Now, thanks to the internet, I now know a lot more than I used to; but, if I had asked those questions, I would now know a lot more and could fill in a lot of the blanks that now seem so elusive. I mean my mother did talk. She told lots of stories. Like just about any kid I didn't listen as well as I should have, as well as I wish I had, but osmosis did take place and I do remember those stories today.

Mama just didn't include certain facts though, or if she did I just don't remember; but, I am pretty sure she didn't because I do remember wondering certain things; but, once again like a kid, I was ashamed of not knowing, of having to ask because somehow I thought I should know these things and because I didn't I felt stupid. Later as an adult whenever I was with her something else always came up and then her memory was failing. Still I should have pressed, should have asked.

Like who was this Aunt Susie she said she was named for?
Who was "Uncle George"?
As late as the seventies, he occasionally would call my mother on the phone. He was tall and red haired my mother said; and, she didn't like him because he had a "foul mouth." My genealogical research is yet to find any likely candidates.

My advice: ask questions people, ask questions.
If you do not, the day will come when you will regret it.

I know that my mother's father's name was Joseph Thomas. I know that when young he had black hair and blue eyes and stood only 5'2. He called himself a "little patty Irishman" although I don't know what he based that on since he was adopted; and, how well he knew his natural family I am not sure although I do know their was some contact because his son, Nelson, married his step brother's daughter, Della.

I know that he loved my grandmother and that she loved him. She called him "Tom" and he called her "Abby." Her name had been Abigail Luviney Tedder, the daughter of James Edward Tedder and Jane Hatcher who died just nine days after her birth. After that she was raised by her uncle, John Hatcher, and his wife, Francis. I have no idea how much contact she had with her real father from there on. All this I only found out through genealogy research on the internet. My mother didn't tell me. I doubt she knew! She did know that her mother's family, her father or uncle?, did not want her to marry my grandfather because he was a "bastard." When the marriage happened anyway, she did not see her family much after that.

It doesn't show in the photo above; but, according to my mother, my grandmother was quite a bit taller than my grandfather. When she was young she had long blond hair and brown eyes. She always wore long dresses with long sleeves even in the hottest days of summer; and, it does get hot in Florida! She was also very jealous and once took a shotgun after a woman she thought was making eyes at her man. Fortunately Grandma Abby was a lousy shot!

She always insisted that my grandfather wear a moustache because she said that kissing a man without a moustache was like cutting butter with a knife! How much experience she had in these matters I do not know!

I only remember her vaguely.
She gave me Frisky and Tom and died while I was still a little girl.

Grandpa Tom I remember a lot better. He did not leave us until I was full grown. He was very opinionated. Maybe that is where I get it from!

My father's mother died several months before he turned three. "She swallowed a watermelon seed." they used to say. For a long time I thought she had choked to death on a watermelon seed! Then my mother explained to me that that was their way of saying she died in childbirth! No photos of her seem to have survived. They say that she had blond hair and blue eyes. Her name was Elvie Catherine Mobley and she was the daughter of
Jesse Daniel Mobley and Tabitha Taylor.

I have no stories of her to make her come alive in the way that my maternal grandmother does through my mother's stories. She died when my father was still too young to remember; but, I have always considered her a tragic figure. Before my father's birth, she had seen two children die as infants, a daughter in 1898 and a son in 1900. Then she died in 1904 at the age of 24 while giving birth to a stillborn daughter.

As for my father's father, I don't think my father really remembered him all that well, mostly because he never really knew him all that well. My grandfather, Francis Marion Garrett, a Methodist preacher, was always off preaching somewhere while my maternal great grandparents, Jesse Daniel Mobley and Tabitha Taylor Mobley, raised his son.

He did remarry, shortly after my grandmother's death, and have five more children, all of whom survived well into adulthood. According to both my parents, this second wife, Matilda Hodges, was a good woman whom they both liked; but, after his mother's death, my father went to stay with her father and mother and stayed there. To him, Jesse Daniel Mobley was his father and Tabitha Taylor Mobley his mother.

Grandpa Frank used to come to sunday dinner with us every once in a while. I remember him as a tall, thin really old man who lived to be nearly 100. He didn't say much. According to my mother, he never said much until he was in the pulpit. Then he shouted and shook his finger a lot; but, by the time I came along, he was no longer preaching.

Four Generations
My grandfather, Frank Garrett, my father, Arthur Garrett, and my brother, Walter Garrett, holding his eldest daughter, Alisha. Walter's second daughter, Susie, is in front.
The year is 1959

seven generations!
My mother's family

Obediah Garrett
a story of my great great-grandfather!