85 Years: Mamaw, part 1

Today is a difficult day, since it's the first Fourth of July that my Mamaw wasn't here to celebrate her birthday. She would be 85 today but left this earth last October. We miss her so much.

We spent a good deal of time a couple of years ago, reminiscing, as I basically interviewed her over a few weeks. She was struggling with some early stages of memory loss, and I knew that we would always regret losing the wonderful stories she was so great at telling. Of course, I have a million questions now that I wish I had asked. I'm trying to focus on being thankful for what we do have recorded.

Mamaw was born Bobbie Nell Trammell on July 4, 1929. She was the firstborn of 13 children. Her life growing up in the '30s-'40s with a dad gone much of the time, meant that life was beyond difficult. It was a hard time for many financially, as the Depression's effects were widespread, but with such a large family and without a reliable provider, I cannot imagine how they even had food to eat.

Bobbie grew up living west of Birmingham in several different places. Some of the time they all stayed with her grandparents, part of it in a two bedroom house in Crumley's Chapel where she shared a bed with four of her sisters. Later they moved to a nearby home in a small mining town, before the family returned to live with the grandparents when she was in high school.

She did not love going to school when she was old enough to start, and was very nervous about leaving her family. She said going alone, having to ask where things were, telling her name when everyone else already knew it, was just torture. Ms. Duke, her first teacher, was so kind, but little Bobbie was still scared to talk. One day she was asked to go get a glass of water for the teacher, and she walked down the hall, out the school door, and left to walk home in the middle of the day. Some days her mom would put her out by their gate and lock it, telling her to go to school, but she would sit there and cry because she just could not go alone. By Christmas, it was obviously not working. Her mom threatened truancy officers, but Bobbie ended up not continuing school and waiting to return till the next year with her sister Mary. She would hide under the bed if anyone came to the door, just in case.

By the time she was a young teenager, she was ready to leave school and work. I have some neat stories of that period of her life, and adventures she experienced. I love most of all that she had gained confidence and became a brave young lady after struggling with such anxiety as a little girl. She met my Papaw, and they soon married and had five children. Their middle child is my Dad, whom I also have some great stories about. Through the years, numerous younger siblings of Mamaw's spent time with her family, and grew up more like siblings to my Dad, instead of aunts and uncles. I love that my grandparents welcomed these family members whenever they needed to come, and even today, there are some special bonds between them and my Dad and his sisters and brothers.

Mamaw showed her continued courage as an adult when she completed her GED years after she should have graduated high school. She finally learned to drive when my Dad was a little boy. She worked outside the home many years in daycares and schools. She became a well-known and very loved cafeteria worker in my high school. She enjoyed crafts like sewing, making and painting porcelain dolls. She took lessons to learn new skills and always made more friends wherever she went. People who knew her loved her, and that was a lot of folks!


To be continued....