memories of Papa and Mama Price

This is Jessee Alfred (Papa Price) and Mary Ellen Westbrook (Mama Price), they are my Daddy's parents. The picture on the left is my favorite picture of Papa. He loved to sit on the front porch in his rocking chair and watch the people and cars go by for hours on end. I loved going over to their house when I was little but it got pretty boring when I got older.

the picture on the right is of Papa and Mama Price. He died when I was 12. I remember going over to their house frequently and the grown ups sitting on the front porch and visiting. There was a porch swing to the right on the porch that was all of the kids favorite.

Papa was a simple man. He had worked hard and raised a large family of 9 kids on a farm. There was 7 boys and 2 girls, my Daddy was number 5. My Daddy really loved his daddy. He said he was strict and believed in the belt but was fair.

When we would visit, my mother would fuss about us girls always getting our clothes dirty. He would tell her " Lucille, don't go fussing at those girls, a little dirt in their craw wont hurt them." I don't think my mother appreciated the advice but I sure did. I loved playing outside and the harder we played the dirtier we got.

Mama Price would make us butter and sugar sandwiches. Sounds gross now but we loved them. I am sure we got sugar all over the place. My mother would lecture us before we would go over to their house and tell us not to ask for anything. As we were all sitting on the front porch, we would watch Mama Price and if she went into the house, we would follow her. It is like this, if you mother can't see you it is OK to ask. Once we had the sandwiches Mother couldn't say much. We knew we would get in trouble when we got home but it was worth it.

There was a huge pecan tree in the front yard. Us kids would pick up the pecans and take them in the house and crack and shell them. Papa had an old cracker that clamped on the end of the table and then you would turn the handle and it would screw down on the pecan and crack it. It took a lot of pecans to make a pecan pie because we usually ate as we shelled. Mama Price could make a mean pecan pie.

Mama Price kept peppermint candy, not my favorite but what the heck, back then candy was candy.

She kept salamie lunch meat, the kind with the peppers in it. I really didn't like it but back then you never complained about what you were given to eat. I always picked out the peppers, yuk. I still do not like salamie but it reminds of her.

We thought the lady who lived next door was really mean. She didn't want us anywhere near her yard. She kept a canary in a cage on her back porch. We always thought it was odd that such a mean old lady had such a pretty sweet sounding bird.

We walked around the neighborhood alot and collected empty soft drink bottles. When we found enough, we would take them to the little local store and cash them in and buy a candy bar or a soft drink. We would punch a hole in cap of the drink with an ice pick and shake it up and make it fizz and try to squirt each other. It was great fun.

There was no TV then. We played all kinds of games outside most of the time. We played monopoly alot. We could keep a game going forever.

Mama Price was good to us in her own way. She had worked hard all of her life and playing was not something she did much. We still liked going over to her house. After Papa died my sister and I went over there frequently and spent alot of our summers at her house so she wouldn't be alone.

It is amazing how many memories there are of that old front porch. There are so many things that trigger thoughts of those times, front porches, rocking chairs, porch swings, monopoly, pecans, old pop bottles, peppermint, canaries, and even salamie.