And, the other side of the family...
After we moved from the Outer Banks to Iowa for dad to attend vet school, we only saw them every couple of years, sadly. I was about two when we made that move.
Family swears I would have walked six months sooner if my great grandmother would have let go of the back of my T-shirt. That great grandmother is who I was named for. She wore dresses that fell to her ankles and wore button boots. In the evening she would bush her waist-length hair and braid it to be curled up into a bun in the morning. Well into her 80s she walked to my great aunt's house to help her as she was blind due to a degenerative vision issue that ran in the family. G-gma was pretty much in charge of the house and the raising of my aunts and uncles as grandmom seemed to always be working and granddaddy was doing...what he should and shouldn't do but he surely couldn't be trusted to manage things.
G-gma hand quilted and crocheted and did other sewing. She tried to teach me to crochet but even when she slowed down it was too fast for me to catch on. I remember sitting in a rocker on her lap in the evening after the hair brushing and she would tell me stories. Those were rare tender moments with her as she was no-nonsense with stuff to do. That time in her room at night was special.
Unfortunately, I have few memories of grandmom. She was not a person given to displays of affection and she was simply tired. She worked what seemed like all the time so time with her, especially one-on-one was rare if it ever happened.
Granddaddy was the big draw to the Banks...even bigger than the beach. He was loud and social, usually in some state of drunkenness, and always on the go. He played multiple musical instruments and he loved to dance. He was unbeatable at checkers. He and my great uncle played a form of cutthroat croquet. Rules were different depending on whose house you were playing at. He was a deep sea fisherman having owned two boats for a time and in later years piloted boats for other people. He is rather a legend when it comes to marlin fishing and was also instrumental in growing the charter fishing business in the area. He would take me out to the Gulf Stream on one of his boats or one he was running in later years. We went clamming in the sound and spent a lot of time in the garage/rec room where he would drink and play music and sing. As a husband he left a lot to be desired but this singing, happy, leather-faced, pirate of a man was a little kid's dream.
He called me Cap'n. I miss that crazy old man. He was a walking adventure. Ya better believe it....as he would say.
After we moved from the Outer Banks to Iowa for dad to attend vet school, we only saw them every couple of years, sadly. I was about two when we made that move.
Family swears I would have walked six months sooner if my great grandmother would have let go of the back of my T-shirt. That great grandmother is who I was named for. She wore dresses that fell to her ankles and wore button boots. In the evening she would bush her waist-length hair and braid it to be curled up into a bun in the morning. Well into her 80s she walked to my great aunt's house to help her as she was blind due to a degenerative vision issue that ran in the family. G-gma was pretty much in charge of the house and the raising of my aunts and uncles as grandmom seemed to always be working and granddaddy was doing...what he should and shouldn't do but he surely couldn't be trusted to manage things.
G-gma hand quilted and crocheted and did other sewing. She tried to teach me to crochet but even when she slowed down it was too fast for me to catch on. I remember sitting in a rocker on her lap in the evening after the hair brushing and she would tell me stories. Those were rare tender moments with her as she was no-nonsense with stuff to do. That time in her room at night was special.
Unfortunately, I have few memories of grandmom. She was not a person given to displays of affection and she was simply tired. She worked what seemed like all the time so time with her, especially one-on-one was rare if it ever happened.
Granddaddy was the big draw to the Banks...even bigger than the beach. He was loud and social, usually in some state of drunkenness, and always on the go. He played multiple musical instruments and he loved to dance. He was unbeatable at checkers. He and my great uncle played a form of cutthroat croquet. Rules were different depending on whose house you were playing at. He was a deep sea fisherman having owned two boats for a time and in later years piloted boats for other people. He is rather a legend when it comes to marlin fishing and was also instrumental in growing the charter fishing business in the area. He would take me out to the Gulf Stream on one of his boats or one he was running in later years. We went clamming in the sound and spent a lot of time in the garage/rec room where he would drink and play music and sing. As a husband he left a lot to be desired but this singing, happy, leather-faced, pirate of a man was a little kid's dream.
He called me Cap'n. I miss that crazy old man. He was a walking adventure. Ya better believe it....as he would say.
![[Image: MmQV79M.png]](https://i.imgur.com/MmQV79M.png)
