CHRISTMAS-THE EARLY YEARS

Christmas was always a very large deal in the Gibson family. Mother and Daddy always went all out for Christmas. Mother would buy gifts all year, and Daddy would wait til closer to the big day. The major problem was that Daddy could not wait to give his gifts so we, my brother Jerry and I, would get them early. Once Daddy had bought us a bedroom suit each and it was delivered way before Christmas. Then there was the time we got watches. At dinner one evening, our plates were turned upside down with a watch underneath each plate. We had relatives who spent Christmas with us, Mamma Hooper, Aunt Ju-Ju, and Uncle Walter. I would have to share my bed with someone and I would not sleep much because of all the excitement. Mother would always have a big breakfast for us and the relatives which always included Aunt Gee and Uncle R. C.
Our tree always came from one of the fence rows along Daddy's fields. He would keep an eye out all year for just the right Cedar tree and drag it home just in time for Christmas. My brother, Jerry, Buba for this writing, would have to decorate it just perfectly. He would not let me help very much, my being so little and inexperienced in decorating. We had icicles made from real tinsel that he would put on each branch one at a time. I would be in a hurry and throw a bunch on at one time. Then Buba would have to do it all over again to correct my mistakes.
I think we always had blue lights on the tree or at least that is how I remember it. We had this white and red star on the top, I wonder what ever became of that star? I still have the nativity scene that Mother had with the barn and wise men. Mother always had this M&M tree. It was really just a little clear plastic tree that she put M&M's on all during Christmas. They just magically filled back up after we ate some. We would spray snow on the windows and put stick on pictures. Santa always filled our boxes[no stockings] with nuts and fruit and chocolate. Once we got these plastic shoes filled with money to buy shoes from the Family Shoe Store in town. Sometimes they would be Buster Brown shoes. I believe Buba got mostly guns and cowboy stuff and of course, I got dolls and their accessories. I still have some of my dolls that Santa brought me. There are some I wish I still had such as my Bonnie Braids whose braids could be pulled to make them longer. I do have my walking doll for whom Aunt Gee made clothes to match my own and we always dressed alike. I was in the hospital once in third grade and my brother brought me a doll when he came to visit. [ I still have that doll.]
Mother and Aunt Gee used to make boiled custard and jam cake for Christmas. They would cook for days. My, how I would love to taste that again.
I could not remember Christmas as a child without writing about the Church of God that we attended. There was always "big doings" at the church, a huge tree that either Daddy or John cut from their field. That tree was sooo tall it filled up one whole corner of the front of the church. John Austin, Sunday School superintendent, was in his Glory at Christmas time. He enjoyed it more than anyone. The Sunday before Christmas, he would hand out little brown paper bags full of hard candy, an apple and an orange to everyone as they left church. Most people do not know that my Daddy, even though he did not attend, financed a lot of the Christmas cheer at the church. We would have a program the Sunday evening before Christmas. It consisted of little kids saying poems and about a 3 act play. We all vied for the "welcome" poem. You got to go first and get it over with, otherwise you had the wait-and-get-nervous spot. John Austin was always in the play. Rehearsals were disasters, but somehow the plays themselves went off without a hitch. Every Sunday School class drew names for exchanging gifts and that was the big deal at the end of the night. It was all very exciting when I was a kid.
Daddy would drive us around to the rich side of town to look at the Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. We still do that today.

GENE [DADDY]

This is my father, Gene Gibson when he was about 10 years old.

My Dad, Gene Gibson must have been around 18 years old in this picture.

This is Fred and Gussie Hooper [My Mother's brother and wife] and Inez & Gene Gibson at the Mississippi River.

In those days they weren't allowed to single date.

Gene Gibson, the youngest child of Wash and Vennie Gibson grew up in Dyer county on a farm. His best friend, a boy named George Willie Alford, lived in "town" Dyersburg. They would frequently spend the night at each other's house. Daddy thought George Willie was rich because his family had "boxed cereal " for breakfast, whereas Daddy had only ham, bacon, eggs, biscuits and that kind of food. Daddy said he could have eaten the whole box himself; he never could get the milk and cereal to end at the same time so he had to either keep adding cereal or milk. George Willie grew up to be an official in the Church of God.

