REMEMBERING "GRANDDADDY"
My grandfather, Isaac Conrad Peters, was born on July 2, 1887 in Bristol, Tennessee. I spent lots of time with him when I was a young child. We played word games, rhyming phrases. He kept a small blue vase on the mantel in his bedroom. (Every bedroom had a fireplace.) In it would be Liberty dimes! They had one of those old tall phones with a mouthpiece and a receiver. Phone was 4648W. We spoke to an operator to call someone's number. Party line people listened when you talked...
He rode me on his tractor. Their home had spring water which ran on gravity flow from a spring nearby. He had a spring house which had a trough of cold water. That's where watermelons were kept cold. We were never allowed to get a watermelon until his birthday because they just weren't good until then, I was told. He liked his hammock and could peel an apple all in one piece of peeling. When he dressed up he was very handsome--"dapper", I'd call him. He wore a bow tie and shaved with a straight razor. He had no eyebrows and his false teeth were made to be temporary, but he never had others made. When I stayed at their house, I always slept in his big bed. Don't know where my grandmother was.... He drove very slowly... He took me to the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus and we rode a train to Knoxville. I believe my grandfather went to Sullins College for a period of time. He disliked "those bureaucrats in Washington."
When he was working in the fields, I made lemonade and took out to him. He repaired his equipment himself. I disliked riding the baling machine the most because it was dusty. He let me help shell corn in a manual corn sheller. I got to feed the chickens, look for eggs in their nests, and feed the turkeys. I played in the barns.
I "fished" in the little creek near the house with a safety pin on a string attached to a tree branch. Needless to say, we never had fish for dinner.
When little chicks hatched, they were kept in a large cardboard box on the enclosed porch with a light hanging over it to keep them warm. The cats were solid gray and not friendly. They would come from the barn to the springhouse when my grandmother milked to get the foam from the top of the bucket.
There was a plant called a "sweet shrub" in the backyard. (Carolina Allspice) When I removed the brown "flower" and held it in my hand until it warmed, it smelled SOOO good. There were mimosa trees in the front yard and a rooster that crowed very early in the morning.
My grandfather crafted beautiful wooden furniture in his shop. He listened to WOPI on the radio and put lots of sugar in his hot tea. (There was always some sugar left in the bottom of the cup!)
[At one time, he lived in our home. He had his own "suite" with knotty pine paneling. I would go to his room, which was an addition and very large, and listen to the radio with him.]
My grandfather butchered his own hogs and cured his own hams in the smokehouse. The ham he cured was the best! We made chitlins. Yum!
One of his farm workers wrote checks on my grandfather's account. I always liked him--Louis Vance. But when he did enough bad things to go to prison, I was afraid he'd come back and "get" me. lol
I missed my grandfather when I moved to Ohio at age 12.
He rode me on his tractor. Their home had spring water which ran on gravity flow from a spring nearby. He had a spring house which had a trough of cold water. That's where watermelons were kept cold. We were never allowed to get a watermelon until his birthday because they just weren't good until then, I was told. He liked his hammock and could peel an apple all in one piece of peeling. When he dressed up he was very handsome--"dapper", I'd call him. He wore a bow tie and shaved with a straight razor. He had no eyebrows and his false teeth were made to be temporary, but he never had others made. When I stayed at their house, I always slept in his big bed. Don't know where my grandmother was.... He drove very slowly... He took me to the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus and we rode a train to Knoxville. I believe my grandfather went to Sullins College for a period of time. He disliked "those bureaucrats in Washington."
When he was working in the fields, I made lemonade and took out to him. He repaired his equipment himself. I disliked riding the baling machine the most because it was dusty. He let me help shell corn in a manual corn sheller. I got to feed the chickens, look for eggs in their nests, and feed the turkeys. I played in the barns.
I "fished" in the little creek near the house with a safety pin on a string attached to a tree branch. Needless to say, we never had fish for dinner.
When little chicks hatched, they were kept in a large cardboard box on the enclosed porch with a light hanging over it to keep them warm. The cats were solid gray and not friendly. They would come from the barn to the springhouse when my grandmother milked to get the foam from the top of the bucket.
There was a plant called a "sweet shrub" in the backyard. (Carolina Allspice) When I removed the brown "flower" and held it in my hand until it warmed, it smelled SOOO good. There were mimosa trees in the front yard and a rooster that crowed very early in the morning.
My grandfather crafted beautiful wooden furniture in his shop. He listened to WOPI on the radio and put lots of sugar in his hot tea. (There was always some sugar left in the bottom of the cup!)
[At one time, he lived in our home. He had his own "suite" with knotty pine paneling. I would go to his room, which was an addition and very large, and listen to the radio with him.]
My grandfather butchered his own hogs and cured his own hams in the smokehouse. The ham he cured was the best! We made chitlins. Yum!
One of his farm workers wrote checks on my grandfather's account. I always liked him--Louis Vance. But when he did enough bad things to go to prison, I was afraid he'd come back and "get" me. lol
I missed my grandfather when I moved to Ohio at age 12.
