Characters: Grandma and Grandpa Neely
Uncle Fred (Mommie's brother) and Aunt Stacie and three children
Aunt Mirtie (Mommie's sister) and Uncle Lawrence and two children
When we moved from Tazewell Aunt Mirtie already lived in Cumberland County (near Pleasant Hill). The next year Grandma and Grandpa Neely with Uncle Fred bought a farm a few miles from Crossville , the only town of any significance in Cumberland County. Before they could make the move Grandpa Neely died.
Grandma and Uncle Fred moved-- Grandma into the big house, Uncle Fred, his wife and three children in the small house within stone's throw away of the big house.
Grandma's house had a big porch along the front which opened into a house with large rooms and high ceilings. Two large rooms in the front were bedrooms; three in the back were another bedroom, a dining room and a spacious kitchen. We children mused why Grandma should live in the big house all by herself while five people were crammed in Uncle Fred's small house. We were not aware of the financial situation.
Grandma's house was the hub of family interaction. Often on Sundays Aunt Mirties's family came from Pleasant Hill; we came from Chestnut Hill; Uncle Fred's family from next door. We children played, argued, fought and played again. The women congregated in the kitchen for food preparation and womanly discussions from which were kids were shooed if we had the courage to interrupt. The men gathered on the porch in summer, in the front room in the winter where they discussed plowing, the price of hogs, hunting and the condition of the roads.
Arguments were settled here; babies were born here; illnesses were overcome here. Family life happened here.
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