Daddy had to work really hard as a boy, working for Mr. Bernard Tarrant for 75 cents a day. He kind of worked his way up to be a farmer himself and eventually purchased Mr. Bernard's homeplace to live in. Mr. Bernard was a peculiar man. Even after he built a bathroom in his home, he would not use it, but preferred to go to the barn.

Daddy had to walk everywhere he went, not having a car. He used to walk to Newbern to court Mother and would walk in his old shoes and stop at someone's barn , put on his good shoes and leave his old ones to pick up on the way back.

He idolized his older brother John Austin, whom he called "Border", because he could not say "brother" when he was little. They farmed together all their adult life. Daddy would go over to John's house every morning before they ate breakfast to find out what the plan of the day was.

They were very close, even dying within six months of one another. Daddy was the more serious one, with John Austin being the happy-go-lucky one. Mother and MayFlower were very good friends and never had an ill word with each other. After Mother died, MayFlower said that she and Mother were like sisters. Just keep in mind that they all lived within shouting distance of each other in Hurricane Hill Community. In fact, I grew up in a community where everyone was related to everyone else; if that won't keep you on the straight and narrow, I can't imagine what would! Daddy sure loved his family and really would have loved to see his grandsons, Shane and Troy, grow up.

INEZ [MOTHER]

The young lady in the above picture is Barbara Ellen Hooper Roberts

From left to right is J.L, Inez, Julia, Elizabeth, Fred -1986

On the back row in this picture is R.C., J.L., Fred, Walter and in the front row is Elizabeth, Inez, Minnie and Julia. The time of this picture is 1966

In this picture is Fred, Julia, Ocie, Elizabeth, Joe, Inez, J.L. The time is 1938

This is Pappa Hooper with Elizabeth. I bet he never thought his picture would on this blog.

What about that car? Look close, is that Bonnie and Clyde in the background? No, it's just some good folks having fun. That's Inez sitting to the far right next to Elizabeth and some other friends.

Don't you wish you had a hat like one of these. That's Elizabeth on the left and Inez is third from left.

Relaxing on a summer day is Minnie with her daughter Inez

Inez, my Mother, was the baby of her family. She was born after some of her older brothers had left home already. Of course, back then young people left home as soon as they were able to work. Being the youngest, she was spoiled by all her family. Minnie was 44 yrs. old when she was born. There was Ocie, J.L., Joe, Beatrice, Fred, Julia, Elizabeth and then Inez. Ocie ran a grocery store and was married to Lizzie. They had 2 kids..Robert and Modine.

J.L. married Ludie and had 3 kids..James[ who we all called Sonny], Elizabeth [who we all called Sister] and Robert Gary.

Joe was married to Irene and had 2 kids..Billy Joe and Barbara Ellen.

Joe later married Mozelle and had.. Paul Glenn, Eddie, Ruby, Dwight, Danny and Donna Kay.

Beatrice died in her early married life.

Fred married Gussie and had Donald Perry.

Julia [Aunt JU-JU] was married to Walter Essary. She had no children but raised his kids..June and Johnny.

Elizabeth [ Aunt Gee] was married to R.C. Landrum..no kids.

By the way you can blame my brother Jerry for the Aunts' nicknames. It seems that he could not pronounce Julia nor Lee[as Elizabeth was always called].

Mother and Elizabeth were very close. Aunt Gee[ for this writing] was very hard of hearing and Mother was always her "ears".

Actually, Pappa Hooper[Bob] had a hearing problem and wore a hearing aid. It was the kind with the box that looked like an old fashioned transistor radio with an ear plug. J.L. was hard of hearing, also.

Uncle Fred and Mother used to go to parties and dance. They both enjoyed dancing. I don't think the parties were very wild back then. Mother could tap dance very well. She could listen to a dance step and repeat it. [As for me, I have no rhythm for dancing.]

Mother and all the Hoopers had great voices for singing and did a lot of it.

