My Parents

I was an only child.  Mom was 17 1/2 years old when I was born and my dad was a little over 20.  My mother's dad died when she was 7 weeks old.  My granny had 4 children from the age of 7 weeks to 6 years old.  She was 16 when her first child was born.  She was doing washing for a man who had 5 children and had lost his wife.  He told Granny that they needed each other and they married.  They had 1 son together.  My dad was the oldest of 8 children.  My grandma was 15 when she had my dad.  She was Cherokee and my grandpa's mother came from England when she was 16.  My dad had a 6th grade education and mom had 11 th grade education.

 

Mom was the only girl of 3 full brothers, 1 half brother, 3 step brothers, and 2 step sisters.  Her step sisters lived with an aunt.  My mother ran away to get married at the age of 16, and I guess her brothers were going to beat up my dad.  lol

 

The night before I was born my mother went to the hospital.  The nurses did not want to wake up the doctor; so they made her wait until morning.  The doctor was pretty upset because I was an instrument baby.  My mom's aunt (Granny's little sister) was there with my mother.  I was named after her daughter Jane Ellen and Granny, Jane Marie.  Everyone has called me Janie for years.  When I was little my uncles called me Janie Ree because I could not pronounce Marie.  Most of them always called me Janie Marie when I was older.  My mother only called me Janie Marie when she was mad at me.  lol 

 

My mother had 2 brothers and 2 step brothers in World War II.  They were drafting men up to 40 years old.  They all served in the service when they were young men.  One was missing in action but he escaped when a bunch of American soldiers came through.  I was born while they were gone.  I was the second grandchild.

 

The only one now living is mom's brother 88 years old.  He was the one that told my mother that if he had a kid like me, he would take her out and drowned her!  lol  Everyone called him grandpa way before he turned one!  lol  He has always been good to me since I was a teenager.  I guess I cried and threw fits all the time when little.

 

We were poor.  Many times we lived with my Granny.  Everyone of her kids, mother, sister, and brothers lived with her off and on.  Three of my dad's little sisters had even stayed with her.  My step grandpa worked at Sinclair Refinery for years and fed everyone.  I don't remember the upstairs at that house, but yet have a photo memory of the down stairs.  We always slept downstairs.  The house was small but yet it seemed large to me as a child.