Wednesday, April 3, 2013

They called us "y'all"!!!!

While talking to my mom on Skype last night we got to chatting about my great grandparents, Joseph Lloyd and Eliza Josephine Troutman. I told her I didn't remember them, but then they died when I quite small. She said that my Grandma Wilma and her mother, my Great Grandma Troutman, had come to California shortly after my great grandfather died, but I didn't remember that, either. That's when she reminded me of something funny that had happened when we were in Texas for my great grandparent's 50th anniversary. It's funny, and a memory I do clearly have, though I didn't know, until last night, that it had happened when we were there for their anniversary.

I'm the brat on the right--this is me and Staci, when we were about five and seven (or so) years old. Hesperia, CA.
I was quite small, maybe five years old, and we were at my Aunt Wanda and Uncle Rex's house in Plainview. They had a basement playroom filled with toys, a glassed-in patio filled with those little John Deere tractor models--that weren't for kids, they were my uncles, who was a commercial harvester his whole life--and a huge trampoline in their back yard. I remember their house being fun. While we were outside jumping on the trampoline, all the adults were in the house, sitting around the kitchen table, enjoying desert. That is until I came running into the house crying.

I ran up to my folks, my feet bare, and when my mom tried to comfort me and asked what was wrong, I blurted out, "THEY CALLED US 'Y'ALL'!!!" Apparently, in the infinite wisdom of a five year old, I thought our cousins, who were only a little bit younger than us and who had grown up in Texas, were calling us names. Everyone burst out laughing, which was confusing for me, while my mom explained that "y'all" just means "you all" and that my cousin was just addressing both of us, not insulting us. Ugh, embarrassing. . . thankfully, little kids don't hang on to embarrassment the way adults do.

Looking back on it now I laugh, particularly since I've been living in Texas for 14 years in June and though I swore when I moved here that I'd never lapse into y'all's, I have. I use it so much that I hardly notice it anymore. Still, it's one of my better memories now. We went to Texas every year when I was a kid to visit my grandparents, but this particular memories stands out the most in my mind. Maybe humor is some kind of fastening agent for memories. Wouldn't that be ironic? A pessimist with the ability to most vividly remember the funny things!
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7 comments:

  1. Haha! That was definitely the highight of the trip! You two were so little and mischievious!! I love this pic of you two...in the back of daddy's pick up! That brown car over there is Aunt Pam's old pinto she had and the little corner was of my old mustang. Memories!! =) <3

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  2. I know, I love that picture too. I remembered, somehow, who all the cars belonged to!! I so wish I could help you go through the droves of pictures you have. I'd love to have scans of ALL of them, so that I can share more of them. <3

    Oh, I considered photoshopping the life back into that photo, but I like the sort of old picture quality it has when old pics start to yellow a little bit. So, I left it alone.

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  3. I wish you were here too...I have a ton!! The Bloxham Family side that needs to get finished so I can get them back to Linda...then there are the ones from My family, when I was growing up...the ones my mother had. I want to make some kind of scrap book from each of them, but I am thinking that will be even more difficult. I have the Troutman/McHone side pics too. Aunt Sue went through those with me last year, but, I would love to share those w/ you too...hopefully I can remember who everyone is from her telling me. I know I have a whole family pic of Grandma T's brother Ollie, his wife Virgie and their kids...yup...I have pics that have Bob McHone when he was a very young child along w/ his siblings... I have pics of my great and great great grandparents...Including the Grandmother who was Blackfoot Indian and her husband who was Irish... So, not just my grandparents and my moms immediate family. You REALLY need to come hang out w/ me...when did you say school was out this quarter? Do you have a break? You and Candi are the only two who seem to have interest in these and I would love to share them with you. Candi has seen most of them already...they just need to be sorted and organized and so forth. The Bloxham family pics go clear back to when they lived in Canada and proves that there were more siblings that originally thought...there is a lot of history in that box....

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  4. I so wish I could, but I can't afford it right now. The semester's out in mid-May, but then we start school again in June. Time and money aren't on my side with this. I had thought you might be able to box them up and ship them to me, then I could scan them (I have a pretty good scanner that's super easy to use) and send them back to you, but Matt's smoking makes that impossible--even if it weren't costly to mail them. I'd love copies of all of those, plus all the photos from my childhood.

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  5. Ya I wish you could come too. I don't think I would want to box these and TRUST the mail with them...they are not replaceable. Thank you for the thought tho...Love you! <3

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  6. What an adorable story! This one had me giggling. I love that photo too. Makes me feel all nostalgic.

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  7. Thank, Jodi. Has me feeling pretty nostalgic too. :)

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