Mamma Hooper and Pappa raised Billy Joe and Barbara Ellen after Joe and Irene divorced. My Mother was just a young girl when they came to live with them. Mother thought Barbara was her DOLL.

Uncle Ocie and Aunt Ju-Ju used to bring Mother clothes that they bought for her when they worked.

When times got hard and jobs got scarce, Joe and Ju-Ju went north to find work. They both settled in Gary, Indiana. Joe lived there the rest of his life.

Ju-Ju and Uncle Walter moved back to Dyersburg after retirement.

Mother used to tell me how 'skinny' she had been all her life. She said kids called her "kill-dee" at school. That was a skinny bird. It hurt her feelings. She never really got much weight on her. She was only 95 pounds when she got pregnant with the twins. She always thought that was the reason that Terry was still born. She swelled so badly that she could not close her hands.

She was unable to attend his funeral service because she was so sick. She said it was somewhat like a dream to her, because she had a beautiful baby boy, Jerry, and was not expecting to have two babies at one time. Daddy said that at each birth..Jerry's and mine, that Mother came out speaking in tongues. Mother was the closest to a Saint that I ever knew. I think that is why God has been so good to this family, Mother's prayers have been answered.

I know that Mother is dancing in heaven today.

BUDDY GIBSON REMEMBERS

Buddy tells this story.......

I was about 9 or 10 years old when this happened. Pam and I were visiting Granddaddy and Grandmamma [John A. and May Flower] for the summer; gave mom and dad a well deserved break for a few weeks. Most days I would go to the fields with Granddaddy and Pam would stay home with Grandmamma. On this particular day, for whatever reason, I ended up with Uncle Gene. [For those of you in the future that might be reading this, Uncle Gene was really my Great Uncle, my dad's [Bobby] Uncle, but Pam and I also called him Uncle Gene.] We were bailin' hay and I was lovin' it. Farming is so cool when you're not the one worried about the next rain, late frost, early frost, or drought or any of the other multitude of things that could go wrong. Then something happened, don't remember just what for sure , but I think the bailin' wire broke. Anyway, Uncle Gene and I got off the tractor. Uncle Gene went towards the front of the tractor and I went toward the bailer. In about a minute, Uncle Gene was back at the bailer with me. He looked down at the counter to see how many bails we had bailed so far. Answer,0. It seems that somebody had been playing with the counter and alllll those bails were going to have to be counted by going through the field and manually countin' 'em. To say that Uncle Gene was a little upset would be a great understatement. While he was still givin' me the "what for" Jerry showed up and asked what was going on. He got Uncle Gene to calm down, looked at the counter and asked, "Buddy, do you remember what number was on the counter before you changed it?"
"243" [I'm almost certain of the number, I remember it to this day.] Jerry grabbed the knob on the counter that I had been playin' with and turned it to 243 and told Uncle Gene "See Daddy, that's all you had to do." Uncle Gene looked at me and said " See what a college education will do for you."
After that , Jerry took me to where Granddaddy was and........we all lived happily ever after.

JOHN AUSTIN GIBSON--FAMILY

Buddy, thank you for this great picture.

They are left to right front....Mrs. Carson, Buddy Gibson, May Flower, Pam, John A. holding Joey Skelton, Vennie [Mamaw]: Back row...Darrell, Bobby, Peggy, Novaleen, Frank and Lamarr.

I remember that clock in the background. I heard that the shelf was added when the house was built to house the clock. [get a load of Mamaw's red shoes]

