My Other Passion - My Family

I grew up with one brother 5 years younger. For years I was my father's shadow. I loved to go with him to the fields, fishing, hunting, to town, where ever he went. I didn't enjoy housework, but was always willing to clean from top to bottom before my date arrived when I was older. We had a large living/dining room with vinyl tile flooring. I mopped it weekly and then on my hands and knees waxed it. None of this pour on wax and apply with a mop. Nope it was paste floor wax applied by hand.

I loved playing with dolls and my brother was my first live doll. As I got older my Aunts and Uncles provided me many to play with when we visited or they came to see us. Mother's brothers Uncle Joe and Uncle Chink each had 4, all younger. Her other brothers and sister had children older than I.

I married just a few months shy of 16 and had my first child in November, just after I was 17 in July. I was thrilled I now had my own live doll. He was a good baby, we were living in New Jersey as his father was in the service and stationed there. He was born the day after Thanksgiving. He was transferred to Virginia and then discharged after serving 2 years. We moved back home to Texas where he resumed his government job that he left when drafted into the Army.

We had 3 more children, daughter, son, daughter and I enjoyed being a mother and homemaker. I worked some but was mostly a stay at home Mom until my last child was born and I too was hired to work at Kelly AFB in San Antonio.

I loved to sew and made many if not most of the clothes my children wore, most of mine and all of my mothers. As children grew and we could we'd travel with their dad to places he was going to work. We'd do things in the evenings and on weekends. We had a 1957 Chevy we bought brand new. He always said I could pack more in that car and still have room for us and the kidoes than most could pack in a pickup.

We enjoyed fishing and going to the coast and camping. Later we got a boat and would go fishing every chance we got. Since we lived about 150 miles from the coast we'd go down after work on Friday and back on Sunday eve. The Texas gulf coast has many nice places to fish. I felt as I was partially raised there from the time I spent there with my father.

My grandmother lived between Fulton and Rockport on the Texas Gulf Coast. I spent many weekends there fishing with my father and brother every chance he got. For some reason he would never get in a boat to fish. He always waded, fished from the piers or the rock jetties.

You have to know that my father had an obsessional fear of calamity. His fears were to the point we couldn't ride a Ferris Wheell - it might fall, when I flew to be with James in New Jersey, the plane might crash, etc. In fact when we went to get the ticket he did his best to convince me to take the train - or the bus. Learning that they both took a number of days and nights to get there, plus food, and no place to sleep he relented and I flew. Mother said his mother was always very fearful of injury or calamity. There were 6 children born to John Lisha and Lina Frances Henry Hearn, 3 boys, 3 girls. Only one daughter still lived. Her oldest daughter died shortly after the birth of her daughter. Her second daughter died before she turned two. I'm told she died after putting a flower (crowpoision) in her mouth or chewing on it. Uncle Julious who was older at the time said she starved to death. And this might have been the result of the poison in that she couldn't keep food on her stomach. This was some 60 years ago and the medical knowlege wasn't all that great then.

I seem when I talk about family to bounce from one point in time to another. When talking about one I remember another. So you will find that this is much that way. Thoughts of my life and my family as I think of them.

Someone taught Daddy to make fishing rods. He made several and today none are left that I know of. He ordered special cane poles, bought ferrels and special threads and varnish to wrap and attach the ferrels and the varnish to finish it. When James was stationed in NJ, we were a short walking distance from the ocean, and he loved to fish. Daddy made a wooden box to ship the cane fishing rod Daddy had made him to NJ. When we left we had no way to take it and James gave it to our landlord Joe Fierro.

They were great landlords. Joe and Mary were Italian and she was an excellant cook. She was also superstitious and would not let me turn down food for fear my baby would be marked. They planted their entire back yard in garden. She fired squash blossoms and they are good. Joe made wine and had a large (Karo Syrup bottle of wine with his evening meals). When they bought the house there were two barrels of wine in the cellar and I think he added a barrel or so each year. I didn't drink and never went down in the cellar.

I am so very proud of my family, they are all doing well, have good families and are doing great. They have given me 11 fantastic grandchildren who in turn are supplying continuing generations of great grandchildren. My Dad was a great and fantastic Grandfather (PawPaw) and loved his grandchildren deeply. Anytime James and I wanted to go out, he was always there ready and willing to babysit. No matter how tired he was, nor how bad he felt, he never told us no. If Mother implied she didn't feel like it or that he was to tired, he'd say "hush Marie they are no trouble." and she say "ok".

My children were lucky to have doting grandparents - not all childlren are as lucky. I had one grandparent and one step granddad. My Mother's Dad was alive but lived so far away we seldom saw him, and I really never knew him. Daddy's mother and daddy died before I was born.