VISITS WITH MY MATERNAL GRANDPARENTS

VISITS WITH MY GRANDMOTHER AND GRANDFATHER JONES

This is me with my paternal grandparents, Granderson Monroe (Dutch) and Eva Mae Attaway Jones.  I am under one year old in this photograph, which dates this picture in the spring or summer of 1942.  The photo is at the back of my grandparents’ home at the intersection of Pine Street and East Fourth Street in Junction City, Louisiana.  Yes, it is Louisiana.  They live one block south of the Arkansas/Louisiana border, which is known as State Line Road.

My grandfather died when I was nine years old and my grandmother died when I was nineteen.  Therefore, my memories of them are cloudy.  I knew them as Granddaddy and Grandmother Jones, even though my grandfather had the nickname of Dutch.  This is the name that was in the 1930 Federal Census and also on his tombstone.  Even though I have asked all of my family, no one has any idea where this nickname came from.

We would travel from Unionville to Junction City on Sunday afternoons and they would always greet us with a warm welcome and open arms.  My favorite memory on our visits was to come into the kitchen door and peek under the heavy white muslin table cloth on the kitchen table that covered the leftovers from the larapin meal that grandmother had cooked.  There was always my favorite hot water cornbread cooked just right and stewed potatoes that had the most scrumptious taste of anything I had ever eaten.

Since my grandfather Jones died when I was about nine years old, I have fond memories of him, just not too many of them.  I remember my grandfather Jones as a small man who was in a wheelchair and was always seated by the fireplace in the living room of their home.  I remember him as confined to the wheelchair and with very poor eyesight.  I have tried to remember him earlier in our lifetimes at a time that he was active and able to move around.  But, sadly that is too early in my childhood for me to be able to remember.

My grandmother Jones died when I was about nineteen years old; therefore, I have more memories of her.  I remember her when she was active and was able to move around with very little trouble.  Later on in life it was difficult for her to get around and she was confined to her favorite chair in her bedroom.  After grandfather died she was always glad to see us and still was a very good cook.  One thing that stands out in my memory about grandmother was she dipped snuff.  She always had a dip in he lip and had her spit can setting down next to her chair so that it was always handy.

Since we lived with and next door to my maternal grandparents I have many more memories of them.  But I still loved and cherished both sets of grandparents equally.  By the grace of God, I have lived to see all five of my grandchildren and two of my great grandchildren.  I try to have those memory making moments and events with them that will last them a lifetime.

A UNIONVILLE NEW YEAR'S EVE CELEBRATION

 As I sit here in my living room and the time to welcome in New Years 2012 approaches, I listen to the fireworks exploding and remember a Unionville New Years Eve that will forever be etched in my family's memory.  The following is the story of that night:

NEW YEAR’S IN UNIONVILLE

New Year’s Eve was usually a quiet celebration in the small community of Unionville, Louisiana in the 1950’s.  But there is one New Year’s Eve celebration that will be long remembered by the Colvin, Jones and Roberson families.

For several years there was an impromptu fireworks display put on by our Jones family and the Roberson family from Shreveport.  That celebration brought excitement to the local community and passersby on the main highway through Unionville.  Uncle M R Roberson had some connections and was able to get a huge supply of all types of fireworks.  When Uncle M R, Aunt Theo and their two sons Ernie and Mickey would come for a visit during the New Year holidays, they would bring enough of these fireworks for us to put on a first class fireworks display.

When Uncle M R would open the trunk of the car, all of us would gawk at the unbelievable supply of firecrackers, cherry bombs, sky rockets, roman candles, aerial bombs and sparklers.  Each of us would select the fireworks that we wanted and place them in cardboard boxes ready for the night of the fireworks display.  On the day set for the big fireworks show, each of us would choose our position for the display.  The location for the display was the high bank on the side of the “tee” intersection of Highway 167 and 822.  This high bank was across the highway from the Colvin and Jones Grocery Store and the parking area gave plenty of room for passing traffic on the roads to pull off and watch the show.

Once darkness had fallen, we would all take our positions and get ready to start the show.  Now, this was not really a real organized type of show so everyone just did their own little show.  But, once the show got to rolling it was very impressive and many people driving along the highway would pull over and stop to watch.

On one New Year’s Eve when I was a young teenager we had an unexpected, spectacular and unexpected closing to the show.  The show had been going on for about an hour and everyone had used about half of their fireworks.  It has gotten black dark and as I searched around in my box for the fireworks that I wanted to use I could not see very well.  Being a young man who acted first and then later thought about what repercussion his actions would have, I decided that more light was needed for me to find the fireworks I wanted.  The first thing that came to my mind was a sparkler, so I grabbed a sparkler, lit it and stuck it down into my box for light.  What happened next was a total shock to everyone including myself.  As I stuck the sparkler into the box it set off some of my fireworks in the box and I jumped back and dropped the sparkler into the box of fireworks.  What followed was the most spectacular New Year’s Eve fireworks display ever in Unionville as all of the fireworks started exploding and going in different directions.

The Beginning

Unionville, Louisiana had always been the home of my maternal grandparents Ernest and LaDell Colvin, better known to everyone as "Tut" and "Dell".  My grandfather Tut farmed and ran a "mom and pop" service station/grocery store at the intersection of Highways 167 and 822 which was downtown Unionville.  Downtown Unionville at that time consisted of the store and my grandparents home, which was located next to the store.  There will be many more stories associated with the store and my grandparents that I will share as my blog continues.

My move to Unionville came about in 1949 when I was eight years old and my family moved from Linville, Louisiana to Unionville.  My family consisted of myself, my father Garland, my mother Ruth, my younger brother Richard and my sister Penny.  I will share the reason for this move in one of my future blogs.  We settled in at Unionville and my father became a partner in the store, which was named Colvin and Jones at that time.  We lived with my grandparents until 1953 when my parents build a new house across the road from the store.  My brother, sister and I grew up on this corner and this blog is some of the memories that I have of how life in rural North Louisiana was in the 1950's and 1960's.

Visit my blog regularly -  My plans are to post new stories frequently.  Also visit my "Unionville Gang" page, which will be stories of group of youngsters living around Unionville as they were growing up.

Map of Unionville, Louisiana