Right after Mamma died, My Cousin Lee Herrington's wife,Dot. asked me if I knew anything about her family as she was doing Lee's genealogy. I did have a few names and dates which I sent to her. She was so thrilled that she managed to get me interested. Since that time I have been completely absorbed with the family tree and have spent hundreds of hours on research. I feel that I have accomplished a great deal and enjoyed it all immensely. Eddie always worried that I would be lost when the kids were gone because they were my only hobby. There has never been such a problem! Even Eddie is interested and I have done a lot on his family. Eddie,Jr. and Carolyn are also interested. What makes me happiest of all is my older grandson, Chris, saying," Hey Gran. Have you done any more on the tree"? Since I helped him with a genealogy project in high school he is also "hooked". He got A+++ on that project.

Editor's note: The following is a letter written to me, Chris, from Gran when I had an assignment in a third grade class to write about what it was like 50 years ago. The teacher suggested we ask our grandparents.

December 1978

Dear Chris,

We are so pleased that uou have such an interesting assignment in your social studies. Projects like this help to bring history alive to you. I have always loved history and geography as you know.

50 years ago Calvin Coolidge was president of the United States. 1928! I lived in a little town in East Texas called Palestine. The roads were red dirt and very dusty. I was 10 years old and in the fourth grade at Lamar School. We had the third grade on one side of the room and the fourth grade on the other side. Our room was on the second floor. Outside of one window was a long sliding board that was used in case of fire. We all loved it when we had fire drills. We always walked to school. It wasn't far though. My father was a doctor and he had a 1928 Ford - "tin lizzie!" He loved baseball and sometimes he would pick me up at school and take me to a game.

We had a tree house, something like you and Scott have but our's was in a persimmon tree.

I can't remember how long our school day was but I remember having recess and was happy to hear the bell ring at the end of the day so that I could get home to play. I always liked school and tried to do my best. I guess you would say I was an average student.

I was what they called "a tom-boy". I preferred playing with boys.

At Christmas we would go to Dallas to visit my grandparents and other relatives. One year we started out in the rain and before we got very far the dirt roads had turned to mud and we got stuck. We had to go back to Palestine and all we had for Christmas was sausage. Many things were quite primitive in Texas in those days. We had to be careful of rattle-snakes and scorpions. One time I sat on a large log and, when i got up, my mother saw a large rattle-snake coiled right next to the log.

I can't remember as much as Grandad can about what it was like 50 years ago because I was not much older than you are now, but I do remember that living in a small rural town like Palestine was a lot different than living in a city like Phildelphia. It was like Eastsound compared to Seattle.

Keep up your interest in history and I'll be so happy to help you with your family tree. You know that genealogy is my hobby and I have a great deal of information on our families. I'm counting on you to continue the research.

Love as always

Granny

Now Tina is trying to trace her roots. Several years ago she contacted me out of the blue to ask for my help in finding her birth mother. My sister, Carolyn, had died in 1979 and Tina was alone in Bermuda. When her mother died I wrote and offered to help her but my sister had turned her against me . I was so happy when she called and we now have a fine loving relationship We did find the biological mother, a full sister and many other relations. She has found quite a bit of information on the maternal side and is now interested in the father's roots. His father was a full blooded American Indian. Of course I am real interested too.

Eddie's niece, Robin, and her daughter, Lisa have asked for my help too. I have given them every thing I have on the Sutton side and was happy to do so. Now they are working on the Worthingtons. They are on their own on this. We are still friendly with Bob Worthington but I haven't forgotten his treatment of Dorothy. She only deserved the best of everything and didn't get it.

next: The Sixties
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