What a Picture is Worth (Thank You Mrs. Hawks!)

Jessie Simmons Allred 79th birthday in [somebody's] backyard on Allred Mill Rd. in 1998. [From L to R] Yvonne, John, Ruth, Jessie, Zola and Larry...Charlie's feet.

Just came across this picture while surfing Facebook.  I Saw where Ellen had commented on it (John's cousin, Jane Hawks had posted it).  Of course, when you look at an old picture you remember all sorts of things.  Here are some of the first things that come to mind


I noticed that the photo was taken in 1998, probably in the summer time.  In 1998 I was stationed in upstate New York on recruiting.  That was a time when I didn't get to visit Mom and John very much.  If memory serves, we went straight from Fort Huachuca to New York in late 1996.  (Actually, I left first and Connie and the girls joined me just before Christmas.  We sat on paint buckets and air mattresses.  I finally hauled a partially rotted heavy picnic table in from the yard so we could all sit together for Christmas dinner.  We had a tree and some lights.  It was a week after New Years before our household goods finally arrived.)  The year 1997 stretched into 1998 and I don't think we went anywhere.  That was one of those periods where I exchanged letters often with Grandma Huffman and with Mom.  And we called each other often.

It was August of 1998 when Grandma Huffman and I conspired to surprise Mom on her birthday.  I took leave a few days leave.  The plan was for us to drive down to Grandma Huffman's in Richlands and spend a week or so with her.  For her part, Grandma invited Mom to come visit her on or about her birthday.  The idea was to be there unbeknownst to Mom so that we could all surprise her when she arrived.  But that never happened.  Grandma was involved in a very serious car accident before we actually left New York.  We drove down anyway and stayed in her empty house, commuting to the hospital in Greenville to visit her.  We got to see a lot of the extended family but it was under very dark circumstances.  Grandma died of the injuries she suffered a few months later, on December 7th.

We returned to North Carolina in December of 2008 to attend Grandma Huffman's funeral.  Now that I am writing this, it comes to mind that during those few days of people coming and going, there was a day when John and Mom drove up to the house and Aunt Clara got out of the car.  It had been a very long time since I had seen her and I remember how glad I was to see her again.  Ironically, the visit marked the last time I would see my Uncle Ernest or anyone in his family until John's funeral twelve years later.  I guess if it weren't for some of the family dying every once in a while the rest of us would never get to see each other.

1998 was also the year I enlisted Scott Walker into the Army.  Scott is now a warrant officer.  He is the young man I took Mom to Fort Jackson to see a couple weeks ago to see him graduate from his Warrant Officer Basic Course.  Also, I saved a piece of confetti from one of the several high school graduations I attended that year, shaped into the figure of '1998.'  I keep it in a small, framed photo I have of Grandma Huffman, marking the last year that I saw her.

It would be a year before I would see Mom and John -- and Grandma Edinger (pictured) again.  Having completed my duties as an Army recruiter, I left NY just before Christmas and we drove down to Mount Airy to visit until we had to leave for my next assignment, which turned out to be at the NATO sub-regional headquarters in Izmir, Turkey (but that's another story).  We stayed for at least two weeks.  Maybe three.  We rang in Y2K together and , by the time we left, I think we were starting to wear on them.  John and I went out for breakfast every morning.  All in all, it was a good visit, the last visit I would have with them before John died the first time.  (He suffered cardiac arrest in 2002 while standing in line at an Oklahoma City  truck stop to pay for his gas.  We were told that, by the time he arrived at the hospital he was, for all practical purposes, dead.  But, of course, he wasn't dead).  I got on a plane and few to OKC and stay with him until he got out of bypass surgery.)  That was in May of 2002.  The previous August Grandma Edinger had passed away.  It was John who called to give me that news and, during the call, he told me not to come home for the funeral.  The way he explained it (I'm recalling this after almost ten years) everything would be over with by the time I could get there.  I had never been that far away from home before and figure that he was right.  But it sure was an awkward, useless feeling being stuck in Turkey when the family was gathering on the other side of the world to pay their last respects to Grandma.  In my mind she will never be a day older than she was in this picture.

Also pictured are two of Grandma Edinger's sisters, Jessie and Zola.  Though I remember hearing their names occasionally mentioned I never met either one of them until I met Aunt Zola on New Years Day at the funeral.  I couldn't believe how much she reminded me of Grandma and I told her so (though it was impossible to tell from her reaction whether that pleased or irritated her).  Anyway, just to make sure that she knew that I was glad to finally meet her, I sent her a note a few days later tell her exactly that.

And now, for some reason, I'm craving pound cake.

Thanks for posting the picture, Mrs. Hawks!