Growing up, I was around family constantly. Mostly family on my Daddy's side. We'd go to both grandparents house every weekend, but I remember the Forsyth's side more because there was always so much going on there. At MaMaw Kimbrell's house it was somewhat quieter. I was an only child till my mother betrayed me and had my middle brother. I was 8 years old and perfectly content with things the way they were. That year it seemed like I stayed with MaMaw and PaPaw more than I stayed at home. I do remember that summer I was there for several weeks because Buddy was born with a large cyst on his shoulder and a hernia, so he had to have a couple of surgeries. I remember I spent my 9th Birthday at MaMaw's house. As much as I loved them, I sure did miss my Mama and Daddy.
I lived at Blair Village Apartments, on Lacey Circle Drive. Our apartment was a two bedroom one bath, with a kitchen, dinning area, living room and front stoop. Those apartments were freezing cold in the winter and burning hot in the summer. The tile floor was the type of tile that is stuck down with glue. I want to say it was a gray color.....I'm not sure.
The back porch was a cement pad with several steps going down into the back court yard. The apartments were, if I remember correctly, 4 units long. They were placed in squares with an interior court yard in the back of the units. There there were the border ones that had a court yard in the front as well, with a parking area as the top of the square.
My Uncle Art Nix was the maintenance supervisor for the complex. Blair Village was very, very large. Uncle Art worked hard. He was most always covered in paint. People were always coming or going at the Village. Uncle Art and Aunt Ophelia had 5 children, three girls and 2 boys. They lived in the building below us in the main court yard. Mary, their youngest daughter was my favorite playmate. She and I were into everything! We stayed in trouble. I'll recount some of our adventures later.
Then there was my Uncle Dorsey and Aunt Doris. They lived a couple of blocks over from us. Donna (yep, the Donna of the onion patch) is their oldest, along with 2 brothers and 1 sister. Uncle Dorsey (aka: The Greatest) was a favorite uncle of mine. He was fun to be around. He drank to much and too long, finally succumbing to liver disease due to the drinking. Dorsey was a biker, probably where I got my love of it. He used to ride us kids all over the neighborhood when I'd spend the night with them. There were always guys with bikes there.
When we went to MaMaw and PaPaw's house on the weekend, there were cousins by the dozens there. All the grown ups would sit around and talk, all the kids would be playing all over the place. Sometimes we'd wind up at Cedar Grove Elementary School down on the play ground for a softball game. The grown ups would play and we kids would play on the playground equipment for hours! Then we'd go back to the house and eat or have more grown up talk and kid play. We kids would often wind up hunting lightening bugs. MaMaw would give us old mayonnaise jars to keep them in. The poor things would light up all night in those jars, crawling up and down in vain, trying to find their way out. Many's the night I fell asleep watching lightening bugs in a jar beside my bed.
Ahhhhh.........for the simple times again...................
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