BOB AND MINNIE

Inez, Minnie, Bob, Elizabeth, Fred Hooper

Nez, Maude, and Minnie

My grandparents, Pappa and Mamma Hooper, were very hard working farmers. Life was not easy back then. They did not have indoor plumbing nor electricity til very late in their married life. Pappa had some brothers and sisters,but I don't know who they were. He was from Middle Tennessee, perhaps Waverly. Mamma had 2 sisters and some brothers. I remember her sisters. When I was a very little girl they would get together and sew quilts. They all dipped snuff back then and kept their coffee cans handy. Of course, they did not know the dangers of tobacco then. It was one of those "coming of age" things that people did way back. When they joined the "holiness" churches, they gave up their habits. Mamma's sister was Inez Spain [for whom my mother was named]. Her other sister was Maude Moore..
My Mother was the youngest of all the children. Pappa used to get up very early and cook breakfast and get Mother up to eat with him. That was their special time. He was saved just before he past away. Bro. Ball from the Dyersburg Church of God visited him a lot while he and Mamma lived with us. Bro Ball led him to Christ.
The Hooper family used to have a reunion at Reelfoot Lake every year in August. Pappa would kill and bar-b-que a goat for the meal. I missed a few of those because Mother said I would get so excited that I would make myself sick the night before.
There was always a big birthday dinner for Pappa and Mamma.

Pappa died when I was 5 years old. I do remember him well. We had such fun together. I realize now that he was sick most of my lifetime, with what was called back then...hardening of the arteries.

Mamma lived to be 96 years old and she was a joy to be with. I could go to her and tell her all my thoughts knowing that she would not criticize nor rebuke me. She made me feel very special as if I were her only grandchild, or at least her favorite. I can hardly wait til she greets me in Heaven and opens her arms to hold me once again.

WASH AND VENNIE

This is a letter from Wash to Vennie when he was visiting his sisters in Missouri.
They had to take the Ferry across the Mississppi River to get there.


I don't have many stories about my Gibson Grandparents. Papaw died way before I was born and Mamaw died when I was a young girl. Wash was a very light hearted jokster and Vennie a very serious lady. Times were tough back then. To my knowledge, Wash had sisters Fannie, Dorothy and Jenny and a brother Lem. Vennie had a brother Lafayette[Fate]. They may have had more brothers and sisters. I remember Uncle Fate and his wife Aunt Mallie. They lived in Dyersburg.


Wash took his family to visit Uncle Lem once because Uncle Lem had bought a radio. They all sat around and stared at the radio while Uncle Lem worked the dials on it. There was not much to be heard except static, their being so far away from any major stations, so Wash took the family home. On the way home he said "we might could have heard something if Lem would a quite twistin' them ears". Radio was very new then.


Vennie was a very social lady. She enjoyed keeping up with all the "news" of the family. By the way, all the family lived in the same community, Hurricane Hill. [No one stubbed their toe in the night without everyone knowing about it by 7am.] Most of them went to the HH Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It was different from the FIRST PRESBYTERIAN downtown Dyersburg, much less formal. During those times, life centered around family and church..

DATES

These are dates I got from cemetery stones.
George Washington Gibson -Born June 10, 1879..Died May2, 1942
Lavenia Ann Barnett Gibson-born January 4, 1880...died June 18, 1968

Robert Perry Hooper-born 1872...died 1955
Minnie Ann Wallace Hooper-born January 16, 1880...died May 1976

From Mama Hooper's Bible --Robert P.Hooper and Minnie Ann Wallace were united in Holy Matrimony on the 21 day of December in the year of our Lord 1896 at Obion Tennessee

GIBSON GIRL

In this picture Estelle Gibson is on the left with a couple of her friends. She looks a lot like Mamaw[ Vennie]. When Mamaw lived in the little house close to Lewis Creek, the creek overflowed and ruined many of her pictures. These are the only pictures I have been able to find of Hattie and Estelle. Hattie and Estelle were born before John and Gene. I'm not sure how much they remembered of their sisters since their sisters both died so young. It must have been very hard on Papaw and Mamaw losing both their daughters at such a young age. I remember Daddy [Gene] telling about when one of the girls died, that Joe Curry [Curry Funeral Home] extended him credit to bury her and that made Wash and Joe Curry lifetime friends. The one thing that Daddy always said about his daddy [Wash] was that he was honest, paid his debts and had "good credit standing". That was always an important characteristic of the Gibsons........all of them.

HATTIE GIBSON -fifth grade English Essay

PAM REMEMBERS

PICTURES OF THE PAST

GREAT GRANDMA WALLACE

MAMA AND PAPA [MINNIE AND BOB HOOPER] GREAT GRANDPARENTS WALLACE

WASH AND VENNIE [PAPAW AND MAMAW] LEFT

LAVENIA-RIGHT

PAPAW-WASH GIBSON

HISTORY

Minnie Ann Wallace Hooper and Robert Perry Hooper

Lavenia Ann Barnett Gibson and George Washington Gibson

I don't really have a lot of history as far as the ancestry goes, but I have a few facts.

