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Note: y married and his family was so happy to see him married and starting his family.
Our main socializing with Daddy's family came at Christmas time. Daddy saw his siblings more that we did for his business carried him all over Atlanta. Each family was busy with theirchildren, church and other activities.
My Mother's closest friends would be her sister, Mary Lynn and Gertrude Pyron Robbins. Aunt Mary Lynn and her family were often at our home to "cook out." I hope I have included photosof Daddy's barbeque pit. My Uncle Pete (Pickett) was fighting multiple illnesses and loved tocome to our house on Dodson Dr and visit with Daddy while he grilled. Doug and our cousin Mike Pickett re-fought The War Between the States in our backyard.
Gertrude Robbins celebrated her ninety-fifth birthday in September 2006. She is living in the Alzheimer unit of Christian City, Union City, Georgia. You will see her picture and that of Bill LaVern on different pages. I believe Mother met her when both lived in East Point before Estelle married Bill. Trudy worked for Southern Bell Telephone. One time she moved to Savannah for her work and we loved to visit. While in Savannah she met and married "Buddy" Robbins; they divorced after a few years. She and Bill LaVern were friends for many years. Bill LaVern was a jeweler. He is the source of all my child hood rings and lockets that will be covered later.
My Daddy had many good qualities but his lack of education hurt his business. He did not have the skills to manage a successful plumbing company. I think the stress and pressures of his business led to his drinking.
Mother was the ultimate manager. As a child, she learned to make clothing and was a superior Southern cook. She always grew beautiful flowers and was especially good with zinnias,begonias and gladiolas. Once she and Daddy had several banana trees. He would dig them up in the fall and store them in the basement. They were so proud of their one bunch of bananas, they were about six or seven inches long.
Funds were always short at our home so sewing clothes was an on-going project. Grandchildren could count on flannel pajamas for Christmas. She once took a continuing education class on covering lamp shades. She did a wonderful job on two lamp shades that topped lamps in our livingroom. They were still there when we closed her home. She did not make many of my blouses but most of my skirts: corduroy, cotton and wool, even the famous poodle skirt out of felt.
My Daddy loved new products, appliances and gadgets. He brought home one of the first pressure cookers. Mother became very proficient using it: green beans, meats, you name it she made it. Rich's department store was famous for it's Japanese Fruit Cake. I have no idea if Japan was the origin of the cake but Atlantian's embraced it. It became a traditional Christmas treat at our house. The icing uses cocoanut, Mother would crack and grind fresh cocoanut for use. Today, when I make one I use dried cocoanut. Our birthday cakes were always pound cake with a Seven Minute icing. Bobby's birthday celebration always brought a Rice Pudding. His choosing rice pudding was nice for we shared September as a birth month. I received the pound cake on the thirteenth and we had rice pudding on the twentieth.
Mother was raised on a farm in Fayette County, Georgia. She knew all about manual labor. I cannot say we did manual labor but we certainly had our duties. Each of us knew our bed had to be made and our room straightened before we left for school. Harry and Bobby had kitchen duties as well as yard duties. By the time Doug came along we had a dish washer. Weekend duty would include running the vacuum cleaner and dusting. Mother ran a tight ship. She was the disciplinarian.
Harry was nine years older than I. If he and Bobby fought I do not remember. Doug and I did. It is hard to accept a new baby when you have been the reigning princess for six years. Mother is the only parent that tired to enforce civility between us. There was only open warfare on occasion, that is all she would allow. Doug was such a tease and I had very little tolerance.
Mother's education finished after the fifth grade. She was a good student but educational opportunities in rural Fayette county during her years were not the best. She and Daddy were born into a time and place that were still recovering for The War Between the States. They were young adults in 1929 when The United States fell into The Great Depression. They both went to work very young to help their families weather the times.
Harry was a good student and was very motivated and focused. Bobby was fun loving and outgoing and did not apply himself. I was determined but had to work hard for my grades. Doug would have enjoyed some help with his studies. I believe Mother felt inadequate to help for she did not assist us with our studies. Certainly no one ever helped her. My Holt grandparents had very little education, I do not know about my McCleskey grandparents. Mother saw that we went to school and we were to get our education there. She did tell me years later that she was embarrassed when I would volunteer her to drive for some school function. One particular time she said she was driving an old Studebaker that you could see the road through the front floor. As a child I only wanted her to participate, I had no idea it was embarrassing to her. When John bought her a 1971 Ford Maverick it was the first New car she had ever had.
No Mother ever helped her family more than she tried to help hers. She was there when I brought Chris home from the hospital. She quit her job and came early when I was pregnant with Scott. John had a respiratory infection that put him in the hospital and I had a cold and cough that my neighbors could hear across the street. She certainly was a blessing to us. Mother and John were big fans of each other.
Bobby developed cancer of the lung in the early seventies. He went through chemotherapy and then decline. He and his family lived across town. After work on Saturday Mother would stop by her house and pick up the rice pudding she had prepared and drive to his home to give help and support. Bobby died in 1976 and was buried in the plot with Daddy at Westview. Bobby and his first wife, Beth divorced in the mid 1960s. Beth remarried and moved to Tucker, GA. Mother saw little of the children but stayed in touch. Bobby remarried and adopted Janice ? children. After his death, Mother and Janice difted apart.
In 1980 when it became clear she would have to move from Dodson Drive, John bought her the little house on Amalfi Way in Douglasville. She lived in the Dodson Dr home for thirty years and could have stayed longer but the neighborhood was steadily going black. Doug's family was already living in Douglasville; it was natural for her to locate near him. Harry, also, was living in Douglasville. She joined the First Baptist Church and a senior citizens group. She was up and running in a short time.
In the early to mid-1980s Mother said something to Harry had ended their relationship. Mother was so proud of Harry's military accomplishments. After so much traveling and living apart she was glad to be living in the same town. Now, it was all over. We neither see nor hear from his wife or three children. She did not dwell on the split but directed her energies on enjoying Doug and his family and my family when she could.
Mother out lived all of her siblings and all of Daddy's siblings. Her last years were spent in various assisted living and nursing homes. The doctors diagnosed her decline as degenerating brain syndrom. We had seen a similar pattern with her father. She died in 2003, in her ninety- second year.
Note: Estelle, my Mother, was always appreciative of the McCleskey family's acceptance of her and the two little boys she brought into their family. The very first thing Minnie did was offer her home for their wedding. Bill was twenty-eight when the
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