Frankie White's Comments

I took the liberty of copying Frankie's comments to a full post. This is such a good post, I thought it needed to be a "headline" post. Frankie's comments start below.......

I remember looking at the tin-type when I was a boy and Aunt Ella lived with Uncle Thurman and Aunt Letha (or was it spelled Lethea?) She always said it was her grandmother White. Didn't she live with her son, Henry? I have a small copy of the picture the Brother Davis has of Grandmother Eliza White, and it looks almost as if it were taken from or at least the same time as the tin-type. The only differences that I can discern are that her right arm is clearly distinguishable and not hidden behind a child as in the larger photograph that Brother has, and it seems to me that she is looking more directly into the camera than in the tin-type. In both pictures she's wearing what appears to be the same pin -- maybe she didn't have but one. Could we get her image edited and enlarged like the picture of Aunt Lissie? That way we could make better comparisons. The buttons on her dress, which, by the way, appears to be made of some heavy material such as wool, stand out noticeably.

My grandfather John White loved to head to the front porch at the first sign of an approaching summer thunderstorm, a trait that I inherited. His either going to the porch or refusing to come into the house would aggravate my grandmother, Minnie. Granddaddy White would say that his father was afraid of thunderstorms and that his grandmother White would say, "Put your trust in the Lord, Henry, put your trust in the Lord." Granddaddy would say that he trusted in the Lord, and Granny would counter with, "Yeah, but you don't have to tempt him by being out on the porch where you could get struck by a pop of lightning."

Some of my favorite memories of my grandparents and Uncle Thurman's houses on Scotch Road are of the front porches and all that took place on them. My grandparents all but moved to the front porch on summer evenings, often shelling beans or peas, and often about dark, my grandfather would say, "I think we ought to have a churn of ice cream. Minnie, go make it up and I'll go get some ice." Granddaddy's favorite kind was banana and it seems we had it 98% of the time. I'd beg for peach or strawberry, but banana usually won out. On Sundays, when there would be more family, Granddaddy would borrow Uncle Thurman's churn. It was a five-quart churn; Granddaddy's held only four quarts.

I'd love to go back, but only for a short time. I wouldn't trade air conditioning for all the ice cream that's ever been churned!