tinhuviel | Family Memories (Reply)

Seeing the advert for The Man with the Screaming Brain, which will be showing on Sci-Fi tonight, Aunt Tudi asked me if I remembered the Summer of 1981. It was my first Summer in Duncan, having just moved down from Asheville, and the area was having a horrible heat wave. One day, Uncle Michael burst out of his workshop, which had no A/C. He'd already torn off his shirt and he was red as a beet. We were all working in the garden when he came outside, pulling his hair and shouting "My goddamned brains are baking!" I was fairly alarmed.

Anyway, remembering that lovely little moment in life got me to thinking about other family memories. So, without further ado...

Johnna crying her eyes out when she saw the "scrubbing bubbles" go down the drain in that old commercial from the 70s.

My cousin Travis teaching me how to crack a fake egg over someone's head.

Going with Erica when she got her feather boa out of layaway. She was such a disco queen at the time and was desperate for a feather boa to wear on her jaunts to all the local clubs. I remember that it was pink and white.

Listening to Erica, Donna, and Marsha sing "Black Water" back in 1974.

Daddy having band rehearsal at the house, and singing his song "Carolina Mountains."

Granny sitting on the front porch, petrified with fear as she watched the local crop duster come closer and closer to our house. He was so low that he dipped under the power lines before buzzing the house and continuing on to dust the cotton field across the road. All Granny could say was, "Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod."

The day Mama found a grass snake in the woods and decided to introduce me to the wonderful world of reptiles.

Upon our reuniting, my grandfather passed on the old wooden family "pot pipe" for my safekeeping. Every family has its heirlooms, I suppose.

Little Michael experimenting with children's expletives, using his very own ingenious "gollaroadie!"

Johnna attempting to teach Aunt Tudi how to do the Electric Slide, with hilarious results. I think I may have that on video tape somewhere....

Corbett and Jimmy grooving to KISS and Steve Miller Band on my record player.

Granny dressing up like an ugly old hobo, rubber mask and all, and going up to Uncle Michael and Janice's house to scare Johnna. When Johnna answered the door and saw the horrible thing before her, she slammed the door and began jumping up and down hysterically. Her little dog, Chigger, got so upset that she began backing up quickly and peeing on herself. From that day on, Chigger despised Granny.

Daddy, Mama, Aunt Tudi, and Granny singing "Red River Valley" with their own words: Naranja por favor ro del monstro. Valecita, manana oy vey! That's all I remember of it, sadly.