My Grandmother...Bless her Soul!

Gonna write some blogs about my grandmother on my daddy's side. Here we go with one. Listen, the woman was very, very short and you better believe she spelled Southern culture with a big "C" and she was full of energy and lots of fun. I had no brothers and no sisters, cause I was one of those "poor things" in other words I was known as what the old folks called an "only child." In the summertime I went to visit my tiny grandmother a whole lot down in that old house in my home town of Cairo, Georgia which is believe me way down there in the southwest part of my state of Georgia. When I would walk from my daddy's store and go to visit the feisty old lady I suppose I was about 10 or 11. We'd sit out there on the old front porch just sweating like old pigs or hogs out there in that roughhouse scalding hot Southwest Georgia sun. The heat would just about slice a soul up cause it was rough as bloody crap. But I loved it because my grandmother would tell me old stories about how she ran off at the young age of 16 and married the thin man known as Thomas William White Sr. She told me wild stories about the crazy winter of 1899 when it was maddening and eerily cold for a town so deep down in the Georgia countryside. My grandmother on my daddy's side was a big believer in God and good gospel music. She'd get me to sing even when I was a little kid...and singing one of her favorite hymns...'The Old Rugged Cross' always made me smile. I realize now that I am a crusty veteran of many life experiences that I learned a lot sitting there on that wild hot front porch there in Cairo, Georgia. Lord,I figure I got swimming strong in such a deep tasty recipe of true Southern culture I was probably overwhelmed. Lots of times now the memories of my passionate grandmother well up in me when I get to thinking about this tiny woman who raised six big strong sons....well these kinds of memories are powerful indeed!

Some Cairo, Georgia Christmas Memories

Christmas is coming on us fast. When I was growing up in Cairo in Southwest, Georgia my dad and mama were in the jewelry business (later my dad went into antique furniture and full blast into picture framing.) I especially remember the times at the little jewelry store in Cairo. The folks coming in were all so real, indeed there was nothing artificial or contrived about their personalities. It was invigorating to me and my parents, the wonderful Christmas season. Many Christmas Eves my folks would keep the store open even to Midnight to help the people who wanted to come and shop at the last minute. And even though we were tired we would go home and mama would make us a great snack and then she would take us into our cozy living room and play grand Christmas songs on the old piano she and daddy bought back in 1940. Two of her favorites were, 'It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas' and 'God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen.' I will always cherish the wonderful memories of Christmas with my sweet mama and my daddy. Grand memorable times, indeed.
One time when I was about eight one of my daddy's friends came by extremely late on Christmas Eve to bring the little boy (me) a bike. I hollered something like. "What's That Noise Out There?" and my daddy said something like "Hush. I think it might be Santa Claus Out There!" Then Mama kind of ushered me into the other part of the house so the Santa bit could take place. I will never forget those tender Christmas times there in the town known as Cairo deep in the Southwest Portion of the Magnificent State of Georgia. The Lord bless all of us with Christmas memories of our mamas and what we in Southwest Georgia called our Papas. indeed our 'Big Papas' as we said. May God Bless all our Mamas and Daddys in this unusual year of 2009 during the magic cultural American experience that is Christmas time!