Tuesday, January 27

Remembering Maw

I got an email from my cousin Ron today and this is what it said, "Hey Everyone, My calendar says that today is the 120th birthday of Maw Hurst! Hattie Mae Poland Hurst, Jan. 27, 1889 - Mar 3, 1977. That is, if I got her birth year right in my calendar and if I did the math right. I feel old! Anyway, I thought you might want to eat a piece of cake in her honor! Ron" Maw was my great-grandmother and that email brought back lots of memories...scrambled egg and mayonaise sandwiches, boiled potatoes mashed with a fork, step-ins, crowded couches, high top button up shoes and diet rite cola, to name a few. For any family members who may be reading this, what do you remember about Maw? Leave a message and share your memories.

5 comments:

Ron said...

Hey, these are great pics. I haven't seen 3 of them in a long time, and I don't think I've ever seen the one in the buggy. Who else in in the pic? Looks like it could be my mom, or Teresa, or Hassie?

I remember lots of funny and interesting things about her: calling earrings ear-bobs, and watching her "stories" on TV, and telling me about seeing a ghost once, about how a panther screams just like a woman (this information would come in handy years later when a panther screamed outside a window of a house we were staying at in Gatlinburg…and scared the living daylights out of everyone except me ‘cause Maw had told me…), and about someone getting “bushwhacked” (ambushed) and murdered and…if I remember right…Pappaw, her son, found the body buried under some brush, when he stepped on the body causing an arm to come uncovered in the brush!

Her son Jack would always call her around 10 in the morning. The phone would ring and she would always say “that’s Jack, I can tell by the ring”. It took me a while to figure out that his “ring” wasn’t any different from anyone else’s…he just called at the same time every day. To this day I don’t know if she was pulling my leg, or if she really believed his ring was different.

She had this hilarious way of remembering/forgetting peoples names. She would go down her mental list of names until she came to the right name…interspersed with her favorite “cuss” word inbetween. Like this: Jack, *, Lus, *, Tom, *, Gaith, *, Charles, *…until she would get to the right name.

For many years she lived with us during the week and went "visiting" to her children's houses on the weekends. I got to spend a lot of time with her. She would quilt in the winter and crochet in the summer...and dip snuff all year round. One morning she got up complaining that her shoes were killing her feet. She always got dressed in the dark, and after a few minutes my dad noticed she had her shoes on the wrong feet! She got quite a laugh out of that. My mom likes to tell the story of Maw sitting in front of a fan, eating ice, and fanning herself because she was "burning up!" When she got up to go to the kitchen for more ice, mom noticed Maw's nightgown handing down below the hem of her dress. She had forgotten to take off her nightgown before putting on her dress that hot summer day.

Lots of other memories, but that'll do for now. Does anyone have more pics?
Ron

Teresa said...

Talk about making me smile! I had forgotten some of those stories. I may have a few more pics on one of my hundred discs, I'll look. Not sure who is in the buggy pic but it kind of looks like Sue. And I know I'm kind to Maw, I do the same thing with names, all except the cuss word. I call the roll before I get the name right, 'course I do have six kids and six grandkids. Thanks for sharing the memories!

Lori said...

Hey Teresa! Though I'm not a "family member" like you were talking about on this post...I still wanted to comment and just let ya know I'm keeping up with ya! I love the background on your blog! And I'm glad to see you're posting regular. I'm thinking of starting a new blog with recipes and things in it...if I do, I'll let ya know. Glad to see all is well. And by the way, I loved those pics of Maw. She was really chillin' in that lawn chair, wasn't she? Cute as a button!

mom and dad francis said...

Teresa,
I Love looking at old pics. These are priceless. Love the new heading on the blog too. Keep posting. Love to hear what's going on back home.

--tasha

Delilah Crabtree said...

The picture of Maw in the buggy is my mama, Frances. Jack's daughter. I have some pictures of me,Mama,Grandpa Hurst(Jack)Maw and my son Bryan, it is a 5 generations picture.
Debbie and all of the family are in our prayers.
Love, Delilah