Both of my mother's parents, Roy Yarbrough and Helen Jeanette Shepherd Yarbrough (known as Jessie, I believe) had died before I have memories, so I had very few interactions with them.
I have many vivid memories of my father's parents, Ma and Pa Poole, as they were known.
They are on the far left in the family photo. Also in the photo, all six of their children, and the assorted grandchildren. I think this may be the only existing picture in which all the family members are present.
There were many family reunions at their house. The first house in my memory is when they lived in the "tar paper house with a tin roof and a slanted floor". That is a very accurate picture of their country, very poor old shambled house.
One of the daughters (Dottie, farthest to the right) was dating an important, sophisticated fellow, and Air Force Officer. She could not take him to the tar paper house, so apparently some family members went together and bought a "normal house" for my grandparents to live in. In that house, I particularly remember rousing, loud, competitive games of Rook, which even the youngest learned how to play, a card game.
A feather tic---a mattress completely filled with feathers, so when you laid down on it, you sank down and were completely enveloped, like a big feather hug
Homemade coconut cake---Probably as long as I live, I will never again have cake like that...made with real coconut, made incredibly moist by the coconut water (presumably), pure white layers with a delicious white frosting, covered in shredded coconut. I have given up on searching for recipes that might replicate it. But I hold a special place in my heart for my grandmother's coconut cake!
Grandma Poole's rope of hair--her hair was down to her waist or longer. It was totally straight; she twisted it into a rope. I can still visualize her doing that. Then she twisted the rope into a round knot at the nape of her neck in the back, holding it in place with a few bobby pins. It looked like a coil of rope in the back. She never had any other hair look besides that one, for her whole life.
Always old---from the time I knew them, they were already old. I don't know how old they might have been. Based on when they were born, and when I was born, they were probably already in their sixties as I was growing up. They were very poor and worked very hard. Grandpa raised vegetables and sold them. I remember that watermelons came in the trunk load, or the truck load.
Ma Poole---She made cornbread out of cornmeal and water and fed all the stray dogs from far and wide. They lived under the house and waited until the food appeared. One of the most vivid memories I have about my Ma Poole is that she had a bit of magic about her. Whenever there was a wasp or bee in the house, she would not kill it. She would catch it by cupping her hands around it and taking it outside to release. She never got stung. Really!!
I still visited my grandparents into my 20's, when they were into their 80's, when I went home once a year to Mississippi. By then, they were in an assisted living facility. Pa Poole's health was bad, but his memory was sharp. Ma Poole's health was fine, but her memory was shot. When I asked her how old she was, she said something like--28. And the good thing is, she believed it.
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| William Michael Poole and Ira Mae Wells Poole |
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