Our family has a knack for telling stories as you have all found in a couple of my previous pages. I had one told to me by a great niece and I thought it was pretty funny. So begins my saga of the "younger" generations family stories.
The following story was told by Layai, Polly's granddaughter. Now folks, this is a true story and I asked her to write it down so I wouldn't miss any of it in the telling.
By: Layai Withrow
In the earliest years of my childhood, I remember a place where I once stood. New to the profession in which I was dealing with rod in hand I seemed to be reeling.
I finally felt a bite and then a tug. Nervous and anxious at the same time, I turned the big handle to pull up the line. Out from the water popped a creature, with shiney and slimey, colorful features. Then, all of a sudden, it popped off the hook. My squealing and shrieking made everyone look. As it started jumping toward the water, my Grandma ran and stepped on it with a great big holler. The only thing remaining in the creatures fate was to land, with peas, on a Sunday dinner plate.
I will never forget that day when my family and Grandma Mills, Polly Webb Mills, stopped at a little pond to fish. We were up around Lake Vallecito in Colorado, and the pond we stopped at was a "pay by inch of the fish you catch" pond. I was almost seven years old, and it was very common for me to get my fishing line stuck in the rocks in the pond. My Dad, after fixing my line, walked to the other side of the pond hoping that I wouldn't bother him again with my fishing pole. I wasn't having the best of luck fishing. My line kept getting caught and I think the fish were afraid to come around my line. Grandma felt sorry for me, so when I caught that fish and it hopped off the hook to head toward the water, she ran and stepped on it.
The setting for this story is in Lubbock, Texas. We had had a long day of sitting at the hospital waiting for Al to have a pacemaker put in just to be told in the afternoon that they would do it the next day. So this was after all of us had left the hospital, and Al and Kathy, Beth and Leann were going to Larry & Patsy's to spend the night
By Beth Casas and LeAnn Pigg
Beth and LeAnn, being the good confident, competent young ladies they are, set off for the ride to Uncle Larry's & Aunt Patsy's.
They had been trying to find a Walmart store in Lubbock and decided that there were none! (Lubbock sports two I think) I'm not sure if they ever did make it to Walmart or not. However, I do know that they began their journey to Larry's for the night.
They had been talking on the cell phone to their husbands, children, and Beth to her boss and to Patsy as to how to get to their house. To the best of my recollections: Patsy told them that when they came to the Dairy Queen to take that exit. They looked over and sure enough there was a Dairy Queen so they exited off the highway. Patsy had told them to go down so many blocks and turn to the left and then go so many more blocks and turn to the left again. They did this..to no avail! The house wasn't where it was supposed to be. So they drove around a bit thinking that maybe they had done something wrong, they aren't on the phone at this time. They quickly decide to call Aunt Patsy again...she tells them again, and and then gives them a few landmarks that they should be able to see. They see them, and they do all of the turns like she tells them too and still there is NO HOUSE! At least not the correct house. Patsy even told them that their Dad was standing out on the front porch waiting for them. They seen a man standing outside, but no way was it their Dad. So being the good Aunt that Patsy is she ask them if they can make it back to the Dairy Queen and her and Kathy will come and get them. They tell her yes, that they "think" they can get back to it. So Kathy and Patsy go to the Dairy Queen and sit there and wait...and wait.. and wait! Still no Beth and LeAnn!
Funny thing is that while Beth and LeAnn are trying to get back to the Dairy Queen, (they know they have to go under the underpass to get to it), they both at the same time see a sign that says ABERNATHY! They realized at the same time that they weren't even in Hale Center! They pick up the phone again and call Larry, Beth says, "Uncle Larry? We are in Abernathy!" Beth said that Larry said very calmly, "Well honey, just drive on over to Hale Center"
They finally did make it to Larry's and Patsy's amid a lot of laughter. Wonder how much ribbing they will get from the family about this.
My next story was sent to me by my nephew, Dale Sikes. I can just feature all of this going on, just in the reading of his story. Dale is Joyce's son.
