Put It Down

When my sister and I are gone the only one in our family that will remember Mamma Hill will be my daughter, Kay, and my sisters two oldest children. I am not sure they will remember a lot. Probably if I don't put this down they won't remember her name other than Mamma Hill. She deserves more than that. To tell you the truth, I don't remember a lot but what I do, should be Put Down.

I believe that her maiden name was Green. Buna Mae Green. Sad that I am not sure of that. I know my great grandfather was named Walter Hill. He was a man of whom I have very little memory. I don't remember him dying so I must have been really young. Probably my sister won't remember him at all. So it is too late to Put Down about him.

Mamma Hill was around til my son was at least two or three, which means she died in the early 1970s. We had five generations with my two and three of my sister's children. An unusual feat. Seems my family married early and produced offspring rather early and that Mamma Hill lived a long time. I think she was in her early 90s when she passed away the second and last time.

She was our mother's grandmother. As long as I can remember she had an "apartment" near or lived with my grandmother and grandfather Prestage. She was about 4 foot 9 inches tall. One of the few persons in my family who you could call petite. I don't know if she was always that size or if she shrunk. She loved me and she loved my mate. Not everyone in my family did. Funny how you associate persons in your past with food. My sister says that she thinks of Campbells Vegetable Beef soup when she thinks of Mamma Hill. Now I would be willing to go out on a limb and say that you don't remember many of your relatives that way. Personally I remember graham crackers spread with marshmallow creme. If you have not tried it you should, but probably not with vegetable beef soup.

Mamma Hill wore "petticoats" with a twist. She would sew a pocket right at the crotch level and it was there that she "hid" her money. Those of us familiar with her never thought anything about it, but my mate became alarmed when we were walking with her in the store and she suddenly bent over and clutched herself. I knew she was checking to see if her money was still in the crotch pocket; he thought she had a stroke.

She dipped snuff. In case you are out there and do not know what "dipping snuff" is, let me explain. Snuff was a tobacco product ground to a fine powder sort of the consistency of Gold Medal Flour, but a beautiful chocolate brown color. It was purchased packaged in pretty little glasses which when cleaned were used for juice or water, covered with a tin cover (perfect size for baking mud pies) and had a red label "Garretts Fine Snuff ". You would take some, put it in the side of your mouth and hold it there for I do not know how long, and you spit a lot. It was an addiction like smoking cigarettes. Not any sillier than the thought of rolling up a leaf. lighting it and puffing on it if you think about it. But it was perfectly acceptable for a woman to do.

She got sick and passed away, or so we thought. Sure enough she took a deep breath and was with us for another couple of years. Then on a Christmas Eve she passed away. She did not make much of an impact on the world at large. She raised two daughters and two sons. Among those four siblings they had a total of six children. Her family of four children were the largest on either side of our family for as far back as I know about until my sister herself had four children. Even our ancestors had small families. No big family reunion there either.

If its true that you should be very careful about what you put on the internet because it will follow you forever, then I am glad this will live a long time. She was a neat lady and deserves to have something about her "put down".