My favorite memories of our family is the times when we were together as a group, Christmas, Thanksgiving, card games, boat trips on the "Two Boys" and picnics.
Christmas and Thanksgiving
Christmas and Thanksgiving for our extended family seemed to revolve around our house. I don't know why that was, but it made for some great holidays. Uncle Bill, Aunt Thelma, and Byron would come by. Sometimes Uncle Doug and Aunt Catherine would join us. After Gay and Harry married, they would come down and on at least one or two occasions Harry's daughter, Barbara Ann, and her family came for Christmas.
Every year mom and Jill and Ann would go into the holiday cooking mode. It seems like the oven was going 24 hours a day during the holidays. For the Thanksgiving or Christmas meal you could eat turkey, or pork roast (dad hated turkey and would eat only one slice, the roast was for him), green peas, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, fruit salad, regular stuffing or oyster dressing, green beans, and rolls. For desert you could choose from mince meat, pecan, pumpkin and sweet potato pies, fruit cake and fruit cake cookies, date and nut cake, pecan sandies, buckeyes, nuts and bolts, fudge, and divinity. There were also several candy dishes, too. And, of course, dad had to have his bottle of "Morgan David" wine.
Every Christmas Eve we'd open presents that family members bought for one another and on Christmas Day Santa Claus would arrive. Sometimes Santa's gifts were sparse and sometimes they were grand. Of course I remember best are the presents I received, like the Hot Wheels racetracks or the GI Joes, and especially the drum set. But, I'll always remember the Christmas that Ann received an easel, pallet and paint set. I don't think I've ever seen someone so happy to receive a present, as she was that morning.
Of course the best things about those holidays weren't the presents or the foods, but the chance to be around the family. With characters like Uncle Bill, whose quick wit and sarcasm kept me in stitches, or Uncle Doug, with his easygoing attitude, it was always entertaining.
There was the time that Uncle Bill was a little lit and he walked into the kitchen where I was playing with my Hot Wheels. He looked down at me with a smirk on his face and said, "You better put those things away. I might think those things are roaches and step on them."
Card Games
Card playing was a must in our house. If you didn't play cards, you missed out on a big part of life. Everyone played cards, penny-ante poker was the biggie, but we also played canasta, gin, three-deck rummy, spades, and hearts. Sometimes the games involved just two or three people and sometimes the whole gang was involved.
The games usually were held on a Saturday night after supper and sometimes went on until the wee hours of the morning. There was a sort of unofficial protocol for seating at the table. Mom sat at the head of the table and dad would sit to her left. The rest of us would grab the first available seat. Now, if we were playing canasta, this put dad in his least favorite position. He couldn't stand to follow mom in the draw because mom always seemed to have black threes in her hand. It drove dad crazy. He'd bitch, "Louise and those damned black threes," every time we played.
I think this was one area where being the youngest made me a lucky guy. After everyone had moved out of the house, I had the company of all these wonderful people to myself. Usually, the banter around the table was simply small talk and jokes, but every once in a while I'd hear a good tale, like the one Uncle Bill told about he and Uncle Doug going to a tent revival.
They were young boys and Grandpa Singletary had given them each a silver dollar (big money in those days) to spend at the store. On the way to the store, they stopped at a tent revival and watched for a while. When they passed the collection basket around, Bill convinced Doug to drop his dollar in the basket. When they returned home, Grandpa asked how they spent their dollar. Doug told him what had happened and "Daddy gave me the worst whipping of my life. He made me walk down to that preacher and get that dollar back." In typical Uncle Bill style, he added, "Doug couldn't keep his big mouth shut. He was always getting me in trouble."