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Note: e that her father Daniel Palmer built. Her brothers and sisters lived close by. Aunt Bessie lived next door and they would go out in the yard and " Yee Hooo" whenever they wanted to talke to each other. ( they didn't have phones until the 1960's)
Granny loved to fish and swim in the many lakes around her house, especially " Lake Pearl". She went swimming everyday in the summer, even when she was in her eighties. It was a steep down hill walk to the lake and back up afterward. It must have been good for her though as she lived to be 91. She also walked to the post office to get her mail, which was probably a mile away.
I loved her big old house, it was roomy and dark. The windows went nearly to the floor, but the walls were dark. We could crawl through a living room window to the screened porch and loved to sit in the swing on the porch. Granny and I one summer painted her porch and swing and rocking chairs. We painted them a pretty turqoise. I will never forget that.
I remember going to pick blackberries with Granny. We would put on long pants, long sleeve shirts, hats, etc. in the hot summer time and go to the woods to a "patch". She always warned to watch out for snakes. We would come home with buckets of blackberries, and she would make the "best" blackberrie cobler in a huge, old metal round dish-pan. It was so good. She also make apple-jacks, or fried apple pies that were very good, and fresh coconut cake. Her house always smelled like something just baked , or quava jelly, which she was fond of.
She played the piano for the Altoona Baptist Church when she was younger, and had a piano in her wide hallway for years. I brought it home with me after she died, and kept it until I finally gave it up to make more room. There was a wide hallway throught the center of the house as was the custom in those days. The dining room was the biggest room in the house. She had a big old table and chairs around the walls. A single light bulb hanging from the cord in the ceiling dangled over the table. She kept a sugar bowl, vinegar cruet, etc in the center of the table, covered by a white cloth. How we loved to sit at that old table and eat black-eyed peas,, fried chicken, cornbread, cucumbers and onion in vinegar, rice, ice tea,
Behind the dining room was the "Old Kitchen" . A new kitchen was added probably in the 1950s. The old kitchen was turned into a storage room. It was dark and full of all sorts of things. I remember when she used it, I was very young, but can remember the old wood stove, and taking a bath in a washtub in the middle of the floor.
Granny loved her grandchildren. In the summer, at night, she would walk through the house spraying "Gulf Spray" to kill the mosquitoes. If she heard one buzz, out came the spray! In the winter, she would pile the blankets on you until you couldn't even turn over under the load! She didn't want anyone to be cold.
Granny was known as Aunt Nellie to everyone in Altoona, as were her sisters also known as Aunt Bessie, etc. She was a very independant lady. After her husband, Floyd, died she continued to work in the orange packing house, cometimes working late hours in the winter. She never had much money, but never complained much about it. She loved home and lived alone for 21 years. She took in her 4 year old Great Grandson, Neal ( AL) White, after his mother and father were divorced and his mother abandoned him. She did her best to raise him.
Note: Nellie Palmer was my " Granny" . She lived in Altoona, Florida all of her life in the hous
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