their time to be together, and we played when we were not in school. I always was to blame, and so I used to say my twin sister did it and she would say one of these days I am going to catch that twin sister and do something terrible to her. I always got the blame, no matter what happened.
We had a gold fish, and of course he died, so we put on our church choir uniforms, and got the prayer book and took him out in the back yard and dug a hole and buried him. WE read out of the book and he got a proper burial. Well the next day we hankered after the pennies we put in the grave with him and so we went and dug him up. A cat must have seen us and she ate the fish because he was not there, but our pennies were so you could get a lot of candy with just a penny, so we enjoyed them.
Mr Johanna our harms used to laugh at us. We would debate about what candy we wanted, then go our side and sit on the curb and divide it up. We always saved a fourth for our brother and sticky hands took it home to him.
We played jacks and if you put your jacks together you could play with 24 of them. Imagine little hands with all those jacks.
One day we dug holes in the ground and we would crawl from one hole to another, Mother went out one night to get the clothes off the line and she fell in a hole, so us three girls were in the back yard in the dark covering up the holes. We learned not to do that again.
We were playing mountain climbing and we got a rope and pulled Lucy who was the lightest up to the second floor. Mother came out of the house and saw us, She said she held her breathe until we got her up the house and in the window, and she came after us. No more mountain climbing.
Mother used to look at me and say I don't know where you came from you are not like a single one of us.
Aunt Roberta used to look at us and say Lucy's children have the squiest voices I have ever heard, and she was a teacher. So every time we got around her, we would talk with a growl in out throats.
We had plenty to do besides work, we would keep busy with thinking of something to do.
Mother used to make us eat oatmeal for breakfast and she had four bowls that had pictures in the bottom, the trick was to eat your oatmeal and see what picture you had. She would give us cod liver oil. I can see the bottle now, it had a picture of a man in oilsters on and he was holding a big fish. Same spoon but that cod liver oil went down, nasty stuff. She would wash us each night sitting on the kitchen table, and same rag, same towel, but we got washed each night. If the weather was cold, we had a canning bottle she would fill with hot water wrap a towel around it and we would put it in the bed and put our feet on it and keep warm. The only room in the house that was heated was the dining room and we lived it that until spring. The kitchen was opened when someone went in to cook. The front door was never locked, you trusted everyone, and you went in the back door when it was New Years, because you did not go in the front door. I was especially bad luck as I was a blonde.
So you see we had plenty to do, we used our brains. I think that is why Mother sent me to see Grandmother so much which I dearly loved.
One time Helen and I wanted something to do. Our children were in school so that left us with about 6 hours and so we would take our relatives somewhere they wanted to go and did not have a car.
One time we went over to Stoney Creek and took Aunt Janie to the Dr's in Petersburg. Well we got there and it was an eye Dr and he said he wanted to see her glasses and she pulled about 6 pair our of her purse, and he just looked at them. He said I think we can do something about this. Anyway when she was registering we heard her say No I don't believe in Medicare and did not register for it. Well, when we got back home, I called Robert Jarratt and told him as I understood he had charge of her affairs. He was surprised and so the next day he got her registered, about 4 months later she had a stroke and it was a blessing he had registered her.
She was in a nursing home, and she said the President had come over to see her, and we looked at the nurse, and she said she had been watching TV and the President was on it. So Aunt Janie said the President had come to see her. One time at the Hermitage where she was last, I went to see her Aunt Elizabeth and Aunt Roberta and Aunt Janie were all there. I asked to see her and the nurse said I will take you but she won't recognize you. So we went and Aunt Janie looked up from the bed and said Hello Marian and the nurse left, I was the one person she had recognized for months. What a strange world this is. Thanks for listening Marian
Boy we have had really a snow. Its light and airy and cold. Am thankful I don't have to go out in it. My children are in Wilmington with their children, hope they get back safe and sound. They said NC got it bad this time.
Remember Uncle Tom I don't know if he was a Brown or Ambrose, but he was always at Aunt Eliza and Uncle Bills. Nice old man. They tell the tale that his brother was in the Civil War and he was in Norfolk and he got sick, so Uncle Tom went down there and the brother came home and Uncle Tom stayed in the Army for him until he got well then the brother went back to the Army in Norfolk and Uncle Tom came back home. Hope someone remember is also.
Have you ever been to Hollywood, I do not mean Calif, I mean Hollywood Cemetery. Its a beautiful place, John William Brown was the head honcho there for years. He is buried there also.
When we were children Mother used to take us there and we would spend the afternoon expending our energy, just running and looking around. Some people would have picnics at their grave site long time ago. There was one Chinese grave there and we used to go by to see that one, as someone left a bowl of rice there, I guess for the departed to have something to eat.
One dear lady she was beautiful and she had a snake near her hand a statue.
There was a lot of famous people there. One time we brought Mother a hip bone that had come up to the ground, and she told us to take it back where we found it. We used to watch the children skinny dip in the James River, and we were always warned not to swim in the James, too many whirl pools and so we did not go near the River, now all use it and go swimming any time they feel like it.
We would watch the RailRoad and the trains that ran up and down the tracts.
You could hide behind the grave stones, good place to play hide and seek.
After I was grown I went down and John William let me go through his file cards and I found a lot of Howard's and Car dwells for my genealogy. Lovely place and its so quiet and so famous. Try it sometime, you will like it.
How come I know all these people and no one else does. Is this family not close, I thought they were. Frances wants to know about her mother Florence. Well, we called Aunt Flo as there were too many Florences and that is comfusing. Well, she lived with Grandma when she was born at Vaughan, NC and studied to be a nurse when she lived at 24 S. Cherry St and then moved over to 415 N 23ST when they all moved there. They had to get a telephone, the only one on the block no one else had one, because Aunt Flo was a nurse and they would call her in often. One of the Drs at MCV said he would like to kiss her, as she was so pretty so she walked to the window and pulled the shade up and said go ahead. That dampened his audor and she was not embarrased. Anyway she met Jimmy Osborne when one of the boys bought him home with the reserves that they had in those days. They had drills just like regular army only they were home boys. I know what you call them but can't remember. Oh well, at 86 I am lucky to remember what what I do. Anyway he courted Aunt Flo and asked her to marry him. She consented and just before they were to get married he told her he had another family and he was a divorcee . Well that upset everyone, but Gandma said go ahead maybe this will be learning experience for the both of you. Florence bought a house on Forest Hill Ave and as far as I know they lived there. She had one little baby but he was born and died very soon after, then he had Frances and she was a beautiful child. Mrs Richardson, Jimmy's mother used to get Frances every week end as Flo worked and her daughter would come over her bring her beautiful little clothes and dress her and take her home to their house for the week end. Frances was so beautiful and she was dressed to spend with her other Grandma. When they came back home she would undress her put her old clothes on her and take the other ones back home to be used another day. To each his own.
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