Grandma Goes Hunting

Grandma's Hunting Stories

As my sister and I were growing up, my Grandma, Stella Ethel Marie Holland Smith would tell us what her life had been like in Mountain Home, Arkansas when she was a girl.

Grandma loved Mountain Home and missed it. She was one of the older children and I know Grandma took care of her younger siblings also.  Her mother, Minnie Bell Kirkland Holland was sick much of the time.

Anyway, Grandma would tell us about how she would wear her hair in two braids and go hunting with a slingshot.  Sometimes she would go with her brother. If she got a squirrel, she would take it home, and they would have a nice squirrel stew.  I would wonder what squirrel stew tasted like and wonder what Grandma looked like as a young girl hunting for squirrel and rabbit or whatever with her slingshot. 

I know Grandma could be quite fierce in the chicken pen when we were going to have chicken for dinner.  She would go in there with the chickens, grab one in each hand and wring their necks.  After they stopped flopping around, we would take them in, pluck their feathers, cut them up, fry them up, and eat them.  Nothing like raising your own food.

I have been wanting to go to Mountain Home ever since I was little because I know that is where my Grandma was born and how much she loved it.  My 2nd Great Grandpa, Martin Holland is something of a legend there with all of his shenanigans. He is called Uncle Mart in those parts. My dream will come true very soon.  I am so excited.

Tudy and Her Bottle

Looking for Tudy's Bottle

I remember when my baby sister was about 18 months old, my Mom and my Grandma Smith were trying to put my sister down to sleep. 

They were putting her down in the bed in the room that served as the kitchen, dining room and bedroom. The front room served as living room, and bedroom for Grandma and Grandpa. That was when Grandma and Grandpa only had two rooms to their house.

Anyway, Tudy would say she wanted her bottle.  Every time Mama would give her the bottle she would throw it and cry for the bottle again. Tudy wanted to go outside to get her bottle.  So we all went outside (except for Grandpa) with the flashlight looking for Tudy's bottle. We get out there and what does Tudy do?  She crawls under the house and comes back out with one of Grandpa's wine bottles!

That was back when Grandpa still drank alcohol. He would drink wine and beer.  Grandma never allowed anyone to bring alcohol into the house so Grandpa would drink outside and he hid his wine bottles under the house.  Tudy must have been watching Grandpa and decided she wanted to try out some of the stuff Grandpa was drinking.  The house was up on blocks so there was space under the house.

Of course Tudy wasn't allowed to have any of Grandpa's wine but leave it to her to have us going on a wild goose chase right from the start.  Never a dull moment with that girl, I tell ya even when she was a baby.

Unexpected Genealogy Gift

A Gift From A Cousin

My husband Frank and I flew to Dallas a couple of weeks ago to attend our nieces wedding.  As we arrived, there was a very bad thunder storm with lots of lightning.  For safety reasons, all of the ramps had been closed down.  We had to wait for about an hour and a half before we could collect our luggage and our rental car and be on our way.

While we were waiting, I checked my email and my Facebook.  One of my cousins that lives in Oklahoma and who is from my Smith line had sent me a photo of my Grandma and Grandpa Smith that I had never seen before.                                                 

Left to Right is my Grandpa Fred Burke Smith, his sister Augusta Caroline (Callie) Smith Butcher, and my Grandma Stella E Marie Holland Smith

I was extremely close to my Grandparents and they practically raised my sister and me until I was eleven and she was nine and we moved from Poplar, CA to the San Francisco Bay Area.  We would still visit them frequently and spent a month every summer with them.

I couldn't find a date on the photo, but I believe it was taken sometime in the 1960s so that would have put my Grandparents somewhere in their early 60s.  This photo was taken when they went back to Oklahoma to visit relatives.

This is how they always dressed for most of my life.  Later on Grandpa started wearing striped overalls sometimes.  When he went outside, he would wear a straw cowboy hat.  Near the end of his life, he would wear slacks, a shirt, suspenders and a dude hat when he went to the doctor.

Grandma told me that when they met, Grandpa was known as that big eyed Smith boy.  Grandpa did have big eyes...big blue eyes.  One of his eyes had a little bit of brown in it though.  My Grandma had very, very, deep blue eyes....almost purple or violet at times.  They were a beautiful shade of blue.

Thank you so much, cousin Medessa Cook Montgomery for the lovely gift that you shared with me.    It turned an otherwise somewhat challenging day into a wonderful, blessed day!  It also gave me one more photo to share with my other Smith cousins.  Medessa's Grandmother was my Grandpa's sister, Aunt Callie.

I heard a lot about Aunt Callie.  My Grandma would talk on the phone to family members and would relay the conversations to my Grandpa who wouldn't hardly ever get on the phone. 

I miss them both so much and think about them every day, sometimes, I think about them several times a day.  They didn't have much money and they didn't have much formal education, but they taught me so much, and gave me unconditional love.  That was priceless!!!