Snippets of Memories

I mentioned in a previous entry that big brother Paul figured in a lot of my earliest memories. I have a few bits and pieces of memories that don’t make up a whole incident. One of them was walking in the little bit of woods that we had on our property with Paul, Laurie, and Middy. I remember whining to Paul that I wanted to be carried. Apparently he had carried me quite a bit already, and was weary of it, and he refused to carry me any more. That’s all I remember of that incident. On another outing, we three girls with Paul, we were in the old Glenn Riggs property, and I fell in the run. That was a little more significant, because when we got back home, Mom was surprised that I had gone out, and laid down the law about it – because I had the measles at the time.


Another memory I have involved big sister Lois instead of Paul. A little background of this – which I don’t remember, but Lois related it to me later: when my little sister Lily was born, Lois was in one of the bedrooms upstairs, keeping an eye on the younger kids, while Mom was in a room downstairs, that had been temporarily converted to a bedroom, having the baby with a midwife in attendance. Lois said, “Well, that’ll be another little stinkpot to take care of.” Later on, at one point, I was heard to have said of Lily, “She’s a little stinkpot.” Mom related this later as an indication that I was jealous of Lily. Well, I may or may not have been jealous, but I don’t think that was my reason for saying that. In fact, when Mom related it, I told her, “I got that from Lois!” Mom kinda brushed that off, opining that no matter what, it indicated jealousy. Hey, I thought that was what she really was! After all, Lois called her that. And clearer memory comes in here – I was playing on the floor in the dining room, and Lois was sitting in the rocking chair, rocking the baby, singing to her. One of the “common” lullabies in our house was “Little birdie in a tree, in a tree, in a tree, little birdie in a tree, sing a song to me.” Only instead, Lois was singing “Little stinkpot in a tree . . .”


Lois said she could have told Mom that she was the initiator of the nickname when I protested that I got it from her, but she said she never would. She preferred to save her own hide in those days. After all, I was no more than a baby myself then and much could be overlooked, but she was a big girl (about 13), and responsible for her actions! I was 2 when Lily was born.

(Originally posted August 28, 2007)