By: Dale Sikes
The story begins in Bovina, in '74 or '75 because we were still living in Bovina next to Aunt Polly. We had stopped at a fireworks stand and loaded up on fireworks. We had decided we would go over to Grandma's house so she could enjoy the fireworks also plus we had the "Grand Finale" and it was going to be something special.
Well, Rick and I had been able to light a lot of the fireworks, but this one was Mom's turn. This thing was like a foot and a half tall and had an opening like I had never seen before. We moved this one ouot in the corner away from the tree in front of Grandma's house and Mom went out with cigarette in hand. She lit the thing and it was on unstable ground I guess, that sucker tilted over toward the house, and well we did scatter! That thing started shooting off and you should have seen that little old lady move....and Grandma too (just kidding Mom). They both, no matter where they moved that thing was firing at both of them. It went off for what seemed like an eternity. It finally stopped and Grandma had just made it around the south part of the house to seek shelter, she was laughing so hard. I can still see her actually jumping around in that yard trying to find a place to go, because everywhere she started to go a spark popped in front of her. I don't think that big old firework would have been any better had it gone up in the air like it was supposed to, because it sure was funny watching those two move.
By: Tammy A. (Taylor) Moses
Tammy says......the only thing I can come up with was when I was young, probably about 4 or 5...it was before I got my glasses and that was in first grade...but anyway, I remember me and Melissa and LeAnn sitting in the kitchen of Mrs. Barrazza's house, where we lived and playing jacks. One of the two, LeAnn or Liss....ummmmmm passed some gas, they kept saying that when a person did this that they were green!!! Being the smart child that I was....told them that passing gas was NOT green...BOTH of them informed me that only people with glasses could see the color of passed gas, that being as I didn't wear glasses, there was no way that I could ever see them....Mom, I have glasses now....you know something....I think they were fibbing to me...Either that or my script in my glasses is wrong...cause I still can't see 'em.
Our next story was sent to me by Shana Henley. Shana is the daughter of Wayne and Carolyn Karr, and the granddaughter of Wayne & Juanita Webb
By: Shana (Karr) Henley
I couldn't have been more that 7 years old. I was staying at GrannyWebb's house, who I always called "White Headed Granny". (I always thought everyone did until I was older.)
I was staying with Grandma (Juanita). It had to be during the winter because the only thing I really remember is going to bed in the back room where the cellar door was and it being so cold I could hardly wait for the sheets to warm up. Grandma had sent me to bed saying she would be there soon. (For some reason I thought if I had the spot warm I could keep it, but I didn't scoot over by the wall, I stayed at the edge.) When Grandma came to bed I tried really hard to convince her that I should have the warm spot but she made me scoot over and the warming up process had to start all over again. She had to love getting into bed that night, the room was so cold and she got to get into a prewarmed bed while I shivered away on the other side of the bed. :-) Don't we all live and learn.
**Note from Pam: Folks that room is still the coldest room in this "old" house. hehe
Our next story was sent to me by Carolyn, Wayne & Juanita's daughter. Talk about going on the sly.. shame, shame on ya'll. hehehee
By: Carolyn Webb Karr
I was about 13 or 14 years old when I decided to give a "Stanley Party". Knowing Daddy wouldn't like it because he didn't like ANY kind of "home party".
When I told him I was giving the party, he didn't like the idea at all (big surprise). He later told me that he would buy me the fancy Mouton Coat that I had seen in Clovis if I would cancel the party. Momma and I got our heads together and conspired against him. I told him that I had cancelled the party and he bought me the coat. Momma then gave the party. Since most of you reading this story know Daddy pretty well, you can imagine he wasn't very happy.
The coat is still in mint condition. One of my girls wore it on occasion when she was a teenager, but in order to raise my childen to be honest, I had to admit that this was very deceitful, dishonest and, well you get the idea.
Anyway if Daddy reads this, here's my official apology, "Sorry Daddy".
Hopefully, we will have more stories entered here. I would love to have as many of you contribute your favorite memory as possible. So come on nieces and nephews!!! Send me your story!!!