The Compound Quarterly

Afterwhiles

This is a picture of my Grandmother Tazzie Lee's birth sons. They were large at birth and large in life--or so it seemed to those of us who love them. Amazing how ordinary men and women become more than ordinary when they are remembered through the proverbial rose colored glasses we all wear. Thank goodness for that.

My grandmother gave birth at home to these babies who weighed 8 and a half, 11 and a half and 12 pounds. I can't even imagine. Their size (and problems she had later in life leading to treatment at Duke University Hospital) lead us to believe she may have suffered from gestational diabetes which may have led to Type II diabetes in her later years.

Miss Tazzie Lee died when I was 5 so I do not remember her well--in my mind she was always "Miss" because that is what my mother called her. Her sons called her Pet--never Mama. They called their father Son, something I found very endearing.

Miss Tazzie Lee also raised three other children--her sister Gaynelle died very young and left three children of her own. Tazzie brought home the two girls, Margorie and Esther. The youngest, Eddie, went to stay with his father's family. I cannot remember what happened exactly but on one of their visits to see Eddie, Miss Tazzie Lee brought him home. There were whispers and accusations of neglect--and of course there were no inquiries or arguments back then--Grandma simply gathered his little things and brought him home. From things my mother told me there wouldn't have been any use to argue with her anyway. What Pet wanted to do she usually did. My father was the youngest so Daddy couldn't remember life without Eddie and spoke of him often when I was a child. So the family of three strapping boys became a family with four boys and two girls and Daddy thought of his cousins as siblings , which says a lot for the way Pet and Son handled their family. I admire that.

They also had two maiden aunts that lived with them for many years. Aunt Hallie, who never married and was everyone's favorite and Aunt Sug (Alice) who did eventually marry and was not as well-liked as she wished to be.

Pet was lively and funny and a wonderful cook--her house was the gathering place for the family on Sundays. Daddy said she would often have three or four pies made by the time he got up on Sunday morning. I remember her front porch well, with people dressed in Sunday clothes lounging and the swing always occupied and gently swaying back and forth while people visited. Mama was a little afraid of Miss Tazzie Lee but grew to love her in time. She said Pet had gumption and a great sense of humor and was the busiest person she knew--bar none. Pet could write her name and that was about all-- which puzzled me because all of her siblings could read and write and Aunt Hallie also read music ---she played the piano in church for years.

Son was a deacon in the church, played the organ, the piano, the violin and the guitar well and was a carpenter for the mill in town. He had a garden always and when I remember him at 94 years old he still worked --he swept up a shoeshop down the street in Durham every morning and when we visited he always baked a pie.

Thomas, was their oldest son (light jacket), then Theodore (dapper in the bow tie) and then Bennie Hugh, (with the flower on his lapel). Daddy preferred to be called "Ben".

I love that they were a blended family. I love that they were a church going family--that they sang together and that the boys adored their mother and father even when they were older. I love that two maiden aunts were taken care of and accepted. In fact, they were close enough to name the children. Aunt Hallie named Theodore. Aunt Sug almost named Daddy Elihu like the prophet in the Bible but Grandpa Moss said no--that sounded too much like a girl. Elihu became Bennie Hugh, which is certainly original--- and pacified Aunt Sug.

I loved visiting North Carolina when I was a child and still get a tingle up my backbone when I see the Oxford sign on the highway. I remember rides with Thomas and Lynette through town in the summer and Theodore's garden and his penchant for bursting into song.

I wish I had listened better to stories I heard when I was a child--I wish I remembered how Son and Pet met, what made them tickled, what their favorite color was or their favorite song.

Oddly enough, I do still remember that front porch--I wish I could remember the people on it.