John D. Barnett and wife E. A. were the parents of Lavenia Ann ...

Lavenia [Vennie] married George Washington [Wash] Gibson.

Wash was from Waverly Tennessee. They settled in Dyersburg, TN.

They had 2 sons and 2 daughters, Hattie and Estelle, and John Austin and Eugene Henderson Gibson. Hattie died as a teen with typhoid fever and Estelle was killed as a teen in an automobile accident on the way home from Memphis. John A. married Mayflower Carson and had 3 sons and 1 daughter, Bobby, Darrell, Lamar, and Novaleen.

Irving Pierson Wallace and wife Mary Ann Miller Wallace were the parents of Minnie Ann ...

Minnie married Robert Perry Hooper who was from East Tennessee

They settled in Dyer County, TN

Their children were Ocie B., James Langkford, Fred Miller, Joe, Beatrice, Julie Ann, Mary Sue Elizabeth and Edith Inez. Julie was a twin, her sister Judy died at birth.

Eugene and Inez married and had Jerry Lynn [whose twin brother was stillborn-Terry Glynn] and Sandra Jean. Gene was a farmer for most of his life. Inez had a variety of jobs until she became owner of a daycare center in her 40's and had it till she retired.

Wash must have had a wonderful sense of humor, he played the fiddle/violin and was always pleasant and happy. I remember seeing his violin when I was a kid, but a flood in their home destroyed it. Wash died around 1942 or so. I never knew him but my mother had some happy memories of him. She said he was a wonderful man. Vennie was one of the first to belong to the Church of God in Dyersburg. She went to a brush arbor meeting in town when the holiness movement came to Dyersburg. She got saved and filled with the Holy Ghost in that meeting and joined the Church of God. I don't think her family ever forgave her for that.

Vennie lived with us when I was very young, She had a lot of ailments. I recall seeing her in bed having what was called a "spell". Don't know what that was, but it required the whole family to gather around. I remember once when she said " I think I am crossing chili Jordan, my feet feel wet". She had lots of relatives who lived around her and Aunt Daisey, her sister in law, and she would talk on the "party line" phone and play "Top this pain". Mamaw was what we called her and she died when I was in high school.

Robert Perry Hooper[R.P. or Bob] was a tall, thin man who knew how to make money, so they said. He was my playmate and had a nickname for everyone in the family. He called me "Jim", my mother Inez "shoe-pie". I would ride the rockers on his rocking chair and he would tell me to "Cut the mustard, Jim" and I would dance for him. He died when I was 5 years old in our house. Aunt Ludie, J. L.'s wife, gathered all the children of the family together and kept us quietly playing games as he died. Back then they had the coffin in the house and I recall Mother

taking me to tell him good-bye. That was my first encounter with death. I had no fear because I was told he was with Jesus. Minnie then took turns living with her daughters . Mama, as we all called her, was the epitome of a saint. She was the one you could go to with all your dreams and problems. She never said anything bad about anyone. She was born in 1880 and died in 1976 at 96 years young. She was just as smart as ever at 96. When I got married in 1970 she made me a quilt and helped me figure out dimensions for some curtains I was making. I still have some of the quilts that she and Vennie made.

My grandmothers were wonderful Christian Ladies.

OBJECTIVE

I am going to try to tell a little bit about our family in this blog. It will not be a history, but just some of the things that I remember or that were told to me by family members, most of whom are gone on to Heaven. I hope this will be of interest to my family. I also plan to post some pictures to go along with the stories that I will share with you. Family has always been important to me and I pray that through these memories that you will gain an interest in your family heritage that you may not have had before. We have a very blessed Christian heritage. Just remember that you are here because of who went before you. There have been many prayers by your ancestors for the families that would follow them. I hope to see all of you and all the family gone before us in Heaven soon.
MY FAMILY
I love you all.
Sandra Gibson Phillips