Her name was Irene but everyone called her Rena. She was the youngest child in her family (born in 1891). Her two sisters, Betty and Pearl were about six feet tall. Her brothers, Pete and George were well over that. Grandma was about 5 ft. 3.
She was sixteen when she married. She lived in Kingston Mines, Grampa lived on a farm in Timber Township. Their favorite place to "go courting" was on a hill at the top of the cemetery in Kingston Mines under a big oak tree. Grampa told the story, that one night he was late getting to pick her up and he left the road and cut through a field. As he walked quickly through the field, it was a dark night and he had the feeling he was being attacked. He said he took out his knife and slashed his way across the field fending off his attackers. After he had walked Rena home, he walked back up the road. The moon was now shining bright and what he thought was attackers was really mounds of hay. He said he cut up a ten acre field that night. (remember I told you Grandpa embellished somewhat) NOTE: Before we had the square bales of hay of today, a horse drawn baler would wrap a bundle of hay about half the size of today's bales and farm workers would stack the shocks on top of each other.
Grandma said that when she was young she was very proud of her 18 inch waist and when she had her first child, Aunt Juanita, she didn't have that tiny waist anymore and she said to Grandpa, expecting to get some sympathy: "I look like and old cow!" And he answered: "Yes, you do!" I'm sure he was joking but a lot of years later she still didn't think it was funny.
Grandpa had been baptized Catholic but didn't attend church and when they married they named their children: Juanita, Iola, Stanley, Russell, Jessie (who died as a young child) and Woodrow. The family lived in Pottstown at that time and the priest at St. Johns on the far Southside came out to visit. Before long Grandpa was back in the Church, Grandma and the children were baptized and the next children were: John, Mary, Leo, Francis and Teresa.
They lived on Charlton Street, two blocks from St. Patricks. They were a lively, gregarious bunch. When we were young we were at their house a lot for family gatherings. A block away - in the other direction - was the Melrose Club, a neighborhood tavern run by the Peters Family. That was the Scovil family hangout. All of them. (The first time, Vern ever met Grandma, we went over to the Gin Mill Tavern to pick her up. The Gin Mill was a neighborhood tavern between Saratoga St. and MacArthur Highway owned by the Bulger family.)
When Grandpa died, they were living in the Warner homes and she continued to live their for awhile until financially she could not live on her own. So she began to live with her children and my cousin, Ben. But I really think the place she liked living best was with my parents because just as when she had been raising her children, there was usually a lot going on at the folks house and Grandma liked being around people. She loved going to Church events and funerals. If she barely knew someone, she wanted to attend their visitation. (another chance to be with people). She carried a pinochle deck of cards in her big purse - that she had with her all the time - and if she could coerce three other people to a game she would. She cheated. She reneged on cards all the time. She loved having Vern as a partner because he was kind but if she was playing against our brother, Russ, he would call her on her reneging. She did not appreciate that.
My mother washed and set her hair for her at least once a week. A family story is that when Mother started into labor with our youngest sister, Suzanne, Grandma told her that before she could go to the hospital, Mother would have to 'fix' her hair. And Mother did - and complained about it for years long after Grandma was gone.
Grandma was always very neatly dressed in a nice house dress, hose and black laced shoes with a small heel - very similar to the white ones in the picture. She always wore earrings and her rings and watch. She had a good navy blue dress for Church and funerals. One year for Easter, she bought a pair of red shoes. She was in her sixties and Mother was incensed that a woman her age would buy red shoes. I'm not sure she wore them much, I think she just wanted them.
As she got older, she lived in nursing homes. The last one Queenswood in Morton - the parents were living in Morton at that time. The night before she died, our cousin, Ben, his wife, Eva and I went to the hospital to visit her. I remember how she clung to my hand, she was, I believe, really afraid to die. We talked for awhile about family, I tried to make her laugh and relax but I don't think she did. She is buried next to Grandpa on that hill in the cemetery at Kingston Mines. The oak tree is long gone but the stump is still there.
There are a lot more stories on Grandma that my siblings and cousins could tell - and do. But this is the essence of the grandparent I knew best.
this made me cry....especially when you describe how she dressed because that is how i remember her best.
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