Welcome to the Siler Family Blog

A discussion of the lastest happenings with the Silers, but also a place to exchange memories, stories, pictures, recipes, and other sorts of Southwest Virginia propoganda!

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Sara

Thank you for that info on Grandpa and Grandma. There is so much I do not know about them. Especially her.
Love you.
Mary Catherine

5 comments:

Chris said...

I agree with you Mary Catherine. I know very little about Grandma Siler.

sara said...

Chris and Mary C.,
Somethings about mama.She was born Aug. 31, 1906. She was raised in Rustburg,Va. She only had Polly as a sibling. But she also had foster sister Katie Smoot. I understand there had been a brother who died as a very young child. Mama had a crazy laugh. And she never called daddy anything but "daddy". Rarely by his name. She had the patience of Job, especially with Billy. Every summer she used to say, "if you kids don't hurry up and go back to school, I am going to have a nervous breakdown." She never did though. Mama was short maybe under 5', but she never missed with that flyswatter. HA Of course you know, she died of colon cancer in April 1971 when Chris was 5 months old. Some one else can add more if they want.

Pat (Anderson) Siler said...

Sara,

I remember your mother's laugh. It was contagious and her face would light up.

She LOVED ice cream! I remember sitting in her kitchen on a hot summer night with her, eating huge bowls of warm blackberry cobbler and vanilla ice cream.

She always treated me like a daughter, not a daughter-in-law. I miss her still.

sara said...

Pat,
Thanks! mama and daddy did love that ice cream that's for sure. I think it must have been a generational thing. I know other really older people who do. You know, mamawas not the "best" cook in the world. I think she just got tired of cooking. She could make good blackberry cobbler-yum. She used to send us down to the road to pick those darn berries in the summer. There would snake skins hanging in the vines where they had shed. It would scare the poop out of me. Betty and I were really young and of course, Billy and Dewey would scare us with them.

sara said...

Mary C.
Some more things about mama. She only went to the 8th grade. That was as far as she could go I think in public school at the time. I'm not sure how far daddy went but he went into the navy at 15 so probably not too far. Isn't it just amazing they were both sort of self educated. There's really no excuse for kids to drop out of school these days. Those were the hard times, then. Mama worked, as far as I know, at the shoe factory until she met and married daddy. She was 21 then I think. No telling how many years Polly worked at the shoe factory. I suppose it was the same factory. She might have gone to others I don't know.

I hate being the only one posting things but I have time today. Seems like I am the posting hog. The kids won't be here until 5:30 or 6:00 and then I go home.

If I think of anymore mama stuff I will put it on here later.