My grandmother, Edna Alice Puckett Gailey, had this slip of paper in her scrapbook for years. While scanning the pages, I found this note that Edna said was written by her mother, Alice Irene Cook Puckett. I remember Edna's father to be a very sweet man. His sensitivity comes to light in this very short note.
"Harve said the next time you stayed all night hereWhile there is no envelope with this note and I can't be sure of the year or the location, I can tell you that Harve and Alice moved from Millsap, Parker County, Texas to Blanchard, McClain Co., Oklahoma sometime after their children were older. Edna and Mildred were both married and still living in Parker Co., Texas when I was a child - in the 40s-60s. Alice died in 1954 and is buried in the Blanchard Cemetery; Harve died at his daughter, Mildred's, home in 1958 and was taken to Oklahoma to be buried beside his wife, Alice.
for you to make your bed up
that he seen where your & Mildred head lay & he cryed
Well I guess that all Write soon
HV AI Puckett"
I learned about Amanuensis Monday through John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch: Genealogy and Family History If you would like to join us in posting your transcriptions, leave a comment on John's blog. I'd also love to hear from you, as well!
10 comments:
Hi Judith, yes I saw it and grabbed a copy of it for my records!;>)) I think it is neat the way they use to write their letters; either short and to the point or a long and usually very interesting total story.lj.
I remember Mother telling us about this.. PaPa was so sweet and I'm sure he shed many a tear..
What a wonderful post, Judy. I don't remember Grandma Puckett at all, but I do remember PaPa Puckett and the love in his startlingly blue eyes!
Thank you Judy for sharing this. As you may know,I spent my childhood with my grandma and grandpa until she passed, and after a short time, he moved to Tx. I didn't know she could write, she always signed with an "X" on her pension checks, and they had me write their letters to their children for them. Grandpa was the best!!
I'm so glad you saw this post, Mary. I believe I had heard you say this before - that Grandma couldn't write. I wonder what year this was? She may have gotten so feeble and her hands trembled so, she may have just opted to have you write all the letters. Just a thought. But wonder why she signed her checks with an X? Do you think this may have been Grandpa's handwriting, instead? I just know definitely that that is my Grandma Edna's handwriting at the top of note. Again, glad you read the post.
They might have been lonely and bored for a short time but with all their kids and grand kids I doubt that lasted for long and they always had things to do (Growing crops and chickens and such) to keep their minds off of whatever loneliness they experienced until very late in life. I know that whenever we went down to see them some of Sadie and Ballard's family were there and I know for sure that Ballard was always there to make sure that they had someone around to look out for their need for help. That was a family that was really family with a capital F!
I think that Aunt Alice might have experienced the loneliness more more than Uncle Harve though because the way life was back then was that the wife and mother was more tied to the house while the husband and father had to be out and around to keep the crops and livestock and buildings cared for.
It is very possible that Grandma just didn't want to, or was unable to write because her hand may have shaken because of what they called "nerves", and it was just easier to have someone else do it for her. We lived just a few miles across a pasture from grandma and grandpa, and their home was interchangeable with our own. We often stayed there, especially during bad weather, because the school bus ran right in front of their house. All of us spent most of our time there,as their house was much nicer and larger.
I could tell you a lot about the personality of both grandpa and grandma, but don't know that you would be interested.
Mary Ann, I would love to hear any stories you have about Grandma and Grandpa Puckett! Please write!
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