Hey Bill...
I loved Ern's story about Grandma Green on the website and your recollections of Grandpa Green and the farm, etc. I had never seen some of those old photos before and I can't wait to show them to Mom when she comes over next time. (Her computer won't load the website due to memory problems).
I was just thinking of a couple things I remember about Grandpa (I don't remember a whole lot about Grandma except how she used to wear an undershirt instead of a brassiere and all of the romance novels she used to read, plus a few other things). Anyway, I laughed as I remembered how every time I would go over to their house, Grandpa used to take a quarter out of his pocket and lay it on the coffee table next to his chair. He'd say, "Do you know why I always take a quarter out of my pocket every morning?" I'd say no, being a curious kid, and he'd laugh and holler, "I take it out to let the eagle shit!" Mom used to get mad when he'd say that word, but we'd laugh every time.
Also, he'd always tell us never to go to Silver Dollar City because that was "Highway Robbery!" And the funniest thing was every time one of his daughters would come in through his front door, he'd say, "Well....Bettie-Bonnie-Jean-Irene-" stumbling through the names until he got the right one! I think he probably did that with everyone until he figured out who it was. He just went right into the list of names in his memory until the name matched the face.
There were lots of times in the years after Grandma had passed away that Bonnie's daughter Lisa, my sister Janet and I would spend the night over there with him in that small little room off to the side of the bathroom, spread our sleeping blankets out, and Grandpa Green would fix us heaps of popcorn cooked in pure lard. It was the best tasting popcorn ever. We'd throw it up in the air and catch it in our mouths while he'd tell us not to get it caught in our throats and choke, yet laugh when we'd catch it. I also used to ask him lots of questions when we'd watch the news on tv, and he always knew exactly what was going on anywhere, always staying current with the world even in his old age. I thought he was the smartest man alive. Since we all lived in Rogersville, we spent more time at his house than at our own.
Grandpa knew all of his neighbors and they all would visit each other every single day, either by telephone or in person. One of his friends would ride his lawnmower up the street just to visit with him. Grandpa was still very active in his later years, always out walking up to Pickering's Grocery Store, over to the Rogersville Bank, over to the MFA store to catch up on the latest in the Rogersville news, over to Charley's Barber Shop to either get his hair cut or just see how Charley and his wife were doing, over to Orville McCowan's steel shop next door to visit and back home. He never met a stranger.
I remember the day he died, which is still hard to talk about to this day. His neighbor Lou Horton called my mother and said she went over to see how he was doing and she "couldn't raise him" to the door. We all knew. Mom and I walked up the gravel road from our house, keys in hand, knowing with every step what lay ahead. I was only about 20 years old. When we reached his house, the neighbor was there and we unlocked the door. Our lives changed that instant. I had lost my Grandpa, Mom lost her dad, we all lost one of our best friends and mentors. I'll never forget him.
Anyway, reading the stories on the family website just took me back down memory lane and I just wanted to share what was going through my mind. Thanks again for such a great website, Bill.
Luann