I'm actually not sure why we called it Aunt Joe's house because she lived with almost all her living siblings and it was their house too. Their surname was Humphries, but at the time I only knew them as Aunt Vertie, Aunt Ed, Uncle Byard (pronounced Bear-ed), and Uncle George.
My grandmother, Mama's Mama, lived with them too at times after my grandfather died. When I was 11 months old, Grandma died there one day while hanging clothes on the line, I am told. They said she told them she felt poorly that morning and wanted to finish the washing so she could rest.
Aunt Joe's house was always full of people and good food. I only ever remember Aunt Joe in the kitchen or on the porch. She was always busy cooking on the old wood cook stove. The food she cooked was delicious and plentiful.
Aunt Vertie was in a wheel chair. I'm not sure if they ever told me why, but I remember pushing her back and forth on the big porch. Mama would fuss that I was going to push her off the porch, but I was careful and never did. Aunt Vertie liked for me to push her chair for her.
Aunt Ed milked the cows. I think her real name was Edna, but we always called her Aunt Ed. She taught me how to milk a cow when I was too little for my feet to reach the ground from the three-legged milking stool. The cow would swish its tail and knock me off the stool, but Aunt Ed told me it was important to get right back on the stool and try again, so I did.
Aunt Ed was not the type of woman you'd want to cross. She was stern and I took her word as law.
Aunt Ed always wore an old-timey cotton bonnet when she went outside, which was often, as she took care of pretty much all the barn animals and probably the garden too, and needed the bonnet to keep the sun off her skin. I can still see her in my mind's eye.
Uncle George fed the chickens and taught me how to rub the kernels off the dried corn cobs to feed them. We'd sit on the porch and talk as we worked. He made each of the nieces, nephews, great-nieces, and great-nephews feel like they were very special. Everyone loved Uncle George. He just had a way about him. Animals loved him too and he loved them. Uncle George had pet ducks that would climb in his lap to sit and they would follow him around like dogs! They loved to untie his shoes. He's just let them. He loved them.
Yes, I loved Uncle George, but Uncle Byard was my favorite, I think. He was very sick from the time I was extremely small. I mainly remember him in the bed too sick to get up. He would beg me for candy. I used to save up the money people gave me in Daddy's store and buy penny candy to sneak to Uncle Byard. I loved him so and may never get over losing him nor all the others. They were like having a whole houseful of Grandparents to visit of a Sunday.
They lived in North Carolina. Their house was way down a dirt road in the country, as they lived on a farm. You probably already figured that out. The house never had seen a lick of paint, but it was somehow inviting all the same. There were flowers and fruit trees in the yard and a barn, a smoke house, outhouses and other out-buildings scattered around.
Every building was covered with lightening rods as one of the Great or Great-Great Uncles was struck by lightening and killed in his yard. The fear of lightening ran rabid in the family after that.
There was no electricity there when I was really small, but they did get electricity and indoor plumbing before they all passed away. They were lucky enough to have their porch extend to their well, so they never had to carry water in the rain. They were proud of that.
I remember there was no little room in the house for a bathroom, so they just put the toilet in the corner of the bedroom! It just felt wrong to use it in that big wide open room, but when nature calls....
They had an old cabinet Victrola that the cousins and I would play sometimes in the living room. You wound it up and turned the needle down on the record to hear the music. It was a tall piece of furniture. I thought it was beautiful.
I thought everything about that farm was wonderful. It was the most magical place on Earth back in the mid-1950s when I was real little.
Aunt Ed and Uncle Byard passed away in 1957. Aunt Joe and Aunt Vertie followed in 1961. Uncle George in 1965.
These people were loves of my life in my early childhood. Gone too soon. There were others too, like their brother, Uncle Void and his wife, Aunt Alt, who lived nearby, but those are stories for another day.
Today I'm thinking of how much I miss them. They all lie here:
in their beloved church's cemetery. They are surrounded by generations of people who knew and loved them. May they rest in peace...until we meet again.
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