A'nother Tale the "Hill Talkin" Way..

Well yep, yep I do believe I woke up dreamin about my 'maginary family. I tell you I shook my head and the nuts just commenced to fallin from the family tree.

Here is Henrietta Elizabeth and she was my Mama an you kin tell by the jaunty tip of her very handsome hat that she was a no nosense kind of gal. She was a sport some said. But a tenderhearted soul and she was never seen without a freshly ironed hankie in her pocket, whether she was wearing her navy blazer or an apron. Boy I shore miss my mama and what I'd give to be makin bisquits with her again. Hot, flaky and big as Texas was mama's bisquits and let me tell you there weren't nothin better than one of them covered with the rich sorghum we always had a stock of. Mama was the creative one in the family and there weren't nothin she couldn't do with the make-do's. Some said she was the Queen of Makin-Do. Boy I miss her poor ole Mamma.



Mama's sister Lucalean Elnora the town librarian was a quiet but well read woman. She was a couple of years older than Mama and never married. People whispered about Auntie Lucy and how she had a hurt so big that she never wanted to be with a man because of the one who broke her heart. He made her take to the drink. All we ever knowed about him was that he was slick and fast talking and a handsome man who could charm the shirt off your back. He was from California and he wuz named Richard but some knowed him by Dick. Mamma called him Tricky Dicky and he was a book seller which was how they had met. And like all my folks said he was here today and gone tomorrow. Don't she just have a sad look about her little face. Poor ole Auntie Lu.



Ha ha I get tickled when I see this one. This was my ma's ma who was named Edreth Ruthalean but we just called her Grannie. Here you can see she had put Granpaw and his twin brother in the "Dog House". G.Paw's name was Orlean Hinkle and his brother was Arlean Hankle but we just called him Unk. I can promise you them boys deserved being shut up in that dog house. G.Paw was famous for making little snide remarks about Grannie and she'd bristle up and whop him usually. Being the smart aleky type he was he probably whispered something to Unk about Grannie havin thick ankles or something mean like that and you know that ain't somethin you say about your wife. Especially one as stylish and attractive as Grannie was. Ha. Yuk it up you old coots! Hit were a downright shame of Grannie havin to mess with sorriness such as that. Poor ole Grannie.



Oh now this is what I call a good family portrait. I think it must have been professional made by one of them who goes around and shoots the whole family at once for a fee. This was The Orfandorffers which was my Grandpaw and Unk's family. Thats my Great Grannie Gretta Yvonne (pronounced with a "Y") and Great Grandpa Louis Adolphus with their growing brood, starting with growed up son Bernie and his gal Evaleen Katrina and the youngins Irving, Thomas, Orlean, Arlean, and baby girl who we called Purty Rachelean. This was their house in Kansas and was the home place for my G.Paw which he was always treking Grannie to see with him. She hated them treks out in the middle of no wheres. Grannie said hit were God forsaken. Rekon she knowed alright. Poor ole Grannie.



Oooooooooooh now this was one fine and handsome man. Distinguished I'd say he was. He was my Mama's grandfather Mister Horace Eugene Moore and Mama said everbody just always called him "Mister". Some just said "Sir". Mama called him Grandfather. She said Mister never spoke a harsh word about a soul and had no ill will in him for anybody. He was a clean man and washed his whole body everday with a genuine get down into the water all the way bath which was unheard of in them days for anyone to use that much water just on cleaning. But Mister wanted to be clean all the way. Not just in his thoughts. And he was one what knew things most folks did not know about. Like doing numbers and fancy writing. He read books ever waking moment. Big, thick ones. Well you can tell by the way I'm going on and on that Mister would have been someone I would have dearly loved as did my Mamma if I had had the pleasure of being born in a time to know him. But I feel like I know him from just looking upon him in pictures. Kindly ole Grandfather led a life filled with broken dreams though because of a woman that we all called Mammy. She was a mean little thing and didn't know how to appreciate or love a good man when she had one. I miss knowin Grandfather an all his fine ways. Poor ole Mister.



This sorry coot was named Rudy Glendonald and folks say he was sorry as the day was long. He was a pal of my Mamma's brother, little Willie Charles and he had long before been throwed out of his own folks home an couldn't get no woman to put up with him so he had took up with Willie Charles who being young and wild in his own ways and a slick charmer anyway drew dogs like Rudy Gd. like flies stick to honey. Ever where you saw Willie Charles you could bet yore life that Rudy Glendonald weren't far behind. And what one didn't think of doin the other one did. My mamma wouldn't turn her back on either one of them when they was around. She was a funny gal and she called him "fat arse" when he was out of earshot. Mamma was a corker I tell you. Don't he just have that shifty stick it to you look about him? Mamma earned ever one of her white hairs havin to put up with the likes of them two. Poor ole Mamma.



Now how sweet is this little gal. This is my Mamma's sister Bertha Suelean and we all called her Auntie Bertie but we only called her that when we looked upon her in picture because she didn't live to be any older than what you see right here. Mama called her Sis Bertie and she never even said that more than a very few times because to talk about her brought on fits of twitching and silence in Mamma and we couldn't bear for Mamma to go to them dark places in her soul. Auntie Bertie had took sick after dinner one Sunday and the chills and rigors set her little body aflame with fevers. Her little sad eyes rolled back, way back into her head and she never even spoke after they had took her up to her bed. Mamma's chores on Sunday morning was just getting the youngins ready for church and Auntie Berties was to help Grannie in the kitchen with the startin of the after church dinner and she had gone out to pick a fine mess of greens and had gotten a right smart amount of poke salad greens and without Grannie a'knowin what she'd done they had gone in the same pot with the mustards and collards and as anybody will tell you poke salad greens is done alltogether different and Auntie Bertie stirrin an tastin whilst it were cookin made herself sicker n a mule an went to pukin and before a body knowed it, she were plumb keeled over in the grips of pains an Mamma knowed at a glance she had taken to poisioning herself an there you have it. Poor ole Mamma to lose her sweet little friend and sissy like that. Poor ole Grannie to bury a youngin. "Jesus loves the little children all the little children of the world". We hum this church tune when we think upon Auntie Bertie an it gives us a mite of comfort. Poor lil Sis Bertie.



Well girls I guess that'l be all for right now and I hope you got yourselves a chuckle or two from my scrapbook of looneykin. I reckon I'm all outta tales fer one day. As they say, Poor ole mizmollye.

*****************DISCLAIMER*********************

Just wanted to make clear here to everybody that uhhhhhhhhhhhh you DO know that these are VINTAGE IMAGES and NOT my real ancestors. Right? AND that the tales I weave are just that. Right? Ok... I just feel the need from time to time to clarify for new readers that this is my Alter Ego speaking and NOT mizmollye. tee hee