mother stories

No apologies here. I am working on a memoir and want some input. I am beginning a section of stories from my mother's family . Let me know what you think This is just one aspect of the tales I heard growing up there will be others.

My mother’s side of my family was full of stories. If two of the group got together the tales began and a rich family history was instilled into the younger members who sat around listening. We would moan not that one again but we would listen and then they became part of us. As a girl the “courting ones took my souls and several are still part of my romantic spirit.

Aunt Lizzie was Grandma Janie’s sister whom I remember for her candy making skills. Fondant eggs, chocolate bunnies. Fudge in all flavors especially one called penuche came from her kitchen along with tons of loves for family. But that same family gave her problems when John McClellan came courting. Lizzie was never one to get dressed up unless there was a specific have to event coming up. So Janie and Frank used to delay telling her that John was coming over, and he would arrive to find her hair in disarray and her dress one of the oldest she owned. She would get flustered and run to change while he along with my grandparents giggled. Now his courting was a big thing to her as she was as they used to say” on the shelf” or not a flighty teen but well into her late twenties when he started to call.

How he stuck it out was a wonder to the entire family as he was tricked as well as Lizzie. As this was in the early 1900s most of the wooing was conducted in the parlor with family nearby, and my grandmother was neat freak so he would remove his over boots before coming into the house on rainy or wintery days. Often during the winter my aunts and uncles would fill his boots with water and if he stayed too long they were blocks of ice when he went to leave. Still undeterred he kept at it until they married perhaps so he could have wearable boots in the winter.

Not long after that Mom’s oldest sister Mary became of age and the boys began to call. Mary was not particularly interested in settling down as she was the oldest child of a large family and number nine had yet to arrive. Charles Doge however had set his eye on her and the young engineer was determined. He put up with taking all the little kids out to ice cream with them or bringing with him so they could eat it in the dining room as he plead his case in the parlor. He even kept at when two of the younger siblings hid behind the couch to see what Mary and Charlie were doing in the parlor only to be discovered when they missed the ice cream treat. All in all the decision to marry was made in part when J.V. sibling number was a newborn and a lady at the country store was overheard by Mary saying,” that oldest Shubert girl must have had that baby as Jane is too old for a new little one.”

My uncles handled their courting days in different ways too. The most interesting was Tony. He had always been a little more daring in his life than his siblings' lifestyles and worked away from home. One day he showed up with a young lady and spent the day. Night came on and it was obvious they planned on spending the night. Grandma Janie started to put Bertha up in the girl’s side( males slept on one end of the hall even grandpa; Girl on the other with grandma) when Tony said” She ‘s my wife. We have been married a year so we can sleep together.” Janie snapped “ not in my house” and marched Bertha to girls’ hall. This sleeping arrangement by the way once we cousins were old enough to understand had us guessing ow nine children were the result when they slept apart. Myself, I always wondered about the large linen closet.